Rain brings halt at Dover

NASCAR Cup race to resume on lap 79 on Monday at noon

Martin Truex Jr. has the blueprint for how to win at Dover Motor Speedway on Mondays.

Step 1, rain on Sundays. Truex can win for the third time at the Monster Mile on the unconventional race day after rain stopped the action only 78 laps into the 400-mile race Sunday. Truex raced to his first NASCAR Cup win June 4, 2007, at Dover and 12 years later used another rainout to take the checkered flag on May 6, 2019.

It’s the fourth time out of 104 career Dover races it will run on a Monday.

With a green flag start just after 3 p.m., and no lights at the concrete mile track, NASCAR faced a tight window to reach the halfway mark needed for an official race. So they’ll fire the engines again at noon Monday with Hendrick Motorsports teammates Kyle Larson and Chase Elliott starting 1-2. Ryan Blaney is third, Truex is fourth and William Byron fifth.

Truex is winless this season.

Indycar: Pato O’ward made a conscious decision to stop worrying about his Indycar contract and Formula One aspirations and focus on his current job. The effort first earned him a pending contract extension, and on Sunday, O’ward picked up his first win of the Indycar season. The popular Mexican used a strong outside pass of pole-sitter Rinus Veekay after both pitted for fresh tires to take the lead then drive away for the victory at Barber Motorsports Park. It is the third win of O’ward’s career and broke a Team Penske stranglehold on the Indycar results. Penske drivers Scott Mclaughlin and Josef Newgarden swept the first three races of the season. Alex Palou, the reigning Indycar champion and defending race winner at Barber, finished second for Chip Ganassi Racing and reclaimed the points lead. Veekay faded to third for Ed Carpenter Racing.