Kenseth survives the rain
Dixon passes up Unser; Hamilton in control of F1
BRISTOL, Tenn. — After four rain delays and 11 extra laps, Matt Kenseth finally drove to victory lane.
It took him nine hours to get there Sunday at a water-logged Bristol Motor Speedway.
Kenseth snapped a 51-race losing streak by holding off Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson on one final restart in NASCAR’s determined effort to stage a complete race.
Kenseth, a seven-race winner in his 2013 debut season with Joe Gibbs Racing, was winless all last year.
“It feels good to be back here. Not winning for as long as we did … it wears on you a little bit,” Kenseth said. “We had such a good 2013, and last year there were some races we had some chances to win and just things wouldn’t line up for us.
“We just couldn’t get it to happen. (Bristol) was kind of the opposite. Everything worked out.”
The start was delayed nearly 90 minutes because of rain and the race was stopped three more times, including one delay that lasted almost four hours.
The final stoppage came when the race had already surpassed the scheduled 500 laps, but a quick rain shower had stalled NASCAR’s attempt to race to the checkered flag following an accident with eight laps remaining. So, NASCAR parked the cars on pit road and sent out its dryers to quickly try to give it one more shot.
Kenseth, the leader, was fine with NASCAR’s decision.
“I’ve got to be honest with you, at least 90 percent of the time or more, I’d be all about, ‘ Man, call that thing,’ because anything can go wrong,” he said. “I felt pretty good about where we were. I felt like unless I really, really messed it up, I was going to be clear getting into (Turn) 1. I felt like our car was good enough to hold on for two laps.”
He did have a two-lap overtime sprint to the finish and Kenseth, the pole-sitter, got a terrific jump on the restart. He wasn’t challenged in part because Gordon had a poor restart.
Johnson slid past Gordon to take second place, and Gordon finished third.
The race had a series of hiccups unrelated to the rain stoppages: Austin Dillon ran out of gas while running third because of the lengthy final caution, Denny Hamlin didn’t get back in his car after the first rain break because of a kink in his neck, and the two Team Penske drivers wrecked each other just 20 laps after the start.
Carl Edwards and Kurt Busch were in contention until they wrecked following a restart eight laps from the scheduled finish, and Busch put together his strong run with an interim crew chief because Tony Gibson couldn’t leave his motorhome due to pain from a kidney stone.
Kyle Larson, while leading, had a miscue with a pair of cars a lap down and the chaos it created sent Landon Cassill hard into the wall.
“Heck, that’s Bristol, isn’t it?” said Gordon. “I’m sure I’ve had wackier nights and days at Bristol than this.”
INDYCAR: Scott Dixon passed Helio Castroneves during a mid-race pit stop and dominated the rest of the way to win the Grand Prix of Long Beach for the first time.
A three-time IndyCar Series champion, Dixon has not had much luck on the 1.968-mile, 11-turn temporary street circuit, finishing fourth in 2010 for his only previous top 10 at Long Beach.
“I guess I finally got it right,” Dixon said.
The New Zealander started Sunday’s race third, quickly passed series leader Juan Pablo Montoya and took the lead after Castroneves nearly collided with another car in the pits on lap 33.
Dixon turned back one challenge from Castroneves during the remainder of the 80-lap race and passed Bobby Unser for fifth place on the career victory list with 36.
“Scott Dixon has talent and skill and will win races for years and years to come,” Unser said. “He is always really fun to watch, for sure.”
It also was Chip Ganassi Racing’s first victory this season.
Castroneves finished second, Montoya third and Simon Pagenaud fourth to give Team Penske another strong finish.
Montoya won the opener at St. Petersburg, where Team Penske had four of the top five. James Hinchcliffe of Schmidt Peterson Motorsports won at Louisiana last week, but Penske had three of the top seven in that race.
F1: Lewis Hamilton’s bid for a third Formula One title is gathering momentum after another convincing win in Sunday’s Bahrain Grand Prix, while his Mercedes teammate Nico Rosberg’s status as his main challenger is under threat from a resurgent Ferrari team.
Hamilton won the race from pole position to strengthen his overall lead in the standings with his third win in four races, and 36th of his career. He is already 27 points ahead of Rosberg and 28 clear of Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel — the only driver to beat Hamilton so far.
“It doesn’t matter who it’s against, you try and beat everybody out there,” Hamilton said, underlining how the F1 title race looks far from being the two-horse contest between Mercedes teammates it was last season. “It’s great to be having a fight with the Ferraris.”