Elliott, Hendrick dominate qualifying for playoff event

TALLADEGA, Ala. — Chase Elliott rebounded from last week’s devastating engine failure to lead a Hendrick Motorsports sweep in qualifying for Sunday’s playoff race at Talladega Superspeedway.

Elliott turned a lap at 192.552 mph in Saturday qualifying to give Chevrolet the front two rows. Elliott, winner of the April race at the Alabama track, bested Hendrick teammates Alex Bowman, William Byron and Jimmie Johnson in the qualifying session. Bowman and Byron are both challenging Elliott for the seven remaining spots in the next round of the NASCAR’s playoffs.

Elliott last week dropped below the cut line when his engine failed in the opening laps at Dover. He’s in the bottom four of the standings with Joey Logano, Clint Bowyer and Ryan Blaney with Talladega and next week’s race at Kansas to whittle down the field to eight.

NASCAR TRUCKS: Spencer Boyd was named winner of the Truck Series race Saturday after Johnny Sauter was stripped of the victory for forcing a driver below the out-of-bounds line at Talladega Superspeedway.

Sauter had blocked his way around the 2.66-mile superspeedway for the final two-lap overtime shootout. His defensive driving included forcing Riley Herbst below the yellow line right before he crossed the finish line.

F-1: Ferrari driver Sebastian Vettel grabbed the pole position at the Japanese Grand Prix on Sunday in a windy qualifying session that was moved to race day because of the powerful typhoon that hit Japan on Saturday.

Vettel secured his first pole position since the Canadian GP in June with a lap of 1 minute, 27.064 seconds, 0.189 seconds ahead of teammate Charles Leclerc.