Wallace holds on for 2nd NASCAR victory

Bubba Wallace won his second career NASCAR Cup Series race Sunday and denied the playoff field an automatic spot in the next round for the second straight week when he held off championship contenders Denny Hamlin and Christopher Bell to win at Kansas Speedway in Kansas City, Kansas.

Wallace, who isn’t among the 16 in the title hunt, got around Alex Bowman for the lead with 67 laps to go, then built a 2-second lead over a parade of playoff drivers trying to earn a win and ensure their spot in the round of eight.

Hamlin was at the front of it. And the co-owner with Michael Jordan of Wallace’s car at 23XI Racing managed to whittle about a tenth of a second off the No. 45’s lead over the closing laps.

Hamlin ultimately ran out of time, and Wallace took the checkered flag in the same car that Kurt Busch won with at Kansas earlier this year.

Bell finished third and Bowman fourth with playoff outsider Martin Truex Jr. in fifth. William Byron, Ross Chastain, Kyle Larson, Ryan Blaney and Daniel Suarez — all in the playoff hunt — rounded out the top 10.

Bell clinched a spot in the next round of the playoffs on points.

The other 11 spots are up for grabs heading to Bristol.

Formula One defending champ and current points leader Max Verstappen won the Italian Grand Prix in Monza to leave him within touching distance of a second successive title. The Red Bull driver from the Netherlands now has a 116-point lead over Charles Leclerc, who finished second for Ferrari. With just six races remaining, the 24-year-old Verstappen could clinch his second straight title in Singapore next month.

Golf: Ally Ewing ran off five straight on the back nine and closed with a 7-under 65 to hold off Xiyu Lin by a stroke and win the Queen City Championship in the LPGA Tour’s return to Cincinnati. Ewing, 29, now has three career wins.