Pit strategy pays off for Kyle Busch
SPARTA, Ky. — No matter the circumstances, Kyle Busch always seems to figure it out at Kentucky Speedway.
Busch took the lead during a late caution on the 168th lap Saturday and held on to win the 300-mile Xfinity Series race. The competition had been postponed a day earlier because of storms, creating a 700-mile NASCAR doubleheader for Busch and several other regular drivers from the top-tier Cup Series.
Busch earned the pole position for both races, and in the midday event he led three times for 70 laps on the way to his second straight series victory at the track and third overall on the 1.5mile oval. Though less dominant than last July’s triumph from the pole in which he led 185 laps, Busch’s strong car and wise pit strategy yielded a familiar result.
Pitting earlier for tires and fuel paid off for Busch, who stayed on the track during the final yellow flag. There was no catching his No. 18 Toyota after the restart, though Ryan Blaney tried his best on the final lap after passing Erik Jones’ Toyota for second.
“We did what we needed to do to be there at the end,” Busch said. “We took four tires, and that kind of got us behind there with two pit stops to go, and then some of those guys came in again. Obviously, our car was really fast out front, and once I got in clean air, I didn’t think anybody had anything for us.”
Blaney finished 1.097 seconds behind in his Ford, a strong recovery after he was penalized for a tire violation on pit road during the caution. He led twice for 52 laps total and won the second stage.
Jones was third after leading twice for a race-high 77 laps and winning the first stage, with Kevin Harvick fourth in a Ford and Ty Dillon fifth in a Chevrolet.
Busch soon blew out the left rear tire that served him well while doing the celebratory burnout.
IndyCar: Power on pole
NEWTON, Iowa — IndyCar powerhouse Team Penske has never won at Iowa Speedway, even though the open-wheel series has been running at the track for more than decade. This offseason, Penske brought in the driver who last year executed perhaps the most impressive run the speedway had ever seen.
Josef Newgarden broke an IndyCar record in Iowa for Ed Carpenter Racing, leading 282 out of 300 laps to win despite a broken right clavicle and a fractured right hand. Newgarden will return today, this time in the No. 2 car for Penske.
Newgarden is fifth in the season points standings, behind teammates Simon Pagenaud (second) and Helio Castroneves (third) but ahead of Will Power (sixth).
Power will start from the pole, giving Penske three straight qualifying wins on the 0.894-mile oval. Power, who has won two races this season, was fastest in single-car, two-lap runs on the oval. J.R. Hildebrand qualified second, followed by Helio Castroneves, Ed Carpenter and Takuma Sato, this year’s Indianapolis 500 winner.
Series leader Scott Dixon will start 17th after a disappointing qualifying run on the oval of just less than nine-tenths of a mile.
F1: Bottas up front
SPIELBERG, Austria — Mercedes driver Valtteri Bottas beat Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel to win the pole position for today’s Austrian Grand Prix.
It was the second career pole for the Finnish driver, who is third in the points standings but trails season championship leader Vettel by 42 points.
Lewis Hamilton, who is 13 points behind Vettel, qualified in third place but will start eighth because of a grid penalty for an unauthorized gearbox change. That moved Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen up from fourth to third.