Suarez grabs historic NASCAR Cup win
SONOMA, Calif. — Daniel Suarez became the first Mexican-born driver to win a NASCAR Cup Series race Sunday, holding off Chris Buescher for a historic victory at Sonoma Raceway.
Suarez, a 30-year-old native of Monterrey, finally won in the 195th career start of a Cup Series career that began in 2017. He also drove his Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet to the third Cup Series victory of the season for this rising 2-yearold team co-owned by former driver Justin Marks and music star Pitbull.
Suarez got past Buescher and took charge early in the final stage on this hilly road course in Northern California wine country, and he persevered through a pit stop and a caution to emerge in front with 23 laps to go. Buescher pushed him aggressively, but Suarez made no significant mistakes while rolling to victory.
“It’s crazy,” Suarez said. “I have so many thoughts in my head right now. It’s been a rough journey in the Cup Series, and these guys believed in me. I have a lot of people to thank in Mexico. My family, they never gave up on me. A lot of people did, but they didn’t. I’m just happy we were able to make it work.”
Suarez’s team partied wildly when it was over, even pulling out a celebratory pinata shaped like a taco. The pinata was requested by Suarez for whenever he got his first win and clinched a spot in the playoffs — and he celebrated by punching a hole through it with his fist.
“They believed in me since day one,” Suarez said of his team. “(We’ve got) all the people, all the resources to make it happen.”
Suarez then addressed his fans briefly in Spanish, saying: “This is the first one of many.”
Buescher’s second-place finish was also a season best in his RFK Racing Ford.
Suarez, who won the Xfinity Series championship in 2016, is the fifth foreign-born driver to win a Cup Series race. He joins Colombia’s Juan Pablo Montoya, Australia’s Marcos Ambrose, Canada’s Earl Ross and Italian-born American Mario Andretti.
Michael McDowell finished a season-best third in front of Kevin Harvick in cloudy conditions in Sonoma Raceway’s first Cup Series race at full capacity since before the coronavirus pandemic. Austin Cindric was fifth in the final race before the Cup Series’ one-week midseason break.
Verstappen earns 5th F1 win of the season
Max Verstappen once again pounced when rival Charles Leclerc faltered in their race for the Formula One title in Baku, Azerbaijan.
Verstappen extended his F1 championship lead by winning the Azerbaijan Grand Prix on Sunday — his fifth victory of the season — following yet another Leclerc early retirement.
Leclerc started from pole, immediately lost the lead in the first corner to Sergio Perez, Verstappen’s Red Bull teammate, then used smart strategy to cycle his Ferrari back to the front. Leclerc regained the lead when he pitted under “virtual safety car” speed restrictions while the two Red Bull cars stayed out.
Leclerc seemed poised to challenge for the win, but the Monaco driver’s car started spewing smoke on lap 20 of 51 and he had to pull into the pits.
His engine had failed — Leclerc’s second retirement in three races.
“It hurts,” Leclerc said. “We really need to look into that for it to not happen again. I don’t really find the right words to describe, obviously it is very disappointing.”
Red Bull went 1-2 in the race with Perez finishing second, while Mercedes was third and fourth with George Russell and Lewis Hamilton.
Newgarden races to $1 million prize
Josef Newgarden earned a $1 million bonus for winning at Road America in Eldhark Lake, Wis., where his third win of the season completed a trifecta of victories on IndyCar’s different circuits.
Newgarden won on the oval at Texas and the street course in Long Beach this season, and headed Road America searching for a road course win that would make him the first IndyCar driver this season to win on all three circuits.
The reward was a $1 million payout from The PeopleReady Force for Good Challenge, which split the bonus between Team Penske and charities of Newgarden’s choice.
The American selected Wags and Walks of Nashville and SeriousFun Children’s Network.
It was the first year of the challenge and claimed before the halfway point of the IndyCar season; Newgarden is the only driver with multiple wins through eight of 17 races.
Newgarden beat Indianapolis 500 winner Marcus Ericsson of Chip Ganassi Racing by 3.371-seconds following two late restarts, but Ericsson reclaimed the points lead with the runner-up finish.
Alexander Rossi finished third and was followed by teammates Romain Grosjean and Colton Herta.