Elliot races to take NASCAR Cup pole at Watkins Glen
Chase Elliott won the NASCAR Cup pole on Saturday at Watkins Glen International, edging Hendrick Motorsports teammate Kyle Larson for the top spot.
Elliott, a two-time winner at The Glen, turned a fast lap of 1 minute, 10.477 seconds around the 2.45mile natural terrain road course. Larson, who won last year’s race at The Glen, finished in 1:10.516, just ahead of Michael McDowell.
“I’m really proud of our team,” Elliott said. “We’ll try to give them a good run tomorrow.”
William Byron was fourth and Tyler Reddick, winner of the past two road races on the Cup schedule, will start fifth as Chevrolet took four of the top five spots. AJ Allmendinger was sixth, followed by Chris Buescher, Austin Cindric, Daniel Suárez and Kyle Busch.
Ryan Blaney and Martin Truex Jr., battling for the final playoff spot with just two races left in the regular season, will start side-byside in Row 13.
“Definitely not the day we wanted, for sure,” Truex said. “We’ll just keep working on it, battle and fight through it and get all we can like we always do.”
Former Formula One champion Kimi Raikkonen, who came out of retirement for the chance to enter NASCAR’S top series, qualified 27th in his Cup debut. Raikkonen is driving for TrackHouse Racing and its Project91 program designed to raise NASCAR’s international exposure.
“I wish there were more laps to put everything together,” Raikkonen said. “I thought I was pretty OK. It’s good.”
Christopher Bell blew the engine during practice in the No. 20 Toyota and will start at the back of the 39-car field.
IndyCar
A rain delay saved the victory for Josef Newgarden, who earned his IndyCar-best fifth win of the season Saturday night at World Wide Technology Raceway and again tightened the championship standings.
Newgarden had been bumped from the lead by Team Penske teammate Scott McLaughlin shortly before the race was stopped for rain and lightning
Kyle Larson celebrates after winning the NASCAR Xfinity Series Sunoco Go Rewards 200 at The Glen at Watkins Glen International.
with 43 laps remaining. After a delay of just over 2 hours, the race resumed with 36 laps to go and Newgarden needed only one to get past his “Bus Bro” buddy and hold on for the victory.
McLaughlin finished third for Penske and was followed by Pato O’Ward of Arrow McLaren SP in fourth. The race began with seven drivers separated by 59 points in the standings; it ended with seven
drivers separated by 58 points — O’Ward gained a point. Takuma Sato finished fifth for Coyne and was followed by Will Power.
NASCAR Xfinity
Kyle Larson zoomed past Ty Gibbs and William Byron when the two leaders made contact with under five laps to go, then held off AJ Allmendinger to win the Xfinity Series race at Watkins
Glen International on Saturday.
Byron and Gibbs dominated the 82-lap race around the 2.45-mile road course but came together after the final restart. Byron swung wide coming out of the first turn, a 90-degree downhill right-hander, and the two were side-by-side up through the esses before they collided. Larson was in the perfect spot to take advantage and zoomed past into the lead, holding off Allmendinger for his first road course win in the series.
The 40-year-old Allmendinger had won three of the four road course races in the series so far this season for Kaulig Racing.
NHRA
Defending event champion Matt Hagan topped Funny Car qualifying in the Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals at Brainerd International Raceway in Minnesota.
Paired with points leader Robert Hight for the final passes of the day, Hagan had a 3.843-second run at 331.36 mph.
Top Fuel points leader Brittany Force also qualified No. 1. She had a 3.661 at 334.65 for her sixth No. 1 of the season and 38th overall.