Allgaier holds on for 2nd Xfinity win in three weeks
Justin Allgaier won the NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Road America on Saturday at Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, pulling away over the final five laps to pick up his second victory in three weeks.
Allgaier held a 5.4-second advantage over second-place Matt Tifft to take a tense race filled with bumps, scrapes and spinouts around the 14-turn course on Saturday. Daniel Hemric was third.
Allgaier took advantage of late-race commotion to pick up another road course win following a victory two weeks ago at Mid-Ohio.
Second behind points leader Christopher Bell coming into the weekend, Allgaier picked up his fourth victory overall this season.
“I never would have thought we could have a dream season like this one,” he said with a smile after wiping sweat off his forehead. “Two road courses … would you believe that?”
NASCAR Hall of Famer Bill Elliott finished 20th after coming out of retirement to take his first ride Xfinity ride around Road America. The 62-year-old Elliott started 23rd, then climbed up to 17th before spinning out and falling back.
“It was a heck of a lot of fun,” Elliott said.
The old-school driver would have loved the racing at the front of the field.
With three laps to go, second-place James Davison and third-place Justin Marks were jockeying for position trying desperately to catch Allgaier when their cars spun out around a tight left turn.
Tifft blew past Davison and Marks. But no one could catch Allgaier, who started 11th and was second to points leader Christopher Bell coming into the weekend.
Allgaier picked up another win on a road course following a victory two weeks ago at Mid-Ohio. Allgaier picked up his fourth victory overall this season.
It was an entertaining race for NASCAR during an off week for the toplevel Cup circuit.
Most of the attention coming into the race fell on Road America rookies like Elliott. British racer Katherine Legge, who was driving in her second NASCAR race, finished 14th.
IndyCar driver Conor Daly, who was making his NASCAR debut, finished 31st. A suspension issue forced his No. 6 Ford into the garage after 35 laps.
FORMULA 1
Lewis Hamilton again showed he’s the best driver in the rain by taking pole position for the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps, Belgium.
The Mercedes driver saved his best for the last lap to easily beat Sebastian Vettel’s leading time for Ferrari by 0.7 seconds and secure a Formula One record-extending 78th pole.
“The rain is always a friend of mine,” Hamilton said. “I think that was one of the hardest sessions I can remember. We only had a few laps to find the grip [in the rain], to find where the track was dry and wet.”
On his penultimate lap, Hamilton swerved off track momentarily. But as usual in the wet, he regained his composure when it counted.
“I went off in Turn 1 and then into Turn 12,” the British driver said. “I only had one lap left or I would have been further down the order.”
Hamilton has won the last two races — both affected by rain — to take the championship lead and move 24 points in front of Vettel.
Vettel was second in another disappointment for Ferrari, which topped all three practice sessions. But like in previous races, the rain seemed to affect Vettel’s confidence and boost Hamilton’s.
“Obviously [the rain] didn’t help. It was a bit strange, not easy to get your eye in,” Vettel said. “Maybe I wasn’t as calm as I could be. There is confusion when all of a sudden it starts to rain. [Teammate] Kimi [Raikkonen] was rushing to get back out. I had a bit of traffic.”
The rain only came down for the third and final part of qualifying, known as Q3, and shook up the field considerably.
Two days after the team came out of administration, the re-named Racing Point Force India took third and fourth with Frenchman Esteban Ocon ahead of Sergio Perez.
Raikkonen threw his hands up in annoyance after the team could not get him out in time for a final lap on Saturday — particularly frustrating for the Finnish driver who was good throughout practice and started qualifying strongly.