Hamlin survives miscue
Rally completes Darlington sweep
Denny Hamlin overcame a bad miss of the pit road entrance to chase down Martin Truex Jr. with three laps left to win the Southern 500 at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway on Sunday night.
Hamlin checked up after sliding by the entrance with 54 laps left and fell behind Truex by 20 seconds. But Hamlin slowly reeled in Truex and passed him when his rival brushed the wall and got a flat tire.
Hamlin swept throwback weekend at Darlington after winning the Xfinity race Saturday. Truex won the first two stages, clinching NASCAR’s regular-season championship and gaining the No. 1 seed heading into the playoffs in two weeks.
Kyle Busch was second, followed by brother Kurt Busch, Austin Dillon and Erik Jones.
Hamlin led 124 laps and looked as if he was easily on the way to a second Southern 500 after winning in 2008. Then inexplicably, Hamlin missed the entrance and seemingly threw the race to the ever-steady Truex.
“We can still do this,” Hamlin’s crew chief Mike Wheeler told his driver after the miscue.
So Hamlin started the comeback. He got up to Truex’s bumper with three laps before moving low around lapped traffic to take the lead. Truex rubbed the wall, blew his right front tire and stumbled home in eighth.
“Sometimes it’s just not your night,” Truex said. “Tonight wasn’t our night.”
Dale Earnhardt Jr. finished 22nd — the same as how he started — in his final time racing at Darlington.
Cambridge, Wis., native Matt Kenseth was sixth, Ryan Newman seventh, then Truex. Verizon IndyCar Series: Pole-sitter Alexander Rossi won the IndyCar Grand Prix at The Glen on Sunday, holding off Scott Dixon over the closing laps at Watkins Glen (N.Y.) International.
Ryan Hunter-Reay finished third, followed by Helio Castroneves, Graham Rahal and Will
Power.
The race for the IndyCar title tightened significantly with one race left in the season.
Points leader Josef Newgarden was in contention until a crash exiting the pits ruined his day. He finished 18th, two laps down.
Dixon cut Newgarden’s 31-point lead to three as the series heads to the road course at Sonoma for the finale, which is worth double points.
Formula One: Lewis Hamilton won the Italian Grand Prix in Monza, Italy, virtually unchallenged from pole position and moved ahead of Sebastian Vettel to take the lead in the drivers’ standings.
Hamilton finished nearly five seconds ahead of Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas while Vettel came third in his Ferrari, more than half a minute behind.
Hamilton now has 238 points, three more than Vettel with seven races remaining. Slinger Speedway:
Dennis Prunty got to the finish line ahead of Gary LaMonte to win the super-late model feature on Sunday night.