FEUD DISTRACTS FROM FAVORITE LARSON’S WIN

Overlooked in the post-race spat between Kevin Harvick and Chase Elliott was yet another trip to victory lane for Kyle Larson, NASCAR’S championship favorite.

As Larson celebrated his Cup Serieshigh sixth points win of the season, Hendrick Motorsports teammate Elliott jawed with Harvick following their on-track dustup at Bristol Motor Speedway. A flat tire had ruined Elliott’s own shot at the win so he deliberately slowed Harvick to help his teammate beat his new rival.

Their heated feud injected some excitement into NASCAR’S 10-race playoff series, which shifts today to Las Vegas Motor Speedway for the opening race of the second round. But the dustup between Harvick and Elliott distracted from the results; Larson potentially jumpstarted another streak, and Hendrick Motorsports slid all four of its drivers into the next playoff round.

It’s a shift in momentum from the first round, when Joe Gibbs Racing opened with a pair of wins from Denny Hamlin and Martin Truex Jr., while Hendrick seemed vulnerable with both William Byron and Alex Bowman in danger of playoff elimination just one week ago. Instead, all four Hendrick drivers go to Las Vegas with their title chances still intact and Larson returning to the site of his first victory of the season.

Berry takes Xfinity

Josh Berry moved teammate Justin Allgaier out of the way with 42 laps remaining Saturday night to win the Xfinity Series race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

It was the opener of the seven-race Xfinity Series playoffs and Allgaier, who started the race ranked third, could have used the win to strengthen his championship chances. Instead, the victory went to his JR Motorsports teammate.

Controversy in Indycar qualifying

The Indycar championship race tightened ahead of the Grand Prix of Long Beach after a messy qualifying session put contenders Alex Palou and Pato O’ward in the middle of the pack.

“Maybe rules don’t apply the last race of the season? When everything’s at stake? It just sucks,“O’ward fumed after he failed to advance to the final round of qualifying.

O’ward believed he should have been in the Fast Six after other drivers failed to slow during a local yellow and should have been disqualified. O’ward argued he should have been moved from eighth to at least sixth, and Arrow Mclaren SP even said teammate Felix Rosenqvist should have been penalized for speeding.

Despite a lengthy delay for Indycar to review the results, the Fast Six remained unchanged and O’ward was slotted in eighth for the start of today’s title-deciding race. He’s second in the standings, 35 points behind leader Palou, and was furious with Indycar’s inaction.

Palou was caught by the same local yellow and will start 10th.

Josef Newgarden,won the pole.

Norris earns Russian pole

Lando Norris took pole position for the first time in a rain-hit qualifying session for the Russian Grand Prix after timing his final fast lap to perfection on a drying track.

The Mclaren driver pushed Carlos Sainz of Ferrari into second place by half a second as George Russell took third for Williams, dropping Lewis Hamilton to fourth. Championship leader Max Verstappen has a penalty and starts at the back.