San Diego Union-Tribune (Sunday)
LOGANO WILL ROLL FROM POLE AT NASCAR’S VEGAS STOP
Defending NASCAR Cup Series champion Joey Logano, who won the October race at Las Vegas, won the pole Saturday for today’s Pennzoil 400.
Logano qualified at 186.053 mph the Team Penske No. 22 Ford. He has won three of his past eight Cup races at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
“It really handled well, and obviously it’s got really good speed,” Logano said. “You hope you make the right adjustments and right changes from the fall over to here. Some of them were pretty good then, but you’ve got to keep evolving and try things, and it gets a little nerve-wracking when you try to make these changes that you’re married to.
“Hopefully, that transfers to the race (today). I think it will.”
William Byron, in the Hendrick Motorsports No. 24 Chevrolet, qualified second at 185.153 mph.
The rest of the top five were Ryan Blaney in the Penske No. 12 Ford (184.9), rookie Ty Gibbs in the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 54 Toyota (184.54) and Kyle Busch in the Richard Childress Racing No. 8 Chevy (184.489).
Elliott out indefinitely
Chase Elliott is out indefinitely after undergoing a successful three-hour surgery to repair a fractured tibia, Hendrick Motorsports GM Jeff Andrews said.
Andrews said there was no timeline on when the star NASCAR driver would return. Elliott injured his left leg Friday while snowboarding in Colorado. Josh Berry will drive the No. 9 Chevrolet in place of Elliott in today’s Cup race in Las Vegas.
Andrews said the process has begun to attain a waiver from NASCAR for Elliott
— the 2020 Cup champion — to be eligible for this year’s playoffs. Waivers have been granted to other drivers for various circumstances.
Hill rallies in Xfinity race
Austin Hill overtook Chandler Smith just before the final lap to win the NASCAR Xfinity Series race Saturday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Smith, who was the polesitter, led 118 laps of the 200lap race and appeared to be in good shape in the final laps before Hill made his late charge.
Smith, a rookie who drives the Kaulig Racing No. 16 Chevy, said his car got tight near the end and he finished third. He also was passed by Justin Allgaier in the JR Motorsports No. 7 Chevy.
Grosjean leads for Andretti
Andretti Autosport has insisted for months that it was doing the behind-thescenes work to recover from last year’s brutally disappointing Indycar season.
The team won only two races among its four drivers, former Formula One star
Romain Grosjean was a bust in his first year with the team and Alexander Rossi decided early that his seventh season at Andretti would be its last.
Michael Andretti powered forward. He signed
Colton Herta to a long-term extension, pulled Kyle Kirkwood back into the organization and made changes at the shop that had him optimistic for 2023.
So far, so good on the opening weekend.
Grosjean opened his third season in Indycar by winning the pole qualifying on the downtown streets of St. Petersburg, Fla., where the Frenchman led an allandretti front row. He surged to the second pole of his Indycar career in the waning moments of the session and beat teammate Herta for the top starting position in today’s race.
“We got here and I said, ‘Boys, I think we’ve got something,’ ” Grosjean said.
The last two winners of the race — Scott Mclaughlin of Team Penske and Herta — both won from the pole. Asked how he felt about his team’s chances on today, Andretti smiled and said “I feel a lot more optimistic.”
“I think we really studied ourselves and got real honest with ourselves where we needed to improve. I think we’ve done it,” Andretti said. “Obviously the race is going to be another thing. Hopefully we can have all four cars go through the race without making a mistake. If that happens, I think we have a great shot at winning.”
Verstappen’s on F-1 pole
Formula One champion Max Verstappen is in the right place to win his first Bahrain Grand Prix by starting from the pole in today’s season-opening race.
The desert track has been barren for Verstappen, who failed to finish three of his first four races there. The two-time reigning champion seemed cursed in Sakhir last year when his Red Bull failed just laps from the end with a steering problem.
Ferrari clinched a 1-2 finish with Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz Jr. and appeared to be Verstappen’s top challengers for last year’s title. But after opening 2022 with two DNFS in three races, Verstappen recovered to win an F1 record 15 races in a dominating year.
“Hopefully no crazy things will happen,” Verstappen said of today’s race. He will be joined on the front row by Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez.
Perez beat Leclerc to qualify second, .138 seconds behind Verstappen under the floodlights.
“Very happy to be on pole,” Verstappen said after securing his 21st career pole.
Leclerc was third and starts on the second row alongside teammate Sainz.