NASCAR ROOKIE SCORES WIN
Cole Custer became the first rookie winner in the NASCAR Cup Series in nearly four years, surging to the lead in a four-wide, finallap scramble Sunday at Kentucky Speedway in Sparta, Ky.
Kevin Harvick and Martin Truex Jr. were dueling side by side for the lead on the final restart when Custer — with a push from Matt Dibenedetto on the outside in the backstretch — made his move in the No. 41 Stewart-haas Racing Ford. As the leaders bunched in Turn 1, Custer slid ahead and outlasted Truex’s Toyota.
“I knew I just had to get to the top,” said Custer, who led twice for five laps — the first of his young career. “The top rolled pretty good and once I got past and I was like in third I was like, ‘I’ve just got to take a shot and do whatever I can here.’
“And it ended up the 4 (Harvick) and the 19 (Truex) got together a little bit and I was able to take advantage of it.”
Though Custer raced to a Kentucky win last July in the Xfinity Series, he and other drivers entered Sunday without a chance to practice or qualify.
Matt Kenseth’s Turn 4 spin forced the final caution and created the opportunity for Custer’s victory. He finished 25th after starting from the back with Truex as both failed two prerace inspections.
The victory was the first by a series rookie since Chris Buescher at Pocono on Aug. 1, 2016. Making his 20th series start, the 22-year-old Custer celebrated with a frontstretch burnout as his crew happily ran to greet him.
Dibenedetto was third, and Harvick fourth — both in Fords. Kurt Busch, the winner last year, was fifth.
Aric Almirola made his case at the start, pushing pole-sitter Kyle Busch forward from the outside and chasing in the early laps before taking over nine laps later and threatening to run away from it. Almirola led 128 of the first 137 laps — nearly 40 more than he had led all season.
Ryan Blaney and Dibenedetto took their turns in front before Keselowski inherited it on pit road during green-flag pit cycles. That didn’t last long as Truex quickly stalked him on the last-stage restart and took over on 181 in hopes of his third Kentucky win in four years. Truex settled for watching Custer take the win.
“The 41 (Custer) just came with a big head of steam and there was no way I was going to be able to block that,” Truex said. “He was just in the right place at the right time, I guess.”
Rosenqvist surges for win
Scott Dixon’s win streak finally ended. Chip Ganassi Racing just kept rolling along.
Felix Rosenqvist overtook Pato O’ward on the next-to-last lap and earned his first career win in the second half of an Indycar doubleheader at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wis. Rosenqvist became only the second driver to win an Indycar event this year after Dixon posted three straight victories to start the season.
Rosenqvist and Dixon, who finished 12th, are Chip Ganassi Racing teammates.
The race turned into a duel between Rosenqvist and O’ward, who were both chasing their first career victories. O’ward pulled ahead on the 43rd of 55 laps, but his margin steadily decreased before Rosenqvist finally passed him.
“You’re never really too confident,” Rosenqvist said. “But when I saw the gap with Pato decrease the last four or five laps, I only had one thing on my mind and my crew also had only one thing on my mind, and that was winning the race.”
Hamilton takes Styrian GP
Lewis Hamilton won the Styrian Grand Prix from pole position to clinch an 85th career win and move within six of Michael Schumacher’s Formula One record.
Most of Schumacher’s wins were during a dominant spell with Ferrari, but his old team is struggling badly. For the second time in the past four races, Charles Leclerc and Sebastian Vettel crashed into each other and went out.
When Hamilton stood on the podium he raised a clenched right fist in Spielberg, Austria.
Hamilton’s record-extending 89th career pole on a rain-drenched track was one of his best in extreme conditions, but during the race he was hardly challenged as he finished a sizeable 13.7 seconds ahead of Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas and 33.7 ahead of Red Bull’s Max Verstappen.
Because of social distancing amid the coronavirus pandemic, the drivers on the podium had their trophies delivered by a remote-controlled device.
“What a weird year but (it’s) great to be back driving with this kind of performance. The team did a fantastic job, it was just for me to bring it home,” said Hamilton.
Torrence wins NHRA return
Billy Torrence won in the NHRA return, beating Doug Kalitta in the Top Fuel final in the NHRA Nationals at Lucas Oil Raceway in Indianapolis. Matt Hagan won in Funny Car, Jason Line in Pro Stock and Ryan Oehler in Pro Stock Motorcycle.