After tough losses, Truex finally gets win at Kansas
KANSAS CITY, Kan. - Joe Garone thought he’d seen Martin Truex Jr. lose in every conceivable way at Kansas Speedway, whether it was pit strategy or bad restarts or a bizarre problem during a late tire change that did in his chances of winning last season.
Then, he watched Erik Jones — the other car in their two-car Furniture Row Racing stable — go for a spin late in Saturday night’s race, forcing a restart after Truex had established a big lead.
“I was like, ‘Here’s a new way to lose it,’” said Garone, the team’s president. “The 77 is going to do it for us.”
Only this time, things worked out in the end.
Truex roared away from Ryan Blaney and Kevin Harvick on a late restart, then did it again when Jimmie Johnson spun out with two laps to go. And after so many fits at Kansas Speedway, Truex and the Furniture Row Racing team had finally found their way to victory lane.
“I’m not going to lie to you: As a racer, you don’t forget,” Truex said. “You don’t forget those days, the ones that got away or you screw up and gave one away or anything like that. You never forget those. They always stick with you.”
NASCAR
NASCAR driver Aric Almirola was released from the University of Kansas Medical Center on Sunday, a day after he fractured a vertebra during a fiery wreck at Kansas Speedway.
Almirola was trailing Joey Logano and Danica Patrick when a broken brake rotor on Logano’s car sent him and Patrick into the wall entering the first turn. Almirola had no time to check up and plowed into Logano’s car, the force of the impact lifting his No. 43 car into the air and nearly flipping it over.
Safety crews removed the top of Almirola’s car so they could remove him, and he was placed on a backboard and taken to the infield care center. He was then airlifted to the hospital, conscious and alert, and doctors there diagnosed a compression fracture of his T5 vertebra.
Richard Petty Motorsports said in a statement Sunday that Almirola was mobile and returning to his home in North Carolina.
Formula One
Thanks to superior strategy and some help from his teammate, Lewis Hamilton tightened the early title race in Formula One after beating Sebastian Vettel to win the Spanish Grand Prix on Sunday.
Hamilton saw his advantage of a pole position evaporate when Vettel beat him to the first corner, but Mercedes’ decision to have Hamilton finish the race on faster tires allowed the British driver to overtake Vettel’s Ferrari with more than 20 laps left.
Hamilton would have had to leave his challenge until late if not for some assistance from teammate Valtteri Bottas, who held up Vettel before the Finn’s Mercedes broke down in a puff of smoke.
“This was the rawest fight I have felt in a long time. This is what the sport is meant to be, this is why I race - to have battles with him for the championship,” Hamilton said. “I just really have to congratulate and thank my team. They did a wonderful job with the strategy and the pit stops.”
Hamilton’s second win in five races this season cut Vettel’s lead from 13 points to six heading into the Monaco GP. It was the three-time world champion’s 55th career victory and his second at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.
Daniel Ricciardo brought his Red Bull across in a distant third place to complete the podium, his best result of the season.
Vettel had a great surge from second on the grid, going past Hamilton to the first right-hand turn and staying in front just as his Ferrari partner’s race ended.