Kyle Busch gets 6th win
Race at Pocono was red flagged with six laps to go after nasty wreck
Undeterred by skeptical fans, Thomas takes Tour
PARIS — The spits and the jeers. The eggs thrown at team cars. The attempts to unbalance riders while riding up the most grueling climbs.
Geraint Thomas never flinched at whatever fans — or his rivals — threw at him or Team Sky.
The Welsh rider was the steadiest rider from the start, the strongest in the Alps and the Pyrenees. On Sunday he concluded his transformation from a support rider into a champion of cycling’s biggest race by claiming his first Tour de France title.
Thomas successfully defended his lead of 1 minute, 51 seconds over second-placed Tom Dumoulin in the mostly ceremonial final stage.
Four-time champion Chris Froome, Thomas’s teammate, finished third, 2:24 behind. Froome rode next to Thomas as they crossed the line and applauded.
Thomas was a support rider during Froome’s four victories but he emerged as Sky’s strongest rider in this race when Froome crashed early on and couldn’t keep up in the mountains.
No. 1 Dustin Johnson wins Canadian Open
OAKVILLE, Ontario — Topranked Dustin Johnson pulled away Sunday in the RBC Canadian Open for his third victory of the season and 19th on the PGA Tour.
Tied for third-round lead with Kevin Tway, Byeong Hun An and Whee Kim, Johnson shot a 6-under 66 for a three-stroke victory over Kim and An. Johnson finished at 23-under 265, winning at Glen Abbey after finishing second in 2013 and 2016.
Kim and An each shot 69 in the round interrupted by a nearly 2-hour lightning delay.
Hamilton heads into F1 break with lead on Vettel
BUDAPEST, Hungary — Lewis Hamilton heads into Formula One’s summer break with a comfortable 24-point lead over rival Sebastian Vettel after cruising to victory from pole position at the Hungarian Grand Prix on Sunday.
Hamilton was untroubled as he secured a second straight win, his fifth of the season and 67th overall. Vettel was second.
“It’s great to go into the break with back-to-back wins,” said Hamilton, who won in Germany last week. “That boost will last a long time with our team.”
After 12 of 21 races, defending champion Hamilton has the momentum. At the same stage last season, he trailed Vettel by 14 points.
LONG POND, Pa. — Kyle Busch had no one to bump him out of the lead this week and stormed from the bottom half of the field Sunday at Pocono Raceway on the way to his sixth NASCAR Cup victory of the season.
Busch was set to start second but his No. 18 Toyota was one of 13 cars dumped to back of the pack for flunking post-qualifying inspection. That was nothing but a minor bump for the Joe Gibbs Racing driver, who matched Kevin Harvick for most wins this season.
Harvick used a bump-andrun on the 18 with seven laps left last week at New Hampshire to knock Busch out of contention.
Harvick’s pole qualifying run also was tossed out but he ended up leading 30 laps and finished fourth.
The race was red flagged with six laps left in the wake of a violent wreck by Darrell Wallace Jr. Wallace lost the breaks in his No. 43 Chevrolet and the car shot across the grass and slammed into the wall. There were several tense seconds during a wait for Wallace to put down his window net. He sat on the track and slumped against the car before he was taken to the track medical center.
Once the race resumed, Busch zipped away and he surged ahead again on the final restart in overtime to add to the win total for NASCAR’s Big Three: Busch, Harvick and Martin Truex Jr. have won 16 of the 21 Cup Series.
“What’s crazy is how this year keeps going,” Busch said. “Harvick gets one, we get one, Truex gets one. We’re all back and forth.”
Busch tied three-time champ Tony Stewart for 13th on the career wins list with 49.
“You keep reaching higher up the ladder and you keep reaching more milestone drivers,” Busch said. “Tony Stewart is one of the all-time best and one of the drivers that I was a fan of growing up. It’s awesome to be able to tie him. There’s many more. We want to keep going.”
Busch held off a pair of young drivers aiming for their first career Cup win. Daniel Suarez, the first Mexican driver to win the pole for a Cup race, finished second and Alex Bowman was third.
Suarez, also a JGR driver, entered 20th in the points standings and desperately needed a win to earn an automatic berth for NASCAR’s playoffs. There are just five races left before the 16-driver field is set.
Only seven drivers have won races this season.
Harvick had a shot at his seventh win until his car was damaged on pit road and he slipped again to the back of the pack. Harvick is 0 for 36 at Pocono and has yet to win there or at Kentucky Speedway.
Busch made it look easy at Pocono this weekend, with a win Saturday in the Truck Series race. He won for the 192nd time over the Cup, Xfinity and Truck Series.
He has Cup wins this year at Texas, Bristol, Richmond, Charlotte and Chicagoland. He hasn’t gone more than three races without a winning a race since April. Busch had never won at Pocono until