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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Auto notes: Elliott claims Nationwide victory at Chicagoland

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Chase Elliott held off Trevor Bayne to win the Nationwide Series stop at Chicagoland Speedway on Saturday night in Joliet, Illinois.

Elliott had a strong car all day long for JR Motorsports, qualifying third and leading a race-high 85 laps. Bayne tried to chase him down on fresh tires in the final laps, but ran out of time.

Elliott’s third victory of the year, following wins at Texas and Darlington, moved him to the top of the series standings.

Kyle Larson was third, followed by Kasey Kahne and Ty Dillon to round out the top five.

Brian Scott, who started on the pole, finished sixth and earned $100,000 in the second event of the four-race “Dash 4 Cash” bonus program.

Kahne and Larson were the lone Sprint Cup regulars in the field on an off weekend for NASCAR’s top series. Everyone comes back to Chicagoland in September on the same weekend that the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship begins at the 1.52-mile oval.

The night began with a pair of Richard Childress Racing teammates in front after Scott and Dillon had the best showing in qualifying. It was Scott’s second pole of the season and No. 4 for his career. He won his first Nationwide Series pole at Chicagoland on Sept. 17, 2011.

Scott led for 20 laps before Elliott moved in front.

Erik Jones finished seventh in his Nationwide debut, driving Joe Gibbs Racing’s No. 20 Toyota. The 18-year-old Jones won the Truck Series race last week at Iowa in the No. 51 Kyle Busch Motorsports Toyota he shares with Busch. Jones also won a Truck race last year in Phoenix.

Jones is expected to make two more Nationwide starts in Matt Kenseth’s car this season.

Regan Smith, who led the series standings by eight points over Elliott Sadler coming in, placed 16th.

IndyCar rained out

IndyCar’s weekend doubleheader in Toronto will be crammed into one day because Saturday’s race was called because of rain.

IndyCar has scheduled two 65-lap races for today.

The first one will have a rolling start at 7:30 a.m. (PDT) and the second one is set for a standing start at 1:15 p.m. The order for the second race will be set by points, as of Saturday.

Rosberg claims F1 pole

Formula One championship leader Nico Rosberg claimed pole position for the German Grand Prix in Hockenheim, Germany, as Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton crashed while qualifying.

Rosberg completed the fastest lap on the Hockenheimring in 1 minute, 16.540 seconds for the weekend’s fastest time in the third part of the session.

Williams’ Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa were second and third, respectively, followed by McLaren’s Kevin Magnussen, Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo and Sebastian Vettel.