Auto racing: Joey Logano repeats at Bristol
Joey Logano won the Bristol night race for the second straight year, grabbing the lead on the final restart Saturday night when he zipped past Team Penske teammate Brad Keselowski. He had to hold off a handful of challenges from Kevin Harvick, but ultimately cruised to his third win of the year.
Logano has won on a superspeedway in the Daytona 500, on the road course at Watkins Glen and now Bristol’s short track. He has won twice this month as he readies for the start of the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship.
There are two more races before the playoffs begin.
“We are hitting it at the right time, that’s for sure,” Logano said. “I feel like we are right where we need to be. I can’t wait for the Chase to start.”
Logano led 176 laps, second only to Kyle Busch, who led a race-high 192 laps.
Harvick finished second for the 10th time this season. The reigning Sprint Cup champion has a career-best 17 top-five finishes this year and had his 250th career top-10 finish in 526 starts.
Although Busch dominated early, he faded a bit as the laps clicked off. Then he was hit with a speeding penalty on the final round of pit stops and finished eighth.
Carl Edwards led 74 laps but had a tire go flat when he was out front and it cost him two laps.
“Damn,” Edwards said on his radio. “All right, we’ll still get this. We’ve got a good car.”
He finished seventh.
Matt Kenseth, the winner for JGR in the spring race at the track, had no chance to sweep the season. An engine issue 177 laps into the race ended his night. He finished 42nd and said he had no warning that his engine was faulty.
IndyCar
IndyCar points leader Juan Pablo Montoya will start 19th today at Pocono Raceway in Long Pond, Pennsylvania, and Graham Rahal qualified fifth as he tries to trim a nine-point deficit.
Helio Castroneves won the pole at 220.530 mph, a strong push toward yet another drive at his first career championship with two races left in the season.
Castroneves is in fourth place, 58 points behind Montoya.
NHRA
Jack Beckman had the quickest Funny Car run in NHRA history for the third straight event, powering his Dodge Charger to a 3.901-second pass in qualifying for the Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals at Brainerd International Raceway in Brainerd, Minnesota.
Beckman also had fastest speed in NHRA history at 325.69 mph
Formula One
Lewis Hamilton topped Mercedes teammate Nico Rosberg to take pole position for today’s Belgian Grand Prix in Spa-Francorchamps, Belgium.
The defending Formula One champion won his 10th pole of the season by leaving Rosberg nearly half a second behind in qualifying.