Hamlin holds off Keselowski to win at Martinsville

Denny Hamlin passed teammate Matt Kenseth for the lead with 28 laps to go Sunday and went on to end Toyota’s 32-race winless streak in the NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Martinsville Speedway in Martinsville, Virgnia.

The driver for Joe Gibbs Racing held off a five-lap, bumper-to-tail challenge from Brad Keselowski for his 25th career race and fifth at the smallest and oldest track in the premier series.

“I did everything I could other than wreck him,” Keselowski said.

The victory also came after a terrible blunder by four-time series champion and eight-time Martinsville winner Jeff Gordon. He took the lead for the first time with 58 laps to go and then got caught entering pit road too fast when the 16th and final caution came out with about 40 laps to go.

The mistake put him well back in the field, and he rallied to finish a disappointing ninth.

“Wow. I’m sorry guys,” he said on the radio when told of the penalty. “That’s on me. I apologize.”

The race ended Kevin Harvick’s streak of top-two finishes at eight. Harvick, who was three races shy of tying Richard Petty’s record of 11, led a race-high 154 laps, but faded to eighth place.

The race also marked the Cup debut of Chase Elliott, who will replace the retiring Gordon in the Hendrick stable next season, and Elliott got a quick welcome. His car was bounced around early, also wound up in the garage and finished 38th.

Hamlin, unlike Gordon, made his mistake early enough in the race to recover. Before the race was 200 laps old, he was penalized for an uncontrolled tire on pit road and dropped from the lead to 22nd.

He was back in the top 10 by the midpoint, and stalking the leaders shortly thereafter.

Montoya wins Indy

Juan Pablo Montoya gave Team Penske a win in the season-opening race at St. Petersburg, Florida, where the driver showed how far he’s come one year after returning to the IndyCar Series.

Montoya grabbed the lead away from teammate Will Power during a cycle of pit stops, and held off one strong challenge from Power to win.

It was Montoya’s first IndyCar win on a road or street course since Vancouver in 1999.

Power, the reigning IndyCar champion, settled for second after leading 75 laps. It gave Penske a 1-2 sweep.

Ferrari breaks through

Fears that Mercedes would dominate the 2015 Formula One season were swept aside in a flash of Ferrari red day as Sebastian Vettel won the Malaysian Grand Prix in Sepang.

Most observers were predicting another one-sided season after Mercedes recorded a comfortable one-two finish in the season opener in Australia, but two weeks later the picture was very different as Ferrari capitalized on searing track temperatures and some rare Mercedes mistakes to take a drought-breaking victory.

Coming off eight straight wins and with Lewis Hamilton on pole, there was every reason to expect another Mercedes stroll. However, a track temperature of 142 degrees at the start of the race exposed a chink in Mercedes’ armor, as their tires degraded more quickly than Vettel’s.

History was made by Toro Rosso rookie Max Verstappen, who became the youngest driver to score points in Formula One history.

At 17 years and 180 days, the Dutch teenager is almost 2½ years younger than Daniil Kvyat when he set the record on debut at last year’s Australian Grand Prix.

Beckman ends drought

Jack Beckman topped the Funny Car field in the NHRA Four-Wide Nationals in Concord, North Carolina, to end a 54-event winless streak.

Beckman had the quickest run of the weekend, beating Del Worsham, Chad Head and Tommy Johnson Jr., with a 3.983-second run at 308.78 mph. He won for the first since St. Louis in his 2012 championship season.

Antron Brown won in Top Fuel, Larry Morgan in Pro Stock, and Andrew Hines in Pro Stock Motorcycle in the event that features racing in a four-lane configuration.