Dillon safe at home track with Charlotte victory

Austin Dillon’s driving was good.

His celebration might have been even better.

Dillon reveled in his first win at his home track Saturday with a head-first slide into the infield grass at Charlotte Motor Speedway. The 25-year-old Dillon passed Denny Hamlin with 15 laps remaining and went on to his second Xfinity Series victory of the season.

“I stuck (the slide) pretty good,” joked Dillon, a former baseball player who played in the Little League World Series.

Hamlin finished second, nearly 3 seconds behind Dillon.

Kasey Kahne was third, followed by Regan Smith and Xfinity Series regular Darrell Wallace Jr.

Force sets speed record

John Force knocked his daughter, Courtney, out of second-round eliminations last week at Atlanta.

Courtney Force exacted a measure of revenge Saturday during the third round of Funny Car qualifying for the NHRA Kansas Nationals.

Courtney set a national speed record, topping out at 325.06 mph in her Traxxas Chevrolet Camaro SS Funny Car.

Courtney broke her own track record from Friday (324.20) and, with two runs within 1 percent of each other, erased John’s all-time Funny Car top-speed record of 324.12 from the 2014 Winternationals at Auto Club Raceway in Pomona, California.

Courtney Force boasts the fastest top speed in NHRA history at 325.37 mph last season at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, but she wasn’t able to back up that pass so it wasn’t certified as the national record.

Hamilton takes F1 pole

Formula One champion Lewis Hamilton clinched his first pole at the Monaco Grand Prix after a strong drive Saturday while his Mercedes teammate Nico Rosberg will start from second as he bids to win the race for the third straight year.

Hamilton, who has taken pole in five of six races, clocked 1 minute, 15.098 seconds, with Rosberg .342 behind and Sebastian Vettel .751 back.

Romain Grosjean was handed a five-place grid penalty because of an unscheduled gearbox change.