Three big wins for a younger generation in INDYCAR and NASCAR during the weekend came at the expense of major disappointments for three established stars in the two series.
(NASCAR)—-Kyle Larson moved from exile to millionaire All-Star champion at the Texas Speedway by pulling past veteran Brad Keselowski, NASCAR’s 2012 champion, with eight laps to go and beating Keselowski to the checkered flag by two-tenths of a second.
Keselowski had gotten ahead of Larson in a three-wide pass of leader Chase Elliott with nine laps left. He led just one lap before Larson whipped past him easily and pulled away to the win. “It feels like running second to the Hendrick cars right now is an accomplishment. They are just stupid fast. I had (him) off turn 4 but…he just motored right back by me,” Keselowski said after the race.
Larson, 28, wasn’t in the All-Star race last year because he’d been suspended indefinitely for using a racial slur about another driver in a computer-generated race while NASCAR was shut down in regular competition in the early days of the pandemic. But owner Rick Hendrick offered him a ride for 2021 after Larson was reinstated and Larson has responded with three wins and the All-Star race victory.
(INDYCAR)—The two races at Detroit’s Bell Isle Park were big wins for 30-year old Marcus Ericsson and 22-year old Pato O’Ward but were bitter pills for veterans Will Power and Josef Newgarden.
Power, the 2018 Indianapolis 500 winner and the 2014 INDYCAR series champion, appeared to have Saturday’s race well in hand when a red flag came out because of a Romain Grosjean crash with eight laps left. But his engine would not re-start, apparently because of the failure of part of the car’s computerized fuel system, and he was left in the pits when the green flag started the final laps.
Ericsson pulled away from youngster Rinus VeeKay in the final three laps and won by 1.8 seconds. His win was the seventh win by seven different drivers to start the INDYCAR season. That last happened four years ago and has happened only five other times in a century of INDYCAR racing. He became the fourth driver this year to get his first win in the series, following Alex Palou, Pato O’Ward, and VeeKay.
Two time series champion Josef Newgarden was on the way to making it eight different winners in eight races when 22-year old Pato O’Ward passed him with three laps left and became the first two-time winner this year. Newgarden, 30, won the series championship in 2017 and 2019.
But it’s O’Ward who has emerged from the Detroit double-header with the season points lead. He’s just one point up on Alex Palou, 24. Defending national champion Scott Dixon has slipped to 36 points behind O’Ward and to third place in the standings. Newgarden is fourth, fifteen points behind Dixon. Rinus VeeKay, another young star of the series is fifth. Palou, Dixon and VeeKay each have one win this year, as does Ericsson, who has risen to seventh in the points, and Brian Herta, who is running ninth in the points standings.
(HELIO)—Helio Castroneves became the first Indianapolis 500 winner in several years not to compete in the next INDYCAR race. His deal with Meyer-Shank racing did not include Detroit. He will be racing however. He’s one of the senior drivers who has signed to be part of Tony Stewart’s Superstar Racing Experience, which involves older driver (most of them retired) racing one another on dirt. Stewart will be racing in his own series.
The series ran its first race last weekend at Stafford Connecticut. New England driver Doug finished ahead of retired NASCR Cup drivers Greg Biffle and Stewart. Castoneves finished fourth, ahead of former NASCAR champion Bobby Labonte.
(BASEBALL)—-We plan to have things on stick and ball sports on this new page, too. But when both of our major league baseball teams seem to be in a race to the bottom, we’re not very inspired to say much. We faithfully await a turnaround.