By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor.
Why is this young man happy?
—because he’s Pato O’Ward and he has become the points leader for the INDYCAR championship with three races left in the season. (Actually, he’s not celebrating in this picture; he’s responding to fans a week earlier at Indianapolis.)
This man has hit another milestone:
Will Power had to sit in the pits protecting his ears when competitors tried to beat his qualifying speed. They did not and Power picked up his 63rd INDYCAR pole, putting him within four of Mario Andretti’s career record.
O’Ward might have taken the points lead but he came up just short of beating Josef Newgarden to the checkered flag at the World Wide Technology Raceway, where the St. Louis skyline can be seen from the track at Madison, Illinois. Newgarden and three teammates dominated the top five finishing positions in the race; only O’Ward’s runnerup position kept Team Penske from going 1-2-3
Newgarden beat O’Ward by less than six-tenths of a second in a race bedeviled by early yellows and late twists that took some top competitors out. The win, Newgarden’s third at the track, moves him past Scott Dixon into third place in the points. He led more than half of the race.
Newgarden took the lead from Colton Herta, who had led 101 of the first 185 laps but dropped out when he broke a drive shaft leaving the pits.
Palou, who started 21st, had charged to tenth when he was caught up in a three-car crash on the 65th lap, relegating him to 20th place. The crash let O’Ward overhaul Palou, the points leader for most of the season and now puts him up on Palou by ten points. Palou has had two terrible finishes in a row, counting his 20th at WWTR when he was caught up in a three-car crash before the race was half done.
Scott Dixon, who went into the race third in points, was forced to the garage area for repairs after another three-car incident. Although his crew made his car roadworthy again, Dixon was so far behind that he turned laps while some others dropped out, elevating him in the final results. He packed it in after running 100 laps, enough to get him to 19th. His withdrawal from the race ended a string of 28 straight races in which he had been running at the end.
INDYCAR resumes its season September 12 in Portland, Oregon.
Switching to cars with fenders:
This fellow is relieved although he finished 14th in the NASCAR Cup race at Brooklyn, Michigan. That was good enough to lock him in as the 15th driver in NASCAR’s 16-driver playoff field.
Kevin Harvick had to make it on points this year because he has failed so far to extend his eleven-year streak of winning at least one CUP race. He does have eleven more races in this season to snag a win.
The win at Michigan went to Ryan Blaney. It’s Blaney’s second win of the year. He got a push from competitor Kyle Busch on the last restart that gave him the lead he then defended for the last eight laps of the race, the only laps he lead in the whole race.
Blaney beat William Byron to the finish line by 0.077 of a second, the closest NASCAR finish in Michigan International Speedway history since timing and scoring went electronic. Blaney, who finished second on the Indianapolis road course the weekend previous, started third at WWTR but didn’t think he had a car as good as the starting position indicated.
His win and Harvick’s clinching of 15th place on points leaves only one race left to determine that 16th driver. And that race next Saturday night is at Daytona, where the unexpected is expected. Tyler Reddick has a 29-point lead over teammate Austin Dillon. Nobody else is close enough to become the 16th driver because of his number of points. And Reddick and Dillon could be eliminated if someone who has not won a race this year wins at Daytona.
Dillon was in the playoffs last year. Reddick was not. Two other active drivers will not repeat in the playoffs unless one of them wins Saturday—Matt DeBenedetto or Cole Custer. Clint Bowyer, the fourth driver in the 2020 playoffs, has retired to the broadcast booth.
Forty drivers are entered for Saturday night’s race meaning two dozen will be trying to be number 16.
(Photo credits: Bob Priddy, Rick Gevers)