By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor.
Two landmark achievements in big-time car racing during the weekend and one big step forward.
(INDYCAR)—Chip Ganassi Racing, which is shutting down its NASCAR operation at the end of the year after 22 years without a championship, has racked up its 14th INDYCAR championship with a driver in only his second year in the series.
24-year old Alex Palou (he pronounced it pal-LOE) is the first Spanish driver to win a championship in the history of American open-wheel racing. He did it in only his second year in the series, posting three wins and finishes in the top three positions in half of the series’ sixteen 2021 races. He was leading the Indianapolis 500 with one lap left when he was passed by Helio Castroneves and trailed Castroneves across the finish line by less than one-half second.
Palou had served notice in the first INDYCAR race of the year when he won the season opener at Barber Motorsports Park. He picked up other wins at Elkhart Lake and at Portland. All he had to do in the final race at Long Beach was stay out of trouble. He finished fourth behind race-winner Colton Herta (who closed out the year with two straight victories), Josef Newgarden, and defending champion and teammate Scott Dixon.
His closest competitor going into the final race, Pato O’Ward, dropped out with a broken drive shaft and finished next to last. O’Ward was trying to become the first Mexican INDYCAR champion.
Palou, O’Ward, and Herta lead a vanguard of young drivers likely to dominate INDYCAR for the next decade or more. O’Ward is 22 and Herta, a three-time winner this year, is 21.
(NASCAR)—Denny Hamlin, winless in the first 26 races this year, already has won twice in the first four races of the 10-race championship runoff. His win at Las Vegas locks him into the round of eight that will go on for the title after two more races.
Victory is a relief for Hamlin, who said afterward, “I’m so happy to not have to worry about the next two weeks.” Next weekend’s race is at Talladega, where high-speed drafting and anticipated major crashes are considered inevitable, making unpredictability one of the hallmarks of the race. The last race in this playoff segment will be on the Charlotte road course.
Hamlin dominated the race at Las Vegas, leading more than half of the laps including the last 39. He withstood a charge by last year’s NASCAR champion, Chase Elliott, beating him to the line by about four-tenths of a second. Kyle Busch, Martin Truex Jr., and Ryan Blaney competed the top five.
Four of the present twelve title contenders will be eliminated from the chase after Talladega and Charlotte. On the outside looking in after Las Vegas are William Byron, Kevin Harvick, Alex Bowman and Christopher Bell.
(FORMULA 1)—Lewis Hamilton has become the first driver in Formula 1 history to win 100 grand prix races. His win puts him back atop the leader board in the points standings by two points over Max Verstappen. Hamilton finished almost a minute ahead of Vertappen, his closest challenger in his effort to win a record eighth championship. The two will fight for the title in the remaining seven races.
Sir Lewis Hamilton, it is, broke Michael Schumacher’s once-untouchable record of 91 F1 victories last year. The superiority of the two drivers is reflected in the fact that Ayrton Senna is third on the win list with “only” 51. Hamilton has run 281 F1 races, winning 100 and finishing in the top three 176 times.
(Photo credits: Bob Priddy and Formula 1)