(NASCAR)—Defending NASCAR champion Kyle Larson has charged from the rear of the starting field to notch his first win of the year, hanging on to a late lead to lead oncoming Austin Dillon by just under two-tenths of a second.
Larson was sent to the back because of unapproved adjustments to his car and needed 167 laps to surge into the lead, past Joey Logano, with only 33 laps left.
Tyler Reddick had dominated much of the race but a flat rear tire on the 152nd lap dashed his hopes. He led 90 of the first 151 laps but finished a lap down in 24th place.
Larson teammate Chase Elliott challenged him for the lead but Larson moved up the track while dueling with Joe Logano and pinched Elliott against the outside wall. Larson said on his radio he didn’t know Elliott was there.
Erik Jones and Daniel Suarez rounded out the top five.
Austin Cindric, the rookie winner of the Daytona 500 a week earlier, started on the poll and was 12th at the end.
(INDYCAR)—Scott McLaughlin, a driver from down under has started the INDYCAR season atop the INDYCAR World. McLaughlin, in his second full season for Penske after winning three championships in Australian V8 Supercar racing, started from P1, led almost half the laps on the St. Petersburg (Florida) road course and took the checkered flag half a second ahead of defending INDYCAR champion Alex Palou. The win is his first in the INDYCAR series. Teammate Will Power got the last podium spot.
McLaughlin averaged almost 97 mph on the fourteen-turn 1.8-mile temporary street circuit.
McLaughlin, a New Zealand native whose family moved to Australia when he was 9, began his racing career at the age of six, driving go karts. He won his first championship three years later. In his first full season in INDYCAR last year, he had five top tens in sixteen races, with a runner-up finish at Texas his best result. He was the Indianapolis 500 rookie of the year.
The race was the first February INDYCAR race since 2003. INDYCAR has sixteen more races to run but won’t run its second race until March 20, at Texas. Another three-week layoff will lead to the third race of the year, at Long Beach, California.
(Photo Credit: Bob Priddy, McLaughlin at World Wide Technology Raceway)