By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor
(NASCAR)—Finishes of NASCAR races of late have had something of an NBA quality to them of late with last-laps events that determine winners.
Case in point: Darlington, Joey Logano—pardon us for mixing our sports terms here—punted race leader William Byron into the wall on the last restart to end a 40-race winless streak.
Logano becomes the tenth winner in the season’s first dozen races. He now has at least one win in the last eleven seasons.
Logano, who started on the outside of the first row on the last restart, complained Byron went up the track and pinched him against the wall. With two laps to go, Logano got his revenge, bumping Byron in the third turn, sending him into the wall and Logano into the lead. He got the checkered flag about three-quarters of a second in front of Tyler Reddick.
“If someone’s going to be willing to do that to you, then the gloves are off,” Logano said after the race. “There’s something to be said for an angry race car driver.”
Byron brought his damaged car home 13th and he did have something to say: “He slammed me so hard, it knocked all the right side off the car and sent me into the corner. He’s just a moron. He can’t win a race, so he does it that way.”
Also having behavioral problems was to-time series champion Kyle Busch who had nowhere to go when another wreck took out former NASCAR champion, Brad Keselowski. He took his car to the pits but instead of driving it into the garage area, he climbed out and abandoned it. That forced NASCAR to close the pits to other drivers until Busch’s car could be hauled away.
Only 23 of the 36 starting cars were still on the track at the end. The 13 DNFs equaled the season high established at Talladega last month.
The show moves to the Kansas Speedway, just west of Kansas City last weekend.
(FORMULA 1)—The first Formula 1 Miami Grand Prix has gone to Max Verstappen, who is charging back through the points standings after a dismal start to the season. Verstappen started from the second row with Ferrari duo Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz, bolted around Sainz on the first turn then hunted down Leclerc on lap nine to take a lead he never surrendered.
Verstappen now has three wins and has cut Leclerc’s points lead to 19. Just two races ago he was 46 points behind.
The drivers are calling for improvements in the course. Some suggested the pavement need to be fixed, complaining driving in some areas was like driving on a wet track. The situation made passing difficult and led to some straight-line racing.
Grand Prix managing partner Tom Garfinkel promised organizers will take “a really hard look” at the situation “and make the track as good as we can.”
(INDCAR)—Three drivers are locked in a tight three-way points chase as INDYCAR heads to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for next weekend’s May race on the road course. Although Josef Newgarden has won twice, he’s only third in the points behind runnerup and Penske team member Scott McLaughlin and winless points leader Alex Palou. The three are separated by only nine points with the road course race next weekend and the Indianapolis 500 on the 29th.
(Photo credit: Bob Priddy)