By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor
(INDYCAR)—Josef Newgarden has won three times this year on the INDYCAR circuit and those three times have produced a million-dollar bonus.
Because he’s the first driver to win an oval race, a street race, and a road course race this year, he has turned a normal win into a big windfall for his team and for his favorite charity. PeopleReady, an employment services company, sponsors a car for Christian Lundgaard, another INDYCAR driver, offered the bonus to the first driver to win on all three types of courses on the circuit this year.
Half of the money goes to the Team Penske and the other half will be split between SeriousFun Children’s Network and Wags and Walks Nashville, a dog rescue nonprofit.
Newgarden finished about 3.4 seconds ahead of Marcus Ericsson, the Indianapolis 500 winner. Ericsson now has four straight top-seven finishes and has replaced Newgarden teammate Will Power atop the points list. Alexander Rossi, who started from the pole was third, his second podium finish this month and this third straight top-five finish.
Newgarden got the jump on the final re-start. He led 26 of the race’s 55 laps on the Road America course.
INDYCAR is off next week before running at Mid-Ohio on July 3.
(NASCAR)—In the entire 65-year history of NASCAR only five drivers born outside the United States have won a Cup race. Daniel Suarez finally put it all together to get his first Cup win after 195 starts, pulling away from Chris Buescher to win on the road could win on the road course at Sonoma.
Suarez, native of Mexico, led 47 of the 110 laps and beat Buescher to the stripe by almost four seconds to become the first Mexican driver to win at NASCAR’s highest level. He led the last 26 laps. Michael McDowell got the third podium position with Kevin Harvick, Austin Cindric, Ryan Blaney, Clay Chastain, Chase Elliott, William Byron and Brad Keselowski rounding out the top ten.
Defending series champion Kyle Larson, who started from the pole, finished 15th after losing a wheel late in the race.
It has been almost a decade since the last victory in the Cup series by a foreign-born driver—Australia’s Marcus Ambrose’s victory at Watkins Glen in August, 2012. It was his second win in NASCAR’s top series. He also won at The Glen a year earlier. Colombia’s Juan Pablo Montoya also was a two-time winner—Watkins Glen in 2010 and at Sonoma in 2007.
Italian Mario Andretti won the Daytona 500 in 1967 and Canadian Earl Ross won at Martinsville in 1974.
Suarez is the fourth first-time winner this year and the 12th different winner in this season. His win increases the pressure on drivers who are 17th and lower in the points. Only the top sixteen winners and non-winners with enough points will qualify for the playoffs after 26 races. Sonoma was the 16th points race of 2022.
The four non-winners still within the top sixteen are Ryan Blaney, Martin Truex Jr., Christopher Bell, and Aric Almirola. Kevin Harvick is barely out of the top 16 with Tyler Reddick and Austin Dillon next.
One other note: Teammates Chase Elliott and Kyle Larson combined to lead 52 laps, enough to give Hendrick-backed cars more than 100,000 miles led in NASCAR races, the first time in NASCAR’s 75-year history a team has reached that figure.
NASCAR is off next weekend, returning on the 26th at Nashville.
(FORMULA 1)—Defending F1 champion Max Verstappen won the Azerbaijan Grand Prix with teammate Sergio Perez following him across the finish line but two issues competed with the Red Bull team for attention in and after the race.
Red Bull’s closest competitor this year, Ferrari, again had reliability issues with number two driver Carlos Sainz pulling out of the race on the ninth lap with hydraulic failure and the lead driver, Charles Leclerc, sideline by an engine failure eleven laps later.
And Mercedes continues to struggle with the “porpoising” problems that have besieged Lewis Hamilton and George Russell all season long. Russell salvaged a third place and Hamilton finished fourth but both complained that their cars started bouncing at high speeds. Mercedes has tried to solve the problem of cars bouncing at high speed all season long but still have had no success.
Hamilton complained of bouncing so severe that he was suffering severe back pains on the rough track during the race, which he called “the worst race ever, probably the most painful race I have experienced and the toughest battle with the car I have ever experienced as well.”
(Photo credit: Bob Priddy, Indianapolis 2021)