(NASCAR)—Denny Hamlin’s weekend win at Pocono was historic and so was Kyle Busch’s second-place finish. Historically bad, that is. Or potentially historically bad.
As this is written, Hamlin and Busch join a part of NASCAR history that includes Joe Weatherly, Jim Reed, and Emanuel Zervakis and dates back to 1955.
The cars of Hamlin and Busch failed post-race inspections, causing NASCAR to disqualify them and give third-place finisher Chase Elliott his fourth win of the season. NASCAR says their cars had some improper material on the front fascia that affected the aerodynamics of their cars. Both cars were taken to the NASCAR tech center for additional examination.
The last time a victory was taken away from a NASCAR winner was the spring of 1960 when the car of Emanuel Zervakis had a gas tank that was too big. The last time the top two finishers were disqualified was 1955 when Joe Weatherly and Jim Reed finished 1-2 but were disqualified, Weatherly for an illegal camshaft and reed for illegal valves. The win was given to Herb Thomas, who finished third.
Elliott thus joins Thomas in the history books as a third-place race winner and appears to be the first driver to win a NASCAR race without leading a lap.
Hamlin and Busch both drive for Joe Gibbs Racing.
NASCAR races on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course next Sunday as part of the NACAR/INDYCAR doubleheader weekend.
(INDYCAR)—Josef Newgarden’s status for next Saturday’s road course race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway is unknown as this is written. He was taken to a hospital in Des Moines Sunday evening after collapsing in the motorhome parking lot at the Iowa Speedway. Newgarden, who won Saturday’s race, dominated the race on Sunday until a broken suspension sent his car hard into the wall. He cleared all tests at the infield care center but was taken by helicopter to De Moines after he fell in the parking lot and suffered a cut to the back of his head.
Team Penske later said all scans at the hospital were negative and Newgarden would be released Monday morning.
INDYCAR medical personnel will re-evaluate him in Indianapolis on Thursday to determine if he can race next weekend.
Newgarden led 208 of the 250-lap race on Saturday, finishing six seconds in front of Pato O’Ward. He led 148 of the first 235 laps on Sunday before crashing. O’Ward won the race over Will Power.
Former NASCAR champion Jimmie Johnson had the best finish of his two-year INDYCAR career. He came home fifth in the Sunday race.
(FORMULA 1)—Max Verstappen picked up his seventh win of the year, thanks somewhat to Ferrari driver Charles LeClerc’s crash while leading. Lewis Hamilton finished second in his Mercedes, followed by teammate George Russell.
(SRX)—Marco Andretti at last has won another championship. Andretti, whose father and grandfather had won INDYCAR titles in their careers (and grandfather Mario won the 1969 Indianapolis 500), won the title in this summer’s Superstar Racing Experience—-and did it with a broken wrist.
His last championship was the Skip Barber Racing School championship in 2004, when he was 17 and learning to compete in big-time racing..
Andretti and former NASCAR Cup driver Ryan Newman went into the race leading the six-race series in points. They started the final race in mid-pack, collided on a restart but Newman wasn’t able to finish far enough ahead of Andretti to take the championship. Newman finished 8th and Andretti 9th.
Andretti said after the race he had broken his wrist when he got his thumb caught in the steering wheel during a collision. But he said it was painful for just “a couple of laps.”
The last race of the year was won by Chase Elliott, who became the first driver other than series co-founder Tony Stewart to win an SRX race on dirt. The final race was held at the Sharon Speedway in Hartford, Ohio.
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