The oddsmakers missed it by a mile last Sunday at Dover, as favorite Martin Truex faded from his pole position start and was never in contention.
Second pick Kyle Larson looked like a sure winner, taking both stages to set up a possible sweep. However teammate Alex Bowman had different ideas, taking the lead on the last restart and holding it to the end.
Bowman took his second win of the season, leading his Hendrick Racing teammates to a 1-2-3-4 finish, only the fourth time a team has accomplished that feat in NASCAR history.
And the NTT IndyCar series saw its third first-time winner and fifth different winner of the season at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course as Rinus Veekay beat pole sitter Romain Grosjean to the checker.
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This weekend is another busy one for race fans, with the Formula 1 Monaco Grand Prix, all three NASCAR touring series at the Circuit of the Americas (COTA) in Austin, Texas, and qualifying for the Indy 500.
Because it will be the first time for NASCAR at COTA, all three series will get practice and qualifying sessions. The Camping World Trucks and Xfinity series practiced Friday and will qualify and race Saturday. Trucks qualify at 6 a.m. Saturday on FS2 and race at 10 a.m. on FS1. Xfinity qualifying is at 8 a.m. and the race at 1 p.m., both on FS1. The NASCAR Cup series practice airs on FS2 at 7 a.m. Saturday with qualifying Sunday at 8 a.m. and the race at 11:30 a.m., both on FS1.
F1 qualifying took place at 6 a.m. Saturday with the race set for 6 a.m. Sunday, both on ESPN2. Unfortunately, Indy 500 qualifying is only airing on the Peacock pay channel. But they’re offering a seven-day free trial, so my advice is to subscribe today and cancel next week.
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The grids for the NASCAR COTA weekend will see more crossover than usual as well as a few road course ringers.
AJ Allmendinger and Austin Cindric will join the Cup regulars Sunday as will Rolex 24 LMP2 class winner Kyle Tilley and Ty Dillon in his third Cup start of the season. Cup regulars who are running Saturday’s Xfinity race to get tuned up for Sunday are Kevin Harvick, Kyle Busch, Tyler Reddick, Cole Custer, and Austin Dillon.
Joining them are road course ringers Spencer Pumpelly, Boris Said, Miguel Paludo, and Preston Pardus. Paul Menard is returning to NASCAR Competition with a Camping World Truck outing. And SCCA Trans-Am regular Michele Abbate will join Jennifer Jo Cobb and Hailie Deegan to make it three female drivers in the Truck race.
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I’m sure that simulators have been running 24/7 for the past week as drivers familiarize themselves with the challenging COTA course.
The track has 20 turns, elevation changes, and two long straights to contend with. The teams that get the setup right for both the high-speed and low speed corners, and the drivers who make the fewest mistakes, will come out on top.
Drivers to watch in the Cup race are Chase Elliott, Allmendinger, Kyle Larson, Cindric, with Daniel Suarez as my dark horse pick.
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There has been a bit of shuffling in the Formula 1 calendar due to COVID-19 travel restrictions.
The Turkish Grand Prix originally slated for June 13 has been canceled. That is now a bye weekend, with the French Grand Prix moving to June 20, a week earlier than originally scheduled.
To make up for the canceled race a second Austrian round has been added on June 27. This keeps the calendar at 23 races, the most ever in a Formula 1 season.
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