Roger Diez: Front-runners extend leads

Roger Diez

Roger Diez

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Last weekend the championship leaders in both NASCAR Cup and Formula 1 extended their lead in the title fight. Kyle Larson won his second race in the round of eight, third in a row, and ninth on the season at Kansas. And Red Bull’s Max Verstappen bested rival Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes to extend his points lead to 12.
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Kansas was not kind to three playoff contenders for the NASCAR Cup championship. Martin Truex Jr., Ryan Blaney, and Kyle Busch, all of whom had encounters with the wall. Blaney fared the worst, finishing 37th, and Busch was 28th. Truex managed to recover for a 7th-place finish. Larson’s win ensured that at least two drivers will advance to the championship round at Phoenix on points, which makes for a must-win situation for Joey Logano who is 26 points below the cut line. Blaney at one point below the line, Truex at minus 3, and Brad Keselowski at 6 under all have a realistic shot at advancing on points. Kyle Busch at plus one is the most vulnerable of the drivers currently in on points. But it’s short-track racing at Martinsville this weekend, so anything can happen.
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Truex has been on a tear at Martinsville recently, winning three of the last four races there including this past April. Chase Elliott won last fall, Keselowski in 2019, and Joey Logano in 2018. Denny Hamlin has the most Martinsville wins of the eight remaining playoff drivers with five, but the most recent was in 2015. Larson has never won at Martinsville, but he’s on the pole for tomorrow’s race and carrying lots of momentum. But for once, Larson isn’t the favorite of the oddsmakers. That honor goes to Truex, whose recent record vaults him to the top at 4-1 odds. Hamlin is at 6-1, Chase Elliott 13-2, and Larson tied for fourth with Blaney at 7-1. Keselowski and Logano are both at 8-1 odds with Kyle Busch at 9-1 the last of the playoff contenders. The Cup race airs Sunday at 11 a.m. on NBC with Camping World Trucks at 10 a.m. today on FS1 followed by the Xfinity race on NBCSN at 3 p.m.
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Last Sunday’s Formula 1 race at the Circuit of the Americas might have been in Austin, Texas but the hoopla surrounding it was worthy of Las Vegas. The event was rife with celebrities including Shaquille O’Neal who presented the winner’s trophy after dismounting from a longhorn-adorned art car worthy of Burning Man. Despite all that, the race was a nail-biter down to the last lap as Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton chased down Red Bull driver Max Verstappen. Hamilton had fresher tires due to a brilliant strategy call by the Mercedes team, but he was unable to close on the flying Dutchman and Verstappen took the win. Hamilton got the extra point for fastest lap with limited the damage somewhat, but Verstappen is now 12 points ahead in the drivers’ championship battle. The series is idle this weekend, but next weekend’s Mexican Grand Prix will be followed by races in Brazil and Qatar, three consecutive weekends of racing.
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NASCAR tested the Next Gen car last week at Bowman Gray Stadium in Winston-Salem North Carolina with retired drivers Dale Earnhardt Jr., Tony Stewart, and Clint Bowyer at the wheel. The test was to simulate how the new car will handle at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum when the Clash runs there next February 6. Earnhardt pronounced the Next Gen superior to the current car in braking, grip, drive off the corners, and in general. He and Bowyer did about 50 laps each while Stewart, working for Goodyear, turned around 400 laps.