Diez: With Olympics everywhere, sportscars grab the spotlight

Despite NBC’s wall-to-wall Olympics coverage, Peacock managed to squeeze in a race last Sunday, as the IMSA Weathertech Sportscar Championship ran at Road America in front of a record crowd. With both NASCAR and IndyCar dark, Roger Penske himself was in attendance to watch his two-car team of Porsche 963 GTP cars finish 1-2. Mathieu Jaminet in the No. 6 car held off teammate Felipe Nasr’s No. 7 in the closing laps for the win, with the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Acura ARX-6 and the No. 31 Whelen Cadillac Racing Cadillac V-Series R in close pursuit. The top four cars all took the checker within less than a second-and-a-half after two hours and 40 minutes of racing. The race, a sprint in IMSA terms, was characterized by aggressive driving and frequent body contact among all four classes. The United Autosports USA Oreca took the LMP2 class victory, with the Ferrari 296 GT3 of Conquest Racing winning GTD Pro category and the GTD win going to the Turner Motorsport BMW M4 GT3. Forty of the 47 starters were classified as running at the finish.

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This weekend, only the NASCAR Craftsman Trucks and NASCAR Cup are back in action, racing at Richmond Raceway. Kyle Busch, winless on the season, has the most Richmond wins of any active driver with six. Denny Hamlin has four, and Martin Truex Jr. three. Kyle Larson, Brad Keselowski, and Joey Logano have scored two Richmond victories apiece with Chris Buescher and Alex Bowman each winning once. Truex and his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate are favored in the opening odds at 9-2 with Larson close behind at 6-1. Logano is at 11-1 with Hendrick teammates William Byron and Chase Elliott tied with Penske’s Ryan Blaney at 12-1. Keselowski is 14-1, Buescher 16-1, and Tyler Reddick 18-1. Ty Gibbs is tied with Alex Bowman at 22-1 while Busch, Ross Chastain, and Josh Berry share 25-1 odds. The Craftsman Truck series qualifies Saturday at noon and races at 4:30 p.m., both broadcast on Fox. Today’s practice and qualifying for NASCAR Cup is only on the NBC Sports App with the race airing Sunday at 3 p.m. on USA. 

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With four races left in the regular season there are 12 drivers locked in with wins and four playoff spots still up for grabs. Going into Richmond, Chastain is seven points above the cutoff line with Bubba Wallace seven below. Buescher is 17 points above, Gibbs plus-42, and Truex pretty safe at 108 points to the good. However, Busch is in a must-win scenario 112 points below the cut line with Chase Briscoe not much better off at minus-83. But a new winner in each of the four remaining races could completely upend the playoff picture.

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Finally, here’s the NASCAR silly season update.

• Front Row Motorsports is expanding to a three-car team with Noah Gragson joining.

• Michael McDowell is moving from Front Row to Spire Motorsports. Cory LaJoie parting ways with Spire.

• Cole Custer is moving up from the Xfinity series to drive for the Haas Factory Team

• Josh Berry is taking over the Wood Brothers No. 21 Ford, replacing Harrison Burton.

• Chase Briscoe will take over the No. 19 Gibbs Racing Toyota from the retiring Martin Truex Jr.

There will undoubtedly be more to come later on.