Roger Diez: IndyCar ‘title race’ ends early

The NTT IndyCar series wrapped its 2024 season Sunday at the Nashville Superspeedway. Coming in, only two drivers had a chance at the championship. Sadly, an equipment malfunction ended the title fight early in the race. Will Power’s lap belt came undone, and he lost four laps getting it refastened. With Power out of contention, Alex Palou became a back-to-back champion with his third championship in four years.

Colton Herta took the race win, vaulting him to second in the championship standings. Scott McLaughlin is third in the final point standings, Power fourth, and Pato O’Ward fifth.

The season was remarkable for the switch to hybrid power mid-season, a system that seems to still have a few bugs to work out in 2025.

•••

Formula 1 raced on the streets of Baku in Azerbaijan last weekend. Charles Leclerc, coming off a Monza win, put his Ferrari on the pole. But McLaren’s Oscar Piastri was in front, 10.91 seconds clear of Leclerc under a virtual safety car at the checker. Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz and Red Bull driver Sergio Perez crashed on the next to last lap while battling for third, elevating Mercedes’ George Russell onto the final podium spot.

With Perez’ crash and Verstappen’s fifth place finish, Red Bull ceded the constructors’ point lead to McLaren, 476 to 456 with Ferrari third at 425. Due to his early season success Verstappen still holds the point lead in the drivers’ championship, 313 to 254 for Lando Norris.

This weekend F1 is in Singapore for a night race. Lewis Hamilton leads active drivers with four wins there, Fernando Alonso has two, and the most recent winners are Perez and Sainz. Verstappen has never won in Singapore.

Qualifying airs Saturday morning at 6 a.m. on ESPN2 with the race at 5 a.m. Sunday on ESPN.

•••

NASCAR usually puts on a good show at Watkins Glen, and this year was no exception.

On Saturday 18-year-old Connor Zilisch got his first start in the Xfinity series driving a JR Motorsports Camaro and held off perennial second-place finisher Sheldon Creed for the win. Despite his youth, Zilisch is a veteran racer with experience in IMSA, Trans-Am, ARCA, and Craftsman Trucks. He’s one to watch, perhaps NASCAR’s next big phenom.

In Sunday’s NASCAR Cup race non-playoff drivers dominated as Ross Chastain led from the pole in close company with Shane Van Gisbergen (SVG) and Michael McDowell. There were wrecks from the first lap to the overtime finish with Ryan Blaney out on lap one and Denny Hamlin surviving the Damaged Vehicle Policy timer to finish 23rd. Chris Buescher and SVG had a wild finish, swapping paint a few times in the overtime laps with Buescher in front at the checker.

With no playoff driver advancing to the Round of 12 with a victory, the point standings take on a high importance. Drivers in danger of elimination next weekend are Hamlin and Brad Keselowski, six and 12 points below cutoff line respectively. Martin Truex Jr. is minus 14, and Harrison Burton 20 points in arrears. Ty Gibbs and Chase Briscoe are both six points to the good with William Byron +25 and Kyle Larson +26. Christopher Bell, Austin Cindric, and Alex Bowman are all more than 40 points plus and should be safe.

Hamlin’s best chance to bounce back is this weekend at Bristol where he has four wins including the last two races there. Among playoff drivers, Keselowski has two Bristol wins, Logano two, and Larson 1. Buescher won there in 2022 and Kyle Busch has seven victories, most recently in 2019.

The USA network airs the Bass Pro Shops Night Race for the Cup series Saturday at 4:30 p.m.