NASCAR Cup Series: The DOMINATOR, Kyle Larson, won his third race in a row for the second time this year, winning yesterday at Kansas Speedway!! This ties him with the only other guy to do that, Dale Earnhardt, Sr.!!
The cars seemed to have had a problem with the crosswinds as several, nay MANY, cars spanked the wall HARD. I guess we will now have a ‘Kansas Stripe’ similar to the infamous ‘Darlington Stripe,’
Kyle finished ahead of teammate Chase Elliott – who bounced off the wall with about four laps to go – but kept going. Kevin Harvick finished third.
Larson leads the points by almost two full races with a74 point bulge over Chase Elliott and 76 over Denny Hamlin. Kyle Busch hit the wall hard on lap 23 but still holds down the fourth spot (106 points out of the lead) with Ryan Blaney fifth 1 point back of that last spot, Martin Truex (who also hit the wall but finished 7th) is sixth, three points out, Brad Keselowski is seventh, six points out and Joey Logano is eighth, 26 points out.
Their next race is Sunday at Martinsville Speedway at 2 P.M. This will be the last race for the Round of Eight so there will be a lot of fighting for those coveted four spots; really just a battle for the fourth and final spot.
The Cup season ends at Phoenix on November 7 where the highest finishing driver in the ‘Final Four’ will be declared the season champion. I’m betting on the #5 car!!
NASCAR XFINITY SERIES: Austin Cindric started from the outside pole and dominated the race at Kansas Speedway leading three quarters of the race. BUT Ty Gibbs, grandson of team owner Joe Gibbs, pulled the gun out of the holster with about 15 to go and beat Austin to the flag by just under a second.
A.J. Allmendinger finished third after starting fifth. Canadian Alex Labbé started 21st but finished 33rd. Cindric and Allmendinger are tied for the lead in the playoff points with Justin Allgaier third 38 points out. They race this Saturday at Martinsville Speedway at 6 P.M.
NASCAR CAMPING WORLD TRUCKS: The trucks head to the tight bullring at Martinsville Speedway this Saturday at 1 P.M.
NHRA: The series heads to The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway this weekend. This will allow them to attend the SEMA Show November 2nd to 5th. That’s only four days and, trust me, that’s NOT enough time to see ALL the good stuff at that show.
FORMULA ONE: 400,000 fans over three days? Wow. At the amazing Circuit of the Americas (COTA) in Austin, Texas. Unbelievable! Any doubt about the popularity of Formula One in the U.S. has been clearly answered.
Max Verstappen started from the pole but Hamilton beat him into Corner One with Max dropping back to third before quickly getting back to second. The two points leaders traded the lead several times (in the pits, NOT on the track!) with Max prevailing at the checker flag over Lewis.
Sergio Perez finished third in the second Red Bull car. That is exactly how the three had qualified. Canadian Lance Stroll qualified 16th and finished 12th. Our other Canadian F1 driver Nicholas Latifi started 17th and finished 15th.
Max now leads Lewis by 12 points and Valtteri Bottas by 102.5 points. Mercedes leads the Manufacturer’s Championship by 23 over Red Bull. Their next race is in Mexico on the November 7 weekend.
IMSA: Their next race, where the GT cars will reunite with the prototypes, will be at the Petit LeMans at Road Atlanta on November 13th.
Did You Know?
– The smile on the face of Daniel Ricciardo after taking laps in the 1984 Dale Earnhardt Senior Monte Carlo owned by his boss Zak Brown was VERY wide, both while driving and when he got out of the car. Max Verstappen actually took a picture of Daniel on track and messaged him with the photo. Daniel just picked up a BUNCH of new fans, most from the NASCAR crowd!!
– Indianapolis Motor Speedway hosted a ‘driver-less’ remote control electric car RACE last Saturday. Car & Driver’s story is very enlightening. Click on THIS LINK to see it.
The winner of the race AND the one-million-dollar prize was the Technical University of Munich (TUM) auf Deutschland. They averaged 135 mph (218 km/h) over the six laps.
The fastest car from Euroracing, Italy actually lost the race due to a ‘coding error’ as a student had entered only five laps instead of six. A new way to lose a race? Ouch.
In actuality, it was not a race but rather a timed event due to the concerns about the cost of the cars. Apparently the Dallara cars (quite similar to Formula One cars) they use are worth a quarter million dollars each before all the high-tech additions (cameras, sensors, two GPS units and even radar) are added bringing their value to more than one million dollars per!! They are hoping to get them racing side-by-side in the very near future. A future that appears to be very near indeed.
– Delaware Speedway is in the process of making some major upgrades to the facility, including adding a new racing surface! You can check them out on the track’s Facebook page HERE.
Until next week!!
