Win drives Harvick into Chase’s third round

Associated Press

CONCORD, N.C.

Kevin Harvick earned an automatic berth into the third round of NASCAR’s championship race by winning Saturday night at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

Harvick had the strongest car for most of the race — as he does almost every week, only to have some sort of problem keep him out of Victory Lane.

It almost happened again Saturday night as a caution with seven laps to go forced Harvick to win it in a two-lap sprint to the finish.

The win was his first since Darlington in April and came on a night Dale Earnhardt Jr. suffered a serious blow to his championship hopes.

The shifter broke in the Chevrolet of NASCAR’s most popular driver and he’s last in the 12-driver Chase field headed into next Sunday’s elimination race at Talladega.

Toyota unveils 2015 Camry for NASCAR competition

CONCORD, N.C.

Toyota unveiled a remodeled Camry it will race next season, and the street version was the designated pace car for the Sprint Cup race at Charlotte Motor Speedway on Saturday night.

Toyota is the first manufacturer to move to an updated version of its race car. It closely resembles the 2015 Camry consumers can purchase. Chevrolet, Ford and Toyota in 2013 all unveiled race cars that resembled the showroom vehicles.

The boldest change to the NASCAR version of the 2015 Camry is an aggressive front end and grill area, which looks exactly like its production counterpart. The new Camry also boasts an all new, sleek hood and nose, along with a new tail of the car. A distinct change in the quarter windows also adds to the sleeker look.

“Definitely the 2015 Camry race car has benefited from a cosmetic standpoint from the stance that the 2015 production Camry is perfect — the front end, the aggressive, wide-mouth look is just perfect for this race car,” said Andy Graves, vice president of chassis engineering & Toyota NASCAR program manager.

More F1 disappointment for Red Bull in Sochi

SOCHI, Russia

Sebastian Vettel’s last season with Red Bull failed to improve Saturday, with the four-time defending F1 champion enduring another poor qualifying session at the inaugural Russian Grand Prix.

Vettel failed to make it into the final of the three qualifying sessions but will start 10th because of another driver’s penalty.

The German has announced that he is leaving Red Bull at the end of the season. He has not said which team he will join, but all speculation has pointed to Ferrari.

Vettel says he “wasn’t comfortable in the car today. It was very difficult.”

Teammate Daniel Ricciardo, who has had a more successful season, will start sixth, also benefiting from the five-place penalty for Kevin Magnussen of McLaren.