AUTO RACING roundup

IndyCar

Dixon wins first pole of season, Helio second

toronto

Scott Dixon used a fast final lap to snatch the pole away from Helio Castroneves at the buzzer in qualifying Saturday for Indy Toronto.

Dixon turned a lap of 59.9073 seconds to win the pole for the race Sunday. It was his 24th career pole and first since Mid-Ohio last year. Castroneves wound up second with a lap of 59.9425 on the temporary street course at Exhibition Place.

“Whenever you can start on the pole, especially on the street courses, it’s a big help,” said Dixon, who squeezed in his final lap.

“I was just trying to get the most out of it, man. Each lap just kept getting a bit better. It’s not what we planned on, we just planned to do three laps. We luckily had a little bit more gas in the car to do a fourth. Worked out nicely for a change.”

The pole moved Dixon ahead of Johnny Rutherford for 12th on the career poles list. Dixon is one pole victory behind Toronto native Paul Tracy.

Castroneves thought he had the pole until Dixon’s final lap flier.

“What can I say?” he asked before praising Dixon and his Chip Ganassi Racing team. “Ganassi is not a rookie team. They’re champions. They know what they’re doing. Good job by Scott.”

IndyCar Series points leader Simon Pagenaud qualified third and Will Power was fourth as Team Penske took the three spots behind Dixon.

Sebastien Bourdais qualified fifth while Toronto native James Hinchcliffe was sixth to earn his best career start in his home race.

“It’s really tough to win races from outside the top 10 in this series, especially at a track like this,” Hinchcliffe said. “There’s good opportunities for some passes here. The guys in front of us have pretty solid pace, we’re going to have to find a little bit in ourselves over the course of the evening and warmup. (But) definitely we’re in as good a position here this weekend as we’ve ever been here.”

Hinchcliffe was the highest qualifying Honda driver as Chevrolet teams took the top five spots.

NASCAR

Busch crushes field for Xfinity victory

Loudon, n.h.

Kyle Busch had an expected result in his unexpected NASCAR start.

Busch led all but a handful of laps and simply dominated in his latest Xfinity Series victory Saturday at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.

Busch raced to his sixth Xfinity victory of the season and record-extending 82nd of his career.

The 2015 Sprint Cup champion also won the last race at Kentucky Speedway and his six wins have come in just 10 races.

Busch has 164 career wins across all three of NASCAR’s national series, and is 36 wins shy of matching Richard Petty’s total of 200. Petty, of course, won all 200 in the Cup series to go with seven championships and a spot in the Hall of Fame.

Busch topped the 17,000 laps-led mark in his career and was never seriously challenged, pulling away off every restart and he eventually took his traditional victory bow.

“I guess they’re big numbers,” Busch said. “Running in this series is something fun for me to do, cool for me to do and it also helps me out and gets me a little more experience.”

Busch was not scheduled to drive this season at New Hampshire in the No. 18 Toyota. But he was pulled into duty when Joe Gibbs Racing developmental driver Matt Tifft was forced out following surgery last month to have a tumor removed.

“He’s going through some rehab right now, so can’t wait to see him come back,” Busch said.

Erik Jones was second, followed by Brad Keselowski, Daniel Suarez and Austin Dillon. Jones, who clinched a spot in Xfinity’s version of the Chase, said he bought a car with the $100,000 earned in the series’ “Dash 4 Cash” promotion for winning at Dover.

Associated Press