INDYCAR
INDYCAR
Power captures pole for race at Mid-Ohio
LEXINGTON
Will Power won his fifth pole of the season and fellow Team Penske driver Josef Newgarden qualified second for Sunday’s Honda Indy 200 at the Mid-Ohio Sport Car Course.
Power won the Fast 6 qualifier Saturday with a lap of 126.672 mph compared to 126.407 for Newgarden as Chevrolet took the top two spots.
For Power, it was his third pole at Mid-Ohio and the 49th of his career to tie Bobby Unser for fourth all-time among IndyCar drivers.
Team Penske earned both of the spots on the front row for the fifth time in 13 races this season.
Takuma Sato of Andretti Autosport drove his Honda to the third position. Local favorite Graham Rahal (Honda) of Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing was fourth.
NASCAR XFINITY
Preece wins race at Iowa Speedway
NEWTON, Iowa
Ryan Preece survived a green-white-checkered finish to win the NASCAR Xfinity race Saturday at Iowa Speedway for his first career victory.
The 26-year-old Preece, running the second of a two-race deal in the No. 20 Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing, held off Kyle Benjamin on three restarts in the final 17 laps. Preece started from the pole.
Benjamin was second, followed by Brian Scott, Brennan Poole and rookie Cole Custer.
William Byron, who began a streak of three wins in five races at Iowa last month, finished ninth.
Justin Allgaier was 20th after leading 106 laps.
NASCAR TRUCK SERIES
Bell takes late lead and wins at Pocono
LONG POND, Pa.
Christopher Bell grabbed a late lead and held on to win the Truck Series race Saturday at Pocono Raceway.
Bell passed John Hunter Nemechek and held off Ben Rhodes over the final two laps to win for the fourth time this season. Bell crashed out of one race but hasn’t otherwise finished worse than ninth in 12 races this season.
Rhodes was second, followed by Ryan Truex, Nemechek and Johnny Sauter.
The 22-year-old Bell leads the series in wins, poles, playoff points, laps led and top-10 finishes in the No. 4 Toyota for Kyle Busch Motorsports.
Busch led most of the race until he made contact with Justin Haley and spun into the outside wall. Haley blamed himself for the wreck.
FORMULA ONE
Vettel on pole for Hungarian GP
BUDAPEST, Hungary
Ferrari got a huge boost as Sebastian Vettel took pole position for the Hungarian Grand Prix with a blisteringly fast lap, while teammate Kimi Raikkonen was second on Saturday.
“Yes, pole position, numero uno,” his Ferrari team shouted over race radio as the German driver clinched the 48th career pole of his career.
The four-time F1 champion clocked a best lap of 1 minute, 16.276 seconds, while Raikkonen was .168 behind in front of large contingent of flag-waving Finnish fans.
Vettel stood on top of his Ferrari and waved to the crowd. The championship leader had extra reason to be happy, with both Mercedes cars trailing behind him.
Valtteri Bottas was third, .254 behind, while Lewis Hamilton could only manage fourth, .431 behind as the British driver missed out on equaling Michael Schumacher’s all-time pole record of 68.
Vettel leads Hamilton by just one point after 10 races. Hamilton won the British GP two weeks ago, while Vettel could manage only seventh. This time, it appears that Mercedes is on the back foot.
Associated Press