All posts by Motorsports Tribune

WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. – The battle to win a Mazda Scholarship valued at $1M to assist the Indy Lights Presented by Cooper Tires champion in graduating to the Verizon IndyCar Series in 2017 intensified this afternoon during a dramatic Mazda Indy Lights Grand Prix of Watkins Glen Presented by Cooper Tires. Zach Veach, from Stockdale, Ohio, started fifth at the scenic and challenging 3.37-mile Watkins Glen International road course but quickly moved into the lead before romping to his second win of the season and the fifth for Belardi AutoRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service The odds against Sunday’s Bojangles’ Southern 500 producing another first-time winner are relatively heavy. When all track activity was washed out on Friday, the starting field for the race was set according to owner points, and the top 10 starters in the field, from pole sitter Kevin Harvick through 10th-place Matt Kenseth, all have at least one NASCAR Sprint Cup Series victory this season. Why is that significant? Because in the last 14 races at Darlington, 10 of the winners have come from theRead More

Lewis Hamilton scored his seventh pole position of the 2016 and his fifth at the Italian GP with a dominant performance at Monza where he beat team-mate and title rival Nico Rosberg by almost half second. Sebastian Vettel qualified third for Ferrari ahead of team-mate Kimi Raikkonen. The first casualty of Q1 was Manor’s Esteban Ocon. With eight minutes gone in Q1, the Frenchman, who made his race debut at last weekend’s Belgian Grand Prix, suffered a technical problem that forced him to pull over at Turn 1. He exitedRead More

Lewis Hamilton beat Nico Rosberg to the top of the final practice timesheets in Monza, with the championship leader finishing almost four tenths of a second clear of his Mercedes team-mate. Rosberg was the first of the Mercedes pairing to show his hand in qualifying trim during the session, posting a time of 1:22.401 with 20 minutes left on the clock. His spell at the top of the order didn’t last long, however, as Hamilton was across the line moments later with a time of 1:22.008. It would remain theRead More

After being narrowly shaded by Nico Rosberg in the opening practice session for the Italian Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton upped the pace in the afternoon session to eclipse his Mercedes team-mate by just under 0.2s. While Mercedes dominated in FP1, finishing well ahead of Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen, the gap was closed by some margin in the afternoon as the team’s set their fastest times on supersoft-shod qualifying runs. Compared with their rivals Mercedes looked to be having a harder time getting the best out of this weekend’s softest compound andRead More

Nico Rosberg set the pace in the first practice session ahead of Sunday’s Italian Grand Prix, taking top spot with 0.2s in hand over championship rival Lewis Hamilton. The winner of last weekend’s Belgian Grand Prix, Rosberg continued his good form at high-speed Monza finishing over a second clear of his nearest non-works Mercedes rival, Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen. Ferrari are running an upgraded power unit for the team’s home race. Both Rosberg and Hamilton had been quickest on the supersoft tyre, but later in the session both men went quickerRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service JIMMIE JOHNSON ENCOURAGED DESPITE PIT ROAD SNAFU BROOKLYN, Mich. – Despite a pit road problem that ruined his winning chances, Jimmie Johnson was surprisingly chipper after his sixth-place run in Sunday’s Pure Michigan 400 at Michigan Speedway. Johnson led 37 laps, four fewer than race winner Kyle Larson, but the six-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion lost 10 seconds on pit road when his second can of fuel failed to engage properly with the intake during a green-flag stop from the lead on LapRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service BROOKLYN, Mich. – In the last few laps of Sunday’s Pure Michigan 400 at Michigan International Speedway, tears began to well up in Kyle Larson’s eyes. When Larson subsequently took the checkered flag to win the first NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race of his career, the emotion was all but overwhelming—and for good reason. The victory came in Larson’s 99th start in the series, long after most observers expected Larson to record his first win. It also broke a 99-race drought for Chip GanassiRead More

Nico Rosberg closed the points gap to title rival Lewis Hamilton with a comfortable Belgian Grand Prix win but the championship-leading Briton limited the damage with a sparkling drive from P21 to third and a podium finish behind Red Bull Racing’s Daniel Ricciardo. The race began in dramatic fashion. Rosberg made a good getaway from pole to take the lead but Max Verstappen making his first career front-row start began slowly from P2. He was passed by the fast-starting Ferraris of Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel, but Red Bull driverRead More

By Frank Rigas, NASCAR Wire Service ELKHART LAKE, Wis. – Michael McDowell’s Twitter handle is @Mc_Driver. After Saturday, he may want to consider changing it — to something like @Mc_Winner. McDowell led 24 of the final 25 laps of the NASCAR XFINITY Series Road America 180 Fired Up by Johnsonville for his first victory in 94 series races. The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series regular finished .534 seconds ahead of his Richard Childress Racing teammate Brendan Gaughan after two late restarts, including a green-while-checkered that pushed the race to 48 lapsRead More