Briscoe holds off Larson in Vegas NASCAR race
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LAS VEGAS -- Chase Briscoe held off a last-lap charge from points leader Kyle Larson to win the NASCAR Cup Series race on Sunday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Briscoe swept all three stages on the 1.5-mile track to earn the maximum 75 playoff points. Larson lost control on the final stretch, hit the wall and collided with Tyler Reddick, who slid into the infield but still recovered to finish third.
"I saw Kyle charging hard behind me on those final laps," Briscoe said. "He was pushing as hard as he possibly could on the high line, and I just tried to stick to my defensive marks, stay smooth, and protect the bottom. When you're driving for a guaranteed spot in the Championship 4, nobody is going to give an inch."
It was Briscoe's first career Cup Series victory in Las Vegas, where he led a race-high 175 laps. Briscoe also moved up to sixth in The Chase standings.
Denny Hamlin, who entered second in the playoff standings, finished 16th and was shut out of stage points. Hamlin is still second, but fell 40 points behind Larson.
"I know everyone looks at the points lead and talks about the buffer we have, but I don't view the gap like that at all," Larson said. "There are still a lot of points on the table, a lot of restarts left, and anything can happen down the stretch."
Briscoe drove back from third place to pass Austin Cindric late in the second stage for the win. Cindric finished second in the stage, followed by Christopher Bell in third.
Larson salvaged a stage point by finishing 10th, while Hamlin was shut out of stage points in 14th.
Briscoe won the opening stage ahead of Bell and Ryan Blaney. Briscoe elected not to pit for tires during a late green-flag pit cycle, holding off the field on the restart to secure the stage victory.
Hamlin led the first 39 laps and was running third when he spun three laps before the end of the stage. Although he avoided major damage and continued, the lack of a caution flag caused him to fall back to 28th at the stage break.
Hamlin set the fastest lap of the stage at 29.572 seconds on the third lap.
"We had the speed to run up front, we showed that on the pole run and early in Stage 1," Hamlin said. "But when you lose 25 spots, you spend half the race just working your way back to where you belong."
Larson, who started sixth, endured a 26-second green-flag pit stop while his pit crew made rear suspension adjustments. After dropping to 32nd place, he worked his way back to 24th by the end of the stage.
Though he briefly fell off the lead lap, Larson regained it on lap 45 when a caution flew for a Zane Smith spin.
Verstappen prevails
SEPANG, Malaysia -- Max Verstappen's long wait for another Formula 1 race win is finally over. The title race might be over, too.
Verstappen took his first victory of an often-frustrating year for the four-time champion at Formula 1's Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia on Sunday. A retirement for George Russell handed a huge title boost to Kimi Antonelli.
Verstappen was leading from Antonelli and Russell behind the safety car with five laps to go when Russell suddenly pulled over in his Mercedes.
The retirement allowed Antonelli to further stretch his lead over teammate Russell from 66 points to 84, with seven races remaining on the schedule, including those in Qatar and Abu Dhabi.
Mercedes told Antonelli over the radio it appeared Russell had suffered a power unit problem.
"You've almost got to laugh. I'm beyond disappointment," the British driver told Sky Sports.
Antonelli finished second and Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton passed Verstappen's Red Bull teammate Isack Hadjar for third.
Four-time champion Verstappen hadn't won since the final race of last season, but upgrades to his Red Bull car made him competitive again in Malaysia this week. That means Verstappen extends his run of winning at least once every year since he joined Red Bull in 2016. His only winless season was his 2015 rookie year.
"Very special for us. We had a very complicated and tough start to the year with all sorts of problems and just not being competitive enough," he said.
"But throughout the year, the team has been working very hard to understand our issues, bring good performance upgrades to the car and make it more drivable. Step by step, we've been getting closer and closer."
It was also the first win for Red Bull Ford Powertrains, the engine partnership between Red Bull and American auto giant Ford. The last time a car with a Ford-branded engine won an F1 race was in 2003 with the Jordan team.
Langdon first
MADISON, Ill. -- Shawn Langdon won the Top Fuel Division at the 15th annual NAPA Auto Parts NHRA Midwest Nationals at World Wide Technology Raceway. Other winners were Austin Prock (Funny Car), Aaron Stanfield (Pro Stock) and Gaige Herrera (Pro Stock Motorcycle).