Denny Hamlin gets kicked while he’s down, wins anyway
- Denny Hamlin won Sunday’s O’Reilly Auto Parts 500 on Sunday at Texas Motor Speedway, his second Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series victory of 2019 after winning the season-opening Daytona 500
- Hamlin was penalized for speeding on pit road (lap 64/334) and a tire violation by his pit crew (lap 173/334), and also managed to miss pit road while attempting to make a green flag stop, but still managed to make it back to the lead and hold on for the victory
- Clint Bowyer finished second, 2.743 seconds behind Hamlin, and led his first three laps of the season during a round of green flag stops
- Daniel Suarez finished third, earning his first top-five finish since joining Stewart-Haas Racing at the beginning of 2019
- Hamlin’s teammate Erik Jones ended the race in the fourth position, his second top five in seven races this year
- Jimmie Johnson finished in the fifth position, earning his first top five since the 2018 Coca-Cola 600 in May
- Johnson also led 60 laps in Sunday’s race, which is more than he led over the course of the entire 2018 season
- Hamlin’s Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Kyle Busch was denied a full weekend sweep after winning the NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series race on Friday and the XFINITY Series race on Saturday
- Busch was leading the race with less than 60 laps to go, but his car stepped out and he had to let off the throttle in order to regain control, costing him the lead and several more positions
- A few laps later, Busch smacked the outside wall and he had to come to pit road; he finished the race in 10th
- SHR driver Aric Almirola was competing with a stomach bug and wound up finishing seventh
- The race was slowed five times for 29 laps, including the stage breaks; Jones, Kyle Larson and Daniel Hemric were all involved in on-track incidents
- There were 27 lead changes amongst 13 drivers: Busch (66 laps led), Johnson (60), Hamlin (45), Ryan Blaney (45), Chase Elliott (35), Jones (30), William Byron (15), Martin Truex Jr. (10), Suarez (9), Joey Logano (8), Austin Dillon (5), Bowyer (3), Almirola (3)
Additional info: Full race results … Full race recap from AP via FoxNews.com … Full points standings with Playoff info
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Aaron Reutzel dominates final race of California Swing
- Aaron Reutzel was absolutely dominant in the World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series event at Perris Auto Speedway last Saturday night, winning everything there was to win, then leading all 30 laps en route to the victory in the Feature
- The win at Perris was Reutzel’s second career WoO victory
- Saturday night marked the final race of the series’ California swing
- Carson Macedo finished second followed by former NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series driver Rico Abreu in third
- Tim Shaffer and Cory Eliason rounded out the top five
- The next race for the World of Outlaws is on Friday, April 5, at USA Raceway in Tucson, Arizona
- Reutzel’s next event will be on May 10th and 11th at Eldora Speedway
Additional info: Story from SPEEDSport.com … World of Outlaws News Wire story via Autoweek.com … Full results
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Lewis Hamilton lucks into a win in Bahrain
- Lewis Hamilton earned the 74th Formula One victory of his career in the Bahrain Grand Prix on Sunday
- The 34-year-old driver partially lucked into a win, as Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc looked well on his way to earning his first career victory before running into trouble
- Leclerc’s engine began to falter with 10 laps remaining, allowing Hamilton to drive by for the lead
- 21-year-old Leclerc was only able to hold onto a third-place run because the safety car came out onto the track due to another incident
- Hamilton’s Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas finished in the second position
- Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and Sebastian Vettel rounded out the top five
- Bottas maintains the points lead by one point over Hamilton
Additional info: Story from APNews.com’s Jerome Pugmire … Story from TRTWorld.com … Full race results
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