Daniel Suarez won his first NASCAR Cup Series race on Sunday afternoon at Sonoma Raceway and in the process the Monterey, Mexico native became the fifth driver not born in the United States to win a Cup Series race.
“I have so many thoughts in my head right now,” an emotional Suárez said, thanking his team owner Justin Marks, his family, and “all the people who helped me get to this point.”
Suarez cruised to victory at the 11-turn road course, nearly four seconds ahead of runner up Chris Buescher, and led 47 of 110 laps. It’s the third Cup Series race victory this season for the second year Trackhouse Racing team. It took 195 races for Daniel Suarez to get his first Cup Series win after bouncing around the last few seasons with three different racing teams.
“So very happy we were able to make it work,” Suárez added, saying of his team, “They believed in me from day one.”
Buescher finished second, followed by Michael McDowell, Kevin Harvick and Austin Cindric. After 16 races Chase Elliott sits atop the season standings with Ross Chastain, Kyle Busch, Ryan Blaney and Joey Logano rounding out the Top 5.
Toyota Gazoo Racing won its fifth straight 24 of Le Mans. The No. 8 Toyota GR010 hybrid was driven by Sebastian Buemi, Brendon Hartley, and Ryo Hirakawa in the Hypercar class, and finished ahead of their No. 7 sister car. Buemi now has four 24 of Le Mans victories, while Hartley earned his third career win and Hirakawa got his first victory at the iconic endurance race.
Jota won the LMP2 class with Roberto Gonzalez, Antonio Felix Costa and Williams Stevens driving the No. 38. In the LM GTE Pro class the Porsche GT Team finished ahead of AF Corse by 42.684 seconds and TF Sport won the LM GTE Am division. Actor Michael Fassbender and the Proton Competition squad ended up 16th in the LM GTE class.
At the Azerbaijan Grand Prix Red Bull F1 continued their recent run of dominance with a one-two finish.
Max Verstappen captured his fifth win of the season after finishing 20.823 seconds of his teammate Sergio Perez at Baku. It was Verstappen’s fourth win in the last five races, and Red Bull’s fifth straight race victory.
Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc started on the pole but lost the lead in the first lap. On lap 19 Leclerc got the lead back from Verstappen, when the Red Bull F1 driver pitted. But one lap later Leclerc was forced to retire with mechanical issues.
“Today we had incredible pace in the car, we could really look after the tyres and we could chip away for the lead,” said Verstappen. “Checo did a good job at the start getting ahead of Charles, I got blocked in and couldn’t go anywhere. Once I was on the hard tyres and in the lead and I could just manage it and could control the gap.”
Mercedes’ George Russell finished third with Lewis Hamilton and Pierre Gasly rounding out the Top 5. Currently, Verstappen leads the driver standings, followed by Perez, Charles Leclerc, Russell, and Carlos Sainz.
Red Bull F1 has an 80-point lead over Ferrari in the constructor standings, followed by Mercedes, McLaren and Alpine.
Josef Newgarden won the IndyCar Grand Prix at Road America for his third win this season and earned $1,000,000. Half of the prize money, $500,000, is being donated to a pair of charities chosen by Newgarden; SeriousFun Children’s Network and Wags and Walks Nashville. The remaining $500,000 is going to Team Penske and Newgarden.
“To finally get it done and most importantly to give that money to charity, half of that money is going to charity with SeriousFun Network and Wags and Walks Nashville,” Newgarden said. “I hope they’re happy about it. That’s a lot of money coming their way.”
Newgarden led 26 laps, and finished the race 3.371 seconds ahead of Marcus Ericsson with Alexander Rossi, Romain Grosjean, and Colton Herta completing the Top 5.
