Motorsports News - May 13, 2021

Motorsports News by David Vodden

Silver Dollar Speedway in Chico was once again the site of good circle-track, winged sprint car racing. Tanner Carrick won the Saturday night main event over Sean Becker and his brother Blake Carrick. The show was Blake who had to start in the “C” main event and then transfer to the “B” main event which he won. This put him in twenty-first position at the start of the main event where he advanced to third. It was an amazing run. Carrick Tanner’s main event win was his third in a row. Blake Carrick passed thirty-five cars in the three feature events to get on the podium. This show resumes Sunday night, May 30th on the quarter-mile dirt oval.

Martin Truex led a boring 293 laps to win at Darlington Speedway on Sunday. He also won both stages on the way and generally stunk up the show unless he is your favorite driver. What looked like a total romp got a bit dicey toward the end when Kyle Larsen came from fourteenth starting spot to challenge the Joe Gibbs Toyota of Truex. While it was close and looked possible, it did not happen. Apparent tire degradation caused the Elk Grove California driver to fade a bit in the final circuits and finish second. Truex remains the only NASCAR Cup driver to score more than one feature win this year and actually has three wins now. The CUP series stats show that there have been ten different winners after twelve races so far. There are fourteen more to go before the sixteen playoff contenders are decided. With Kevin Harvick, Denny Hamlin, and Chase Elliott not having won yet this year, the big question remains, “Will there be sixteen different winners before the playoff begin?” Stay tuned. Following Larsen across the line on the track too tough to tame, were Kyle Busch, William Byron, and Hamlin. Hamlin leads the series points by 75 over Truex. William Byron is third, Joey Logano fourth and Ryan Blaney fifth.  The CUP cars race at Dover International Speedway this weekend on Sunday with the Xfinity series as a warm-up show on Saturday.

The Camping World Trucks ran at Darlington on Friday night with Sheldon Creed, last years truck champion, scoring his first win of the season. He beat Ben Rhodes, Carson Hocevar, Matt Crafton and Grant Enfinger to the finish line.  A massive lap 117 pile-up damaged the hopes of John Hunter Nemechek and Corey Heim, both racing for Kyle Busch Motorsports. They were leading on a restart when they spun their tires and were rammed into from behind. Seventeen of the thirty-three trucks still running at the time were involved. It was a good crash and suggested that the Xfinity and Cup races to follow, might see similar incidents. They did not. Nemechek leads the truck points with Rhodes second followed by Creed, Austin Hill and Crafton.

 Justin Allgaier won the Xfinity race at Darlington on Saturday night by outrunning Josh Berry, Brandon Jones, Noah Gragson and Daniel Hemric. Three of the top five finishers were in Dale Earnhardt Jr., race cars. The other two, Jones and Hemric, were in Gibbs Toyotas. Gragson won a $100,000 Nationwide Insurance bonus for being the top finisher of four eligible drivers. This was the third time in a row. Post-race technical issues caused NASCAR to disqualify Gragson and take away his position and the bonus money. Yesterday a review board overturned the earlier disqualification and gave him back the bonus and everything else he won. Even more importantly, Gragson is now eligible to win another $100,000 at Dover this weekend. Austin Cindric leads the Xfinity points over Hemric, Harrison Burton, A. J. Almendinger, and Jeb Burton.  

Formula One saw Lewis Hamilton win over Max Verstappen and Valtteri Bottas in Spain on Sunday morning. The F-1 gang races in Monaco on May 23rd.

The Indy Car series races at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on the road course this weekend as the first event of the month of May at Indianapolis. Qualifying for the 105th running of the greatest spectacle in racing is set for May 23rd with the Indy 500 set to go on Sunday May 30th. This race represents the pinnacle in motorsports due to its tenure [ 1911 to 2021] it’s global prestige, [everyone on the world of racing knows about the Indy 500] and the history it has created since it first began. The track, once the property of Eddie Rickenbacker of flying fame and then the long-time property of the Indiana based Tony Hulman family is now owned by Roger Penske through one of his corporate entities.  Penske cherishes his memories of the Brickyard and has promised to improve, expand, and assure that there will always be an Indianapolis 500 auto race on memorial weekend in the decades ahead. Good show MR. Penske. The race and all of its preliminary events can be seen on NBC sports.