Terry McMillen earns first NHRA Top Fuel victory at Las Vegas Motor Speedway

Top Fuel veteran Terry McMillen piloted his dragster to his first career victory at the 17th annual Toyota Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

McMillen won with a pass of 3.870-seconds at 253.99 after Brittany Force red-lit in her Monster Energy dragster.

Matt Hagan (Funny Car), Greg Anderson (Pro Stock) and Eddie Krawiec (Pro Stock Motorcycle) also earned victories in their respective categories at the fifth of six playoff events during the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series Countdown to the Championship.

Hagan powered his Dodge Charger R/T to victory with a run of 3.942 at 329.42, defeating Courtney Force’s 4.020 at 320.05 in her Chevrolet Camaro.

Pro Stock points leader and event No. 1 qualifier Anderson raced his Chevrolet Camaro to victory with a pass of 6.698 at 204.70, defeating KB Racing teammate Bo Butner. Anderson secured the 90th win of his career.

In Pro Stock Motorcycle, category points leader Krawiec rode his Harley-Davidson to a 6.924 at 193.16, defeating Hector Arana Jr.

Formula One
MEXICO CITY (AP) –  Lewis Hamilton won his fourth career Formula One season championship with a ninth-place finish at the Mexican Grand Prix in Mexico City in a race won by Red Bull’s Max Verstappen.

Hamilton had to overcome first-lap chaos when his Mercedes was bumped by title rival Sebastian Vettel of Ferrari. Hamilton got a tire puncture and Vettel had wing damage. Both had to stop immediately for repairs.

That left both in a furious bid to catch up as Verstappen sped away to victory. Vettel finished fourth but had to win or finish second to push the title chase to the last two races in Brazil and Abu Dhabi.

Hamilton’s championship makes him the most decorated British driver in F1 history, passing Sir Jackie Stewart. He is one of only five drivers in F1 history with four or more.

NASCAR
Chase Elliott could have won at Martinsville Speedway on Sunday. Same for Brad Keselowski, and Denny Hamlin, too.

It was Kyle Busch, though, who punched his ticket into the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup championship race with the victory.

Busch moved Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Hamlin out of his way in overtime to win at Martinsville and earn a spot in the championship race for the third consecutive year. He won the series title in 2015.

It was a ho-hum race that got very intense, very quickly, in the waning laps.

Keselowski was in position to win when Joey Logano developed a tire problem with about 10 laps remaining in regulation. Had his Team Penske teammate pitted under green to fix the tire, Keselowski likely would have coasted to the win and earned the spot in the finale.

Instead, Logano spun and brought out a caution.

Keselowski was moved out of the way by Elliott after a restart, and Hamlin spun Elliott out of the lead with two laps remaining in regulation. Elliott wrecked, chased Hamlin down on the cool-down lap to show his displeasure, and the drivers had a heated exchange after they climbed from their cars.

It was a disastrous result for Elliott — from potential race winner to 27th, lowest of the eight remaining playoff drivers.

“My mom always said if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all,” Elliott said. “He’s not worth my time. I got punted from behind and wrecked in Turn 3 leading the race. I don’t know what his problem was. It was unnecessary and I hadn’t raced him dirty all-day long.

“We had the best car I’ve ever had here at Martinsville, and had an opportunity to go straight to Homestead and because of him we don’t.”

Elliott could repeatedly be seen saying ‘You wrecked me,’ to Hamlin as the crowd roared its approval over the tension.

Hamlin, meanwhile, faded to seventh after Busch bumped him for the win.

Keselowski wound up fourth in a race his team believed he had to win.

Instead, he was simply darting his way around a huge pileup on the final lap that ended an emotional opening race of the third round of the playoffs.

“Yeah, everybody is just desperate,” Keselowski said.

Martin Truex Jr. wound up second in a 1-2 sweep for Toyota. The favorite to win the title, he said he is confident enough he will make it to next month’s finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway without having to bump Busch out of his way to grab the automatic berth.

Clint Bowyer, not eligible for the playoffs, finished third.

Kevin Harvick was fifth in a Ford. Seven-time NASCAR champion Jimmie Johnson finished 12th.

Source: dailynews