For the third consecutive year Spaniard Marc Márquez is a winner at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The rookie held on from pole position to pick up his fourth win this year and extend his points lead over teammate Dani Pedroda. Márquez won the inaugural Grand Prix of the Americas at Circuit of the Americas in Austin this April, won the United States Grand Prix at Laguna Seca last month and with his win today has swept all three United States races. This is his third consecutive MotoGP win dating back to the German Grand Prix on July 14th.
Dani Pedrosa finished second ahead of Jorge Lorenzo but has fallen twenty-one points behind his teammate with Lorenzo thirty-five back. Valentino Rossi finished fourth after a last lap pass by Tech3 Yamaha rider Cal Crutchlow. Gresini Honda rider Álvaro Bautista finished sixth ahead of LCR Honda's Stefan Brandl. Bradley Smith snuck by Ducati teammates Nicky Hayden and Andrea Dovizioso for eighth coming to the checkered flag after Hayden and Dovizioso got into each other in the final corner causing both to run wide. Pramac Ducati rider Andrea Iannone finished eleventh with Aleix Espargaró in twelfth, the top CRT bike. American Colin Edwards finished thirteenth. Blake Young retired on lap one.
It was a clean sweep by Spaniards today with Álex Rinz and Esteve Rabat winning the Moto3 and Moto2 races respectively prior to the MotoGP race. Álex Márquez, Marc's seventeen year old brother finished second in the Moto3 race with another Spaniard Maverick Viñales finishing third, making it two podium sweeps for Spain today.
MotoGP heads to Brno, Czech Republic next week with Silverstone and the British Grand Prix the week after that.
Wickens Officially Gets First Career DTM Win
One month after everyone thought he won at the Norisring after the disqualification of Mattias Ekström, Robert Wickens is officially a DTM winner. The Canadian won a wet race at the Nürburgring earlier this morning ahead of the pole sitting BMW of Augusto Farfus and fellow Mercedes-Benz driver Christian Vietoris. Wickens made a bold move on lap nineteen, going from fourth to second on the outside in turn two on a wet race track to get by Adrien Tambay and Farfus and would prove to be crucial in the Canadians drive to victory.
Mike Rockenfeller finished fourth and extended his points lead to thirty-five points over Vietoris. Martin Tomczyk finished fifth and scored his first points of the season. Tambay came home in sixth making it back-to-back races in the points, Marco Wittmann finished seventh with Miguel Molina in eighth, another driver who scored his first points of the season at Nürburg. Jamie Green and Pascal Wehrlein rounded out the points.
Wickens is now third in points, thirty-six back of Rockenfeller and ahead of fellow Canadian, BMW driver Bruno Spengler who is fourth in the standings, thirty-nine back. Augusto Farfus is forty back of Rockenfeller in fifth, Gary Paffett is sixth with rookie Macro Wittmann seventh. Mattias Ekström, Dirk Werner and American Joey Hand round out the top ten in points.
DTM has one month off before returning to the track at Oschersleben September 15th.
Logano Wins at Michigan
Penske Racing's Joey Logano picked up his first win of the NASCAR Sprint Cup season at Michigan International Speedway, his third career win, second from pole position and first Cup win driving for Roger Penske. He scored maximum points as he led a race high fifty-one laps. Mark Martin was leading with four to go before running out of fuel, handing the lead to Logano. Kevin Harvick finished second with Kurt Busch finishing third.
Paul Menard picked up his first top five of the season finishing fourth ahead of Clint Bowyer. Marcos Ambrose picked up a sixth place finish, a day after finishing seventh at Mid-Ohio. Kasey Kahne finished seventh with Jeff Burton, Greg Biffle and Carl Edwards rounding out the top ten. Juan Pablo Montoya finished eleventh with Brad Keselowski behind him in twelfth. Ryan Newman finished thirteenth, one position ahead of his teammate Austin Dillon, substituting for the injured Tony Stewart. Matt Kenseth rounded out the top fifteen. Martin Truex, Jr. finished sixteenth and falls out of the top ten in points.
Other notable finishers include Jeff Gordon seventeenth, Mark Martin twenty-seventh, Kyle Busch thirty-first, Dale Earnhardt, Jr. thirty-sixth and Jimmie Johnson fortieth.
Johnson remains the points leader and is locked into the Chase. He is forty-one ahead of Clint Bowyer and fifty-one ahead of Carl Edwards. Kevin Harvick is fourth in points with Kyle Busch fifth. Matt Kenseth is sixth ahead of Dale Earnhardt, Jr. Brad Keselowski is eighth with Kurt Busch jumping into the top ten, from eleventh to ninth. Greg Biffle is tenth.
Kasey Kahne and Truex, Jr. are eleventh and twelfth and currently the two wild cards. Logano is thirteenth, seven points behind Truex for the final wild card. Other wild card eligible drivers in the top twenty are Ryan Newman in fifteenth, seventeen back of Truex and Tony Stewart in eighteenth, fifty-nine points back of Truex. Drivers eleventh through twentieth in points without wins are Jeff Gordon, Jamie McMurray, Paul Menard, Aric Almirola and Jeff Burton.
NASCAR heads to Bristol Motor Speedway for their annual Saturday night race next week.
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