Motorsports: Dirt veterans shine at NASCAR’s Bristol event

It took three tries, but the dirt experts finally prevailed at the NASCAR Cup Bristol dirt race.

Winner Christopher Bell led 100 of the 250 laps, while Kyle Larson led the first 75 from the pole. Sadly, Larson wasn’t around at the end due to an altercation with Ryan Preece that relegated Larson to 37th place.

The top five finishers all began their racing careers on dirt, with Tyler Reddick, Austin Dillon, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., and Chase Briscoe taking second through fifth, respectively. NASCAR is taking a “deeper dive” into the Preece/Larson incident to determine whether Preece should get the same $50,000 fine and 25-point loss penalty levied against Denny Hamlin for a Phoenix incident with Ross Chastain. Hamlin’s penalty was confirmed on appeal. Apparently, the days of “Have at it, boys” are over.

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 Whatever NASCAR decides about Preece, the sanctioning body has recently taken steps to alter the appeals process. Apparently unhappy at the appeals board overturning points penalties against the Hendrick Motorsports teams, NASCAR has changed the rules to prevent an appeals board from overturning an entire portion of a penalty. So Kaulig Motorsports’ appeal of the same infraction as Hendrick’s resulted in reducing the points penalty from 100 to 75 instead of eliminating it. Hendrick is also facing additional penalties after Alex Bowman’s and William Byron’s cars were impounded following the Richmond race. Is NASCAR applying penalties fairly and consistently? There seems to be some doubt.

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 This weekend, all three of NASCAR’s touring series are racing at the .526-mile Martinsville “paperclip,” the last of the spring short-track rounds. Bristol winner Bell won last fall at Martinsville and Byron was last spring’s winner. Hamlin leads all active drivers with five Martinsville wins, most recently in 2015. Martin Truex Jr. has won there three times, with Brad Keselowski and Kyle Busch both two-time winners. In addition to Bell and Byron, other one-time Martinsville winners are Bowman, Joey Logano, Kevin Harvick, and Chase Elliott.

Elliott is returning to the series this weekend after a six-week layoff for a broken leg suffered in a snowboarding accident. He will still be eligible for the playoffs if he qualifies. Byron is favored at 6-1 in the opening odds, with Larson and Bell at 13-2 and Hamlin 7-1. Truex and Logano are both 17-2, Ryan Blaney 11-1, Busch 14-1, Chastain 16-1, and Harvick 20-1. The Cup series qualifies at 2:20 p.m. today on FS2 followed by the Xfinity race on FS1 at 4:30 p.m. Sunday’s NOCO 400 airs on FS1 at noon.

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The streets of Long Beach will echo with the sound of racecars this weekend as both the IMSA WeatherTech series and the NTT IndyCar series are set to race the iconic circuit. Since 1975, the Long Beach Grand Prix has hosted Formula 5000, Formula 1, CART/Champ Car, and, since 2008, the NTT IndyCar series. The current track layout is an 11-turn, 1.968-mile temporary street circuit, with the IndyCar series running 85 laps or 167.28 miles. Josef Newgarden is the defending race winner, with only five other former winners in the field. Alexander Rossi and Will Power have each won twice, with Colton Herta, Simon Pagenaud, and Scott Dixon taking one victory apiece.

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The IMSA WeatherTech sports cars will run a timed two-hour race on the same circuit. Saturday’s schedule calls for IndyCar qualifying on Peacock at noon with the IMSA portion of the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach at 2 p.m. on the USA network. Sunday’s Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach for the NTT IndyCar series airs on NBC beginning at noon.