Diez: Truex can clinch season championship

NASCAR Cup Indy winner Michael McDowell showed the way in the early going of the Go Bowling at the Glen, leading 17 laps and winning Stage 1. But a couple of pit miscues mired him back in the field to eventually retire with engine issues. The race was Chase Elliott’s best chance to win his way into the playoffs, but a miscalculation left him stranded on track, out of gas. Bubba Wallace ran his best road race ever, finishing 12th to stay 32 points above the cut line with Ty Gibbs 32 below.

Wallace runs well at Daytona, with two second-place Daytona 500 finishes. Elliott, Daniel Suarez, A.J. Allmendinger, Alex Bowman, and everybody else must win to make the playoffs. And Martin Truex Jr. leads teammate Denny Hamlin by 39 points in the regular season championship. A finish of 15th or better will clinch it for Truex even if Hamlin wins all three stages.

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There has not been a repeat winner in the Coke Zero Sugar 400 for the last 10 years, although there are 10 winners in Saturday’s NASCAR Cup field.

Kevin Harvick is the only two-time winner, in 2010 and 2017. Austin Dillon is the defending winner, Ryan Blaney won in 2021 and Byron in 2020. Unlikely winners include Justin Haley in 2019, Eric Jones in 2018, and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. in 2017. Previous winners were Brad Keselowski, Aric Almirola, and Kyle Busch.

Coverage on the race on NBC and Peacock begins at 4 p.m. Saturday. Sunday, the Craftsman Trucks qualify and race on the Milwaukee Mile. Qualifying is at 8:30 a.m. on FS2 with the Clean Harbors 175 at 1 p.m. on FS1.

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Formula One is back from summer hiatus, racing this weekend at Zandvoort for Dutch GP. It will be the third year since F1 returned to the track after a 36-year hiatus.

Local hero Max Verstappen is going for hat trick in his home race, having won the previous two outings for Red Bull since the series returned. In 2021 he beat Lewis Hamilton to the checker by almost 21 seconds with Valtteri Bottas a further 35 seconds behind in the second Mercedes. Last year he bested Hamilton’s new teammate George Russell by a narrower margin, 4 seconds, with Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc third.

Given Verstappen’s performance so far this season, with 10 wins and the last eight in a row, I’m sure he’s at even or negative odds to win. Even as other teams have worked feverishly during the break, I don’t expect any of them to have made sufficient improvement to challenge Red Bull.

ESPN will broadcast qualifying Saturday morning at 6 a.m. with the race the same time Sunday.

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The NTT IndyCar series’ season is winding down with just three races left on the schedule.

This weekend features the final oval race of the season at Worldwide Technology Raceway. Josef Newgarden has all but owned the track in recent years with four wins there including the last three years straight. He also owns the outright track record at the 1.25 mile egg-shaped oval with a lap time of 24.6317 seconds. He has been on a tear on ovals this year, winning them all so far including the 2023 Indy 500.

He will need another win Sunday if he is to stay in the running for the series championship. Alex Palou has a substantial points total of 539 with Scott Dixon second at 438 and Newgarden in third with 434 points.

Qualifying airs Saturday on Peacock at 11 a.m. and NBC will broadcast the Bommarito Automotive Group 500 at 12:30 p.m.