Bubba Wallace still in the lead going into final 40-lap segment of MudSummer Classic at Eldora

By Jul 23, 2014, 10:19 PM EDT
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Darrell Wallace Jr. continues to lead after 110 laps (at the time of a second and final mandatory competition caution) in Wednesday night’s MudSummer Classic at Eldora Speedway.

Just one more segment remains, a 40-lap sprint to determine the race winner.

Wallace has led 62 laps after the first two segments.

Ron Hornaday Jr. was second, followed by Jeb Burton, Kyle Larson and Ryan Blaney.

Sixth through 10th were John Hunter Nemechek, Timothy Peters, Tyler Reddick, Ken Schrader and NCWTS points leader Matt Crafton.

Last year’s MudSummer Classic winner, Austin Dillon, is running 12th.

Pole-sitter Erik Jones has struggled with tires, brakes and body damage and is running 29th (next-to-last), six laps off the lead lap.

In one of the most controversial parts of the evening and in a battle for third place on Lap 83, Ty Dillon got into the rear of Kyle Larson and spun him.

But in a spectacular bit of driving, Larson collected his truck after the spin – tapping the left rear of Dillon’s truck for good measure as he drove by Larson, who managed to lose just two positions in the incident.

Likely due to the incident, Dillon suffered a cut left rear tire and was forced to pit a few laps later.

Then it got real interesting. When Dillon pitted, his crew added fuel, which was only allowed during the race’s two scheduled competition cautions after Laps 60 and 110.

Officials then ordered Dillon to come back onto pit row twice more on the next two laps after his original stop.

The first stop was to change the left side tires back to the original right rear and left front (essentially negating switching all four tires on the original stop).

The second stop was to put another pair of tires on the right side (to effectively take away any advantage gained by adding fuel).

Dillon went from third place coming onto pit road for the first time, to the only truck one lap down in 28th place. He moved up to 27th at the time of the second competition caution.

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Alex Palou wins Detroit Grand Prix from pole

By Jun 4, 2023, 5:30 PM EDT
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DETROIT – Alex Palou won the IndyCar Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix from the pole, fending off several challenges and three late restarts during a chaotic debut for a new downtown track.

After qualifying first, Palou won by 1.1843 seconds in his No. 10 Dallara-Honda over Will Power, followed by Felix Rosenqvist, Scott Dixon and Alexander Rossi.

Kyle Kirkwood (who rebounded from falling to 26th in a massive shunt on the first lap) finished sixth, followed by Scott McLaughlin, Marcus Armstrong, Marcus Ericsson and Indy 500 winner Josef Newgarden to round out the top 10.

As expected, there was lots of action on the nine-turn, 1.645-mile layout that made its debut Sunday with seven caution flags chewing up 32 of 100 laps – and eliminating some contenders.

With 20 laps remaining, Romain Grosjean slammed the wall in Turn 4 while running seventh in his No. 28 Dallara-Honda, which had started third. He later attributed the problem to a suspension failure.

Pato O’Ward’s shot at a decent finish fell apart during a green-flag pit stop on Lap 35. The No. 5 Dallara-Chevy’s left rear wheel was loose as O’Ward left the stall, so he stopped to allow the crew to push him back.

He returned in 26th at the end of the lead lap but then slammed the wall in Turn 9 eight laps later after overshooting the corner.

“Honestly our race went upside down on that pit stop,” O’Ward said. “All downhill from there. It is what it is.”

The yellow flew again during the next restart on Lap 49 as Sting Ray Robb went into the tire barrier in Turn 3 while Christian Lundgaard and Santino Ferrucci (who was trying to fight back onto the lead lap) also were caught scrambling in traffic.

During the caution, Graham Rahal hit the Turn 1 wall and then was rear-ended by rookie Benjamin Pedersen.

“I got a lot of understeer,” Rahal said, struggling to process what had happened to lose control of his No. 15 Dallara-Honda. “It’s on me. I need to see the tape and understand. I’m just disappointed in myself with all the errors this weekend, just not driving well. It’s hard to figure out why, but ultimately it’s on me. I’ve got to perform a heck of a lot better than that, especially on a day like this.

“It’s just not typical of me. I know you’ve got to stay on the dance floor. I don’t know what to say. We weren’t good in the race. We were in pretty bad shape. It’s disappointing. I’ve got to be better. It’s been a really tough couple of months. We need a reset. I need a reset. We need to come back much, much stronger.”

The first incident occurred in the first corner as Callum Ilott rear-ended Kyle Kirkwood on the entry into the Turn 3 hairpin (starts and restarts for the race occurred on the longest straightaway off Turn 2).

Kirkwood, who was starting after clipping the wall in qualifying, was able to continue after pitting to change the rear wing of his No. 27 Dallara-Honda.

But Ilott’s day was over after failing to complete a lap.

“I didn’t have anywhere to really go, but it was my bad for kind of being a little bit on the late side,” the Juncos Hollinger Racing driver told NBC Sports’ Kevin Lee. “I was gaining bit of time, and they just checked up a little bit more than I anticipated the last bit. I wasn’t coming with that much more speed, but I just couldn’t slow it down on the last part, so sorry to the team and sorry to Kyle cause that didn’t help him, either. On to the next one.”

After four consecutive weeks of racing at Indianapolis Motor Speedway and on the streets of Detroit, IndyCar will take a one-week break before returning June 18 at Road America.