Blake Baggett, Adam Cianciarulo win Glendale Supercross

By Jan 13, 2019, 12:45 AM EST
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With 1:30 remaining on the clock in Round 2 of the Supercross season at Glendale, Ariz., Blake Baggett swept past Jason Anderson to score his first career win. Prior to tonight, Baggett had three podiums – all of them third-place finishes.

Baggett finished fourth in his heat, which gave him a less-than desirable gate pick. He was running nearly five seconds off the pace in fourth when a red flag four laps into the race for a hard crash involving Malcolm Stewart allowed the field to close the gap.

“I’ve had weekends when I could run with those guys and weeks when they leave me in the dust,” Baggett said on NBCSN after the race. “”It feels good to finally get my program together and be able to run with those guys.”

After being passed by Baggett, Anderson lost his rhythm and fell 5.847 seconds behind and only 2.301 seconds ahead of a hard charging and highly-amped Ken Roczen.

Roczen was riding like a man possessed.

With 10:30 to go in the Main, Anderson banzied Roczen and clipped the then-leaders front tire – sending Roczen to the dirt. Roczen lost six seconds as he climbed back on his bike. Once he regained his rhythm, he was embroiled in a battle with Marvin Musquin and Eli Tomac.

Roczen’s disappointment was palpable. He seemingly had the race in hand until Stewart’s crash.

Roczen grabbed the hole shot from the far right side of the gate and had visions of his first win in two years. He had a comfortable three-second lead over Anderson that had stabilized until Stewart went down hard with 14:30 remaining in the Main. It took a few seconds to alert the field and a stunned Stewart watched as five riders flew over his prone body – some clearing him by mere inches.

The red flag was displayed with 13:25 remaining. Stewart was running sixth at the time.

Tomac finished fourth, which was an incredible feat considering the hole that was dug in his heat. Tomac had a rear wheel lock up on the start and fell to 17th. He was only able to ride to 10th in the six-minute heat and was forced to pass through the Last Chance Qualifier. This is only his second trip to the LCQ and first since St. Louis in 2013; he won that race.

In the LCQ, a major incident erupted right behind Tomac in Turn 1 that wiped out more than half a dozen riders. Tomac emerged with the hole shot and the lead. Tomac won and remains perfect in regard to his LCQ performance.

Musquin rounded out the top five with last week’s winner Justin Barcia finishing sixth.

In Heat 1 Joey Savatgy went into the pits at the four-minute mark and climbed carefully off his bike. He was unable to continue in the event.

250s

In the 250 class, Adam Cianciarulo got the hole shot and drove away from the field, winning his seventh career race by nearly 10 seconds over points leader Colt Nichols.

Cianciarulo was given a little distance between himself and the field when Dylan Ferrandis high-sided at the two-minute mark. Ferrandis fell to 16th.

Shane McElrath rounded out the podium.

RJ Hampshire backed up last week’s fourth-place finish in Anaheim with another fourth at Glendale, while James Decotis rounded out the top five.

Ferrandis had perhaps the gutsiest performance of the Main when he rebounded to finish sixth and salvage a ton of points that allowed him to hold onto the fourth position in the points, nine behind the leader Nichols.

450 Heat 1 (6 minutes + 1 lap): Marvin Musquin won over Cole Seely

450 Heat 2 (6 minutes + 1 lap): Justin Brayton won over Chad Reed

450 Last Chance Qualifier (5 minutes + 1 lap): Eli Tomac won over Kyle Chisholm. Ronnie Stewart and Cheyenne Harmon also advanced.

250 Heat 1 (6 minutes + 1 lap): Adam Cianciarulo won over Shane McElrath by 5.487 seconds.

250 Heat 2 (6 minutes + 1 lap): Colt Nichols won over James Decotis

250 Last Chance Qualifier (5 minutes +1 lap): Enzo Lopes won over Jim Pettis. Dylan Merriam and Devin Harriman also advanced.

Points Leaders

250s
Colt Nichols (49 points) (1 win)
Adam Cianciarulo (-5) (1)
Shane McElrath (-7)
Dylan Ferrandis (-9)
RJ Hampshire (-11)

450s
Ken Roczen (44 points) (1 win)
Justin Barcia (-1) (1)
Eli Tomac (-4)
Blake Baggett (-7)
Dean Wilson (-10)

Next race: January 19, Angel Stadium, Anaheim, Calif.

Season passes can be purchased at NBC Sports Gold.

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IndyCar Detroit GP starting lineup: Alex Palou wins first pole position on a street course

By Jun 3, 2023, 4:00 PM EDT
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DETROIT — Alex Palou won the pole position for the second consecutive NTT IndyCar Series race and will lead the Detroit Grand Prix starting lineup to green on a new downtown layout.

The 2021 series champion, who finished fourth in the 107th Indy 500 after qualifying first, earned his third career pole position as the first of three Chip Ganassi Racing drivers in the top four (Scott Dixon qualified fourth, and Marcus Ericsson sixth).

Scott McLaughlin will start second, followed by Romain Grosjean. Coming off his first Indianapolis 500 victory, Josef Newgarden qualified fifth.

INDYCAR IN DETROIT: Entry list, schedule, TV info for this weekend

It’s the third career pole position for Palou and his first on a street course — a big advantage on a nine-turn, 1.645-mile track that is expected to be calamitous over 100 laps Sunday (3 p.m. ET, NBC).

“It’s going to be a tough day for sure,” Palou told NBC Sports’ Marty Snider. “It feels good we’ve had a great car since the beginning, and it was just about maximizing. They did a great strategy on tires and everything. We need to finish it (Sunday).

“I got off a lot in practice. We wanted to see where the limit was, and we found it. It’s a crazy track. I think it’s too tight for Indy cars and too short as well, but we’ll make it happen.”

QUALIFYING RESULTS: Click here for Detroit GP qualifying speeds | Round 1, Group 1 | Round 1, Group 2 | Round 2 l Round 3

The narrow quarters (originally listed as a 1.7-mile track, its distance shrunk by a couple hundred feet when measured Friday) already were causing problems in qualifying.

Colton Herta, who has four career poles on street courses, qualified 24th after failing to advance from the first round because of damage to his No. 26 Dallara-Honda. It’s the worst starting spot in an IndyCar street course race for Herta (and the second-worst of his career on the heels of qualifying 25th for the GMR Grand Prix three weeks ago).

Andretti Autosport teammate Kyle Kirkwood also found misfortune in the second round, damaging the left front of his No. 27 Dallara-Honda despite light wall contact.

“I’m disappointed for the crew because that was a pole-winning car,” Kirkwood told NBC Sports’ Kevin Lee. “Man, I barely touched the wall. I touched it way harder in all the practices, and it’s just like the angle at which the wall was right there, it caught the point and just ripped the front off the car.

“If the wall was rounded, that wouldn’t have happened. That’s just unfortunate for the guys, but it’s my mistake. It’s hard enough to get around this place let alone race around it. We’ll see how it goes.”

Many IndyCar drivers are expecting it to go badly, which isn’t uncommon for a new street layout. The inaugural Music City Grand Prix in Nashville, Tennessee, was the biggest crashfest of the 2021 season with 33 of 80 laps run under caution plus two red flags.

It could be worse at Detroit, which is the shortest track on the IndyCar circuit. It also features the series’ only split pit lane (with cars pitting on opposite sides and blending into a single-lane exit), a 0.9-mile straightaway and a hairpin third turn that is considered the best passing zone.

“If there’s one day you need to be lucky in the year, it’s tomorrow,” Grosjean told NBC Sports’ Dave Burns. “A lot is going to happen, and it’s being in the right time at the right place.”

Said Dixon: “Expect probably a lot of unexpected things to happen. We’ll try and get through it. I think it’ll be similar to Nashville and maybe the last man standing is the one who gets the victory.”

With the field at 27 cars, Palou estimated the length of the course leaves a gap of about 2.4 seconds between each car, which he preferred would be double. During practice Friday, there were six red flags and 19 local yellows as teams tried to sort out the tricky and tight layout.

“I don’t know what the perfect distance is, but I would say adding 30 seconds to a track or 20 seconds would help a lot,” said Palou, one of many drivers who also said the streets were too bumpy despite work to grind down some surfaces. “We have a lot of cars. It’s crazy. It’s really good for the series, for the racing. But when it comes to practice, and we have 10 red flags, 25 yellows, it’s traffic all the time.”

It seems certain to be a memorable reimagining of the Detroit GP, which was moved downtown by IndyCar owner Roger Penske after a 30-year run at the Belle Isle course a few miles north.

McLaughlin, who drives for Team Penske, believes the race will be very similar to Nashville, but “it’s just going to be up to us with the etiquette of the drivers to figure it out along the way. I think there’s going to be a lot of passes, opportunities.

“With the track, there’s been a lot of noise I’ve seen on Twitter, from other drivers and stuff,” McLaughlin said. “At the end of the day, this is a new track, new complex. I think what everyone has done to get this going, the vibe is awesome. Belle Isle was getting old. We had to do it.

“First-year problems, it’s always going to happen. It’s just going to get better from here. The racetrack for the drivers is a blast. We don’t even know how it races yet. Everyone is making conclusions already. They probably just need to relax and wait for (Sunday).”

Here’s the IndyCar starting lineup for Sunday’s Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix (qualifying position, car number in parentheses, driver, engine and speed):

ROW 1

1. (10) Alex Palou, Honda, 1 minute, 1.8592 seconds (95.734 mph)
2. (3) Scott McLaughlin, Chevrolet, 1:02.1592 (95.271)

ROW 2

3. (28) Romain Grosjean, Honda, 1:02.2896 (95.072)
4. (9) Scott Dixon, Honda, 1:02.4272 (94.862)

ROW 3

5. (2) Josef Newgarden, Chevrolet, 1:02.5223 (94.718)
6. (8) Marcus Ericsson, Honda, 1:02.6184 (94.573)

ROW 4

7. (12) Will Power, Chevrolet, 1:02.1817 (95.237)
8. (60) Simon Pagenaud, Honda, 1:02.1860 (95.230)

ROW 5

9. (6) Felix Rosenqvist, Chevrolet, 1:02.1937 (95.219)
10. (5) Pato O’Ward, Chevrolet, 1:02.2564 (95.123)

ROW 6

11. (11) Marcus Armstrong, Honda, 1:02.2958 (95.063)
12. (27) Kyle Kirkwood, Honda, 1:04.6075 (91.661)

ROW 7

13. (7) Alexander Rossi, Chevrolet, 1:02.5714 (94.644)
14. (21) Rinus VeeKay, Chevrolet, 1:02.1911 (95.223)

ROW 8

15. (20) Conor Daly, Chevrolet, 1:02.9522 (94.071)
16. (77) Callum Ilott, Chevrolet, 1:02.2644 (95.111)

ROW 9

17. (29) Devlin DeFrancesco, Honda, 1:03.0017 (93.997)
18. (45) Christian Lundgaard, Honda, 1:02.6495 (94.526)

ROW 10

19. (55) Benjamin Pedersen, Chevrolet, 1:03.1599 (93.762)
20. (78) Agustin Canapino, Chevrolet, 1:02.9071 (94.139)

ROW 11

21. (18) David Malukas, Honda, 1:03.2126 (93.684)
22. (14) Santino Ferrucci, Chevrolet, 1:02.9589 (94.061)

ROW 12

23. (06) Helio Castroneves, Honda, 1:03.3879 (93.425)
24. (26) Colton Herta, Honda, 1:03.4165 (93.383)

ROW 13

25. (30) Jack Harvey, Honda, 1:03.7728 (92.861)
26. (51) Sting Ray Robb, Honda, 1:03.7496 (92.895)

ROW 14

27. (15) Graham Rahal, Honda, 1:03.8663 (92.725)