Oliver Eriksson gets first Nitro Rallycross win in Round 7 in Trois-Rivieres, Quebec

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With the sun setting on Nitro Rallycross Round 7 on the Trois-Rivieres GP3 Hippodrome in Quebec, Swedish racer Oliver Eriksson beat bother Kevin Eriksson and fellow countryman Robin Larsson across the snow-covered finish line. It was the first win of his career, making him the eighth different winner in series history.

“We found the details,” Oliver Eriksson told NBC Sports’ Katie Osborne on Peacock.tv. “We struggled yesterday to read the track – to read the start line. Today we figured it out.”

Oliver was waiting for the winter months to make his move. In the first four rounds, he failed to crack the top five. Finally, at Wild Horse Pass in Phoenix, Arizona last November – before a break for the holidays – he finished fourth in the first race and second in the finale. The icy conditions made the most difference, however, and Oliver was contested only by his brother Kevin in the six-lap Feature.

“I kept in the ruts,” Oliver continued. “Everyone can drive in snow, but it’s how we manage the ruts [that makes a difference] and I managed to do it good this time.”

RESULTS: How they finished in the Round 7 Feature

With three consecutive top-fives to his credit, Oliver stands fourth in the standings and is now in striking distance of second.

Sitting eighth in the standings, Kevin knew his primary job was to not cost his brother points. He was the last driver in the field to take the longer joker lap after it was obvious he would slot back into second-place and provide a cushion over Larsson.

But with his second-place finish, Larsson extended his lead, in no small part due to the fact that Andreas Bakkerud – who sits second in the standings – failed to finish. Bakkerud was credited with seventh after Travis Pastrana was disqualified from fifth.

Bakkerud was eliminated from contention on Lap 3 when Pastrana backed into the racing line after spinning into a snow embankment.

Fifth in the standings, Pastrana clung to the hope that he could dominate the final three rounds and make up his deficit on Larsson. With his disqualification and last-place finish, he is now more than 100 points out of the lead.

At Trois-Rivieres in Nitro Rallycross Round 7 in Quebec, Pastrana had a great start to the race. Sporting tribute livery for the late action racing start Ken Block, he led early in his heat until contact with Oliver Eriksson cut a tire and sent him into the semifinals.

“Maybe we should have gone harder,” Pastrana said on his radio immediately following the heat loss.

Pastrana was clipped on his left rear tire by Oliver Eriksson as Pastrana tried to keep his rival behind him and force the Swedish driver to joker first.

How to Watch Nitro Rallycross

Studded tires, which Travis Pastrana described as chainsaws, played a major factor in Round 7 at Trois-Rivieres’ hippodrome race. Louis Yio / Nitro Rallycross

“When I was slowing down, it was like a chainsaw behind me,” Pastrana described the contact from Oliver and the studded snow tires. “[I was] just trying to hold the inside – not make a mistake. Unfortunately, with chainsaws behind you, they go through tires, so we drove two and half laps without a left rear.”

Oliver described the incident differently.

“He went in the snow and got quite wide, so I kept the inside line,” Oliver replies. “He came back into the line and I nudged him a little bit.”

The biggest loser of Round 7 was Kris Meeke, who was the only driver in the nine-car field who failed to make the Main.

A poor start to the weekend sent him into the Last Chance Qualifier (LCQ) and a disastrous start there sealed his fate. On the start, Meeke charged heavily into the first turn, expecting the two drivers ahead of him to do the same. They did not and Meeke doored his teammate Oliver Bennett to send both hard into a snow-bank lined wall. He also collected the leader Conner Martell, who continued after spinning 180 degrees.

All three cars sustained damage. The race was red flagged and when it was apparent Meeke could not return and the field was filled, the race was not restarted, giving Martell and Bennett extra time to work on their cars ahead of the Feature.

“I didn’t get the best of starts,” Meeke said. “The final turn where we take the turn back onto the track … it was all fluffy. I lost a bit of traction, Connor got alongside me. Ollie came up. Martell turned in; Ollie was there. I had no place to go and it was carnage. So yeah, my weekend’s over.”

Basically: Meeke discover three doesn’t go into one.

Three rounds remain in the 2022-23 season with Nitro Rallycross remaining in Canada to compete at Stampede Park in Calgary, Alberta February 4-5. After that, they will close out the season with a recently announced double header at Glen Helen Raceway in San Bernadino, California in mid-March.

IndyCar results, points after Detroit Grand Prix

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DETROIT — Alex Palou topped the results of an NTT IndyCar Series race for the second time this season, extending his championship points lead with his victory in the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix.

The Chip Ganassi Racing driver, who also won the GMR Grand Prix (and the Indy 500 pole position) last month, holds a 51-point lead over teammate Marcus Ericsson (ninth at Detroit) through seven of 17 races this season.

Ganassi, which placed all four of its drivers in the top 10 at Detroit, has three of the top four in the championship standings with Scott Dixon ranked fourth after a fourth at Detroit.

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Indy 500 winner Josef Newgarden is third in the standings after taking a 10th at Detroit. Pato O’Ward slipped to fifth in the points after crashing and finishing 26th

Here are the IndyCar results and points standings after the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix:


RESULTS

Click here for the official box score from the 100-lap race on a nine-turn, 1.645-mile street course in downtown Detroit.

Lap leader summary

Full lap chart

Best section times

Full section data

Event summary

Pit stop summary

Here is the finishing order in the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix with starting position in parentheses, driver, engine, laps completed and reason out (if any):

1. (1) Alex Palou, Honda, 100, Running
2. (7) Will Power, Chevrolet, 100, Running
3. (9) Felix Rosenqvist, Chevrolet, 100, Running
4. (4) Scott Dixon, Honda, 100, Running
5. (13) Alexander Rossi, Chevrolet, 100, Running
6. (12) Kyle Kirkwood, Honda, 100, Running
7. (2) Scott McLaughlin, Chevrolet, 100, Running
8. (11) Marcus Armstrong, Honda, 100, Running
9. (6) Marcus Ericsson, Honda, 100, Running
10. (5) Josef Newgarden, Chevrolet, 100, Running
11. (24) Colton Herta, Honda, 100, Running
12. (17) Devlin DeFrancesco, Honda, 100, Running
13. (8) Simon Pagenaud, Honda, 100, Running
14. (20) Agustin Canapino, Chevrolet, 100, Running
15. (15) Conor Daly, Chevrolet, 100, Running
16. (18) Christian Lundgaard, Honda, 100, Running
17. (25) Jack Harvey, Honda, 100, Running
18. (14) Rinus VeeKay, Chevrolet, 100, Running
19. (23) Helio Castroneves, Honda, 100, Running
20. (19) Benjamin Pedersen, Chevrolet, 97, Running
21. (22) Santino Ferrucci, Chevrolet, 97, Running
22. (26) Sting Ray Robb, Honda, 97, Running
23. (21) David Malukas, Honda, 85, Contact
24. (3) Romain Grosjean, Honda, 80, Contact
25. (27) Graham Rahal, Honda, 50, Contact
26. (10) Pato O’Ward, Chevrolet, 41, Contact
27. (16) Callum Ilott, Chevrolet, 1, Contact

Winner’s average speed: 80.922 mph; Time of Race: 02:01:58.1171; Margin of victory: 1.1843 seconds; Cautions: 7 for 32 laps; Lead changes: 10 among seven drivers. Lap Leaders: Palou 1-28; Power 29-33; O’Ward 34; Palou 35-55; Power 56-64; Palou 65; Rossi 66; Newgarden 67-68; Kirkwood 69; Ericsson 70-76; Palou 77-100.


POINTS

Click here for the points tally in the race.

Here are the points standings after the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix:

Drivers

Entrants

Engine manufacturers

Pit stop performance

Top 10 in points: Palou 273, Ericsson 222, Newgarden 203, Dixon 194, O’Ward 191, Rossi 176, McLaughlin 175, Power 172, Herta 149, Rosenqvist 148.

Rest of the standings: Grosjean 145, Kirkwood 142, Lundgaard 136, Ilott 116, VeeKay 108, Ferrucci 105, Armstrong 101, Rahal 99, Malukas 91, Daly 88, DeFrancesco 81, Castroneves 80, Harvey 78, Canapino 77, Pagenaud 72, Pedersen 61, Robb 55, Takuma Sato 37, Ed Carpenter 27, Ryan Hunter-Reay 20, Tony Kanaan 18, Marco Andretti 13, RC Enerson 5, Katherine Legge 5.

Next race: IndyCar will head to Road America for the Sonsio Grand Prix, which will take place June 18 with coverage starting at 1 p.m. ET on NBC and Peacock.