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Motor sports notebook: Stenhouse Jr. wins 5th Nationwde race
Kyle Busch (54) leads Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (6), and Austin Dillon (3) during the NASCAR Nationwide race Saturday at Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet, Ill. Stenhouse won his fifth race of the season on the Nationwide circuit. AP
JOLIET, Ill. — Ricky Stenhouse Jr. raced to his fifth Nationwide Series victory of the year to take the season points lead, easily outlasting Kyle Busch on Saturday at Chicagoland Speedway.
Stenhouse passed Busch with 20 laps to go in the 300-mile race, and there wasn't much Busch could do to catch him. Stenhouse, the 2011 series champion, has won two of the last four races — and finished second in the other two.
Stenhouse won by 2.402 seconds.
Elliott Sadler, who led Stenhouse by a point atop the standings coming into the race, finished eighth. Pole winner Joey Logano was another spot back in ninth. Austin Dillon finished third, followed by Brad Keselowski and Paul Menard.
Hunter-Reay takes IndyCar championship
In Fontana, Calif. — Ryan Hunter-Reay has become the first American to win the IndyCar championship since 2006 with a nerve-racking final drive Saturday night in the season finale.
Will Power crashed out of the race early, and he had to watch on television in street clothes as Hunter-Reay snatched the title away at Auto Club Speedway.
Hunter-Reay went into the final race trailing Power by 17 points, but once Power was out of the race, he needed only to finish fifth or better. He worked his way through the field and into position to wrap it up, but he had to hold on over some intense final restarts to pull it off.
He crossed the line in fourth to win the championship by three points.
Ed Carpenter won the race for his second career victory.
Blaney sets mark
In Newton, Iowa, Ryan Blaney became the youngest winner in NASCAR Trucks Series history Saturday night, taking the caution-filled race at Iowa Speedway at 18.
Blaney, the son of Sprint Cup driver Dave Blaney, held off Ty Dillon after a late restart on the 0.875-mile track. Todd Bodine was third in the 200-lap race slowed by nine caution periods that took up 54 laps.
Driver escapes injury
In Rome, Still regaining his strength from a severe rally accident last year, former Formula One driver Robert Kubica has come away unscathed from another rally crash.
The Pole drove his Subaru off the road and into the trees during the San Martino di Castrozza Rally on Saturday. Kubica suffered massive injuries in a crash at the Ronde di Andora Rally in Italy in February 2011, almost severing his forearm and fracturing a leg and shoulder.
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