Concord, n.c.
Hardly a championship contender for most of this season, Johnson grabbed a victory at sun-soaked Charlotte Motor Speedway when nearly half the title contenders had horrible days.
The win Sunday was his third of the season, but snapped a 24-race losing streak dating to March. Johnson is the only Hendrick driver to visit victory lane this season, and this win earned him an automatic berth into the third round of the playoffs.
It’s the first time Johnson has made it out of the second round since the elimination format was introduced in 2014. He was knocked out at Talladega in the second round of the inaugural season, and was bounced in the first round last year.
Suddenly, the six-time NASCAR champion is a realistic contender for that elusive record-tying seventh title.
“We can’t sit back and celebrate too much on this,” Johnson said. “We’ve got to buckle down and get to work tomorrow and keep advancing our race cars. But this does buy us a couple weeks of freedom.”
The race was originally scheduled for Saturday night, but Hurricane Matthew washed out nearly the entire weekend and set up an 800-mile doubleheader of the Sprint Cup and Xfinity Series on Sunday. When the racing finally began on a beautiful North Carolina afternoon, it immediately shaped up as a Hendrick kind of day.
Johnson certainly figured it out on a day when six Chase drivers had trouble.
Denny Hamlin and Kevin Harvick both had engine issues. Austin Dillon and Elliott were in accidents. Joey Logano had tire problems, and Martin Truex Jr. had an electrical issue as he left pit road after the final pit stop.
Five Chase drivers finished lower than 30th, and Harvick, the 2014 champion, is last in the standings.
Hamlin was running second when his engine blew with 25 laps remaining. As the cars left pit road, Truex seemed poised to restart in second, but he appeared to stall and instead restarted 16th.
Although Truex salvaged his day and finished 13th — lowest of the Chase drivers still running at the end of the race — Hamlin wound up 30th.
Dillon was 32nd, Elliott 33rd, Logano 36th and Harvick 38th.
Concord, n.c.
Logano passed Larson on a restart with 12 laps to go to win the Xfinity Series race Sunday at Charlotte Motor Speedway. The race was originally scheduled for Friday night but washed out by Hurricane Matthew and run following the Sprint Cup race. It made for 800 miles of racing, and Logano and Larson were among five drivers who ran both events.
Larson led 165 of the 200 laps and at one point had lapped all but one car in the field. A late caution gave Logano a shot to get by Larson, and he did after a three-wide battle for a lap.
Elliott Sadler finished second. Larson faded to fourth.
Suzuka, Japan
Rosberg, who started from pole position, controlled the race throughout and finished 4.9 seconds ahead of Red Bull driver Max Verstappen, who held off Hamilton in close racing over the final few laps.
With four races remaining Rosberg holds a 33-point lead over Hamilton.
Hamilton, who started second, made another of the poor starts which has been among Mercedes few weak points this season, and dropped back to eighth on the opening lap.
The result clinched the constructors’ championship for Mercedes for the third year running.