Well, a jam-packed weekend of racing did not disappoint, with close finishes, phenomenal drives and first-time winners. Let's wrap it up. MCDOWELL WINS AT ROAD AMERICA The NASCAR Xfinity Series hit Road America in Elkhart Lake on Saturday for a race that was not without drama. Pole sitter and former IndyCar racer Alex Tagliani led early, but spun out trying to pass eventual winner Michael McDowell. McDowell, driving the No. 2 Chevrolet for Richard Childress Racing, ended up beating Brendan Gaughan to the line to take his first-ever NASCAR victory. It was the first Xfinity Series race of the season for McDowell, who drives the No. 95 Chevrolet in the Sprint Cup Series. Rookie Brennan Poole came home third to match his best finish of the season while points leader Elliot Sadler finished eighth. The series will next race at Darlington Raceway on Saturday. MOFFITT GOES THREE-WIDE FOR WIN The Camping World Truck Series was at Michigan International Speedway on Saturday where part-time driver Brett Moffitt pulled off a three-wide, last-lap pass to take his first career NASCAR victory.

Moffitt, driving the No. 11 Toyota, finished ahead of teammate Timothy Peters (third in points) and Daniel Hemric (second in points) and points leader William Byron came home fourth. Moffitt was the Sprint Cup rookie of the year last season but was replaced by last year's Xfinity Series Champion Chris Buescher for the current Sprint Cup season. Janesville native Travis Kvapil finished 18th in the No. 50 Chevrolet. The series heads to Canadian Tire Motorsports Park for a race Sunday. Kyle Larson took his first career Sprint Cup win by beating rookie Chase Elliott to the checkered flag Sunday at Michigan International Speedway. Larson, driving the No. 42 Chevrolet, gave team owner Chip Ganassi his first Sprint Cup win since Jamie McMurray won at Talladega in 2013, a losing streak of 99 races. The win secures Larson a spot in the Chase for the Sprint Cup, which gets underway on Sept. 18 at Chicagoland Speedway. Elliott, who is winless this season, should make the Chase field on points if he doesn't win in the next two races.

Brad Keselowski came home third, but his car failed post race inspection. This typically means a 15-point deduction for the driver and fine for the crew chief, but is insignificant to Keselowski who is already locked in the Chase field with four wins so far this season. Old Laptops For Sale In UaePoints leader Kevin Harvick finished fifth for his 19th top-ten finish in 24 races this season.Shepherd Mixed Puppies For Sale In Pa It was the first time in history that each of the three NASCAR National series had a first time winner on the same weekend.Puppies For Sale Dogue De Bordeaux The series heads to Darlington Raceway for a race Sunday. The Verizon IndyCar Series resumed the Firestone 600 at Texas Motor Speedway on Saturday after rain delayed the original running of the race back in June.

The race resumed on lap 72 of 248, with James Hinchcliffe as the leader. Hinchcliffe led 188 total laps, including 157 of the 177 laps run Saturday night, but ended up second in the race. Graham Rahal beat Hinchcliffe to the line by eight-thousandths (0.008) of a second, in what was the fifth-closest finish in IndyCar history and the closest finish ever at Texas Motor Speedway. Rahal, who led only that single lap all night, took his first win since Mid-Ohio in 2015 and his second career win on an oval. Rahal looked primed to win at Texas in 2012, only to brush the wall on the last lap, giving the victory to the late Justin Wilson. Tony Kanaan, who looked like he may get his first win for Chip Ganassi Racing since the 2014 season finale, came home third. Points leader Simon Pagenaud slightly extended his lead over Team Penske teammate Will Power and now leads Power by 28 points heading to the penultimate round at Watkins Glen International on Sunday. HAMILTON'S DRIVE THROUGH THE FIELD

Nico Rosberg may have won the Belgian Grand Prix from the pole position on Sunday, but it was his Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton who everybody was watching. Hamilton, who started from the back row following a grid penalty, came through the field to finish third. Hamilton still holds a nine-point advantage over Rosberg in the championship standings. Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo finished second for his third podium finish in a row. Ricciardo's teammate Max Verstappen had a run-in with the Ferrari duo of Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen on the first turn, resulting in early pit stops for all three drivers. Vettel recovered to finish sixth, while Raikkonen and Verstappen had another battle later in the race in which Raikkonen won, ultimately finishing ninth while Verstappen came home eleventh. Following the race, Raikkonen blasted Verstappen (not for the first time this season), calling Vertappen's driving style “not correct,” to which Verstappen responded, “It's a big lie.”

I'm sure we'll see more fireworks between these two drivers as the season goes on. F1 next heads to Monza for Sunday's Italian Grand Prix. Dave von Falkenstein is a digital content coordinator for The Gazette and an auto racing fan. 1400 Ottawa Street South, Unit C-10 Kitchener, ON N2E 4E2 Click here for map and directions This site does not share personal information with third parties nor do we store any information about your visit to this site other than to analyze and optimize your content and reading experience through the use of cookies. You can turn off the use of cookies at anytime by changing your specific browser settings. We are not responsible for republished content from this website that is reproduced without our permission. This privacy policy is subject to change without notice and was last updated May 25, 2016. if you have any questions feel free to contact Sunrise Shopping Centre at 519-749-9900.Johnny O’Connell held off a race-long charge from Butch Leitzinger to complete a weekend sweep in the Pirelli World Challenge at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park.

O’Connell led flag-to-flag from pole in the 36-lap, 50-minute race and beat Leitzinger by 0.539 of a second. It’s O’Connell’s first weekend double since winning both races at Detroit last June. It’s also the first weekend double in the series since Ryan Dalziel swept the Mid-Ohio races last August. O’Connell started from pole in the No. 3 Cadillac Racing Cadillac ATS-V.R with Leitzinger rolling off from fifth in the No. 20 Bentley Team Dyson Racing Bentley Continental GT3, with the field back to a standing start. The race nearly had a diabolical moment on Lap 2 when O’Connell led the rest of the field through Turn 1 as a tow truck was on course, with the truck moving from outside corner exit to the inside of the course to remove a stopped car, Bill Ziegler’s No. 95 Turner Motorsport BMW Z4 GT3. The truck stopped to the inside to retrieve Ziegler’s car and the race went to a full-course caution on Lap 4. The caution briefly halted action and after the restart several of the contenders dropped away.

Contact occurred between James Davison in the No. 33 AE Nissan GT Academy Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 and Kevin Estre in the No. 9 McLaren Toronto K-PAX Racing with Flying Lizard Motorsports McLaren 650S GT3 into Turn 8, with Estre going off course and falling back from second position. Olivier Beretta also lost spots in the early stages in the No. 61 R. Ferri Motorsport Ferrari 458 Italia GT3. Robert Thorne in the second McLaren (several pit stops) and Andy Pilgrim in the second Cadillac (a pit stop, and later a significantly smaller fire compared to O’Connell’s in Barber) also fell down the order as the race progressed. Leitzinger quickly made it into second with teammate Chris Dyson up to third after the Davison/Estre contact. From there, Leitzinger was able to hound O’Connell for the majority of the race, but was unable to make a move past, even as the pair sliced through traffic. Dyson finished third for his second podium of the year. Mike Skeen was fourth with Bryan Heitkotter completing the overall top five.