Times wires
Saturday, July 28, 2012
INDIANAPOLIS — Brad Keselowski planted an emphatic kiss on the yard of bricks at the finish line, becoming the first driver to celebrate a win at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in NASCAR's Nationwide series.
Elliott Sadler was left fuming.
Keselowski took the lead when Sadler was penalized for jumping a late restart, then held on to win a controversial finish in Saturday's inaugural Indy 250 at the historic 2½-mile track.
Keselowski said winning at Indy was special because of the track's tradition.
"I'm glad to be some small part of that," he said.
Sadler passed Keselowski on a restart with 18 laps to go, but officials ruled Sadler went too early and black-flagged him.
Sadler stayed on the track for several laps, apparently hoping officials would reconsider the penalty, before finally coming in with 12 laps to go and giving up the lead.
An agitated Sadler said Keselowski spun his tires on the restart — a brief loss of traction that would slow Keselowski — and Sadler said he had to surge.
"You tell me what the protocol is if the leader beats me to the restart line — which he did and it's on video just as clear as day — and then he spins his tires," Sadler said. "Oh, yeah, by the way, I'm getting pushed by the No. 3 car, who's also getting pushed by the No. 43 car."
Sam Hornish was second, followed by Ty Dillon.
FORMULA ONE: Lewis Hamilton of McLaren starts from the pole position in today's Hungarian Grand Prix after easily holding off Lotus' Romain Grosjean and world champion Sebastian Vettel in qualifying in Budapest. Hamilton clocked a lap of 1 minute 20.953 seconds, 0.413 seconds faster than Grosjean. It marked the 150th pole for McLaren, which contested its first F1 race in 1966.
NHRA: Cruz Pedregon earned the top spot in Funny Car qualifying at the Sonoma (Calif.) Nationals with a track-record time of 4.028 seconds at 307.30 mph. Doug Kalitta led Top Fuel, Allen Johnson topped Pro Stock and Eddie Krawiec led Pro Stock Motorcycle in qualifying for today's eliminations.