Alex Bowman holds off Denny Hamlin to take NASCAR Cup win at Richmond

RICHMOND, Va. —  Alex Bowman passed Denny Hamlin on a restart with 10 laps to go and drove away at Richmond Raceway for his third career victory in the NASCAR Cup Series.

Bowman produced a stunning conclusion to a race that Hamlin had dominated along with Martin Truex Jr. and Joey Logano. With all eyes on Hamlin and Logano on the restart, Bowman ducked inside Hamlin, easily gained the spot held it to the finish, becoming the eighth winner in nine Cup races this season.

Bowman’s victory in No. 48 Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports came on the same day the former driver of the car, seven-time champion Jimmie Johnson, made his debut in the IndyCar Series in Alabama. It was the first victory for the No. 48 since June 4, 2017.

Hamlin, who raced with #fedexstrong on the back of his car and on his pit wall to honor the eight people who were fatally shot at a FedEx facility in Indianapolis on Thursday, had a dominant car for the second week in a row but couldn’t carry it through to the finish. He did notch his eighth top-five finish in nine starts this season.

“We just didn’t take off very good there,” Hamlin said of the last restart.

Last week, he led 276 laps at Martinsville Speedway, but lost the lead to Truex, his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate, with 15 laps to go.

Hamlin did hang on Sunday to finish second, followed by Logano, Christopher Bell and Truex.

IndyCar Series

Alex Palou tests at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on April 8.

(Darron Cummings / Associated Press)

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Alex Palou celebrated his move to Chip Ganassi Racing with his first career IndyCar victory by beating a pair of series champions to win Sunday’s season-opening race at Barber Motorsports Park.

The Spaniard used a two-stop strategy on the picturesque permanent road course to take control of the race but still had to hold off hard-charging Will Power and Scott Dixon over the closing laps. The 24-year-old beat Power by .4016 seconds to claim his first win in his first race driving for the storied Ganassi organization.

“We knew (a win) was possible because we knew we had the best team and the best cars,” Palou said. “It’s amazing to be part of the winning drivers.”

Dixon, the six-time and reigning IndyCar champion, finished third and was followed by pole-sitter Pato O’Ward, who was on a three-stop strategy.

Palou was the quieter offseason signing of the Ganassi organization, which also added seven-time NASCAR champion Jimmie Johnson to the four-car lineup. But Ganassi also took a gamble on Palou, who had spent one season driving for Dale Coyne Racing with one podium finish and one lap led all year.

He’d raced in Japan and Europe previously, and Ganassi warned Palou had been fast in preseason testing and would be a force this season.