Alexander Rossi snapped a 49-race losing streak that dated back to the 2019 IndyCar season by winning at one of his favorite tracks.
Rossi won Saturday on the road course at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, where his 2016 victory in the 100th running of the Indianapolis 500 jumpstarted his American motorsports career. Rossi’s last victory was at Road America in the 10th race of the 2019 season.
“It’s a relief,” Rossi said with a sigh on the victory podium. “To come back at Indianapolis, at home, is really amazing.”
A long slump led him to seek a fresh start and the California native will leave Andretti Autosport at the end of his seventh season to drive next year for Arrow McLaren SP. It was Michael Andretti who gave Rossi a shot in IndyCar when he’d washed out of Formula One and returned to the United States seeking to continue his career.
Christian Lundgaard, a rookie from Denmark who made his IndyCar debut in this race a year ago, finished second to give Rahal Letterman Lanigan its first podium of the season.
• AJ Allmendinger continued his dominance of NASCAR road course racing and set himself up for a sweep at Indianapolis Motor Speedway with a victory in the Xfinity Series.
Allmendinger has won six of the last 11 road course races — nine in his NASCAR career — and his latest win is his third of the Xfinity season.
All three wins are on road courses this year as Allmendinger already won at Circuit of the Americas in Texas and Portland, and now the hallowed Brickyard.
Allmendinger is the defending winner of the Cup race and today will go for the sweep.
• George Russell stole the show at the Hungarian Grand Prix by earning his first career pole and first of the season for Mercedes — on the same day F1 champion and current points leader Max Verstappen qualified a season-worst 10th in Budapest. Russell screamed in celebration after a fast final qualifying lap helped him beat Ferrari drivers Carlos Sainz Jr. and Charles Leclerc.
Nunes wins rematch
Amanda Nunes regained her UFC women’s bantamweight championship at UFC 277 by unanimous decision after thoroughly battering champ Julianna Pena in their rematch of UFC 269 in Dallas. Nunes knocked Pena down once in the first round and three times in the second and dominated thereafter.
Finau, Pendrith share lead in Rocket Mortgage Classic
Tony Finau shot a 7-under 65 to match Taylor Pendrith at 21-under 195 with a round left in the Rocket Mortgage Classic in Detroit. The 3M Open winner last week in Minnesota, Finau is trying to become the first to win consecutive regular-season tournaments in three years.
A stroke a ahead entering the round, Pendrith birdied four of the last five holes for a 66.
• Henrik Stenson shot a 2-under 69 at Trump National Bedminster (N.J.) for a three-shot lead over Dustin Johnson with a round left in the LIV Golf Invitational.
• Lydia Ko was joined by Celine Boutier at the top of the leaderboard after day three of the Women’s Scottish Open in Irvine.
France’s Boutier shot a 5-under-par 67 to make up four shots on the New Zealander, who could manage only a 1-under 71.
• Sean Crocker’s chip-in eagle on the par-5 18th hole gave him a two-stroke lead headed into the final round at the Hero Open. The American, bidding for his first European tour title, finished at 3-under 69 to keep Jens Dantorp (69) of Sweden two shots behind after three rounds at Fairmont St. Andrews.
• Wenyi Ding became the first male Chinese winner in U.S. Golf Asso. history, beating Caleb Surratt 3 and 2 in the U.S. Junior Amateur final at Bandon (Ore.) Dunes.
Bautista Agut wins Generali
Third-seeded Roberto Bautista Agut cruised past wild card Filip Misolic 6-2, 6-2 in the final of the Generali Open in Kitzbuhel, Austria, to claim his 11th ATP title.
• Top-seeded Carlos Alcaraz overcame a second set scare on the way to defeating qualifier Giulio Zeppieri 7-5, 4-6, 6-3 to advance to his seventh career ATP final at the Croatia Open in Umag.
With the victory, the 19-year-old Spaniard is in his tour-leading sixth final of the year.
Today’s final against second-seeded Jannik Sinner will be Alcaraz’s 100th match on the tour.
Sinner eased past fellow Italian Franco Agamenone, a qualifier, 6-1, 6-3 to advance to his first ATP final this year and eighth overall.
• Seventh-seeded Anastasia Potapova marched to her second WTA final of the season at the Prague Open after defeating Qiang Wang 6-3, 6-0. The Russian who eliminated top-seeded Anett Kontaveit in the quarterfinals seeks her second WTA title after she won Istanbul in April.
In the final, Potapova will meet eighth-seeded Marie Bouzkova, who defeated teenager Linda Noskova 7-6 (4), 6-3 in an all-Czech semifinal.
• Fifth-seeded Caroline Garcia beat Jasmine Paolini 6-1, 6-2 at the Poland Open in Warsaw to advance to her 12th career final, where she’ll face Ana Bogdan.
Garcia will seek her ninth career WTA title and second this year after winning the grass-court Bad Homburg Open.
Bogdan reached her first career WTA final by defeating Kateryna Baindl of Ukraine 7-5, 7-5.
LAFC edges Seattle
Kwadwo Opoku and Carlos Vela scored in the first half, and Los Angeles FC beat the Seattle Sounders 2-1 late Friday night in the home debuts of European stars Giorgio Chiellini and Gareth Bale.