Page 21 - ARUBA TODAY

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SPORTS Monday 30 July 2018
Kyle Busch wins 6th race of the season at Pocono

By DAN GELSTON team owner Joe Gibbs was at Pocono this weekend,
AP Sports Writer a safe distance from the with a win Saturday in the
LONG POND, Pa. (AP) — party, a Super Bowl ring Truck Series race. He won
Kyle Busch and his Joe glistening on a finger he for the 192nd time over the
Gibbs Racing team were plugged into his ear to muf- Cup, Xfinity and Truck Se-
in sync everywhere on fle the noise as he talked ries.
the track but victory lane. on the phone. "How many can you get? I
When it was time to snap "Crazy, man. He's on a tear don't know. I'd like to think
photos of the winners, some right now," he said to the everything's achievable,"
members flashed one fin- other side. Busch said.
ger, others held up six. The milestones kept pil- He has Cup wins this year
Yes, that's one for the win ing up for Busch in a race at Texas, Bristol, Richmond,
at Pocono Raceway and where he matched Kevin Charlotte and Chicago-
six for the total this season. Harvick for most wins this land. He hasn't gone more
Busch then heard his name season. than three races without a
shouted from the top of the Busch tied three-time winning a race since April.
Richard Petty 200 Victory champ Tony Stewart for Busch had never won at Kyle Busch celebrates in Victory Lane after winning a NASCAR
Circle. He craned his neck 13th on the career wins list Pocono until July 2017. He's Cup Series auto race, Sunday, July 29, 2018, in Long Pond, Pa.
toward the section where with 49. won 10 races since that Associated Press
the words were flanked by "You keep reaching high- date and led more than
two images of Petty in his er up the ladder and you 2,000 laps. a minor afterthought. Busch zipped away and
feathered Stetson hat and keep reaching more mile- The only quibble with all this Harvick's pole qualifying he surged ahead again on
dark glasses. stone drivers," Busch said. success? run also was tossed out but the final restart in overtime
Busch still has a long chase "Tony Stewart is one of the "I do have a trophy case he led 30 laps and finished to add to the win total for
toward Petty on the Cup all-time best and one of problem," Busch said, fourth. NASCAR's Big Three: Busch,
wins list but it hasn't kept the drivers that I was a fan laughing. The race was red flagged Harvick and Martin Truex Jr.
the 33-year-old star from of growing up. It's awe- Busch was set to start sec- with six laps left in the wake have won 16 of the 21 Cup
thinking about how far he some to be able to tie him. ond but his No. 18 Toyota of a violent wreck by Darrell Series.
can get. There's many more. We was one of 13 cars dumped Wallace Jr. Wallace lost the "What's crazy is, how this
"The top! Pretty simple," want to keep going." to back of the pack for breaks in his No. 43 Chevro- year keeps going," Busch
Busch said. Gibbs fielded cars for both flunking post-qualifying in- let and the car shot across said. "Harvick gets one, we
Busch had no one to bump Busch and Stewart and spection. The penalized the grass and slammed get one, Truex gets one.
him out of the lead this said both drivers were born cars included Harvick, who into the wall. There were We're all back and forth."
week and stormed from to race. used a bump-and-run on several tense seconds dur- Busch held off a pair of
the bottom half of the field "Very talented, driven, they the 18 with seven laps left ing a wait for Wallace to young drivers aiming for
Sunday at Pocono Race- want to go to the front," last week at New Hamp- put down his window net. their first career Cup win.
way on the way to his sixth Gibbs said. "Both of them shire to knock Busch out of Once out, he sat on the Daniel Suarez, the first Mexi-
NASCAR Cup victory of the were real talented, that's contention. track and slumped against can driver to win the pole
season. for sure." Oh well. the car before he taken to for a Cup race, finished
While champagne was Busch, who won eight times Much like the qualifying the track medical center. second and Alex Bowman
sprayed on the podium, in 2008, made it look easy penalty, last week was just When the race resumed, was third.q

THOMAS that didn't stop some fans "I have my own goals and I
Continued from Page 18 from abusing the British kept doing what I'm doing
Thomas successfully de- team's riders throughout and kept focused on that.
fended his lead of 1 min- the three-week race. ... Obviously it's not nice
ute, 51 seconds over sec- "When there is negativ- to hear (the jeers) but I do
ond-placed Tom Dumoulin ity like that, it brings us as what I do and focus on my-
in the mostly ceremonial a team closer together," self," Thomas said. "It's easy
final stage. Froome said. "It feels like it's to get wrapped up in or
Four-time champion Chris us against the rest of the get angry or depressed but
Froome, Thomas's team- world. ... You can choose I stay in my own world."
mate, finished third, 2:24 to let it get to you or you Riding a yellow bicycle to
behind. Froome rode next can choose to let it moti- match his yellow jersey,
to Thomas as they crossed vate you, and we let it mo- Thomas shared glasses of
the line and applauded. tivate us." champagne with his team-
Thomas was a support rider Thomas stormed into the mates during the casual
during Froome's four victo- lead by winning back-to- Britain's Geraint Thomas, wearing the overall leader's yellow ride into Paris before buck-
ries but he emerged as Sky's back mountain stages in jersey, holds the Welsh flag as second place Netherlands' Tom ling down to keep up with
strongest rider in this race the Alps, including the icon- Dumoulin, left, and third place Britain's Chris Froome, applaud the other leaders on the
when Froome crashed ear- ic climb up Alpe d'Huez, on the podium after the twenty-first stage of the Tour de France jarring cobblestones of the
cycling race over 116 kilometers (72.1 miles) with start in Houilles
ly on and couldn't keep up then defended his advan- and finish on Champs-Elysees avenue in Paris, France, Sunday Champs-Elysees. "It's go-
in the mountains. tage in the Pyrenees. July 29, 2018. ing to take a while to sink
Sky — and consequently During the podium cere- Associated Press in," Thomas said. "Normally
Thomas — became a tar- mony, Thomas draped the that stage is really hard
get for many fans due to an flag of Wales over his shoul- within Sky. "We train super gan his career on the track, but today I just seemed to
asthma drug case involv- ders, then ended his victory hard and there's nothing the 32-year-old Thomas float around it. I had goose
ing Froome, stemming from speech with a mic drop. I can say that will prove it. helped Britain to gold med- bumps going around
last year's Spanish Vuelta. "All I can say is that I do it I've just got to keep doing als in team pursuit at the there. The support from the
Even though Froome was the right way," Thomas said what I'm doing. It will stand 2008 and 2012 Olympics Welsh, British flags. ... To ride
cleared of doping days when asked about con- the test of time." before turning his full atten- around wearing this (yellow
before the start of the Tour, cerns of alleged doping An all-around rider who be- tion to road racing. jersey) is a dream."q