2019 Final

Thanks for playing the 2019 edition of “The Motor Racing Game”. Results below. No plans for a 2020 season at this time, but if you’re interested in playing please go to http://www.roadracetracks.com/motorracinggame.shtml, click on “New Players Click Here” under “Who are you?” and sign up now!

Also please visit any one of our pages for all the year’s results and stats:

The original, WordPress: https://themotorracinggame.wordpress.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/The-Motor-Racing-Game-1527796030791889/
The “picks” site: http://www.roadracetracks.com/motorracinggame.shtml

Scores from week 45:

F1 Abu Dhabi:

Results – Week 45
Pos	F1
1	Lewis Hamilton
2	Max Verstappen
3	Charles Leclerc
4	Valtteri Bottas
5	Sebastian Vettel
6	Alexander Albon
7	Sergio Perez
8	Lando Norris
9	Daniil Kvyat
10	Carlos Sainz

The start of F1 race in Abu Dhabi saw a much-anticipated front row with Lewis Hamilton on pole and Max Verstappen along side him. For good measure the two Ferraris were on the row behind, but with a cloud over Charles Leclerc, 3^rd on the grid, who started with too much fuel onboard, something that the stewards would take a look at after the race. They stayed in order through the first few corners, but before the end of the first lap Leclerc showed the speed of the Ferrari by making an easy looking pass on Verstappen. Sebastian Vettel however, could not get around Verstappen. Once everyone switched to hard tires it seemed better handling for Verstappen’s Red Bull Honda let him get back around Leclerc and into second place. Meantime Vettel, who had started on soft tires, started to struggle and fell behind Alex Albon and a hard charging Valtteri Bottas, who had started at the back of the grid after an engine change. With two laps to go Vettel at least managed to get back around Albon, but Bottas had got much further ahead and in fact looked like he might challenge Leclerc for third. But it wasn’t to be, and at the finish the podium positions had Hamilton on the top step, Verstappen second, and Leclerc third. Bottas was fourth followed by Vettel and Albon. Carlos Sainz finished in tenth, one place ahead of Daniel Ricciardo. In the matter of Leclerc’s fuel issue, after the race it was announced he’d keep his third place with the team getting a fine instead.

Week-45 Player’s Scores	iom	seb
F1
Lewis Hamilton	50	50
Max Verstappen	40	40
Charles Leclerc	35	35
Valtteri Bottas	32	32
Sebastian Vettel	30	30
Alexander Albon	28	28
Carlos Sainz		20
Daniel Ricciardo	19
Totals:	234	235

Congratulations to Sebastian and his 26^th win of the year, with the obvious difference being between the Sainz and Ricciardo picks. Double congratulations to Sebastian for winning the season. That’s four years in a row that Sebastian has won the season. Many thanks to Sebastian for keeping the game alive for all these years, it’s been a lot of fun. Final standings…

Standings after week 45:
Pos	Pre	Name	Total	Diff	Latest	Prior	Diff
1	1	Sebastian	12854		235	12619
2	2	iomracer	12596	-258	234	12362	-257
3	3	New Players	11162	-1434	211	10951	-1411

2019 Week 44

Welcome to week 44 – no races this weekend, and next weekend will be the final one of this year’s TMRG with the final race of the major series that TMRG follows. It’s not too early to make picks for that one: the F1 at Yas Marina in Abu Dhabi. Picks can be made at: http://www.roadracetracks.com/motorracinggame.shtml.

Scores from week 43:

F1 Brazil, WRC Australia, Moto GP Spain, NASCAR Homestead:

Results – Week 43
Pos	F1	MotoGP	NASCAR	WRC
1	Max Verstappen	Marc Marquez	Kyle Busch	Cancelled
2	Pierre Gasly	Fabio Quartararo	Martin Truex Jr.
3	Carlos Sainz	Jack Miller	Erik Jones
4	Kimi Raikkonen	Andrea Dovizioso	Kevin Harvick
5	Antonio Giovinazzi	Alex Rins	Joey Logano
6	Daniel Ricciardo	Maverick Vinales	Clint Bowyer
7	Lewis Hamilton	Joan Mir	Ryan Newman
8	Lando Norris	Valentino Rossi	Austin Dillon
9	Sergio Perez	Aleix Espargaro	Alex Bowman
10	Daniil Kvyat	Pol Espargaro	Denny Hamlin

The F1 race in Brazil started a little processional, with the only real excitement taking place at the start as usual, and Charles Leclerc’s effort to move up from his 14^th place starting position after a 10-place penalty for an engine change. Pole setter Max Verstappen got the jump on everyone at the start, with Hamilton getting away well from third, and through turn two ahead of Sebastian Vettel for second place. Leclerc’s progress stalled after the team tried the strategy of putting on hard tires early and trying to stretch them to the end. It took until lap 54 (of 71) before things changed, when Valtteri Bottas’ engine failed (he finished classified in 20^th and last place) and a safety car came out. Verstappen stopped from the lead for soft tires, coming out of the pits in 2^nd, while Hamilton stayed out to inherit the lead on medium tires. On the restart Verstappen immediately got past Hamilton, while Alex Albon got past both Ferrari’s to take third. Then more excitement when Leclerc got around Vettel. As Vettel tried to repass, he moved over into Leclerc, touched, and both cars were out. Leclerc was furious at what looked like Vettel’s sour grapes move on his teammate. Vettel finished classified in 17^th, and Leclerc 18^th. Hamilton came in for softs despite it looking like there’d only be a couple of laps left after the restart. On the restart Hamilton immediately got around Pierre Gasly, and then went for a gap Albon left open. The two made contact and Albon was out (finished 14^th). The incident also allowed Gasly to repass Hamilton to finish in second-place. Hamilton was third across the line. After the race the officials decided that Hamilton charged too hard into the gap and so was at fault for the incident and handed him a five second penalty, dropping him to 7^th and giving third to Carlos Sainz.

The WRC event in Australia was cancelled after terrible bushfires in the area. With the fires still raging, and many homes and even lives being lost, it was the right decision to make. For the championships, it did mean that Hyundai took the manufacturer’s title.

At the MotoGP finale in Valencia, Spain, Fabio Quartararo once again this year took pole position, but was unable to convert it into a win. He did get off the line well, and although not first through turn one, he did get the lead by the end of the first lap, and held the lead for the first seven laps. But he could not hold off Marc Marquez, and ultimately Marquez rode away for an easy win. Quartararo did mange to hold off Jack Miller, who’d had a great qualifying to start third, and at the end finished third. Andrea Dovizioso finished just over a second adrift of Miller in fourth, with Alex Rins close behind in fifth. Then there was more than a five second gap to sixth-place finisher, Maverick Vinales. Marquez’s win gave the manufacturer’s title to Honda.

In the NASCAR finale in Homestead, Florida, four drivers vied for the Championship: Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin, Martin Truex Jr., and Kevin Harvick, and as the race got underway, they occupied the top four places. No real excitement through Stage 1, which was comfortably won by Truex. But then just before halfway in the race, disaster for Truex when his crew mistakenly put the left-side tires on the right-side of the car and vice versa. He could not safely run the car like this, so they had to bring Truex in for an unscheduled stop to correct the problem, putting him a lap down. He got lucky 12 laps later when a spin by Joe Nemechek brought out the caution and let him get his lap back. By the end of Stage 2 he’d climbed back to fourth-place. Kyle Busch won that stage followed by Harvick and Hamlin, so the final stage showdown between the four was set. With 45 laps to go Hamlin’s car starting venting water, indicating overheating. He pitted for new tires, they took off tape from the grill, and the car survived, but he was then a lap down. As the end of the race approached it was between Busch and Truex, but Busch had a healthy lead and Truex couldn’t close the gap before the laps ran out and Busch took the race and the title. Truex finished second, Harvick was fourth behind Erik Jones, and Hamlin finished 10^th.

Week-43 Player’s Scores	iom	seb
F1
Max Verstappen	50	50
Lewis Hamilton	26	26
Alexander Albon		16
Sebastian Vettel		13
Charles Leclerc	12	12
Valtteri Bottas	10	10
MotoGP
Marc Marquez	50	50
Fabio Quartararo	40
Andrea Dovizioso	32	32
Maverick Vinales	28	28
NASCAR
Kyle Busch	50
Kevin Harvick	32	32
Totals:	330	269

Congratulations to iomracer and his 16^th win of the year, with the difference arising from spreading his picks more across the series, while Sebastian’s picks in F1 fell through with all of the incidents in the closing stages of the race. No changes in positions in the season-long standings with just one week to go …

Standings after week 43:
Pos	Pre	Name	Total	Diff	Latest	Prior	Diff
1	1	Sebastian	12619		269	12350
2	2	iomracer	12362	-257	330	12032	-318
3	3	New Players	10951	-1411	242	10709	-1323

 

2019 Week 43

Welcome to the penultimate week for TMRG – week 43, and four races this weekend. F1 travels to Brazil; WRC has their finale in Australia with the manufacturer’s championship on the line; MotoGP also has their finale at Valencia in Spain, although their championships are already decided; and NASCAR has their finale at Homestead in Florida with four drivers contending for the championship. It should be noted that it is possible that the WRC event will be cancelled due to bush fires in the area that have been devastating to the affected communities. In the event that the rally is cancelled after the deadline, TMRG players will receive no points for any WRC drivers picked. Picks can be made at: http://www.roadracetracks.com/motorracinggame.shtml.

Scores from week 42:

WEC China, NASCAR Phoenix:

Results – Week 42
Pos	NASCAR	WEC
1	Denny Hamlin	1-Rebellion
2	Kyle Busch	8-Toyota Racing
3	Ryan Blaney	7-Toyota Racing
4	Kyle Larson	5-Team LNT
5	Kevin Harvick	6-Team LNT
6	Martin Truex Jr.	38-Jota Sport
7	Erik Jones	37-Jackie Chan DC
8	Clint Bowyer	22-United Autosports
9	Joey Logano	36-Signatech Alpine
10	Brad Keselowski	29-Team Nederland

At the WEC race in Shanghai, the #1 Rebellion took the victory after leading for almost three hours of the four-hour race. It was at the start they had their struggles, being fifth out of five LMP1 cars shortly after the start. But three of the other LMP1 cars had jumped the start, including the two Team LNT cars and the #7 Toyota, which necessitated a drive-through penalty for each of them. By the end though, the Rebellion had a reasonably comfortable lead of over a minute from the #8 Toyota, with the #7 Toyota finishing third. The two Team LNT cars had their most successful race to date, with the cars leading the race early on and finishing fourth and fifth, with the #5 ahead of the #6. In LMP2 most of the race looked like a fight between the #38 Jota Sport Oreca and the #37 Jackie Chan Oreca, after the #22 United Autosports Ligier had engine problems at the start of the race. The #38 won the class and sixth overall by 17s over the #37, while the #22 made a great comeback to get to within 5s of the Jackie Chan car. The #36 Signatech Alpine was a lap further down in seventh, and were themselves in a close race at the end with the #29 Team Nederland Dallara, who finished 3s behind the Alpine in eighth. The #42 Cool Racing Oreca had pole position in the LMP2 class, but an early incident morphed into an electrical problem that the team could not solve, and they retired after just 30 laps, finishing classified 30^th.

The NASCAR race at Phoenix in Arizona decided the final four drivers who will contend for the Championship at the final race next week in Homestead, Florida. Coming into the race, Kevin Harvick and Martin Truex Jr. were lock-ins for two of those four positions having won the last two races. Chase Elliott was in the worst position of the eight contenders, needing a win to get through to the final. The other five contenders were Kyle Busch, Joey Logano, Denny Hamlin, Ryan Blaney, and Kyle Larson, and once Elliott crashed on lap 166 (about the halfway point), the final two places were fought between those five. All five looked strong, particularly Busch, Logano, and Hamlin who traded the lead a number of times. But at the end it was Hamlin who got the job done by winning the race and an automatic pass into the final. Logano started fading in the second half of the race, eventually getting lapped by Hamlin; and although he got his lap back later on, it was not enough to take the final contender’s spot, which went to Busch with his second-place finish. So, next week the four that will battle it out for the Cup will be: Harvick (who finished 5^th), Truex (6^th), Hamlin, and Busch.

Week-42 Player’s Scores	iom	seb
NASCAR
Denny Hamlin	50	50
Kyle Busch	40	40
Kevin Harvick		30
Martin Truex Jr.	28
WEC
1-Rebellion	50	50
8-Toyota Racing	40	40
7-Toyota Racing	35	35
5-Team LNT	32
6-Team LNT	30
37-Jackie Chan DC	26	26
36-Signatech Alpine	22	22
29-Team Nederland		20
42-Cool Racing		2
Totals:	353	315

Congratulations to iomracer and his 15^th win of the year. Picking the two LNT cars in WEC was the winning choice. No changes in positions in the standings:

Standings after week 42:
Pos	Pre	Name	Total	Diff	Latest	Prior	Diff
1	1	Sebastian	12350		315	12035
2	2	iomracer	12032	-318	353	11679	-356
3	3	New Players	10709	-1323	284	10425	-1254

 

2019 Week 42

Welcome to week 42 – two races this weekend. NASCAR is on the short “flat” oval in Phoenix, Arizona for their last race to decide the final four who will contend for the Championship at Homestead; and the WEC is at Shanghai International in China. Picks can be made at: http://www.roadracetracks.com/motorracinggame.shtml.

Scores from week 41:

F1 United States, Moto GP Malaysia, NASCAR Texas:

Results – Week 41
Pos	F1	MotoGP	NASCAR
1	Valtteri Bottas	Maverick Vinales	Kevin Harvick
2	Lewis Hamilton	Marc Marquez	Aric Almirola
3	Max Verstappen	Andrea Dovizioso	Daniel Suarez
4	Charles Leclerc	Valentino Rossi	Joey Logano
5	Alexander Albon	Alex Rins	Alex Bowman
6	Daniel Ricciardo	Franco Morbidelli	Martin Truex Jr.
7	Lando Norris	Fabio Quartararo	Kyle Busch
8	Carlos Sainz	Jack Miller	Ryan Blaney
9	Nico Hulkenberg	Danilo Petrucci	Kurt Busch
10	Sergio Perez	Joan Mir	Erik Jones

At the U.S. F1 Grand Prix at Circuit of the Americas in Texas, Lewis Hamilton had a subdued qualifying and found himself fifth on the grid behind his teammate and pole setter Valtteri Bottas, the two Ferraris, and Max Verstappen. But he got a great start and was soon ahead of the Ferraris with Verstappen and Bottas ahead of him. Behind him, Alex Albon got squeezed through turn one between Sebastian Vettel and Carlos Sainz, resulting in a heavy impact with Sainz, and necessitating a trip to the pits. Vettel also reported damage, but not enough to pit. Eight laps later though, Vettel’s Ferrari rear suspension collapsed and he was out, and a 20^th place finish. As the race wore on, it soon became clear that Hamilton was on a one-stop race strategy while Bottas and Verstappen were on a two-stopper. But it made little difference, as all three drivers were pretty close together in the final laps. Because of the two-stopper, Bottas had to get around Hamilton, which he did, and went on to win the race. Verstappen too needed to get around Hamilton, but ran out of laps to get the move done, and had to settle for third. Second place for Hamilton was enough to make him six-time world champion. Albon deservedly won the driver of the race fan vote as he climbed from the back of the field to finish fifth.

Qualifying for the MotoGP in Sepang, Malaysia, produced a surprise with Marc Marquez crashing out and having to start 11^th on the grid. No surprise for pole position though, as Fabio Quartararo once again was fastest. But it was Maverick Vinales who led after lap one, and never lost the lead, eventually winning by a comfortable 3s over Marquez who showed why he’s world champion with a great recovery ride. Marquez even managed to pull a gap over Andrea Dovizioso and Valentino Rossi, who had a great battle for the final podium position, with Dovizioso eventually coming out on top. Quartararo meanwhile could not reproduce his qualifying pace, and gradually lost positions to finish seventh.

In a repeat of last year, Kevin Harvick won the NASCAR race at Texas Motor Speedway. He was up front right from the start, and won Stage 1, and was in the top five for Stage 2 which was won by Aric Almirola. He did need to recover from a pit penalty that put him at the back of the lead line shortly after the start of the final stage, but he always looked like he had the speed, so it was no surprise to see him at the front at the end. He joins last week’s winner Martin Truex Jr. with an automatic pass into the final race in two weeks’ time as one of the four who will challenge for the cup. Chase contender Chase Elliott had another bad race, hitting the wall after just nine laps, losing six laps, and finishing a dismal 32^nd. He’ll need to win the final race next week to stay in the running for the cup. Among the other five contenders, Kyle Busch had a slow pit stop with about 20 laps to go, and that cost him a higher finish, but still, 7^th across the line was good enough to put him in a strong position with only next week to decide the final four. Joey Logano also put himself in a great position by finishing three better than Busch in 4^th place. The three who are now on the back-foot (besides Elliott) are Denny Hamlin, Ryan Blaney, and Kyle Larson, all who will likely need to win next week to stay in contention, barring a catastrophe by Busch or Logano.

Week-41 Player’s Scores	iom	seb
F1
Valtteri Bottas	50	50
Lewis Hamilton	40	40
Max Verstappen	35	35
Charles Leclerc	32	32
Alexander Albon		30
Sebastian Vettel	10	10
MotoGP
Maverick Vinales	50	50
Marc Marquez	40	40
Andrea Dovizioso	35	35
Fabio Quartararo	26	26
NASCAR
Kyle Busch	26
Totals:	344	348

Congratulations to Sebastian and his 25^th win of the year and four in a row. Obviously, Sebastian’s pick of Albon in F1 who finished 5^th bettered iomracer’s pick of Busch in NASCAR who finished 7^th. No changes in positions in the standings …

Standings after week 41:
Pos	Pre	Name	Total	Diff	Latest	Prior	Diff
1	1	Sebastian	12035		348	11687
2	2	iomracer	11679	-356	344	11335	-352
3	3	New Players	10425	-1254	310	10115	-1220

 

2019 Week 41

Welcome to week 41 – three races this weekend. F1 travels north from Mexico into Texas for the U.S. Grand Prix at the Circuit of the Americas; MotoGP is in Sepang in Malaysia; and NASCAR has their second “race of eight” at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth, Texas. Picks can be made at: http://www.roadracetracks.com/motorracinggame.shtml.

Scores from week 40:

F1 Mexico, WRC Spain, MotoGP Australia, NASCAR Martinsville:

Results – Week 40
Pos	F1	WRC	MotoGP	NASCAR
1	Lewis Hamilton	Thierry Neuville	Marc Marquez	Martin Truex Jr.
2	Sebastian Vettel	Ott Tanak	Cal Crutchlow	William Byron
3	Valtteri Bottas	Dani Sordo	Jack Miller	Brad Keselowski
4	Charles Leclerc	Sebastien Loeb	Francesco Bagnaia	Denny Hamlin
5	Alexander Albon	Jari-Matti Latvala	Joan Mir	Ryan Blaney
6	Max Verstappen	Elfyn Evans	Andrea Iannone	Kurt Busch
7	Sergio Perez	Teemu Suninen	Andrea Dovizioso	Kevin Harvick
8	Daniel Ricciardo	Sebastien Ogier	Valentino Rossi	Joey Logano
9	Pierre Gasly	Mads Ostberg	Alex Rins	Kyle Larson
10	Nico Hulkenberg	Eric Camili	Aleix Espargaro	Ryan Newman

As usual in the F1 Mexican Grand Prix, it was a chaotic start. The Ferraris had the front row with Charles Leclerc on pole, with Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen on the second row, after Verstappen was handed a three-place penalty for failing to slow for a yellow flag during the final qualifying session. On the start Hamilton got a nice tow to get alongside Vettel, at which point Vettel basically drove Hamilton off the track. That left Hamilton and Verstappen side-by-side and they touched between turns one and two and both went off track. Hamilton came out of the incident in fifth and Verstappen eight. Worse for Verstappen he was behind Bottas, and in his effort to get past made contact and punctured his tire, putting him into the pits and out in last place. With Leclerc and Vettel in positions one and two Ferrari decided to split them in pit strategy: one stop for Vettel and two for Leclerc. Neither worked. Hamilton did a one-stop and undercut Vettel to take the lead and then the win. He could have won the title with a poor race by Bottas, but Bottas did fine finishing in third-place behind Vettel and ahead of Leclerc. Verstappen managed to climb through the field to a sixth-place finish.

WRC was at the mixed surface event in Spain, and like last year Sebastian Loeb was in the event, this time in a Hyundai. Despite not being in a WRC car since June, by the end of Friday Loeb had the rally lead (definitely the goat). In the three-way battle for the championship Sebastian Ogier only got into stage two before disaster and hydraulic failure put him 3-½ minutes down in 28^th place. It essentially put him out of the championship leaving it between Ott Tanak and Thierry Neuville, with Neuville needing to win. Neuville took the lead on Saturday, and soon had Loeb and Dani Sordo (another rally leader at one point) in second and third, holding off Tanak. But a Saturday afternoon charge saw Tanak climb to third, which meant that he could take the title with a good power stage result. And he delivered by winning the power stage and hence the 2019 driver’s championship. Neuville did all he could by winning the rally. Tanak’s Power Stage performance also put him ahead of Sordo for second place in the rally, by just 0.4s. Loeb was third, boosting Hyundai’s position as the leading manufacturer. With a string of fastest stage time Ogier eventually climbed through the field to finish 8^th.

At the Moto GP event in Australia, the two front-row riders of Marc Marquez and Maverick Vinales had slow starts to the race allowing Valentino Rossi to take the lead. Further back Danilo Petrucci high-sided in turn two and took out Fabio Quartararo in his crash, with the two finishing classified 21^st and 20^th respectively. Rossi lead for the first three laps then started to drop back, first being passed by Cal Crutchlow, then Andrea Iannone, who himself got around Crutchlow for the lead. But the close racing wasn’t finished with Maverick Vinales moving to the front with Marquez on his tail. These two then started to gap the field, but stayed in close formation with one another. Marquez left it to the last lap to get around Vinales into turn four. At turn 10 Vinales tried to take the lead back again but dropped his bike, crashing out of the race and into a 17^th place finish. So, Marquez ended up with a comfortable margin of 11s over second-place finisher Crutchlow, with Jack Miller coming through to take third-place a further 3s back. Andrea Dovizioso had a quiet race finishing 7^th, one place ahead of the fading Rossi.

The NASCAR race was at the short track of Martinsville in Virginia for 500 laps, and it was a relatively quiet Stage 1 won by Martin Truex Jr. Truex stayed up front for the next stage 2 win, again with not many cautions, in an unusually low-incident race for Martinsville. As the racing got a little more intense in the last stage there were more incidents and cautions, but all was happening behind Truex whose speed nobody seemed to have an answer to, and he duly won the race and a ticket into the final four for the season finale in three-races time. Most of the playoff contenders occupied the top 10 positions, with Denny Hamlin finishing 4^th behind William Byron and Brad Keselowski, Denny Hamlin in 5^th, and Kevin Harvick, Joey Logano, and Kyle Larson finishing 7^th, 8^th, and 9^th respectively. The two drivers starting this round of three races on the back foot were Kyle Busch who finished in a not too bad 14^th, and Chase Elliott who had a disaster with a broken axle and a 36^th place finish.

Week-40 Player’s Scores	iom	seb
F1
Lewis Hamilton	50	50
Sebastian Vettel		40
Valtteri Bottas	35	35
Charles Leclerc	32	32
Max Verstappen		28
WRC
Thierry Neuville	50	50
Ott Tanak	40	40
Sebastien Ogier	24	24
MotoGP
Marc Marquez	50	50
Andrea Dovizioso		26
Maverick Vinales	13
Fabio Quartararo	10
NASCAR
Kyle Busch	16
Totals:	320	375

Congratulations to Sebastian and his 24^th win of the season and three in-a-row. It was a big margin of victory – 55 points – helped in part by not just good picks from him, but crashes among the drivers and riders of iomracer’s picks. No changes in positions in the season long standings, but with only four scoring weeks left, Sebastian’s lead seems unassailable …

Standings after week 40:
Pos	Pre	Name	Total	Diff	Latest	Prior	Diff
1	1	Sebastian	11687		375	11312
2	2	iomracer	11335	-352	320	11015	-297
3	3	New Players	10115	-1220	288	9827	-1188

2019 Week 40

Welcome to week 40 – four races this weekend. In a reversal of prior years, F1 starts in the continent of America in Mexico City for the Mexican Grand Prix, and will come to the U.S. the following week; Sebastian Loeb returns to Citroen as WRC takes on the mixed surface in Catalunya, Spain for the final time (the event is dropped from the calendar for 2020); MotoGP is “down under” on Philip Island in Australia; and NASCAR has their first of three races in their “round of eight” at Martinsville in Virginia. Picks can be made at: http://www.roadracetracks.com/motorracinggame.shtml.

Scores from week 39:

MotoGP Japan, NASCAR Kansas City:

Results – Week 39
Pos	MotoGP	NASCAR
1	Marc Marquez	Denny Hamlin
2	Fabio Quartararo	Chase Elliott
3	Andrea Dovizioso	Kyle Busch
4	Maverick Vinales	Kurt Busch
5	Cal Crutchlow	William Byron
6	Franco Morbidelli	Martin Truex Jr.
7	Alex Rins	Erik Jones
8	Joan Mir	Clint Bowyer
9	Danilo Petrucci	Kevin Harvick
10	Jack Miller	Jimmie Johnson

Once again Marc Marquez dominated the MotoGP race, this time at Motegi in Japan. Marquez got the best start, and despite Fabio Quartararo briefly getting the lead in the first lap, Marquez soon had a grip on the top spot that never really looked threatened. Similarly, Quartararo didn’t look threatened from behind, and duly finished second. The battle for third was much more exciting with multiple riders holding the position until wearing tires caused Franco Morbidelli and Jack Miller to drop back, leaving the final podium position between Andrea Dovizioso and Maverick Vinales, with Dovizioso using superior straight-line bike speed to keep Vinales at bay. Cal Crutchlow also got around Morbidelli to take fifth, with Morbidelli sixth. Miller dropped all the way to 10^th, being passed by Alex Rins, Joan Mir, and Danilo Petrucci who finished 7^th, 8^th, and 9^th respectively. Valentino Rossi had a miserable weekend, running in the race in 11^th until he crashed out with four laps remaining, finishing classified in 21^st place.

The NASCAR race in Kansas City set the field of eight who will compete in the next three races to be in the final four in the series finale. Four of those eight were guaranteed to be in the next round: Kyle Larson and Ryan Blaney who won the last two races, and Denny Hamlin and Martin Truex Jr. (finished 6^th) who had an unassailable number of points. Kyle Busch (3^rd) and Kevin Harvick (9^th) both had big points leads over the remaining four, and needed a disaster to fail to get through, and both put in a solid race. So, that left Brad Keselowski, Joey Logano, Chase Elliott, Alex Bowman, Clint Bowyer, and William Byron to fight for two slots. Logano helped himself with 10 bonus points (equivalent to 10 positions on the track) by winning Stage 1. He finished 17^th to secure one of the two spots. Denny Hamlin won Stage 2. Keselowski dropped a lap on the leaders in the final Stage, while Elliott ran inside the top 10, making things very close between them for the final spot. In the final pit stop Keselowski stayed out to regain his lap whereas Elliott came in for four tires. The four tires allowed Elliott to get to second place in the race, then with two laps to go there was a wreck to take the race into overtime. This allowed Keselowski into the pits for fresh tires, and with everyone else who came in, it put Keselowski one point ahead of Elliott. Another wreck ensued, and on the restart, Keselowski started to quickly lose places. He finished 19^th and Elliott finished 2^nd, which was enough for Elliott to clinch the final playoff spot. Hamlin won the race.

Week-39 Player’s Scores	iom	seb
MotoGP
Marc Marquez	50	50
Fabio Quartararo	40	40
Andrea Dovizioso	35	35
Maverick Vinales	32	32
Franco Morbidelli	28
Alex Rins	26	26
Valentino Rossi	9	9
NASCAR
Kyle Busch		35
Martin Truex Jr.	28	28
Kevin Harvick	22	22
Joey Logano		13
Brad Keselowski	11
Totals:	281	290

Congratulations to Sebastian and his 23^rd win of the year. The difference in MotoGP picks and NASCAR picks between Sebastian and iomracer went in Sebastian’s favor to give him the victory. No changes in positions in the season-long standings …

Standings after week 39:
Pos	Pre	Name	Total	Diff	Latest	Prior	Diff
1	1	Sebastian	11312		290	11022
2	2	iomracer	11015	-297	281	10734	-288
3	3	New Players	9827	-1188	253	9574	-1160

2019 Week 39

Welcome to week 39 – two races this weekend. MotoGP is at Motegi in Japan, and NASCAR has their final race of what is essentially their quarter finals, at Kansas Speedway, in which the 12 drivers in contention for the championship will be reduced to 8. Picks can be made at: http://www.roadracetracks.com/motorracinggame.shtml.

Scores from week 38:

F1 Japan, NASCAR Talladega, USCC Road Atlanta:

Results – Week 38
Pos	F1	NASCAR	USCC
1	Valtteri Bottas	Ryan Blaney	31-Whelen Engineering Racing
2	Sebastian Vettel	Ryan Newman	10-Konica Minolta
3	Lewis Hamilton	Denny Hamlin	7-Penske
4	Alexander Albon	Aric Almirola	6-Penske
5	Carlos Sainz	Michael McDowell	84-JDC-Miller Motosports
6	Daniel Ricciardo	Austin Dillon	77-Mazda Motorsports
7	Charles Leclerc	Corey LaJoie	5-Mustang Sampling Racing
8	Pierre Gasly	Chase Elliott	54-CORE Autosport
9	Sergio Perez	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.	85-JDC-Miller Motosports
10	Nico Hulkenberg	Ty Dillon	62-Risi Competizione

At the F1 race in Japan, qualifying and race were both on Sunday due to hurricane Hagibis cancelling Saturday events, and Sunday morning looked very good for Ferrari who took the top two places on the grid. But as the lights went out for the start of the race, it all went quickly wrong for Ferrari. Pole setter Sebastian Vettel jumped the start, tried to correct by stopping and going again, which let Valtteri Bottas into the lead. Charles Leclerc also had a slow start which let Max Verstappen around the outside of turn two, at which point Leclerc ran wide and the two collided, causing Verstappen to spin and caused damage to the Ferrari necessitating a pit stop. Unfortunately, the damage to Verstappen’s car was too much and he retired after 16 laps leaving him classified 20^th and last. Vettel’s stop-and-go was enough to avoid a false-start penalty, so he at least had second place. Lewis Hamilton was third for most of the race and put Vettel under some pressure in the closing laps, but couldn’t make the passing move. Alex Albon had a good race despite an altercation with Lando Norris and finished fourth. Leclerc managed to get back to 6^th, but after the race the officials gave him a 15s penalty for the incident with Verstappen, dropping him to 7^th behind Daniel Ricciardo. These finishing positions plus Hamilton’s fastest lap gave Mercedes the manufacturers title, and left the drivers title between Hamilton and Bottas, with Hamilton still with a big lead.

The restrictor-plate race for NASCAR on the superspeedway of Talladega started on Sunday as scheduled, and as the racing got underway Ryan Blaney didn’t take too long to get to the front. He had some trouble with a spin entering the pits for a green-flag stop from the lead, and getting a pit speeding penalty. That allowed William Byron to come to the front and take the Stage 1 win. Shortly after that the rains came and didn’t subside, so the remainder of the race was postponed to Monday. Racing resumed with lap 58, and it took just 2 laps before everyone came in for fresh tires. First out of the pits was Blaney, so starting in a similar fashion to Sunday, at the front of the field after just a few laps. He held the lead for quite a while, but as Stage 2 came to a close Alex Bowman managed to get himself in the lead. He threw a block on Logano which didn’t work out – Bowman lost it and a big wreck ensured taking out Bowman, Jimmie Johnson, Chase Elliott, Kyle Larson, and Martin Truex Jr. (all but Johnson are playoff contenders). That gave the Stage 2 victory to Clint Bowyer. With 28 laps to go Logano was in second when one of his rear tires let go, and the next big wreck of the race followed. Among the playoff contenders, that one took out William Byron as well as Logano. The final big wreck came with 7 laps to go when Kurt Busch looked like he ran into the back of his brother Kyle’s car putting him into a spin at the front of the field. Out was Kyle (he finished 19^th) and Brad Keselowski among others. As the field approached the checkered flag it was Blaney and Ryan Newman side-by-side, and Blaney edged ahead by inches for the win and the automatic ticket into the next round (of 8).

The USCC was at Road Atlanta in Georgia for their finale. It was a pretty clean 10 hours with only four all-course yellows, and none of them were for anything serious. The #6 Penske Acura driven by Juan-Pablo Montoya, Dane Cameron and Simon Pagenaud only needed an 8^th place finish or better to win the title for the two former drivers, whereas the #31 Whelen Cadillac driven by Filipe Nasr, Eric Curran, and Pipo Derani really needed the win, with a poor performance by the #6 to take the title. The #31 did indeed get the lead late in the race and held it for the win. But the #6 looked to be focused on that title, dropping a lap to the leaders in the final 3 hours, but never dropping below 6^th place, and finishing 4^th, giving the title to the two drivers, Penske, and Acura. The #10 Konica Minolta Cadillac took second place in the race, with the #7 Penske Acura taking third. Also of note, Bill Auberlen won the GTD class in the Turner Motorsport BMW, tying Scott Pruett’s all-time record of 60 wins in the series, and Auberlen is expected to be racing next year too.

Week-38 Player’s Scores	iom	seb
F1
Valtteri Bottas	50	50
Sebastian Vettel	40	40
Lewis Hamilton	35	35
Alexander Albon		32
Charles Leclerc	26	26
Max Verstappen	10	10
NASCAR
Kyle Busch	11
USCC
31-Whelen Engineering Racing	50	50
10-Konica Minolta	40	40
7-Penske	35	35
6-Penske	32	32
Totals:	329	350

Congratulations to Sebastian and his 22^nd win of the year. Albon in F1 did well for Sebastian, while Busch got involved in a NASCAR wreck to rule out a good week for iomracer. No changes in position in the year-long standings …

Standings after week 38:
Pos	Pre	Name	Total	Diff	Latest	Prior	Diff
1	1	Sebastian	11022		350	10672
2	2	iomracer	10734	-288	329	10405	-267
3	3	New Players	9574	-1160	296	9278	-1127

2019 Week 38

Welcome to week 38 – three races this weekend. F1 is at Suzuka in Japan; NASCAR is at Talladega in Alabama; and USCC has their finale at Road Atlanta with the 10 hour Petit Le Mans. Picks can be made at: http://www.roadracetracks.com/motorracinggame.shtml.

Scores from week 37:

WRC Great Britain, MotoGP Thailand, NASCAR Dover, WEC Japan:
WEC

Results – Week 37
Pos	WRC	MotoGP	NASCAR
1	Ott Tanak	Marc Marquez	Kyle Larson	8-Toyota Racing
2	Thierry Neuville	Fabio Quartararo	Martin Truex Jr.	7-Toyota Racing
3	Sebastien Ogier	Maverick Vinales	Alex Bowman	1-Rebellion
4	Kris Meeke	Andrea Dovizioso	Kevin Harvick	29-Team Nederland
5	Elfyn Evans	Alex Rins	Denny Hamlin	37-Jackie Chan DC
6	Andreas Mikkelsen	Franco Morbidelli	Kyle Busch	22-United Autosports
7	Pontus Tidemand	Joan Mir	Matt DiBenedetto	33-High Class Racing
8	Craig Breen	Valentino Rossi	Jimmie Johnson	42-Cool Racing
9	Kalle Rovanpera	Danilo Petrucci	Kurt Busch	6-Team LNT
10	Petter Solberg	Takaaki Nakagami	Clint Bowyer	36-Signatech Alpine

Muddy and slippery roads throughout the WRC Rally of Great Britain in Wales made for close stage times throughout the event. Four drivers battled for the win, with just about 10s between each of them at the end. Kris Meeke led for most of Friday, but slipped down through the following days to finish fourth. The three championship contenders filled the other three places, and despite the best efforts of Sebastian Ogier and Thierry Neuville, neither could stop Ott Tanak from taking the lead of the rally on the last stage of Friday, and staying on top for the rally victory at the end. With Neuville finishing second, and Ogier third, it puts Tanak in a commanding lead of the championship with just two rounds left. Two other interesting results were a win for Kalle Rovanpera in WRC2 Pro, which gave him that class’ championship title at just aged 19, so don’t be surprised to see him in a WRC car next year, and a WRC2 win and 10^th overall for Petter Solberg in his final rally.

In the MotoGP race in Thailand at the Chang International Circuit, Fabio Quartararo once again took pole position in a MotoGP race and headed the pack through turn one. Marc Marquez and Maverick Vinales were close behind in second and third. The three pulled away from the rest of the field, but all the action was between Quartararo and Marquez who stayed in tight formation for the entire race, while Vinales dropped a little back. Marquez had a couple of goes at getting around Quartararo, but he only made it stick on the last lap, to take the win by just 0.17s. Vinales was 1.4s back in third. There was then an 11s gap to a close battle between Andrea Dovizioso and Alex Rins, with the former taking fourth place by just 0.23s. Danilo Petrucci had a quiet day starting in 5^th and finishing 9^th. Despite four rounds still to go in the championship, Marquez’s points at Thailand were enough for an unassailable lead, and hence the world title – his sixth, just one short of Valentino Rossi (who finished 8^th), and two short of Giacomo Agostini.

NASCAR had their first of three races in the “round of 12” at Dover, Delaware. Within ten laps two of those drivers were out of the race, with Joey Logano breaking something in the car even before the green flag, and Chase Elliott blowing up his engine on just lap 9. Denny Hamlin dominated stage 1, leading almost all the laps. He then dominated most of stage 2, just to have Martin Truex Jr. get around him with a few laps left in the stage to take the stage victory. Kyle Larson lead the race off pit lane after the Stage 2 stop, and then he dominated the final stage to take the win over Martin Truex Jr., and Alex Bowman in third. Kyle Busch finished sixth and was one of only eight drivers to finish on the lead lap after a race of few cautions.

WEC was at Fuji race circuit in Japan, and the race started with the #8 Toyota on pole position. They got the jump at the start and never looked back, taking a relatively easy 34s victory over their #7 teammates, despite having to take a drive-though penalty for speeding on pit lane. The #1 Rebellion finished third, but was two laps adrift of the Toyotas. That was better than the other two LMP1 cars of team LNT, both of which had technical problems during the race, plus a six-minute stop-and-go penalty for the #6, which left them 14 laps down in 9^th, with their #5 teammates 16 laps down in 11^th. That meant that the lead LMP2 car #29 Team Nederland took fourth place.

Week-37 Player’s Scores	iom	seb
WRC
Ott Tanak	50	50
Thierry Neuville	40	40
Sebastien Ogier	35	35
MotoGP
Marc Marquez	50	50
Maverick Vinales	35
Andrea Dovizioso	32	32
Alex Rins		30
Danilo Petrucci		22
NASCAR
Kyle Busch	28
WEC
8-Toyota Racing	50	50
7-Toyota Racing	40	40
1-Rebellion	35	35
Totals:	395	384

Congratulations to iomracer and his fourteenth win of the year. His pick of Vinales in MotoGP was the dominant difference in picks for the win. No changes in positions in the season-long standings …

Standings after week 37:
Pos	Pre	Name	Total	Diff	Latest	Prior	Diff
1	1	Sebastian	10672		384	10288
2	2	iomracer	10405	-267	395	10010	-278
3	3	New Players	9278	-1127	346	8932	-1078

 

2019 Week 37

Welcome to week 37 – four races this weekend. WRC is in Wales for the Rally of Great Britain; MotoGP is in Buriram, Thailand; NASCAR is on the short track in Dover, Delaware; and WEC is at Mt. Fuji in Japan. Picks can be made at:  http://www.roadracetracks.com/motorracinggame.shtml.

Scores from week 36:

F1 Russia, NASCAR North Carolina:
F1NASCAR

Results – Week 36
Pos
1	Lewis Hamilton	Chase Elliott
2	Valtteri Bottas	Alex Bowman
3	Charles Leclerc	Kevin Harvick
4	Max Verstappen	Clint Bowyer
5	Alexander Albon	Brad Keselowski
6	Carlos Sainz	William Byron
7	Sergio Perez	Martin Truex Jr.
8	Lando Norris	Ryan Blaney
9	Kevin Magnussen	Jimmie Johnson
10	Nico Hulkenberg	Joey Logano

At the F1 race in Sochi, Russia, the Ferraris got away at the start ahead of the Mercedes. Due to the long drag to the first real corner, Sebastian Vettel got the slipstream on his teammate to take the lead despite starting third on the grid. He then quickly pulled out a gap, derailing what appeared to be a Ferrari pre-race plan to let Charles Leclarc have the lead regardless of how the start unfolded. Eventually the two drivers swapped around when Leclarc came to the pits first for the undercut. But then Vettel’s car failed (classified in 18^th place at the end) causing a safety care after he pulled over. Lewis Hamilton immediately came to the pits, followed by Valtteri Bottas, allowing both to come out ahead of Leclerc. That might sound unfair, but Mercedes had started the race on the longer lasting medium tires, whereas the Ferraris had started on the softs, so it could be argued that it was payoff from a Mercedes tactical decision. That was the finishing podium: Hamilton, Bottas, and Leclerc. Max Verstappen had a bit of a lonely fourth place, faster than the rest of the field, but unable to keep up with the Mercedes and Ferraris. Alex Albon had a great race, starting last from the pits after a pre-race penalty, but made his way through the field to finish behind his teammate in fifth. Carlos Sainz had a steady race, starting fifth on the grid and at the end only losing one position to finish sixth. Pierre Gasly had an underwhelming weekend, starting 16^th on the grid and finishing 14^th.

NASCAR was on the “roval” at the Charlotte Motor Speedway in Concord, North Carolina. This was the last race of the first round of the playoffs. Kurt Busch and Eric Jones needed to win to stay in the Chase, and neither did, finishing 20^th and 40^th (last) respectively. The other two to drop were to supposed to come from a group of five: Ryan Blaney, Aric Almirola, William Byron, Alex Bowman, and Clint Bowyer. But Ryan Newman, who started ahead of these five in the standings, had a disastrous race with multiple spins, a stall on the pit road, and collisions with other cars. He finished 32^nd, and with Bowyer finishing second, it meant Newman was out of the Chase by just one point. With Almirola finishing in 14^th place, it wasn’t enough for him, so he was out too. Up at the front of the race, Chase Elliott had the lead for a long stretch, winning both the first and second stages, but hit the tire barrier on lap 64 (of 110) dropping him well down the order. Kevin Harvick, who was looking strong all race took over the led for a long stint. But Elliott wasn’t finished, and slowly worked his way back to the front, taking back the lead with five laps to go, and on to the win. Kyle Busch had a flat tire during green flag racing, and then a pit penalty, and with temperatures inside the car pushing 120F, and nothing for him to play for, he quit, and finished classified in 37^th place. Denny Hamlin and Jimmie Johnson got together early in the race, putting both well down the order. Hamlin spun twice more during the race, resulting in a 19^th place finish. Johnson recovered to a 9^th place finish. Martin Truex Jr. had to start at the back of the field, and in the early laps missed the chicane twice, resulting in stop-and-go penalties both times. But he recovered and got back into the top 10 where he stayed for virtually the entire race, finishing 7^th. All this means that the 12 drivers to move on to the next round of three races in the Chase are: Kyle Busch, Martin Truex Jr., Denny Hamlin, Joey Logano, Kevin Harvick, Chase Elliott, Brad Keselowski, Kyle Larson, Alex Bowman, Ryan Blaney, William Byron, and Clint Bowyer.

Week-36 Player’s Scores	iom	seb
F1
Lewis Hamilton	50	50
Valtteri Bottas	40	40
Charles Leclerc	35	35
Max Verstappen	32	32
Alexander Albon	30	30
Carlos Sainz		28
Pierre Gasly	16
Sebastian Vettel	12	12
NASCAR
Martin Truex Jr.	26
Jimmie Johnson		22
Denny Hamlin	11	11
Kyle Busch	1	1
Totals:	253	261

Congratulations to Sebastian and his 21^st win of the year. The difference in F1 picks and NASCAR picks between Sebastian and iomracer went in Sebastian’s favor to give him the victory. No changes in positions in the season long standings …

Standings after week 36:
Pos	Pre	Name	Total	Diff	Latest	Prior	Diff
1	1	Sebastian	10288		261	10027
2	2	iomracer	10010	-278	253	9757	-270
3	3	New Players	8932	-1078	228	8704	-1053

2019 Week 36

Welcome to week 36 – two races this weekend. F1 is in Sochi in Russia; and NASCAR has their final race of the first round of the Chase for the Cup in Charlotte, North Carolina, which means four of the sixteen drivers vying for the Cup will be eliminated. As with last year, the NASCAR race will be on Charlotte Motor Speedway’s “roval”, comprising of parts of both the circuit’s road race track and parts of the oval. Picks can be made at: http://www.roadracetracks.com/motorracinggame.shtml.

Scores from week 35:

F1 Singapore, MotoGP Spain, NASCAR Richmond, Indycar Monterey:
Indycar

Results – Week 35
Pos	F1	MotoGP	NASCAR
1	Sebastian Vettel	Marc Marquez	Martin Truex Jr.	Colton Herta
2	Charles Leclerc	Andrea Dovizioso	Kyle Busch	Will Power
3	Max Verstappen	Jack Miller	Denny Hamlin	Scott Dixon
4	Lewis Hamilton	Maverick Vinales	Brad Keselowski	Simon Pagenaud
5	Valtteri Bottas	Fabio Quartararo	Ryan Newman	Felix Rosenqvist
6	Alexander Albon	Cal Crutchlow	Kyle Larson	Alexander Rossi
7	Lando Norris	Aleix Espargaro	Kevin Harvick	Sebastien Bourdais
8	Pierre Gasly	Valentino Rossi	Clint Bowyer	Josef Newgarden
9	Nico Hulkenberg	Alex Rins	Daniel Suarez	James Hinchcliffe
10	Antonio Giovinazzi	Takaaki Nakagami	Jimmie Johnson	Ryan Hunter-Reay

The F1 race around the street of Marina Bay in Singapore was expected to be a strategy race around tires and tire management, and taking any opportunities that the inevitable safety cars would bring. Charles Leclerc had pole position and got away first, but Ferrari brought his teammate, Sebastian Vettel into the pits first, and that proved to be costly for Leclerc who found himself behind Vettel after his own pitstop. He was not happy. Mercedes decision to leave Lewis Hamilton out on track for many laps after the Ferraris pitted was puzzling, and the team even had to ask his teammate, Valtteri Bottas to slow down just before Hamilton’s stop, to make sure Hamilton didn’t come out of the pits behind him. The late stop dropped Hamilton from second place to fourth, behind Max Verstappen. Then the safety cars started to come out when the mid-field and lower cars started getting into each other, or having mechanical issues on track. But it made no difference up front, with the lead cars staying in order until the end, with Vettel winning ahead of Leclerc and Verstappen, followed by Hamilton and Bottas. Alex Albon had a great race to finish the best of the rest in sixth place.

At the MotoGP race in Aragon in Spain, it all seemed easy for Marc Marquez. He got pole position, and at the start of the race he got away cleanly, immediately opened a gap, and no one got anywhere close to him, giving him an easy victory. It was much more of a battle for the next positions, with Fabio Quartararo getting the early edge, but he was soon passed by Jack Miller and Maverick Vinales. It took eight laps, but eventually Vinales got around Miller for second place. Andrea Dovizioso then started getting into the mix, first getting around Miller, then as the race started to near the end, he got around Vinales, and held on to finish second. Vinales must have used his tires, because with just three laps to go, Miller got back around Vinales to take the final podium position. Alex Rins got into Franco Morbidelli on the opening lap, which resulted in a penalty for Rins which cost him a lap. He rode hard though to gain back as much as he could, and a ninth-place finish was his reward.

At the second race of the NASCAR “playoffs” at Richmond, Martin Truex Jr. proved that he is the driver to beat right now in NASCAR. Despite suffering a spin with only around 75 laps to go, Truex drove back through the field, got around Kyle Busch for the lead with 25 laps to go, and held on for another playoff victory, denying automatic passage into the next round for the remaining Chase contenders. Busch managed to hold onto second, ahead of Denny Hamlin in third. Eric Jones crossed the line in fourth, but was disqualified after his car failed post-race inspection. It means that for Jones to continue in the Chase, he basically will need to win next week at Charlotte. After Kurt Busch’s not-so-stellar 18^th place finish this week, he too looks like he’ll need a win next week to stay in the Chase. But the final two places that’ll be eliminated from the Chase after next week are a lot closer, with five drivers covered by 10 points: Ryan Blaney, Aric Almirola, William Byron, Alex Bowman, and Clint Bowyer. The best three finishers of this group next week will likely move on to the next round of the playoffs, with the other two likely being bumped out.

Indycar had their double-points finale at Laguna Seca in Monterrey. Josef Newgarden went into the race in command with a 41-point lead in the championship, ahead of Alexander Rossi, with Simon Pagenaud just one more point further back. If Newgarden could finish sixth or better, the championship would be his. But it was Colton Herta who started on pole and then led most of the race, while Newgarden lay just outside the top six, giving hope to Rossi and in particular Pagenaud who was keeping within striking distance of the lead. Herta held on for the win, and at the end Pagenaud had to settle for fourth. With Newgarden finishing eighth, that was good enough for him to take the title. Scott Dixon had a mathematical chance for the title, but he would’ve had to win the race with the other contenders having a disaster. Obviously, the latter didn’t happen, but at least Dixon had a good run, finishing third.

Week-35 Player’s Scores	iom	seb
F1
Sebastian Vettel	50	50
Charles Leclerc	40	40
Max Verstappen	35	35
Lewis Hamilton	32	32
Valtteri Bottas	30	30
Alexander Albon		28
MotoGP
Marc Marquez	50	50
Andrea Dovizioso	40	40
Maverick Vinales	32
Alex Rins		22
NASCAR
Kyle Busch	40
Indycar
Scott Dixon		35
Alexander Rossi	28
Totals:	377	362

Congratulations to iomracer with his 13^th win of the year and now three in a row. Iomracer’s pick of Busch in NASCAR gave him the edge. No changes in positions in the season-long standings …

Standings after week 35:
Pos	Pre	Name	Total	Diff	Latest	Prior	Diff
1	1	Sebastian	10027		362	9665
2	2	iomracer	9757	-270	377	9380	-285
3	3	New Players	8704	-1053	326	8378	-1002