SONOMA, Calif. - Martin Truex Jr. was running second as the laps dwindled at Sonoma Raceway, and crew chief Cole Pearn didn't think they were as fast as Kevin Harvick.
Pearn told his team to prepare for a pit stop on the 73rd lap, and he told Truex over the radio to bring in the car.
It was all trickery.
Harvick's crew chief, Rodney Childers, called in his driver for tires and fuel in anticipation of Truex's stop - but Pearn's driver actually stayed out for seven more laps. When Truex finally pitted, he got the fresh tires he needed to blow past Harvick for a sweet victory Sunday at the Northern California road course.
"I called him off at the last second," Pearn said with a sly smile. "As far as he knew, we were pitting. I'd like to say we're smart enough to use codes, but we're not. We'd probably mess it up."
Truex won the NASCAR Cup Series race because of that clever pit bluff, cruising to his second career victory on the challenging 1.99-mile layout. He easily held off Harvick for his second win in three weeks and his third victory of the season in the Furniture Row Racing No. 78 Toyota. Truex led 62 laps and won by a whopping 10.513 seconds.
"The last 10 laps of the race were easy," Truex said. "A little stressful. I was just hoping for no cautions, because I had a big lead. This place is so tricky and so technical, but when you start to take care of your equipment and have time to think, it's almost harder. You can overshoot a corner easily."
The 2017 Cup Series champion didn't make a mistake after he waited to pit until the 81st lap, a full eight laps later than Harvick in his Stewart-Haas Racing No. 4 Ford. With fresh tires, Truex passed Harvick for the lead around the final hairpin turn with 19 laps to go.
It was the 18th Cup Series win of his career. He won at Sonoma in 2013 for Michael Waltrip Racing, making him the only driver to win twice in the past decade at the track. Counting Truex's win last year at Watkins Glen, his three career road course victories are second among active drivers to the four by Kyle Busch, who finished fifth at Sonoma.
Harvick, who entered Sunday leading the points race, went to the pits shortly after Truex passed him, but he never got the caution that would have been necessary for him to catch up. SHR's Clint Bowyer finished third and Hendrick Motorsports' Chase Elliott was fourth.
Harvick wasn't angry about the pit strategy that probably decided the race.
"The call was one thing, but I think I was too hard on the car the first couple of stages," Harvick said. "The brake pedal was long after qualifying and never really came around during the race. It progressively got worse."
Kyle Larson finished 14th after starting in pole position for the second consecutive year at his home track.
Newgarden rolls at Road America
ELKHART LAKE, Wis. - Josef Newgarden started on the pole and dominated at Road America, leading 53 of 55 laps for his third victory of the IndyCar season.
The 2017 series champion crossed the finish line with a comfortable cushion of 3.38-seconds over second-place finisher Ryan Hunter-Reay. Points leader Scott Dixon finished third, part of the three-car pack that separated from the field with about 13 laps to go in the road race.
The victory completed an impressive weekend for the Team Penske driver at the 14-turn, 222-mile-long track, where the Tennessee driver's No. 1 Chevy registered the top speed in practice.
Newgarden returned to the podium after a five-race stretch of finishing no higher than eighth that dropped him from first to fifth in the driver standings. What might be considered a slump for him came to an emphatic end as he picked up the 10th win of his IndyCar career and his first at the rural course.
Hamilton back on top in Formula One
LE CASTELLET, France - Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton turned his pole position into a victory at the French Grand Prix, regaining the advantage in the fight for the Formula One season title.
Red Bull's Max Verstappen was second and Kimi Raikkonen third in a Ferrari at the Paul Ricard Circuit.
Hamilton, who won the race for the second straight year, was never challenged after he reached the first corner a split second before Sebastian Vettel knocked into Hamilton's teammate, Valtteri Bottas. Vettel needed a new front wing for his Ferrari and had to work his way from the back of the pack to settle for a fifth-place finish behind Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo.
Hamilton has 145 points after eight races. Vettel, who entered the race with a one-point lead, trails by 14.
It was Hamilton's 65th career win. Only Michael Schumacher has more F1 victories, with 91.
Sprint car racer dies in Wisconsin
BEAVER DAM, Wis. - Sprint car driver Jason Johnson died after a crash at Beaver Dam Raceway in Wisconsin, race officials said Sunday. He was 41.
Johnson was injured during a World of Outlaws race Saturday night at the 1/3-mile-long dirt oval, the series said. It said the driver from Eunice, Louisiana, crashed on lap 18 of a 40-lap event while racing for the lead and was taken to a hospital.
On Sunday morning, the series posted a message to Twitter saying Johnson had died. A message posted on the Twitter account for Jason Johnson Racing said the team was "heartbroken and saddened to tell you that we have lost our leader, friend, family member and our hero."
Condolences poured in on social media, including from NASCAR drivers.