ELKHART LAKE, Wis. – As Christopher Bell awaits his opportunity to move up in NASCAR, he knows one thing that’ll help get him there: winning.

He’s done plenty of that this year and he continued doing that on Saturday at Road America.

Bell got the jump on A.J. Allmendinger on a restart with two laps to go and cruised to victory in the NASCAR Xfinity Series CTECH Manufacturing 180 for his sixth victory of the season – the 14th of his career in 64 starts – and his first on a road course.

On the final restart, Bell got the jump on Allmendinger and Reddick followed closely, shuffling Allmendinger back to third. Heading into turn three, Gragson and Allmendinger made contact, sending Allmendinger spinning into the inside grass heading into the right-hand turn. Allmendinger kept it going and rejoined the race. He went on to finish 24th.

Matt DiBenedetto was battling for a top-five finish on the last lap heading into the final corner. But he overshot the corner and crashed into the tire barrier after a trip through the sand. He finished 27th.

Because of the drama behind him, Bell easily pulled away from the field and won by 1.891 seconds.

“The last couple of laps were two of the easiest laps I had just because I had space and I could kind of take it easy,” Bell said. “It was really smooth sailing. It was a lot harder with Allmendinger right behind me because I knew if I was just too easy in one corner he was going to make me pay for it.”

Bell is the 10th different winner in the 10-year history of the Xfinity Series’ run at Road America. Last year’s winner Justin Allgaier had several issues throughout the afternoon, including a left-front tire failure heading into turn one and getting stuck in the sand. He eventually lost a lap, but regained it and rallied for a ninth-place finish.

For several reasons, Bell and his No. 20 team set a goal to win a road course race this season. One of those reasons was to showcase Bell as a complete driver, but also simply, because the team hadn’t done it yet. In addition, Bell recognized the importance and value of not only doing well on road courses, but winning them.

“Everything I’ve been taught is everybody wants a winner,” Bell said. “I’ve always strived at winning races. Everybody wants a winner in their race car.”

In addition to Saturday’s victory, Bell was second at the series’ other two road course events so far this season – Watkins Glen Int’l and the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.

“We as in the team, Jason and everyone at Joe Gibbs Racing did a really good job this year preparing for the road courses,” Bell said. “They put a lot of homework into it and we have really good race cars right now.”

Bell’s crew chief Jason Ratcliff felt it was important to highlight how important it was for Bell to not only run well during road course events, but win them.

“As long as there is road courses in this sport you need to be good at them, right?” Ratcliff said. “Now there’s one in the playoffs so that’s a big deal and the same for speedway races. You need to be good at that as well.

“If you’re expectations are to be a champion in this sport, then absolutely you must be good at road courses.”

Bell was asked how many more races he can win this season. He replied with 10. All kidding aside, he said he believes he and his team are capable of winning every race, now that includes road courses.

“After talking to some of the higher ups in the NASCAR industry, there’s certain race tracks and style of race tracks that they value results more so than others,” Bell said. “I remember when I first started in NASCAR they said, ‘Road-course racing is something that’s really important because there’s a lot of driver skill involved. It’s very important to be a good road racer.”

Austin Cindric finished second after being 20th during the last restart with two laps to go. He pitted from third during the caution in hopes fresh tires and possible crashes or overtime restarts would catapult him to the front. He nearly did it without crashes or overtimes.

Cindric was also trying to become the first NASCAR Xfinity Series driver to win three straight road-course races since Terry Labonte did it in the then-Busch Series in 1994-96 (all at Watkins Glen Int’l).

Tyler Reddick was third and holds a 45-point lead in the regular season standings over Bell. Noah Gragson was fourth and Kaz Grala was fifth.

For complete results, advance to the next page.

CRAWFORDSVILLE, Ind. – Adam Cianciarulo locked up his first Lucas Oil Pro Motocross 250 class championship during the season finale – the STACYC Stability Cycle Ironman National from Ironman Raceway – on Saturday afternoon.

Cianciarulo entered the event with a 30-point cushion over Dylan Ferrandis and made life easy on himself by clinching the championship – his first professional title – in the opening moto.

The battle for the victory at Ironman saw Ferrandis do exactly what he needed to do coming into the afternoon, riding to an impressive 1-1 sweep of the motos and his fourth 250 class victory of the season.

The first 250 Class moto of the afternoon saw Kyle Peters prevail with the holeshot, followed by Mitchell Falk and Ferrandis. Right behind the top three was Justin Cooper and Cianciarulo. As Peters solidified his hold on the lead, Ferrandis quickly charged up into second. Behind him, both Cooper and Cianciarulo moved forward into second and third, respectively.

Peters held on to the lead for a lap, but Ferrandis made his move and put his Yamaha right where it needed to be out front. It didn’t take long for both Cooper and Cianciarulo to also make their way around Peters and set the stage for what would ultimately be the deciding battle for the championship. Ferrandis appeared to have control of the moto, but he soon came under fire from a hard-charging Cooper.

The teammates went at it for several laps, with Ferrandis able to fend off numerous pass attempts. Eventually, Cooper’s persistence paid off and he took the lead just over a quarter into the moto.

Cooper continued to charge ahead and soon opened up a comfortable lead. However, after they passed the halfway point of the race Ferrandis picked up his pace and went to work on chipping away at the deficit. As the 30-minutes-plus-two-laps moto surpassed the 20-minute mark Ferrandis was back on the rear fender of his teammate.

With about seven minutes to go he pulled the trigger on a pass and took away Coopers line, reclaiming the top spot. The Frenchman was able to quickly distance himself, and it soon put Cooper within reach of Cianciarulo, who started to make a late push in recognition of what transpired ahead of him.

While Ferrandis continued to lead in the waning moments of the moto, Cianciarulo caught Cooper and was able to make the pass for second with a minute remaining. Cianciarulo continued to close on Ferrandis over the final two laps, but he didn’t need anything better than second to wrap up the title.

Ferrandis carried on to his class-leading eighth moto win of the season by 3.6 seconds over Cianciarulo, who mathematically eliminated Ferrandis with the result.

The final 250 class moto of the season got underway with Ferrandis surging to the holeshot, with R.J. Hampshire, Cooper and Cianciarulo in tow. Both Cooper and Cianciarulo were able to fight their way by Hampshire on the opening lap and establish the same lead trio as Moto 1.

Ferrandis established a solid hold on the lead, and it didn’t take long for him to move out to a multiple second advantage over his rivals. In their chase of the Frenchman, Cianciarulo and Cooper engaged in a spirited battle for second. The Kawasaki rider made multiple attempts to get by Cooper, but was unable to find a way around. Cooper eventually put some distance between he and Cianciarulo and proceeded to track down Ferrandis for the lead. Cianciarulo continued to lose ground, ultimately giving up third to Sexton.

A few bike lengths for several laps separated the Yamaha teammates, but Ferrandis was able to stabilize his lead late in the moto and carry it through to the finish for a wire-to-wire victory by 4.9 seconds over Cooper. It was his ninth moto win of the season. Sexton followed in third, with Cianciarulo finishing fourth.

Cianciarulo’s championship campaign was highlighted by his unparalleled consistency, in which he finished on the overall podium at all 12 rounds. That’s the first time a champion has accomplished such a feat since Eli Tomac won the title during the 2013 season.

“It’s been a journey, for sure. Like I’ve said, when I was a kid I knew I’d be here [winning championships], but then things got taken from me and I didn’t know if I could anymore. I would have rather gone through what I went through to get to this point, because it made me a better human,” explained Cianciarulo. “I’ve learned so much about myself and I’ve had to grow. The [adversity] has catapulted me into doing something I didn’t think I could do, which is win this outdoor title. I’ll hold onto this forever. No one can ever take this from me.”

Ferrandis’ fourth overall win this season wasn’t enough for him to beat Cianciarulo for the 250 class championship.

“I knew [winning today] wasn’t going to be enough to win the championship today. AC [Cianciarulo] rode great all season, and he deserved [the title]. He was too hard to beat,” said Ferrandis. “This was the best season of my career. We showed good things this year. We won races and we showed that next season everyone can look at me to possibly win the championship.”

CLEVELAND -- Cleveland third baseman Jose Ramirez has been removed from the Indians' game against Kansas City with a right wrist injury.

A team spokesman said Ramirez left Saturday's game in the first inning because of "discomfort."

With two outs, Ramirez fouled off a 2-0 pitch from right-hander Glenn Sparkman and immediately bent over in pain.

The 26-year-old was examined by head athletic trainer James Quinlan before walking off the field. Mike Freeman completed the at-bat and walked.

Ramirez is batting .254 with 20 homers and 75 RBIs in 126 games.

Coach Eddie Jones has warned his England team that they are not ready to win the World Cup despite a record 57-15 win over Ireland.

The victory was the biggest winning margin and highest number of points scored in matches between the two.

"Our aim is to be the best side in the world, it always has been," Jones told BBC Sport.

"Are we moving in the right direction? Yes. Are we ready to win the World Cup now? No."

After running in eight tries against Ireland, England have nearly two weeks before they play Italy in their final warm-up match on 6 September at St James' Park.

Jones said that he is focusing on improving on England's failure to get out of their pool at the 2015 tournament.

"The only thing we are worried about are [Pool C opponents] Tonga, USA, France and Argentina. We have to get through those games," he added.

"The World Cup is about taking each game at a time and that is our only focus. They are the only teams in our mind."

England's first World Cup match is against Tonga in Saporro on 22 September.

Jones said he was pleased by his players' intensity in their win over Ireland, who would have climbed to the top of the world rankings with victory.

However, he suggested that the scoreline might reflect their differing levels of preparedness for the World Cup rather than underlying quality. It was Ireland's second warm-up match while England have now played three.

"This was a performance for the 80 minutes but we don't know where Ireland are in their preparation so it can be misleading," he added.

Wing Joe Cokanasiga scored two tries, his fourth and fifth in just seven Tests, after putting in an indifferent performance against Wales a week ago.

"It is important for young players to do that," said Jones.

"If they have a bad game they learn, they have to make sure they bounce back in the next game. He did that and used his strengths really well."

MADISON, Ill. – Kyle Kirkwood stormed from the rear of the field to win Saturday’s Indy Pro 2000 Championship event at World Wide Technology Raceway.

Sweden’s Rasmus Lindh captured his fourth pole position of the season, setting a track record at the 1.25-mile oval in the process, while Kirkwood saw his qualifying run disallowed due to a technical infraction. Kirkwood started shotgun in the 12-car field as a result.

The opening laps saw side-by-side racing with three lead changes before the Kirkwood freight train charged to the front to take the top spot on lap seven while Lindh found himself shuffled back to fourth behind Moises de la Vara and Kory Enders. As battles continued throughout the field, Kirkwood and Enders briefly checked out with a 3.5-plus second lead over the field by lap 25.

The first and only caution came on lap 40 when Lindh, who had been stalking de la Vara, was able to find a way past. The pair made slight contact which sent de la Vara spinning and into the turn three wall. He was uninjured in the crash.

The green flag waved once again on lap 48 with seven to go. While Kirkwood took off into the lead, Enders had his hands full with a charging Lindh and the riveting battle continued until the final dash to the checkers with Lindh completing the last lap pass just before the finish line.

“It was just disbelief when I saw the checkers. My team was just screaming on the radio, half in Italian, half in English,” Kirkwood said. “I was going to be happy with a top five, top three was optimistic, going into the race. It was incredible to come through the field like that. I don’t remember half the passes I made; I was in the zone, just pushing as hard as I could to get to the front, and it gave me chills once I got into the lead.

“We set the car up to be fast right away, because we knew that’s where we would be able to pass. The car wasn’t ideal once we got to the lead, because we never thought about being out front the whole time. But we had to go for it; we’re behind in the championship – and we almost came away with the lead. We needed to do that and I wanted to redeem my team, with the mistake we made yesterday. This should get my engineer, Stefano, some sleep tonight because he was really down last night. I am so thankful to everyone on the team.”

Enders had to settle for third – his best result to date this season while setting the fastest lap of the race in the process – followed by Danial Frost of Exclusive Autosport, who brought home his eighth top-four finish of the year, and Sting Ray Robb rounding out the top five.

WAMPUM, Pa. – Garrett Gerloff is on a roll.

The Texan rode his Monster Energy/Yamalube/Yamaha Factory Racing YZF-R1 to his third victory in the last five races on Saturday afternoon in the Championship of Pittsburgh at Pittsburgh Int’l Race Complex.

Gerloff came out on top of a race-long battle in the first of two EBC Brakes Superbike races with his teammate Cameron Beaubier, the three-time MotoAmerica Superbike champion ending up .326 of a second behind Gerloff at the end of the 18-lap race. Championship points leader Toni Elias finished third on the Yoshimura Suzuki, the Spaniard ending up three seconds behind the two Yamahas.

Gerloff had already proven to be the fastest of the fast this weekend as he led every session except for Superpole, which went to Beaubier with a new lap record of 1:39.472 around the 2.7-mile Pittsburgh Int’l Race Complex. Gerloff led early, pulled a slight gap and then gave it all back when he ran off the track in turn one on the fourth lap. But he was able to rebound, passing Elias and then battling with Beaubier for the duration.

With the two Yamahas finishing ahead of Elias, the championship tightened up. Elias now leads Beaubier by 30 points, 282-252, with Gerloff just a single point behind Beaubier.

“As soon as we pulled the bike off the truck, we had a pretty good setup,” Gerloff said. “Kind of funny – after the first session we decided to completely change the whole bike. Front end, triple clamps, front fork springs, rear shock, everything. It felt even better. So, it’s nice that we’ve kind of just been always making steps forward this weekend. The bike felt awesome in the race. I felt good on the first couple laps. Came around and saw my board with plus one. Looked back and just kind of got in a little hot, unfortunately. Just a fast straightaway. It’s got to be a little bit of a tailwind today, too.

“Luckily, I was able to keep it up on two wheels and get back on track behind these guys. Had to work to get back up to them and then was able to see what they were doing around the whole track. Then I was able to get past Toni (Elias). Was in behind Cameron (Beaubier) and knew I wanted to make a pass at some point. I found a spot and tried to lead a little bit. Then he got me back. It was fun dicing and racing. I just gave it everything I had the last couple laps to maybe try to pull a little bit of a gap or something. Just glad it worked out in the end. Life is good. I feel good. Ready for tomorrow. Try to do something similar.”

Beaubier was upbeat despite the close loss to his teammate, knowing that he’d chipped away on the gap to Elias at the top of the Superbike standings.

“I obviously wanted to win, but second is good,” Beaubier said. “Garrett has been riding really, really good this weekend. He set the pace all day yesterday and this morning also. Going into the race, I knew it was going to be pretty tough. Honestly, the race obviously didn’t pan out like I wanted to. I made a mistake on the last lap that kind of disconnected me from his rear wheel. I wasn’t close enough to make a lunge anywhere. I learned quite a bit behind him in the last section today and that’s where I was struggling pretty bad all weekend. So definitely some stuff to look out for tomorrow. We’ll see how it goes. All in all, it was good. We closed up some points on Toni (Elias). We’re moving forward, so it was good.”

Elias finished third, with Scheibe Racing BMW’s Jake Gagne ending up fourth ahead of Westby Racing’s Mathew Scholtz.

In Supersport, the 16-lap race was red-flagged when championship leader Bobby Fong highsided his M4 ECSTAR Suzuki out of the race. Fong was unable to make the 10-lap restart, and his teammate Sean Dylan Kelly got the jump on the field off the line. Kelly, who is a 17-year-old rookie in MotoAmerica, went on to notch his first career Supersport victory.

As to who would finish second and third, the outcome was very much in contention until Rickdiculous Racing Yamaha rider Hayden Gillim and Celtic HSBK Racing Yamaha’s P.J. Jacobsen traded a little bit of paint on the run to the checkers. Jacobsen barely got the better of Gillim as the New Yorker got second over the Kentuckian.

In Saturday’s Liqui Moly Junior Cup race, current championship leader and polesitter Rocco Landers got the holeshot, cleared off at the front, and looked to be headed for his 10th win of the season until he slowed dramatically towards the end of the race and rolled to a stop off the track, his Kawasaki experiencing a technical issue that put him out of the 10-lap event.

Altus Motorsports Kawasaki rider Kevin Olmedo, who was poised in second place, inherited the lead and pressed his advantage all the way to the checkered flag to notch his first win of the season and second career victory in the Liqui Moly Junior Cup class.

In the first of two Twins Cup races scheduled for the weekend, 17-year-old Alex Dumas, aboard his Roadracing World Young Guns Suzuki, got his third victory of the season and his fifth straight trip to the podium, which vaulted him into the championship lead with five races left.

DANVILLE, Va. – It was another unpredictable, one-lap shootout for the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge on Saturday, but this time at Virginia Int’l Raceway during the Virginia Is For Racing Lovers Grand Prix.

With mixed weather conditions throughout the race and a series of full-course cautions in the final 30 minutes, the field took the green flag for one last sprint around the 3.27-mile circuit with just over two minutes remaining in the two-hour race.

Jesse Lazare in the No. 69 Motorsports In Action McLaren GT4 led the way and was trying to fend off a hard-charging Trent Hindman in the No. 7 Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 Clubsport for Park Place Motorsports, who had jumped from seventh to second in the final half-hour.

The two drove into turn four, but Hindman inched the nose of his Porsche a bit too deep on the inside, making contact with Lazare’s McLaren and causing him to spin.

While the No. 7 Porsche went on to cross the finish line first, a post-race penalty was assessed for incident responsibility, and the win was awarded to second place, the No. 60 KohR Motorsports Ford Mustang GT4 of Kyle Marcelli and Nate Stacy.

“I was a bit surprised to see it go green, to be honest with you,” said Marcelli, who had an intense battle of his own with Lazare for the lead before the final caution. “I knew it was going to be high risk. You’re either going to come out a big winner or a big loser, so I was kind of in survival mode. I just wanted to bring it home and get a respectful result.

“At the end of the day, we crossed the line second. Sometimes you’ve just got to be there, that’s racing they say. You’ve got to go to the end until the checkered flag.”

The win is the first of the season for Marcelli and Stacy and the duo’s second podium after a runner-up finish at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park in July.

“It really came down to letting me know we were going to switch to rain tires and just kind of tough it out until we could get to a point where we could change and get to the pit stop,” added Stacy. “It was super tricky and one of those things where you have to tiptoe around and make the best of it.

“It was a crazy end of the race, but it couldn’t have gone any better, it was super awesome. Thanks to everyone at KohR and Ford Performance, it was great racing.”

After starting from the pole position following Friday’s canceled qualifying session due to weather, championship leaders Tyler McQuarrie and Jeff Westphal expanded their points lead with a second-place finish. They now lead Fergus and Lazare by 24 points, 230-206.

Sneaking onto the podium in third place was the No. 80 BimmerWorld Racing BMW M4 GT4 of Ari Balogh and Mike Skeen. The pair started sixth on the final restart but moved up to give Skeen his best finish to date, while Balogh matched his own previous best.

In the TCR class, FAST MD Racing drivers Nick Galante and James Vance secured their first victory of the season.

“We’ve been fast all year, but little mistakes just kept popping up, and I think we just ran out of mistakes to make,” Galante said. “The first four laps, I thought we made a wrong choice but then it slowly started to dry out and I started clicking off laps and started catching the leaders.”

Vance sat second behind Jonathan Morley in the No. 61 Roadshagger Racing Audi ahead of a final-lap sprint to the checkered flag. Vance ultimately made the move midway through the final lap to the inside of Morley who, with his co-driver Gavin Ernstone, was also seeking a first win in the series.

“At that point, I think my nerves were fried,” said Vance. “I thought, ‘Might as well go for it, we have a green-white checkered coming up.’”

The win was Galante’s ninth in the Pilot Challenge and was the first for Vance and the rookie IMSA team, FAST MD Racing.

“It feels great,” said Vance of his first Pilot Challenge win. “The series does an amazing job putting these events on. Racing with FAST MD, Speed Syndicate and Racing to End Alzheimer’s has been an absolute pleasure this year and I’m glad we could bring this to them. But I feel like we earned this. We should’ve been here a few times this year. We’ve just had some bad luck and I think today, everything that could go right went right and the little things that could go wrong didn’t.”

Relegated to second place, Morley found himself in the middle of a three-wide battle between the No. 21 Bryan Herta Autosport Hyundai of Mason Filippi and the No. 54 JDC-Miller Motorsports Audi of Stephen Simpson. Contact between the three would force Morley off track and into the tire barrier, finishing eighth.

Filippi and co-driver Harry Gottsacker finished second – one race after their first win at Road America earlier this month – and closed the gap to just five points, 224-219, over teammates and championship leaders Michael Lewis and Mark Wilkins in the No. 98 Hyundai. Simpson and Michael Johnson finished third for their second podium finish of the season.

ALTON, Va. – Cedric Sbirrazzuoli and Paolo Ruberti came out on top of a wet and wild Lamborghini Super Trofeo North America event Saturday at Virginia Int’l Raceway.

The race started under yellow due to wet conditions, and the 16-car field was on slick tires. These conditions were an advantage for the more experienced drivers in the field to navigate the 17-turn, 3.27-mile circuit.

A seven-minute caution period started the 50-minute race, before former Super Trofeo champion Shinya Michimi led the field to the green flag. He assumed the lead for the first few laps of the race.

He held the overall and Pro class lead for three laps before Richy Antinucci cut to the inside and passed him in turn one. The four-car Pro class was tightly spaced for the next few minutes of the race until Andrea Amici made contact with Michimi around turn 11. That allowed Cedric Sbirrazzouli, in the No. 27 Dream Racing/Lamborghini Dallas entry to move into second place.

As the mandatory pit window opened with 30 minutes remaining, Antinucci still held the lead as he pulled in to turn his car over to Corey Lewis with 28 minutes to go. The No. 27 stayed out and ended up pitting late in the window as Paolo Ruberti took over the wheel.

After that cycle was complete, Ruberti was in the lead and worked hard over the last 20 minutes to hold off Lewis. The lead was less than a second for most of the next 10-12 minutes, and then Lewis made a bold move at the end of the back straightaway with seven minutes to go. Ruberti pushed him out of the way though as they moved through traffic and held onto the lead and he drove the car to their first victory of the season. Michimi and his teammate Brandon Gdovic finished in third.

“That was a good battle with Corey,” Ruberti said. “We had some touching together and we can be proud to be the winners today.”

“The start was quite tricky. I didn’t want to make any mistakes and risk it in the first few laps,” Sbirrazzuoli said. “I knew the car was strong in the dry and I was waiting for the conditions to improve. I saw an opportunity as the cars ahead of me were battling and I was waiting to take advantage of that situation. I managed to pass both and was able to catch the leader. At that point, it was too risky to overtake right before the pit window opened, so we were able to give Paolo a clear track to take the lead.”

Early in the race in the Pro-Am Class, Patrick Liddy held an early lead in the No. 24 US RaceTronics/Lamborghini La Jolla entry. As the pit window opened, the season’s class leader – the No. 09 entry from US RaceTronics and Lamborghini Vancouver – was the first to pit and Damon Ockey turned over to Jacob Eidson. He took no time in assuming the lead and slowly pulled ahead for their sixth win in seven races.

Liddy and Ron Atapattu finished second while William Hubbell and Bruno Junqueria in the No. 69 Prestige Performance/Wayne Taylor Racing entry was third.

The Am Class once again featured a battle between two young drivers in Steven Aghakhani and Madison Snow. Aghakhani, 16, held the early lead and was first to pit with 27 minutes to remaining.

Following the pit window, Snow assumed a slim class lead until Aghakhani spun in turn 11 with 18 minutes remaining. From there, Snow held a comfortable lead for the remainder of the race to earn his fourth class win of the season. Sheena Monk in the No. 7 Dream Racing, Lamborghini Palmyra finished in third.

The LB Cup perhaps provided the most drama of the race, as Chad Reed enjoyed an early class lead before Thomas Lovelady overtook him in the class-leading No. 08 entry from GMG Racing/Lamborghini Newport Beach, shortly before both cars stopped in the mandatory pit window.

Lovelady turned the car over to class leader Mel Johnson, and he remained in the lead for most of the second half of the race – until the end.

Justin Price took over for Reed and had stayed close to Johnson. On the last lap, he made a late move to overtake the No. 08 and go on to earn the second victory for he and his partner, the Supercross star who is in his first year of Super Trofeo.

Ashton Harrison and Stephanie Cemo in the No. 43 Prestige Performance/Wayne Taylor Racing/Lamborghini Paramus continued their strong season with a third-place finish.