LOS ANGELES -- With the sellout crowd at Dodger Stadium hanging on his every pitch, Kenley Jansen found himself in a jam. Bases loaded, one out, and Los Angeles clinging to a one-run lead over the Yankees in the ninth.

All that right after a bizarre twist that had both managers on the field, trying to figure out what happened during a potential game-ending double play that got reviewed.

Jansen stayed cool in the heat of the moment on a scorching day and struck out Mike Tauchman and pinch-hitter Gary Sanchez to give the Dodgers a 2-1 victory over New York on Saturday in a matchup between the teams with the best records in baseball.

"Stressful? No," Jansen said. "Just got to trust yourself in that situation. I don't lose confidence in myself."

Still, Jansen has faltered at times this season, including earlier in the week when fans booed during his sixth blown save. His 27th save was his first since Aug. 6.

"Kenley showed right there that he can still command the baseball in a big spot and make pitches," Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. "I definitely don't think that was stress; that was fun."

But it was the play right before that to load the bases that left most everyone in the ballpark wondering what was going on.

There were runners at first and second with one out when Gio Urshela hit a grounder to third baseman Justin Turner, who looked to start a game-ending double play. Second baseman Max Muncy caught Turner's flip, but then got wiped out by Brett Gardner's hard slide for an apparent forceout.

"I felt like I made it, but it was so close," Gardner said. "I'm glad I was safe, but we just came up short."

Gleyber Torres, who had started the play on second base, rounded third and then headed home with Muncy down on the ground, trying to score the tying run. Instead, Torres was stopped by the umpires because time had been called.

"Ninth innings are stressful enough as they are," Muncy said, "and you add that in there and it was kind of like, `whew."

The strange sequence set off a nearly 2-minute replay review. The call at second was reversed and Gardner was ruled safe, beating the throw with a physical but legal slide.

"For me in terms of playing the game, I thought it was perfectly clean," Muncy said. "In terms of the rule they've created, I thought the only thing that was questionable was his hand reaching out and grabbing me. Other than that, it was a good play by him."

Muncy said he wasn't injured, but Gardner "got me pretty good."

Roberts challenged the slide, believing Gardner was out, while Yankees manager Aaron Boone came out, too, seemingly to seek clarification on why Torres wasn't allowed to score.

"It was a good baseball play," Roberts said of Gardner's slide.

Boone said plate umpire Gabe Morales told him Jansen had already raised his hands to call time.

"He had definitely started down the line, it didn't seem like halfway to me," Boone said of Torres. "You can see Kenley asking for time maybe about as he's getting ready to start down the line."

A day after the Yankees routed the Dodgers 10-2, the clubs played a tight game that have some fans predicting will be an October preview.

"Like I told the guys when I was on second base in the last inning, `Good luck the rest of the way and hopefully we'll see you again," Gardner said.

Roberts described the atmosphere as "two great, iconic, storied franchises. You could feel the emotion from both dugouts and the stadium."

Turner hit a two-run homer in the third. After two games without a homer, the Dodgers got their National League-leading 226th.

Aaron Judge homered for the second straight day, connecting in the fourth.

Making just his fourth career start, rookie Tony Gonsolin outlasted six-time All-Star CC Sabathia in 89-degree heat.

Gonsolin (2-1) allowed one run and two hits in five innings. Joe Kelly and Pedro Baez kept the Yankees scoreless over the sixth, seventh and eighth.

Sabathia (5-8) gave up two runs and five hits in four innings, striking out seven. It was his second start since coming off the injured list with right knee inflammation.

"Just felt way more comfortable out there and hopefully just continue to build off that," Sabathia said.

Turner's 23rd homer of the season landed in the left-field pavilion and scored Gonsolin, who had reached on an infield single off Sabathia's leg for his second career hit.

"I've always been a lifelong Yankees fan," said Gonsolin, who met Sabathia in high school. "It was pretty great to throw against all those guys."

Judge's drive was New York's 58th homer in August, tying the major league record for most in a month shared by Baltimore in 1987 and Seattle in 1999.

TRAINER'S ROOM

Yankees: RHP Dellin Betances (lat muscle) threw a 20-pitch batting practice session at the minor league complex in Tampa, Florida. ... RHP Luis Severino (lat muscle) said he felt fine after throwing a two-inning simulated game Thursday. He's scheduled for another simulated game Tuesday and then could start a minor league rehab assignment. ... 1B Luke Voit (sports hernia) homered for Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre leading off Saturday's game against Lehigh Valley's Jerad Eickoff. Voit was the DH and finished 2 for 4 with a walk.

Dodgers: LHP Rich Hill (flexor tendon strain) threw a 27-pitch bullpen session. He'll do it again in a couple days and then face hitters. ... LHP Julio Urias is at the team's spring training facility in Arizona where he threw a bullpen session while serving a 20-game domestic violence suspension. He's set to return on Sept. 3, but the team is unsure whether he will start or work out of the bullpen.

UP NEXT

Yankees: RHP Domingo German (16-3, 4.15 ERA) is averaging fewer than six innings per start this season.

Dodgers: LHP Clayton Kershaw (13-2, 2.71) gave up three home runs and walked three in six innings against Toronto in his last start.

MADISON, Ill. – Oliver Askew continued his winning ways in the Indy Lights series with his seventh victory of the season Saturday at World Wide Technology Raceway.

Askew put together a dominant performance, with the 22-year-old finishing 6.7 seconds ahead of his closest competition. Askew added an exclamation point by posting the fastest lap of the race on lap 73 of the 75-lap contest.

Title rival Rinus VeeKa had to settle for second after holding off a charging David Malukas, who started fourth, in the closing stages and claim his second podium of the year for the newly reformed HMD Motorsports team.

Askew started on pole – his seventh of the year – but it was all VeeKay at the drop of the green flag, who managed to pass Askew and assume a comfortable margin with the pair seemingly content to run one-two around the 1.25-mile egg-shaped oval.

All eyes were focused mid-pack at that stage with battles between Sowery, Dalton Kellett and Robert Megennis. Lap 10 saw the only caution of the 75-lap Cooper Tires Oval Challenge of St. Louis with Toby Sowery in the second HMD Motorsports entry spinning on his own in turn two. With no contact, the race quickly resumed five laps later with the attention shifting back to the frontrunners.

With Askew in hot pursuit, VeeKay had a slight wall brush on Lap 29 but continued to maintain his lead. The pair were on their own out front with a six-second span over Malukas in third and Ryan Norman (Andretti Autosport) – last year’s race winner – in fourth. Askew, it seemed, was biding his time and made the move to pass VeeKay on the outside of turn two on lap 51. He never looked back.

“I’ve said it a lot, but I’ve just been so calm this year,” Askew said. “It’s the least anxious I’ve ever been, because I know we’ll be quick every weekend. We take every opportunity as they come. From the start, I could see he was lighter on downforce, because he was so quick on the straights. That’s what gave him the run on me in turn one. But I knew that would drop off sooner or later. I tried to stay close – we saw last year that Ryan Norman made the pass late in the race and that’s what I was thinking. His car got freer, he made a mistake, and I was set up for the end of the race.

“It was one of the most enjoyable races I’ve had – Rinus and I have raced hard against each other for three years, but we haven’t gone head-to-head like that very much. That made it really cool. It’s very different when one of us drives away, compared to having to fight for it, and this is much more satisfying. This is our third full season in cars and the more experienced we get, the more methodical we get and that shows for all three of us.”

Askew now leads VeeKay by 52 points, 349-304, as all Road to Indy Presented by Cooper Tires competitors head to Portland Int’l Raceway on Aug. 31-Sept. 1.

ALTON, Va. – Even Stevan McAleer didn’t think he could do it.

When he spun out of the lead in slippery conditions behind the safety car with 32 minutes remaining in the one-hour, 45-minute IMSA Prototype Challenge race at Virginia Int’l Raceway, McAleer didn’t think there was any way he’d be standing atop the victory podium spraying champagne. But his No. 43 Robillard Racing Norma M30 was fast.

That was proven earlier Saturday when the Scot put the car on the pole position. And while he surrendered the lead to Mike Skeen on the first green-flag lap in the race, McAleer remained in contention.

The spin handed the lead to Kyle Masson in the No. 19 Performance Tech Motorsports Ligier JS P3, but McAleer managed to get going again, losing only two spots. When the green flag came back out with under 13 minutes remaining, McAleer quickly got past Nikko Reger in the No. 55 Forty7 Motorsports Norma M30 and into second place, and then out-dragged Masson down the back straight to retake the lead.

A final full-course caution period bunched up the field behind McAleer, but he pulled away at the drop of the green flag to win by 1.439 seconds over Skeen. It was McAleer’s second IMSA Prototype Challenge victory of the season and his first since Sebring International Raceway in March.

“I knew we were fast,” McAleer said. “There was a couple of cars in front, but that was the quickest 360 I’ve ever done in my life. I was trying everything not to go around again because that would have been it. I came on the radio and said, ‘Just tell me Mike and Austin (McCusker) are not in front of me,’ and they said, ‘They’re behind.’ I said, ‘OK. Let’s put a little bit of a crazy last 10 minutes in and see what we can do.’”

Skeen led most of the race in the No. 23 Gilbert/Korthoff Motorsports Norma M30. He was the last one to make his pit stop, which came with 42 minutes remaining, but he rejoined the race well behind the leaders. He benefited from late full-course cautions to get close, but came home second in what was just his second IMSA Prototype Challenge race of 2019.

While the top two finishers ran the entire race solo, Masson shared the No. 19 entry with Canadian driver Dean Baker. They ended up sharing the final spot on the podium with a third-place showing.

No. 47 Forty7 Motorsports Norma M30 co-drivers McCusker and Rodrigo Pflucker came into the race with a healthy lead in the overall LMP3 championship standings, and while their eighth-place finish was not spectacular, they maintained a healthy lead with just one race remaining.

McCusker and Pflucker now lead No. 4 ANSA Motorsports Ligier JS P3 co-drivers Leo Lamelas and Neil Alberico, who fell out of the race early and finished 22nd, by 27 points, 150-123. McAleer moved from fifth to third in the standings and is 29 points behind heading to the season-ending race at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta on Friday, Oct. 11.

In the Bronze Cup class, Kris Wilson – making his first IMSA Prototype Challenge start – came away with the victory in the No. 3 Jr III Racing Ligier JS P3.

“This is my maiden voyage in this car and with this team,” Wilson said. “It was great, interesting conditions. Dry on the front, wet on the back, lots of people going off, even on the pace lap.

“I’ve been in GT cars for almost 20 years now. The last time I was in a prototype was in the ‘90s, so it was a lot different than nowadays. It’s a different driving style. It’s about trying to twist my brain around and figure out how to drive this kind of car again, but I don’t know if the old prototypes were anything like these. These are just awesome. There’s so much aero and everything else.”

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.