Media conference comments from Sims, Wickens ahead of Chevrolet Grand Prix Corvette Z06 GT3.R drivers Alexander Sims and Robert Wickens met with members of the media Monday afternoon to discuss this weekend’s Chevrolet Grand Prix at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park. Sims will pilot the GTD PRO championship-leading No. 3 Corvette for Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports with Antonio Garcia after the duo won last year’s race. Wickens, in his home race, will make his first CTMP start as part of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship in the No. 36 Corvette for DXDT Racing alongside Alec Udell.

ALEXANDER SIMS, NO. 3 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.RWHAT ARE YOU LOOKING FORWARD TO MOST ABOUT GOING TO CTMP FOR YOUR 50TH IMSA START?“I wasn’t actually aware of it being my 50th start, but as you say it’s quite a milestone. That’s cool. I’m just looking forward to getting back to CTMP, to be honest. It’s one of my favorite tracks on the calendar. Although it’s a reasonably short track, there’s a lot of high-speed commitment needed with some good undulation and a couple of really technical corners whilst having some ballsy ones, as well. It’s a really nice track to drive. The Corvette works pretty well around there as we found last year, but the results are never a given. We do our absolute best each time to beat some very, very tough competition, and they’ll be doing their best to beat us. We’ll go there and hope for another good weekend. But we can’t take anything for granted and have got to be on our absolute A-game to hopefully be able to repeat something similar to last year. But it’s going to be tough.” SURPRISED NOT WINNING A RACE SINCE CTMP LAST YEAR OR IF IT SAYS MORE ABOUT THE COMPETITION IN GTD PRO.“I don’t know about surprised. We obviously go into every race – as everybody else does – basically trying to win, but there’s only ever one winner. I wouldn’t say that the results have been shabby at all. We came third in the championship last year and are leading now, so it’s not like the lack of a win has been because we’ve been uncompetitive the whole time. However, Pratt Miller and Corvette are a pretty good force together, and so we hope that we can get back to winning ways this weekend.“But as we’ve seen so far this year, I would probably take another second or third place, as well. Consistent podiums is a great way to put together a championship, which is the absolute focus above race wins. But equally race wins are a great way to get a championship, as well. We’ll just do our best, try to optimize the car as best we can, and try and make no mistakes to get another win.” ON MODERN GT3 CARS BEING SUITED TO RACING AN OLD-SCHOOL TRACK LIKE CTMP.“I remember last year our car was pretty on the nose in qualifying, which is always a nice feeling. Through the fifth- and sixth-gear corners like through Turn One, Two and Turn Eight after the backstraight, it’s great fun to have a car that’s moving as you want it to move even in the high-speed corners. You can really, really lean on it and ask a lot from the car. The downforce is pretty decent from a GT3 car nowadays to be able to corner fast in those scenarios but then to have the ABS for 5a and b as you have the elevation rise… it’s a lovely safety net to be honest and it allows you to race pretty hard against people.“I remember back in GTLM days we didn’t have ABS, and the race win that I had came by driving slicks in the wet on the safety car restart and having a drying track. That was seriously hair-raising at a track like CTMP to be on slicks in the wet. So GT3 cars nowadays, honestly, are pretty nice to drive. You can attack every corner really hard, it generates good tire temperature and everything. This a lovely place to drive, particularly on a qualy lap. In the race there aren’t so many clear overtaking opportunities, so you have to rely on traffic creating opportunities, which sometimes are a little bit more hard to come by.“It’s a great track to have on the calendar, honestly. I really like the fact that it’s fairly old-school. It’s not been repaved very much, it’s still got character. And it’s largely the same as it was before, with a little bit more runoff at Turn Two which I’m very appreciative of. I can’t quite imagine driving there in the olden days with just grass in those old cars… yeah, pretty scary!” ON MULTI-CLASS RACING AT CTMP WITH LMP2 CARS AND GT3 CARS.“It’s a real challenge to coexist in a way where we all get along perfectly. That’s just not going to happen, unfortunately. Different cars whether they’re front-engine, rear-engine in GT are going to behave differently and in those corners where you’ve got a crest into a high-speed corner, it really exaggerates whatever those cars’ characteristics are. So you see some people firing a bit more speed in but then going deeper into the corner, going wider or braking a little bit earlier, getting it rotating and hugging the inside a little bit more through the corner, which I would say we tend to do a little bit more because the rear remains on the limit quite a long way through the corner in Turn Two. It’s really tough because the LMP2s go through there and then at some point they’re fairly well within their limits so they can turn more aggressively if they want if they’ve gone around on the outside. But we’re still completely on the limit all the way to the exit curb and quite often they’ll go around the outside and then cut back across to get the ideal line. We lose downforce and it really creates a big moment for us. I fully appreciate that they’re going about their race as well so it’s a challenging track to all get along. Incidents do unfortunately happen and that’s why it’s same with many IMSA races… trying to stay out of trouble, have a clean race, have a race car without any damage or any knocks so that you’re fast at the end of the race when there’s probably going be a safety car restart so that you can be at the top of your performance right at the end when it counts.”

ROBERT WICKENS, NO. 36 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.RWHAT’S THE OUTLOOK FOR YOUR HOME RACE IN THE CORVETTE?“Similar to what Alex was saying, nothing comes easy in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, but Corvette has had so much success at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park in the past. Finishing 1-2 last year sets the bar pretty high. Obviously it’s a home race for me, one that I’ve had circled on the calendar all season. So yeah, looking forward to just getting behind the wheel of a Corvette around such an awesome track. I’ve had success in TCR in the past, winning there twice and finishing second in the other. Nothing comes easy. I think we just have to keep our head down. The first two races that I’ve done this year in the WeatherTech Championship haven’t been amazing, to say the least. We’ve shown potential but just at the wrong time. So hopefully we can just put together a good, strong weekend from the first practice right through to the checkered flag Sunday.” ON BALANCING MULTIPLE RACE COMMITMENTS PLUS COMPETING THIS WEEKEND AT YOUR HOME EVENT IN THE HEADLINE RACE.“It’s kind of take it one week at a time, you know. To add to that my wife and I found out that we’re pregnant with twins, as well, so there’s been no shortage of excitement on race weekends or on the home front. So it’s been frankly just a crazy year… lots of travel. I was in Mid-Ohio on the weekend with IndyCar and went last night up to Canada. So now I’m up north getting ready for the weekend ahead. It’s just exciting. Since coming back from my injuries and racing in support series with IMSA, I’ve always been trying to get back to racing on Sundays and in that headline event. To do it at home in front of a hometown crowd, it’s going to be a really great feeling.” ON CONTINUAL WORK ON THE UNIQUE DRIVER CHANGE PROCESS AND WORKING WITH DRIVER CHANGE ASSISTANT JOSH GIBBS.“I think we’re still needing to find time on getting me into the car. We can do it relatively quickly but not that consistent. There’s a lot of obviously moving parts getting me in whereas getting me out is pretty simple… you just rip me out of the car and I’m gone. In Long Beach – obviously given the shortened race – there was a lot of focus on the driver change and we were actually pretty quick when Tommy (Milner) was my teammate. I think we did it in 16 seconds in the race but it still wasn’t quick enough as we lost a few seconds to our competitors. At Laguna Seca frankly the whole pitstop was just a disaster from (teammate Alec Udell) getting driven into by a car leaving its pit box in front of us and then the driver change… the whole thing was just kind of a mess. Definitely we lost more time than we needed to. “The starting driver / finishing driver for CTMP is a little unclear right now, but I think we’re going to keep practicing it like we always have to in order to make sure that we’re competitive. At the end of the day we want the best result for the team and if that means taking a fast pit stop or driver change to have me start and qualify and to do all that stuff, I’ll be happy to do it. We’ll have to wait and see. But with Josh, you know, it’s crazy how effortlessly he can toss me around and put me in and out of the car. We definitely have a good team at DXDT Racing and are just taking that one step at a time.” ANTICIPATION OF RACING IN THE CHEVROLET GRAND PRIX ON SUNDAY VERSUS MICHELIN PILOT CHALLENGE ON SATURDAYS IN THE PAST.“You only know what you know. Ironically at Long Beach we raced on a Saturday, and Laguna Seca was my only taste of what a true sprint race in the WeatherTech Championship is like. I think it’s kind of business as usual. It’s just racing on a different day with a little more spotlight on you. Even when you’re running in a support category in the IMSA paddock, the fans are so great, the gridwalks are everything. You kind of feel like you’re the headline race even though you’re not. The IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship is just awesome. I think it’s a highlight of the whole Canadian Tire Motorsport Park calendar. A lot of fans come out and we’re doing a little fan experience this year, which is something I’ve never done before, testing the waters on how that goes with giving them a package that they might not get necessarily, give them a tour of the hand controls that are made by Bosch as well as a photo with me on the grid and hopefully on the podium afterwards. “There’s lots to be excited about and I’m just trying to embrace a home race. It’s been a long time since I’ve been in the headline event at a hometown race. The last was IndyCar in 2018. The Canadian fans are always passionate and always super loyal, and it’s going to be awesome to see everybody out there.” ON THE CANADIAN FOLLOWING FOR CORVETTE AND IN IMSA.“The Canadian fans, like I said, we’re a small country but we’re pretty passionate and loyal about the sports that we love. And you see a lot of familiar faces from Canadian karting that I grew up racing against to parents of people I raced against. Then obviously there’s a lot of Canadians involved in motorsport altogether. So we’re all proud to be from where we’re from. I think we’re all just ready to start getting on with the weekend. Everyone here on this call is happiest when our helmets are on and we’ll be able to go to work.” ON MODERN GT3 CARS BEING SUITED TO RACING AN OLD-SCHOOL TRACK LIKE CTMP.“I obviously haven’t experienced it yet, so hopefully I can give you some comments later. Judging by the success that Corvette has had around Canadian Time Motorsport Park over the years – I think something like 13 wins since 2001 – is cool. For me, I think what’s special is that I grew up with Ron Fellows kind of being like a mentor of mine, and obviously his history is in the No. 3 Corvette that Alex drives. Seeing all the success he had and obviously the role that Ron has at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park now and on the whole Canadian motorsport community… there’s going to be a lot of pride for me driving a Corvette around that track this weekend. In terms of what it feels like in car characteristics, GT3 cars seem to be happier in high-speed corners than they are in low-speed corners. That’s more or less what Canadian Tire Motorsport Park is. It’s a fast flowing track. It takes a lot of commitment and a lot of focus on car balance and the handling of the car, and I think that’s where the Corvette Z06 GT3 R really comes into its own.” ON MULTI-CLASS RACING AT CTMP WITH LMP2 CARS AND GT3 CARS.“I think the interesting thing about the Michelin Pilot Challenge at CTMP is the TCR cars are actually quicker than the GS class through Turn Two and all those corners. It’ll be the opposite kind of for us this weekend. As long as they (GS cars) didn’t pass us on the straight ahead of Turn Two, we knew we were more or less protected to nearly the exit of Three or almost the exit of Five because we were so quick in Two, Three and even down through Four. In the TCR car, it’s just an easy flat corner. In GS, you can see the rears moving around. So for us, it was one of the easier races to coexist in Pilot Challenge because, really, if the GS car didn’t pass you into Turn One, you could almost keep them behind you until the entire backstraight, and then they could pass you easily with their power. So it’s going to be a new experience for me. “Actually I believe it’s my first weekend racing with the LMP2 cars on track. I’m well aware of how much more downforce they have than us. Like what Alex has talked about, they can go through Turn Two for example with so much more ease than us that they can kind of pick wherever they want to go and we’re kind of just hanging on trying to find the limit the whole way through the corner. It’s going to be an interesting challenge, but I think you learn through practice. You never know who’s really driving each time but you try to keep an eye on which car is trying to do what things, and hopefully those trends continue throughout the weekend and into the race.”

Jul 3, 2025 | Featured, Megan Meyer, Pre-Race Releases, Rachel Meyer, Special Announcements

The powerhouse duo of Megan and Rachel Meyer are back and ready to shake things up once again—this time in the newly launched IHRA Nitro Outlaw Series. The two sisters will pilot their A/Fuel dragsters in the first two events of the five-race season, kicking off July 9–12 at National Trail Raceway in Columbus, Ohio, followed by July 23–26 at Milan Dragway in Michigan.

Each event will feature Friday night qualifying and Saturday eliminations under the lights, headlined by Top Fuel and Nitro Funny Car classes along with Pro Mod, Pro Nitrous, and full Pro-Am sportsman action throughout the weekend. The series marks a new era of entertainment-focused drag racing, blending nostalgia and modern horsepower to deliver an unforgettable experience.

For Megan, this marks her second competition of the year after racing in the high-stakes $15K Top Alcohol Dragster Shootout at Cecil County Dragway, where she was a top contender and made it to the semi-finals. Before that, she closed out the 2023 season finishing second in points with her Gunk dragster in the Nitro Chaos Championship.

Rachel, meanwhile, hasn’t been in the seat since her 2023 win at Mo-Kan Dragway, where she famously defeated her sister Megan in the Nitro Chaos semi-finals. Now, she’s set to make a highly anticipated return—driven by family legacy and a bit of sibling rivalry.

“I’m beyond excited to get back behind the wheel,” said Rachel Meyer. “My husband has won an Ironman trophy before, but not me, so I love that I have the opportunity to try to win one and tie with my husband.”

For both sisters, the opportunity to race together again—especially under the IHRA banner for the first time with their father, Randy Meyer, feels personal.

“We’ve raced against each other before many times in Top Alcohol Dragster and Super Comp and Junior Dragster classes, but doing this new series together adds something special,” said Megan Meyer. “The IHRA Nitro Outlaw format brings in a fresh crowd and a new level of excitement that I’m proud to be part of. This is the kind of grassroots energy that drag racing needs.”

The Meyer sisters will bring along strong sponsor support from longtime partners GUNK, and NGK Spark Plugs, as well as new to the team, Maxima Racing Oils, all of whom are helping power their return to the IHRA stage. Both dragsters are known for their eye-catching looks, record-setting runs, and the family-run crew that makes it all possible.

The IHRA Nitro Outlaw Series kicks off July 9–12 at National Trail Raceway in Columbus, Ohio, followed by July 23–26 at Milan Dragway in Michigan. Each event runs Friday night qualifying and Saturday eliminations under the lights. Fans can expect side-by-side 300+ mph nitro action, full pit access, and a high-energy atmosphere at both venues.

BATAVIA, Ohio (July 7, 2025) – This weekend, the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series makes its return to the Midwest. The weekend begins on Thursday, July 10, at 34 Raceway with a $15,000-to-win event. A complete program is on deck, featuring Dirt Draft Hot Laps, Allstar Performance Time Trials, Heat Races, B-Mains, and a 50-lap main event. Joining the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series at 34 Raceway are the Modifieds and Mini Haulers. The pit gate will open at 4:00 PM, with the general admission gate opening at 5:00 PM. On-track action will begin at 6:30 PM. 34 Raceway, often referred to as Southeast Iowa’s Premier Place to Race, is in West Burlington, Iowa, and has hosted numerous prestigious national events since its inception in 1966. To learn more about 34 Raceway or to purchase tickets in advance, visit www.34raceway.com. From there, the tour heads to Lucas Oil Speedway for the 19th Annual CMH Diamond Nationals presented by Wieland Metal Services. The event will expand to a two-day schedule in 2025, with full programs each night, featuring $15,000-to-win and $25,000-to-win main events, respectively. The Super Stocks will also compete each night at Lucas Oil Speedway. Lucas Oil Speedway is located at the intersection of Highway 83 and Highway 54 in Wheatland, Missouri, about an hour North of Springfield and only about an hour and a half from Kansas City. For advance ticket purchases or more information about Lucas Oil Speedway, visit www.lucasoilspeedway.com. The 19th Annual Diamond Nationals will be the next bonus round in the Big River Steel Chase for the Championship Presented by ARP. The Summit Racing Equipment Super Twelve will award each driver within the top twelve in the championship standings a share of a $16,000 payout. Summit Racing Equipment Super Twelve Payout: 1. $5,000, 2. $1,000, 3. $1,000, 4. $1,000, 5. $1,000, 6. $1,000, 7. $1,000, 8. $1,000, 9. $1,000, 10. $1,000, 11. $1,000, 12. $1,000 = Total $16,000 Ricky Thornton Jr. returns to the top of the Big River Steel Chase for the Championship presented by ARP standings. Jonathan Davenport is seconds, followed by Devin Moran, Hudson O’Neal, and Garrett Alberson, completing the top five. Donald McIntosh leads the O’Reilly Auto Parts Rookie of the Year chase by 50 points over Daniel Hilsabeck. Dan Ebert is third. For the latest news, results, championship standings, and more about the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series presented by FloRacing, please visit www.lucasdirt.com. Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series Purses:34 Raceway: 1. $15,000, 2. $7,000, 3. $5,000, 4. $4,000, 5. $3,000, 6. $2,500, 7. $2,400, 8. $2,300, 9. $2,200, 10. $2,100, 11. $2,000, 12. $1,800, 13. $1,600, 14. $1,500, 15. $1,400, 16. $1,300, 17. $1,200, 18. $1,100, 19. $1,000, 20. $1,000, 21. $1,000, 22. $1,000, 23. $1,000, 24. $1,000 = $63,400 Lucas Oil Speedway (Friday): 1. $15,000, 2. $7,000, 3. $5,000, 4. $4,000, 5. $3,000, 6. $2,500, 7. $2,400, 8. $2,300, 9. $2,200, 10. $2,100, 11. $2,000, 12. $1,800, 13. $1,600, 14. $1,500, 15. $1,400, 16. $1,300, 17. $1,200, 18. $1,100, 19. $1,000, 20. $1,000, 21. $1,000, 22. $1,000, 23. $1,000, 24. $1,000 = $63,400 Lucas Oil Speedway (Saturday): 1. $25,000, 2. $10,000, 3. $6,000, 4. $4,000, 5. $3,500, 6. $2,700, 7. $2,500, 8. $2,300, 9. $2,200, 10. $2,100, 11. $2,000, 12. $1,900, 13. $1,800, 14. $1,700, 15. $1,600, 16. $1,500, 17. $1,500, 18. $1,500, 19. $1,500, 20. $1,500, 21. $1,500, 22. $1,500, 23. $1,500, 24. $1,500 = $82,800 Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series Tire Rule:Left Rear/Fronts – Hoosier (90) NLMT2, (90) NLMT3Right Rear – Hoosier (92) NLMT3, (92) NLMT4

Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA seeks to take next step following positives at Le MansDETROIT (July 7, 2025) – Capitalizing on precision and performance is the objective for Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA’s factory Hypercars this weekend in the Rolex 6 Hours of São Paulo. The contest on the 4.409 km (2.677-mile), 15-turn Autódromo José Carlos Pace – commonly known as Interlagos – is the fifth of eight rounds on the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) calendar and eagerly awaited by the team and drivers of the Nos. 12 and 38 Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA V-Series.R.

Following the pole start and fourth-place finish last month in the 93rd edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, drivers Alex Lynn, Norman Nato and Will Stevens look forward to building on momentum. Their No. 12 Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA V-Series.R is the only Hypercar to compete in Hyperpole (Hyperpole2 at Le Mans) in each of the four races and has qualified three times in the top five. CHART The No. 12 Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA V-Series.R has crossed the finish line fifth and fourth in the past two races and the drivers have sat at the points table in every race. “We’re improving a lot, which we showed at Le Mans. The car has a lot of strong points, and we aim to utilize them on the Interlagos circuit,” Lynn said of the first-year Hypercar works team. The No. 38 Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA V-Series.R has also displayed performance gains as drivers Earl Bamber, Sebastien Bourdais and Jenson Button continue to learn and extract more out of the car. Bamber qualified second at Le Mans and the trio have combined to place sixth and seventh the past two races.

Media resources* French version of preview* Cadillac event guide* Cadillac 2025 WEC stats* Cadillac all-stime stats* Driver photos In-car viewsWatch the race (10:30 a.m. ET Sunday) unfold via streaming from the Cadillac V-Series.Rs’ cockpit HERE.

Also, in the 21-car Hypercar field at Circuit de la Sarthe, Bourdais recorded the fastest race lap, and Jack Aitken set the qualifying pace in Hyperpole1 in the sister No. 311 Whelen Cadillac V-Series.R campaigned by Action Express Racing. Following a decade-long absence, the historic Autódromo José Carlos Pace rejoined the WEC schedule in 2024, with more than 73,000 spectators cheering the action. Cadillac Racing’s lone Hypercar entry, with Bamber and Lynn sharing the duties, qualified fourth and placed 13th (routine service stop issue required a return trip down pit lane to make corrections). The Hertz Team JOTA entries finished seventh and 18th with another manufacturer. Drivers and teams will attempt to quickly find their car’s balance on the demanding circuit. A pair of 90-minute free practice sessions Friday will be followed by a 60-minute free practice Saturday that precedes qualifications and the 10-minute Hyperpole.

What they’re saying

No. 12 Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA V-Series.R Alex Lynn: “I think the progress we’ve made since last year in Brazil and understanding the importance of tire management on the circuit puts us in a better position to challenge for the podium. We’ve done sim work and other things to prepare, and hopefully data collected at Le Mans and Spa will be put to good use.”Norman Nato: “After a quite good effort in Le Mans, another challenge of us in Brazil with different track conditions. A lot of tire degradation at the rear, which makes the tire strategy and driving different than the other races in term of management. We will focus on being efficient in the race, where we need to find the best car setup compromise to be smooth on tires. Such an iconic track I discovered last year, very passionate fans, looking forward to driving the Cadillac V-Series.R.” Will Stevens: “Brazil, it’s actually kind of my home race because I’m married to a Brazilian. So, looking forward to it and it’s great we have a race so soon after Le Mans. I think we learned a lot at Le Mans because there’s a lot of track time to learn what we want from the car, things we can still improve. At the end of the day, (Le Mans) is only just the beginning of what we’re doing. We’re six months into this program, we’re going to keep improving, we’re going to keep getting better. Let’s go to Brazil and full attack and hopefully come away with the great result.”No. 38 Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA V-Series.R Earl Bamber: “I’m looking forward to returning to Interlagos and taking what we’ve learned, what we’ve developed over the past few months to this historic circuit. Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA had overall great results in the 24 Hours of Le Mans and though Interlagos is a different track we believe the strengths of the Cadillac V-Series.R will come through there. Aside from a pit miscue in 2024 that cost us two laps, we were competitive in Brazil, so I expect us to be in the mix again.” Sebastien Bourdais: “Interlagos is a very different animal than Le Mans. It tends to be quite high tire deg. The altitude makes it that you lose downforce as well, so it’s not an easy track. I wasn’t there last year, so it’s difficult to know what to expect. Overall, looking forward to it. It feels like we’re building on from the last couple of events. We’re starting to catch some references. The team is working and gelling. We’ll have a tough task ahead of us there and will give it our best shot.” Jenson Button: “We have some work to do for the races to come but I left Le Mans very proud of the entire team. Interlagos is a demanding circuit with a pair of alternating downward left and right turns at the start to a long uphill left turn toward the end of the lap. The unpredictability of the weather adds to the mix, too. We’ll keep pushing forward with the goal of reaching the top step of the podium.”

WHEEL, TN — July 6, 2025 — Tyler Erb enjoys his DIRTcar Summer Nationals Late Models races by the riverside.

After scoring his fifth Hell Tour win of 2025 on Tuesday night at Spoon River Speedway, the New Waverly, TX driver had to battle his overall title competitors for his sixth win in the tour’s debut at Duck River Raceway Park on Sunday night.

Polesitter Mark Whitener took early control of the start while Jason Feger and Tyler Erb ran behind in second and third place, respectively.

On Lap 5, Erb used the bottom lane to pass Feger at the finish line, then threw a slide job on Whitener through Turns 3-4 to take the lead on the following lap.

At the front of the field, Erb used the bottom of Turns 1-2, then ripped the cushion of Turns 3-4 to gain distance on Whitener and Feger.

Fort Payne, AL’s Sam Seawright joined the fight for the win as Feger passed Whitener for second place, then Seawright followed Feger around the top to take third place while they chased down Erb for the lead until the caution flew on Lap 22.

On the final restart of the Feature, Feger had to battle Seawright for second place by driving the bottom lane while Seawright ran the high side. The skirmish behind the Best Performance Motorsports No. 1 helped Erb draw a one-second advantage.

Feger held onto second place, but could not close the gap in time as Erb took his 21st career Hell Tour win. Despite winning, Erb finished one point shy of the Week 4 championship, with Feger leaving with the $10,000 check.

“This is probably the coolest place I’ve ever been to in Tennessee,” Erb said. “This is awesome. It had a cushion, and that end over there was super racy. How many times do you get to come down south and run a cushion like that? But, just a really great night. We got six more races now, and I just got to try to win every one of them.”

Up Next: The DIRTcar Summer Nationals Late Models and DIRTcar Summit Racing Equipment Modified Nationals begin the final week of racing with Indiana’s Shadyhill Speedway commencing the start on Tuesday, July 8.

If you can’t make it to the track, you can watch all the action live on DIRTVision – either online or by downloading the DIRTVision App.

Feature (30 Laps): 1. 1-Tyler Erb[3]; 2. 25F-Jason Feger[2]; 3. 16-Sam Seawright[6]; 4. 212-Josh Putnam[12]; 5. 14JR-Trey Mills[5]; 6. 5-Mark Whitener[1]; 7. 29-Christian Hanger[10]; 8. 3B-Brad Skinner[15]; 9. 17SS-Brenden Smith[17]; 10. B44-Grayson Brewer[7]; 11. 75-Dillon McCowan[8]; 12. 28B-Carson Brown[13]; 13. 31M-Tyler Millwood[14]; 14. 15-Clay Stuckey[19]; 15. 59-Dillard Hatchett[11]; 16. 15S-Brayden Skinner[21]; 17. 55-Eli Johnson[22]; 18. 38-Thomas Hunziker[20]; 19. 13-Scott Cook[9]; 20. 81F-Jadon Frame[4]; 21. 17SR-Brody Smith[16]; 22. 71-Kane Newby[18]

Lucas Lee Wins Eighth Career Summit Modifieds Feature at Duck River Raceway Park

Lucas Lee was not going to have Sunday night’s DIRTcar Summit Racing Equipment Modified Nationals trophy leave the Volunteer State.

In the Independence Day Special at Duck River Raceway Park, the Paris, TN driver had to defend home state turf against the division’s top competitors for his eighth career tour win.

Chase Holland led the field to the green flag while Trent Young followed behind in second place. Lee followed in third place for the first half of the race, then began his battle against Holland for second place by driving his Elite Chassis to the cushion of the track while Holland stood his ground on the bottom lane.

The two drivers leaned on each other through the corners, but Holland was powerless to match Lee’s pace on the top as he got clear for second place through Turn 2 of Lap 13, as Lee mounted a charge toward Young for the top spot.

Lee kept to his line around the cushion of the Wheel, TN bullring, while Young kept his No. 10Y planted to the bottom of the surface. Though Young attempted to squeeze Lee into surrendering the battle, the No. 12L overmatched the pace as Lee got clear of Young on Lap 19.

At the helm of the field, Lee transitioned to the bottom lane and kept Young back from attempting a late-race move as he went on for his first Summit Modifieds win of 2025. The Tennesseean’s triumph ties him with 2012 champion Kenny Wallace for 10th on the all-time wins list.

Up Next: The DIRTcar Summer Nationals Late Models and DIRTcar Summit Racing Equipment Modified Nationals begin the final week of racing with Indiana’s Shadyhill Speedway commencing the start on Tuesday, July 8.

If you can’t make it to the track, you can watch all the action live on DIRTVision – either online or by downloading the DIRTVision App.

Feature (25 Laps): 1. 12L-Lucas Lee[3]; 2. 10Y-Trent Young[2]; 3. 45H-Chase Holland[1]; 4. 98H-Zac Harris[7]; 5. 27G-Jason Garver[6]; 6. 15-Henry Hanger[10]; 7. 98-Logan Hickerson[8]; 8. 75-Daniel Adam[4]; 9. 21B-Hunter Breland[9]; 10. 29C-Joey Cotterman[12]; 11. C66-Donald Johns[13]; 12. 06-Cage Ashby[14]; 13. 49-Jeff Paige[15]; 14. 23B-Ethan Boomsma[5]; 15. 119-Andrew Littleton[11]

After a promising run in the first 20-lap Stage of Sunday’s Grant Park 165 on the streets of Chicago, Josh Berry and the No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane team were knocked out of the race by a crash early in Stage Two and left with a 34th -place finish.After starting the race from 29th place, Berry avoided a multi-car crash in the opening laps of the race and worked his way into the top 15 after just seven laps.The Motorcraft/Quick Lane team elected to pit prior to the end of Stage One and pitted from 14th place.Berry took the green flag for the start of Stage Two from 17th place, but tangled with Erik Jones in Turn Seven on Lap 29 and bounced into the barrier.The damage to the Motorcraft/Quick Lane Mustang Dark Horse from contact with the barrier was too severe to continue, and Berry’s race ended at that point. “Without seeing a replay, I feel like the 43 just kind of overcooked the corner and got us there,” Berry told reporters at the track. “It’s just disappointing. We were having a really solid day and made our way forward. “We were running well, so we’ll just keep on going and trying to get better and go on to Sonoma.”

July 6, 2025 — MANSFIELD, OH

• Scott Dixon scores first victory of 2025, winning in 21 consecutive IndyCar seasons
• Alex Palou makes it a Honda 1-2 at the Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio Presented by the All-New 2026 Passport
• Honda takes victory in 10 of 10 NTT INDYCAR races this season

Mr. Mid-Ohio, Scott Dixon, broke through as the third different winner in the 2025 NTT INDYCAR SERIES season, powering his #9 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda to the win in the Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio Presented by the All-New 2026 Passport.

Dixon scored his record seventh win at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course by utilizing his famed fuel saving prowess to make it all 90 laps on just two pit stops. His other Mid-Ohio victories have come in 2019, 2014, 2012, 2011, 2009 and 2007.

Scott Dixon’s Chip Ganassi Racing teammate, Alex Palou, made it a 1-2 for Honda in today’s race. Palou led a race-high 75 laps before running wide in the closing stanzas and allowing Dixon through. The two fought hard through the final laps of the race, but ultimately the six-time champ of Dixon would cross the line ahead of the three-time champ of Palou. Palou has won six times already this season and holds a commanding 113-point lead in the drivers’ standings over Kyle Kirkwood.

Colton Herta finished fourth for Andretti Global, while the Meyer Shank Racing pair of Felix Rosenqvist and Marcus Armstrong came home sixth and seventh, respectively.

Second place in the championship and a winner thrice already this year, Kyle Kirkwood, crossed the line eighth in his Honda Honda—a special livery for an important race for Honda. The Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course is just over 60 miles from the Honda Marysville and East Liberty Auto Plants as well as Honda Research & Development. More than 400,000 Honda and Acura automobiles are made in Ohio each year, as well as research and design on components for Honda products from lawnmowers to the HondaJet. The Honda livery also comes on a special weekend of NTT INDYCAR SERIES racing as the series has reached the one-year milestone running hybrid power units. Thousands of Honda associates from the Ohio facilities turned out to watch the stars of the NTT INDYCAR SERIES, including Kirkwood in his Honda Honda.

Rinus VeeKay also notched a top-10 finish for Dale Coyne Racing, moving up 17 spots to finish ninth, just ahead of Kyffin Simpson in 10th, giving Honda eight of the top-10 finishers.

Honda has scored a perfect run of victories so far this year, going 10 for 10 in IndyCar competition—a record since the return to multi-manufacturer competition in 2012. Honda sits 214 points ahead of rival Chevrolet in the manufacturers’ championship, 915-701.

Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio Presented by the All-New 2026 Passport Honda Race Results

1st Scott Dixon	Chip Ganassi Racing Honda
2nd Alex Palou	Chip Ganassi Racing Honda
4th Colton Herta	Andretti Global Honda
6th Felix Rosenqvist	Meyer Shank Racing Honda
7th Marcus Armstrong	Meyer Shank Racing Honda
8th Kyle Kirkwood	Andretti Global Honda
9th Rinus VeeKay	Dale Coyne Racing Honda
10th Kyffin Simpson	Chip Ganassi Racing Honda
12th Marcus Ericsson	Andretti Global Honda
14th Louis Foster-R	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Honda
20th Devlin DeFrancesco	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Honda
22nd Jacob Abel-R	Dale Coyne Racing Honda
24th Graham Rahal	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Honda

R – Rookie

Quotes

Scott Dixon (#9 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda) finished first: “It was a crazy day for us. Obviously, we got a little bit lucky there at the end. Huge kudos to Honda—to pull off a two-stop there was definitely not easy, both on the tires and also the mileage. We were one of the few that were able to do it, if not the only one. Big thank you to everybody at HRC for enabling us to do that, and very special to get another win here. Victory number seven at Mid-Ohio!”

Alex Palou (#10 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda) finished second: “Very good day until I made a big mistake towards the end. We had amazing pace all weekend, we got the pole, led a lot of laps, but unfortunately went off in turn 9 with less than 10 laps to go and lost the lead there. But the car was great and everybody on the team did an amazing job. Honda and HRC gave us the mileage that we needed for Scott to win the race for CGR. It was great that we had two different strategies going on. Really happy overall, could have been a little bit happier, but honestly, overall, it was a very good weekend.”

Felix Rosenqvist (#60 Meyer Shank Racing Honda) finished sixth: “If you told me this morning that we finished P6, I’d say we’ll definitely take that. It’s tough to pass here. Historically, it’s been a race where it’s hard to move forward, but the two-stopper came into play and we were luckily already saving a lot of fuel. The team asked me about the strategy and I said let’s go for it! I think it paid off. It was definitely tough at times, especially on the reds we had a bit of a poor stint, but the black tire stints were great. Good day for Meyer Shank Racing overall as well to finish P6 and P7 after coming off a good weekend in Road America. Hope we can keep it up!”

Kyle Kirkwood (#27 Andretti Global Honda) finished eighth: “Not an amazing race by us, but nonetheless it was a good points day. We’ll take the points where we can and hold off our competition. We made the fuel strategy work—thanks to the crew on the Honda Honda on that call. I think all of us on that fuel strategy made it look pretty easy, our Honda fuel mileage was great and that definitely helped. I’m happy with the performance overall. It was a 1-2 finish for Honda today, and that makes ten wins in a row. It’s a big milestone to reach double digits this season. Looking forward to Iowa, hopefully we can get win number 11 for you guys.”

Rinus VeeKay (#18 Dale Coyne Racing Honda) finished ninth: “After qualifying 26th, it was not a given to finish in the top 10. We had a really good call by pitting when it was about to go yellow. Unfortunately, Kyffin stalled just past his box a little, so that made our last stop hard, but fortunately Nico—my outside rear tire changer—is okay. Really happy with the result, that’s our sixth top 10 of the season and second time being the Biggest Mover of the race. Super, super satisfied. The car was great and the Honda mileage got us really far. Now I’m going to drive my Acura MDX back to Indy and get ready for Iowa.”

Kelvin Fu (Vice President, Honda Racing Corporation USA): “10 wins in a row! What an incredible run we’ve had in 2025. I keep telling the HRC team to really enjoy the ride because this doesn’t happen every year. Today’s race was awesome. A 1-2 for Chip Ganassi and Honda and Mr. Mid-Ohio himself, Scott Dixon, back on top. You can’t bet against that guy in any race, but especially a fuel mileage race at Mid-Ohio of all places. Seven wins here is such an impressive run. And it’s great that he was able to put on a show in front of so many of our Honda Ohio associates. We aren’t able to go racing without the effort everyone at Honda puts in, and so it’s great that they could see a Honda victory and I want to thank them all for their hard work and for coming out to the race track.”

NASCAR CUP SERIES CHICAGO STREET RACE TEAM CHEVY POST-RACE REPORT JULY 6, 2025

MEDIA RESOURCES: Photo Gallery | Race AdvancesChevrolet Newsroom

Shane van Gisbergen capped off a dominating weekend in the “Windy City” by taking the checkered flag in the Grant Park 165 – keeping Chevrolet undefeated in NASCAR’s top division in the Chicago Street Race. The victory marks Van Gisbergen’s third victory in just 33 career starts in the division – two of which have come at the 2.2-mile Chicago street circuit.   The victory came after Van Gisbergen defended his race winning title in the NASCAR Xfinity Series at the circuit – driving the No. 9 JR Motorsports Chevrolet to the win in yesterday’s The Loop 110. The Chicago Street Course provided yet another milestone weekend for the 36-year-old Auckland, New Zealand, native with the Team Chevy driver becoming just the second driver in series’ history to sweep the pole and race wins in both of NASCAR’s top-two division on the same weekend.   It was a calamity-filled opening stage for the third annual Chicago Street Race. Taking the green flag in the “Windy City”, NASCAR’s top division made just four laps before a several car pileup at the front of the field ensued on the straight leading into Turn 10 – quickly putting the race under red flag conditions. Among those collected included a trio of Team Chevy drivers that posted strong qualifying efforts, including Carson Hocevar, Austin Dillon and Will Brown.   Michael McDowell turned a front-row qualifying effort into a dominating performance in Stage One. The 40-year-old Phoenix, Arizona, native took the lead from the polesitter and fellow Team Chevy driver, Shane van Gisbergen, on the opening lap and never looked back – taking the green-white checkered flag for his fourth career stage win. With fuel strategy at the forefront, crew chief Travis Peterson opted to keep the No. 71 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet off pit road to take advantage of prime track position for the start of Stage Two. But a strong run quickly took a turn when an issue with the throttle forced the team back down pit road to diagnose the issue and ultimately behind the wall for repairs.   A restart near the halfway point of the race saw a pair of Team Chevy road course ringers, Shane van Gisbergen and AJ Allmendinger, lead the field back to the green flag. Taking control of the lead at the drop of the green flag, Van Gisbergen went on to pull away to over a three-second lead before crew chief Stephen Doran called the No. 88 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet down pit road with three laps remaining in Stage Two for a schedule pit stop. With varying pit strategies throughout the field, Van Gisbergen went on to cycle back up to the 12th position at the conclusion of the stage.   Progressively inching his way back up through the field, Van Gisbergen found himself in the runner-up position when the race hit 16 laps to go. Making the pass on then race leader Chase Briscoe, the No. 88 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet went on to hold the top position for the remainder of the race en route to the team’s second victory of the 2025 season.  For the 11th time this season, Chevrolet has owned at least half of the top-10 finishing positions with four different Chevrolet organizations driving the manufacturer to six top-10 results with Van Gisbergen leading Richard Childress Racing’s Kyle Busch (fifth) and Austin Hill (ninth); Kaulig Racing’s AJ Allmendinger in sixth; Hendrick Motorsports’ Alex Bowman in eighth; and Van Gisbergen’s Trackhouse Racing teammate, Ross Chastain, in 10th.

TEAM CHEVY UNOFFICIAL TOP-10 RESULTS: POS.     DRIVER 1st – Shane van Gisbergen5th – Kyle Busch6th – AJ Allmendinger8th – Alex Bowman9th – Austin Hill10th – Ross Chastain  Chevrolet’s season statistics with 19 NASCAR Cup Series races complete:  Wins: 8Poles: 9Top-Fives: 37Top 10s: 76Stage Wins: 17

UP NEXT: The 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season continues at Sonoma Raceway with the Toyota / Save Mart 350 on Sunday, July 13, at 3:30 p.m. ET. Live coverage can be found on TNT, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.

Post-Race Driver Quotes: Austin Dillon, No. 3 Richard Childress Racing ChevroletSidelined by damage sustained after being collected in an accident in the opening stage. Finished: 36th “Disappointing day in the No. 3 BREZTRI AEROSPHERE® (budesonide, glycopyrrolate, and formoterol fumarate) Chevrolet at the Chicago Street Race. Crew chief Richard Boswell and everyone on the RCR team brought a really fast Chevrolet to the streets of Chicago. We qualified 10th and thought we would be a contender today in the race. A car spun in front of us on the first lap and it ended our day before we could even get it started. It’s a shame and I’m just at a loss for words at this point. We’ll just keep bringing cars like this and hope our luck turns around for us at some point.”   Kyle Busch, No. 8 Richard Childress Racing ChevroletFinished: 5th “Our day started out pretty good. We got a good jump on the initial start there and was able to roll forward and get to third. We tried to go long on that first set of tires, and with those couple of cautions, it didn’t fall into our favor. That put us on old tires and I spun out getting into (turn) seven. We just didn’t have any left-rear grip. That’s something we’ve struggled with on this car, and it just bit me there. The No. 8 Slurpee Chevrolet team rallied and we were able to rebound. We pitted a couple of times there at the end and had some fresh tires late for some of the melee that was going on in front of us and made up some spots. Our Chevrolet was definitely a top-two or three car, but it’s good to come home with a top-five finish.”   Ty Dillon, No. 10 Kaulig Racing ChevroletFinished: 20th “We survived and advanced! This No. 10 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet team is just a tough team – we never quit. We don’t even know how to. I’m just so proud of Kaulig Racing and our No. 10 team. I knew in a basketball city, going up against Brad in a game of knock-out, I was going to have a good chance. This race was tough on us. I felt like halfway through the race, we were rolling pretty good and we could have had a chance at a top-15. I clipped the wall again and knocked the toe out and kind of bent the ball joint pretty bad. I was just kind of hanging on and hoping we could get everything we could there at the end. We’re just going to keep working hard; put pressure on who we’re facing next and see if we can keep it rolling.”   Austin Hill, No. 33 Richard Childress Racing ChevroletFinished: 9th “Massive day for our United Rentals Chevrolet. The Cup Series isn’t easy. To only have five races with the No. 33 team and leave with a top-10 finish is huge for our group. We started 30th, drove up a little ways and played some strategy to gain even more ground. I feel like I won the race honestly. I was upset with finishing fourth yesterday in the Xfinity Series race, but to finish ninth in a Cup race feels like I won it. Hats off to RCR, ECR and everyone on this team. We put our heads together, called a great race, took tires when we needed to, and stayed out when we needed to. At the end, it was good enough to get up there and battle with the guys to finish inside the top-10.” Alex Bowman, No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports ChevroletFinished: 8th Bowman on the late-race contact with Bubba Wallace in the closing laps: “I don’t know.. I passed him (Bubba Wallace) clean, or what I thought was clean. I just followed when the No. 45 passed him. Then he shipped us into (turn) 12; ran us into the fence in (turn) one and ran us into the fence off of (turn) two. And then we just sort of pin-balled off of each other and he ended up on the worse side of it, but we’re just trying to go straight off the corner. I don’t know why we did that… I wasn’t expecting that to happen or to get raced like that, but we did. We just have to move on from it and keep digging. I don’t really know what I could have done much different. I just got into the fence there and you’re kind of along for the ride. It’s just frustrating.”     Michael McDowell, No. 71 Spire Motorsports ChevroletFinished: 32nd “The throttle cable just broke. I don’t know what caused it or how it got to that spot, but that’s what happened. I feel like we had control of the race. I think it would have been a battle, no doubt. I felt like any time I could open a gap on SVG, I could. We were just working on our strategy. We knew we were going to one-stop it, so I was taking care of the tires and doing all the things I could. I was behind the pace car and the throttle stuck wide-open. Luckily I got to the switches fast enough before I ran into something, and then a cable broke after that. It’s just a shame. We had a great No. 71 DePaul Chevrolet. We’ve got some good momentum heading into Sonoma next weekend.”   Shane van Gisbergen, No. 88 Trackhouse Racing ChevroletFinished: 1st“It was a brilliant day for this No. 88 WeatherTech Chevrolet team. Our car was really, really nice – the best car I’ve had here, by far. The strategy was a bit all over the place, as we knew it would be today – racing the weather, racing cars and different stops. Stephen (Doran, crew chief) did a really good job on the box all day of just painting the picture in my head of who I was up against. We had two great pit stops. Just so stoked to get WeatherTech in victory lane for their home race.”

CHEVROLET IN THE NTT INDYCAR SERIESHonda Indy 200 at Mid-OhioMid-Ohio Sports Car CourseLexington, OhioRace ReportJuly 6 A pair of Arrow McLaren drivers, Christian Lundgaard in the No. 7 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet, who finished third, and Pato O’Ward in the No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet, who finished fifth, were the best of the Chevrolet-powered runners in the 2025 edition of the Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio that saw a battle of strategies. Winner Scott Dixon, like O’Ward, used two stops to win for the 59th time in his career, while Álex Palou used the same three-stop strategy as Lundgaard to take the second spot on the podium. Lundgaard drove flat out for the 90-lap race on the 2.258-Mile, 13 Turn Mid-Ohio road course, making three stops on the way to his fourth podium of the season. The 23-year-old Dane is one of three drivers to complete all 1,135 laps contested this season and moved into the top five on the championship table. O’Ward utilized the opposite strategy, saving fuel, pitting only twice to come home fifth, his fifth top 5 finish of the season. The 26-year-old Mexican has also completed 100% of the laps this season and moved to within 12 points of second place on the championship table. Up next for the NTT INDYCAR SERIES and the 14 Team Chevy teams and drivers is a trip to Newton, Iowa and a double header on the 0.875-mile Iowa Speedway short oval. Both races will air on FOX, with Saturday’s Synk 275 Powered By Sukup at 5 pm (ET) and Sunday’s Farm To Finish 275 Powered By Sukup at 1 pm (ET).  NTT INDYCAR SERIES unofficial race results from the Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio:

WHAT THEY’RE SAYING (QUOTES): Christian Lundgaard, No. 7 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet finished 3rd: “Obviously, happy to be on the podium, but still a little disappointed. I think we had much more. We need to take the positives from this weekend. We didn’t get any points in Road America when we had a car to win the race. That was a pretty easy podium for us there, and we threw it away. So here, there’s a little bit of redemption, but I really wanted that win today. So, a little disappointed. On the physicality of the race: “A full push race around here is physically tough, mentally tough. Honestly, in the car, it isn’t really that big of a problem. It’s really more once you get out. I think once the adrenaline kind of falls off, it’s that’s when it hits you.” How good does the water taste? I don’t drive with a cool suit or a drinks bottle, so I need a lot before and after. Pato O’Ward, No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet finished 5th: “Extremely close, we missed by just a little bit. We would like to have been fourth, but it was a crazy race for us today. The strategies flipped. Guys that weren’t planning on full pushing, ended up full pushing. And the guys that were going to full push, like myself, ended up on a fuel save. Made some great moves there fought our way forward. We were aggressive and calculated. Great job by the boys. I personally thought we were hosed there for a bit. I never really felt threatened in the way of having a bad yellow fall our way.” “I was confident in the car. You really treasure these weekends where you can put the car where you need to and attack when you want to. It’s been a while since I’ve been on a road course where it feels that way. It’s just too bad we didn’t start further up front; we put ourselves on the back foot yesterday to fight at the front today. These are really, really fun. It was a good job today by Arrow McLaren and it’s good to see the No. 7 on the podium.” Nolan Siegel, No. 6 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet finished 11th: “It was a very disappointing day for us. I think we had a car that could have run in the top five, and fought for a podium. We ended up just losing pace through every sequence, and I’m not exactly sure where we lost it. We will look into it, and fix our issues for Iowa.” Callum Ilott, No, 90 PREMA Racing Chevrolet finished 13th: “A really strong race. We had a bit of contact at the beginning and we were off track. I was just put in a bad position on the outside. We gambled and did an early stop onto the Reds and the first stint wasn’t anything special but once we came in and got going again on the next set of Reds it was it was super fast. The car was really strong. There’s nothing to complain about from there, so I just moved forwards; we overcut some people, undercut some others and unfortunately had to do another stop but I think for us it would have been tough to commit to the effective two-stop strategy. I think we did the best result possible, had some really good pitstops and we maximized everything from P24.” Santino Ferrucci, No. 14 Sexton Properties/A.J. Foyt Racing Chevrolet finished 16th: “Long day honestly. Really proud of this Sexton Properties Chevrolet crew. Really great stops. Even with a fumble on pit lane, awesome recovery. Kind of kicking myself because I know we were top-10 capable, I just made a mistake in turn five getting into the No. 76. Totally my fault there which cost us on track, then reverting positions which was more time. So overall could have been a good day. Happy to salvage that. Come out of here 10th in points. Looking forward to the ovals.” David Malukas, No. 4 Clarience Technologies/A.J. Foyt Racing Chevrolet finished 17th: “Finished up here in Ohio, and, we just can’t have luck this season. Things are just going up, down, up, down. We just can’t get consistency, which is just all I really want, and we’re just struggling to get it. We had a really bad strategy call from the start and kind of just had to put our heads down and deal with it throughout the rest of the race. Had a big fuel-save number. Things didn’t really go our way, unfortunately. Been saying that a lot this season. Hopefully, things can turn around.” Scott McLaughlin, No. 3 Odyssey Battery Team Penske Chevrolet finished 23rd:  “It was a long, hot day inside the Odyssey Battery Chevy, for sure. Felt like we could have finished somewhere between eighth and 12th but had a tire de-laminate on the final run. I don’t know, this has obviously been a very tough year for everyone, but this team doesn’t quit. Team Penske doesn’t have these years often, but we will be stronger because of it, that’s for sure. We are going to Iowa with absolute confidence that we will win there.” Will Power, No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet finished 26th: On what happened: “An engine failure there. I got hit at the start as well, which should damage the floor, but I think it was going to be okay. It didn’t feel like it’s handling badly. Oh, man. Tough, tough year.  On resetting for the next race:“Well, we’re doing that every weekend at the moment. Just every weekend at something, but people go through these ones. See it all the time. It’s just, one of those things.” Josef Newgarden, No. 2 PPG Team Penske Chevrolet finished 27th: What happened?  “I either had a massive rear lock up and spun, or I got touched. Initially, it felt like I just locked the rears all of a sudden out of nowhere unexpectedly — or, I got touched. If I didn’t get touched, just a weird freak massive rear lock, which is bizarre. Tough to not be out there. Hopefully, we can fix the car. I don’t think there is a lot of damage. I’d like to get back out there even though we’re out of this thing. It’s a shame having a fast PPG car and support from Team Chevy. I want to be in the mix.” How do you recover after a string of bad luck?  “You just move onto the next one.”

Christian LundgaardPress Conference THE MODERATOR: Joined by Alex Palou, who led 75 laps this afternoon, driver of the No. 10 OpenAI Chip Ganassi Racing Honda, the second runner-up finish of 2025, eighth podium of the season, 39th career, and joined by Christian Lundgaard who started second, came home third, driver of the No. 7 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet, fourth podium of the season and seventh of his career. Q. Christian, another podium for you. Your thoughts on your day today? CHRISTIAN LUNDGAARD: Yeah, we saw Mr. Perfect here make a mistake. You don’t see that very often. I think the day was pretty good. Alex seemed to have a little bit more pace than we did. This morning I woke up kind of thinking it was going to be a two-stop race. I think obviously Dixon kind of proved that. This morning, I think we showed that we were able to get the number that we needed with the pace, but again, you need the rest of the race to fall your way for that to work out, and we were unsure what Alex was going to do, and we decided to kind of follow him, and I think if we would have stayed with our gut, we could have potentially come away with a better result, but at the end of the day, we’re on the podium. I nearly went off the same lap, same corner as he did. I don’t know what I was looking at, trying to see the 10 car. But yeah, still on the podium, so that’s good. Q. Christian, do you feel like things are really clicking now? We talked about yesterday halfway through your being able to show your potential, which I think we saw with the other team and maybe it was a little bit behind where you thought you should be. Do you feel like now we’re ready for the — Iowa coming up next week, somewhere you’ve been fast but the results haven’t been there? CHRISTIAN LUNDGAARD: Yeah, I think you look at Indy Road Course, we were one of the fastest cars. We missed the pit out commit line, had a drive through, the results gone. Road America we were on the same strategy as Felix but ahead of him and he finished second. So clearly I think the pace has been there and the results were going to be there. We’ve made some silly mistakes. So I think this weekend it’s just nice to have it on paper and stack up those points. But I think going into Iowa next weekend, it’s going to be all about qualifying, and I think the two of us here can kind of agree on that, and I think both of us will agree on that. It’s about having a good qualifying car and just being fast enough in the race and obviously score as many points as possible during those two races in Iowa. Q. Christian, because you’re on a different team and because that race has a different sponsor this is going to be your first trip to Iowa where you’ve got plenty of free time to do stuff instead of sponsor appearances — CHRISTIAN LUNDGAARD: Let’s see. Let’s see. Q. But that’s got to be a unique thing for you to not be the face of that race? CHRISTIAN LUNDGAARD: Yeah, I made the mistake once of winning the race before that weekend. That didn’t help my freedom, I would say. But I would say going back, I think all of us at least used to like the racing. I don’t know about you, but at least before they repaved it, I thought the racing was quite awesome, and I think after the repave, I think it’s a lot more just single-file racing, and I think we would prefer some more double-lane racing in that sense. ALEX PALOU: I hope so, yeah, but I think it’s going to be single file unless something changes.

Chevrolet at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course Chevrolet wins at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course: 12 2024 – Pato O’Ward – Arrow McLaren2022 – Scott McLaughlin – Team Penske2021 – Josef Newgarden – Team Penske2020 Race #1 – Will Power – Team Penske2017 – Josef Newgarden – Team Penske2016 – Simon Pagenaud – Team Penske2014 – Scott Dixon – Chip Ganassi Racing1993 – Emerson Fittipaldi – Team Penske1992 – Emerson Fittipaldi – Team Penske1991 – Michael Andretti – Newman Haas Racing1990 – Michael Andretti – Newman Haas Racing 1988 – Emerson Fittipaldi – Patrick Racing Chevrolet poles at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course: 13 2022 – Pato O’Ward – Arrow McLaren2021 – Josef Newgarden – Team Penske2020 Race #1 – Will Power – Team Penske2019 – Will Power – Team Penske2017 – Will Power – Team Penske2016 – Simon Pagenaud – Team Penske2015 – Scott Dixon – Chip Ganassi Racing2014 – Sebastien Bourdais – KV Racing Technology2013 – Ryan Hunter-Reay – Andretti Global2012 – Will Power – Team Penske1991 – Michael Andretti – Newman Haas Racing1990 – Michael Andretti – Newman Haas Racing 1988 – Danny Sullivan – Team Penske  Chevrolet podiums at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course: 34 Chevrolet podiums at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course by driver: Will Power (7), Emerson Fittipaldi (4), Michael Andretti (3), Josef Newgarden (3), Al Unser Jr. (3), Mario Andretti (2), Scott McLaughlin (2), Simon Pagenaud (2), Sebastien Bourdais (1), Christian Lundgaard (1), Rick Mears (1), Pato O’Ward (1), Bob Rahal (1), Danny Sullivan (1) and Paul Tracy (1).  Chevrolet podiums at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course by team: Team Penske (19), Newman Haas Racing (6), Galles Racing (4), Arrow McLaren (2), Chip Ganassi Racing (1), KV Racing Technology (1) and Patrick Racing (1) Chevrolet laps led at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course: 1034 Chevrolet laps led at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course by driver: Will Power (178), Emerson Fittipaldi (168), Michael Andretti (152), Scott Dixon (67), Pato O’Ward (52), Scott McLaughlin (49), Mario Andretti (44), Sebastien Bourdais (38), Ryan Hunter-Reay (30), Juan Montoya (30), Simon Pagenaud (23), Paul Tracy (23), Al Unser Jr. (11), Helio Castroneves (6), James Hinchcliffe (2), and Danny Sullivan (2) Chevrolet laps led at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course by team: Team Penske (573), Newman Haas Racing (196), Chip Ganassi Racing (67), Patrick Racing (63), Arrow McLaren (52), KV Racing Technology (38), Andretti Global (32), Galles Racing (11), and Ed Carpenter Racing (2)

INDYCAR SERIES Manufacturer Championships (since 1979) Chevrolet-Powered Wins in the Twin-Turbo 2.2L V6 Era (2012-present) Chevrolet-Powered Wins (All-time)

First European Le Mans Series win for Corvette Racing, Corvette Z06 GT3.R

IMOLA, Italy (July 6, 2025) – TF Sport’s Charlie Eastwood, Rui Andrade and Hiroshi Koizumi captured victory in the Four Hours of Imola on Sunday for the first European Le Mans Series win for the Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R as well as for Corvette Racing.  The TF Sport driving trio weathered changing conditions during the race and played the correct tire strategy as Eastwood took the checkered flag by 7.443 seconds in the No. 82 Corvette Z06 GT3.R. Koizumi drove from near the rear of the LMGT3 field to second in his nearly two hours of driving, Andrade kept the Corvette in contention on slick tires through a period of showers and Eastwood drove the final leg to score the first victory in a Corvette for all three. The race featured a 20-plus-minute red flag period and a couple of periods of showers but no dramas for the TF Corvette. All totaled, the No. 82 Corvette led three times for 63 laps. While it was the first ELMS win this year for TF Sport with the Corvette, the combination was victorious to start the FIA WEC season in Qatar. The pair of TF Sport Corvettes are in action this week at São Paulo in Brazil. The next round of the European Le Mans Series is Sunday, August 24 from Spa-Francorchamps.

JESSICA DANE, CORVETTE RACING PROGRAM MANAGER: “It’s very rewarding to see TF Sport deliver the first win in the European Le Mans Series for the Corvette Z06 GT3.R. The team and each of the drivers made the right decisions and strategy calls in changing weather conditions throughout. Congratulations to Charlie, Rui, Hiro and all of TF Sport on this landmark victory for Corvette Racing.” CHARLIE EASTWOOD, NO. 82 CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R: “We had a really strong race. Hiro’s stint to get us into the lead, everyone else was making mistakes throughout the race and what we’ve shown this year is that we’ve executed really well and just at times didn’t really have the pace. Today we did and again executed a close to flawless race on that side. As always, though, in ELMS it gets a bit busy. I saw the VSC come out and thought ‘OK, this is all going to be a little bit harder.’ But yeah, it was good. (Miguel) Molina was chasing me down once nobody had to fuel save anymore. The gap started to get a little bit twitchy, to say the least. But the car just came alive when the fuel started to burn off. By the end, I was able to then just maintain the gap to them.”I’m so delighted for both of these guys, the team, and it’s my first win with Corvette. It hasn’t been the easiest start to a change of manufacturer. I’m really happy to sort of get this off our back.”(On late-race FCYs) “I was actually speaking with our engineer, when you’re trying to be a little bit conservative, of how early you slow down and how early you release the button because you think you’ve got a margin, you kind of blink and you end up losing three or four seconds when you know somebody like Molina is going to be pushing that to the limit. So by the last one, you’re just attacking as much as you can, cutting every corner as much as you can under FCY. And yeah, we were able to maintain the gap to the end.” RUI ANDRADE, NO. 82 CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R: “It was very tricky conditions, obviously, coming out. The rain had just started. Obviously, Hiro had done a really good job at that point in tricky conditions to bring himself so high in the order. From there on, the pressure was on because I started to feel like I could get a really good result. I went out of the pit lane with cold right-hand side tires. It was very tricky, because as soon as I went out, the FCY was activated, so I didn’t really have much time to get temperature in and then the rain got harder. So when it was time to go back to green I had no temperature in the tires. For two or three laps it was very tricky. A lot of cars were going off and making mistakes so I was happy to keep it on track. Then from there I was just surviving until the conditions improved and was lucky to be in a good place and build up the rhythm in the end and give the car to Charlie in a good position.”It’s always a pleasure to represent (Angola), but this win is even more special. I’ve been sharing a car with Charlie now for a year-and-a-half, and it felt like we’ve been quite close a few times. To get the win now is really special and also with Hiro; we were also teammates in different cars but teammates at TF last year in WEC. So for us all to come together and get this win not only for ourselves, but for the team and also for Corvette… the first win for Corvette in ELMS is really special. So hopefully this is a turnaround and we can keep the momentum going for the next rounds.” HIROSHI KOIZUMI, NO. 82 CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R: “I knew the opening lap would be a little bit dangerous, and on the first lap I had to stop the car to avoid an accident. But in the end I felt like I did a good job and knew that something big was going to happen for us so I was really happy to do a good race. This is the best team and the best car with the best drivers, so I was really happy to give my teammates the car in a good condition. They did a great job.”

July 5, 2025 — MANSFIELD, OH

• Championship leader Alex Palou scores his third pole position of 2025 in his #10 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda
• Kyffin Simpson qualifies P3, earns career-best starting position
• Honda powers seven of top-10 qualifiers in the Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio Presented by the All-New 2026 Passport

Alex Palou kicked off the Mid-Ohio weekend right where he left off, by leading the field in qualifying for the Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio Presented by the All-New 2026 Passport.

Palou and the #10 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda team have scored wins in six of the first nine races to open the 2025 NTT INDYCAR SERIES season as the Spaniard goes for his third-consecutive championship title and fourth in five years. Palou’s wins at St. Petersburg, Thermal, Barber, the Indy GP, Indianapolis 500 and last time out at Road America have him sitting 94 points ahead of second place in the drivers’ championship.

Palou’s Chip Ganassi Racing teammate, Kyffin Simpson, scored his career-best qualifying result—making his first Firestone Fast Six and ultimately lining up third for tomorrow’s race.

Andretti Global’s Colton Herta will line up fifth, while the polesitter for the last race at Road America, Louis Foster, made his second-consecutive Fast Six and will line up P6.

Kyle Kirkwood, currently sitting second in the drivers’ standings, will line up seventh in his #27 Andretti Global Honda Honda—narrowly missing the Fast Six after getting bogged down with traffic on his fast lap.

Marcus Armstrong qualified eighth for Meyer Shank Racing, and Scott Dixon made it three Chip Ganassi Racing cars in the top-10 with a ninth-place qualifying result.

Honda teams and drivers will be fighting to win the 10th-consecutive race for the manufacturer in the 2025 season, a record since IndyCar returned to multi-manufacturer competition in 2012. Palou has scored six race wins this year, while Kyle Kirkwood has won the remaining three races—at the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach, Detroit Grand Prix, and World Wide Technology Raceway.

Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio Presented by the All-New 2026 Passport Honda Qualifying Results

•  1st Alex Palou
•  3rd Kyffin Simpson
•  5th Colton Herta 
•  6th Louis Foster-R 
•  7th Kyle Kirkwood
•  8th Marcus Armstrong
•  9th Scott Dixon   
• 11th Marcus Ericsson 
• 16th Felix Rosenqvist 
• 20th Graham Rahal
• 23rd Devlin DeFrancesco 
• 25th Jacob Abel-R 
• 26th Rinus VeeKay

Chip Ganassi Racing Honda
Chip Ganassi Racing Honda
Andretti Global Honda
Rahal Letterman Lanigan Honda
Andretti Global Honda
Meyer Shank Racing Honda
Chip Ganassi Racing Honda
Andretti Global Honda
Meyer Shank Racing Honda
Rahal Letterman Lanigan Honda
Rahal Letterman Lanigan Honda
Dale Coyne Racing Honda
Dale Coyne Racing Honda

R – Rookie

Quotes
Alex Palou (#10 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda) qualified 1st: “Number one! Super, super great qualifying for us. It was very tight, which we knew it was going to be before heading into it. We were missing a little bit of speed in Q2, but we found it in the Fast Six. We went aggressive with the tires and the strategy that we’re using, so we know we’re not going to be in the best position in terms of tire conditions tomorrow, but we’re starting from the front row, which is the most important thing. Couldn’t be better.”

Kyffin Simpson (#8 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda) qualified 3rd: “Feeling really good, it was a great drive! It was a very tough one, especially being very close in the first couple of segments of qualifying. Huge thanks to the crew on the #8 Journie Rewards Chip Ganassi Racing Honda. It has been just an incredible car to drive all weekend so far and it just got better and better as we got through qualifying and got more comfortable with it. Now we’re just focused on the race and trying to make sure we can maximize that extra set of reds.”

Colton Herta (#26 Andretti Global Honda) qualified 5th: “Happy to have another Honda-heavy Fast Six. The #26 Gainbridge Honda was really nice and fast. I had a small mistake on my quick lap, but we’re still up there and able to fight tomorrow. It’s been quite a tremendous season for Honda, great to see them on pole again and I’m hoping to get another win for them.”

Louis Foster (#45 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda) qualified 6th: “I’m really, really happy with that. Obviously, it’s super important to start up at the front at this place. It’s hard to overtake here. We just want to have a really clean race tomorrow and we want to get some good points. We’re in a great position to do that. The main focus right now is making sure we choose the right strategy for the race and have the right setup on the #45 Honda.”

(7/7/25 – Andrew Kunas) Petaluma, CA … After a well-earned break following a very busy month of June, the NARC 410 sprint car series kicks off another busy stretch of racing on Saturday night, when the series makes its annual visit to Petaluma Speedway for the 2nd Annual Dave Lindt Memorial.

The event honors Lindt, who was Petaluma Speedway’s winningest driver ever, scoring 48 feature victories and earning five track championships along the way as he dominated weekly action at the track in the late 1990’s and early 2000’s. Lindt was known for his blue No. 52 sprint car, matching his high school colors and his football jersey number. Saturday’s NARC main event will pay $5,200 to win in his memory.

Saturday’s show marks the first of four consecutive weeks of racing for NARC, the stretch nicknamed by some as the “cooler weather tour” as it is all at tracks along the Pacific coast, which should feature more comfortable weather conditions for racers and fans while the California interior bakes in summer heat.

Former NARC champion Sean Becker of Oroville won the inaugural Dave Lindt Memorial last July after a late race battle with young Oakley driver Dylan Bloomfield. It was the last time the “Shark” visited victory lane in NARC competition.

POINTS BATTLE & WHO TO WATCH

After an eventful trip last month to the Pacific Northwest, there is a tie at the top of the NARC point standings, with reigning “King of the West” Justin Sanders of Aromas and former series champion D.J. Netto of Hanford neck and neck at 1,890 points apiece. Both drivers have multiple NARC victories on the season, Sanders with four and Netto with two, and both had their share of bad luck this year, including Netto getting upside down on consecutive nights during the Fastest Five Days in Motorsports. After their respective roller coaster rides, they are both at the top as NARC begins its summer swing.

Sanders has had momentum on his side of late, picking up two NARC wins last month including a $10,000 preliminary night win at the Super Dirt Cup at Skagit Speedway before taking fifth in the Saturday finale against a tough field of racers. Sanders finished second to Becker at last year’s Dave Lindt Memorial.

Things are tight in general toward the top of the point standings, with just 20 points separating the Top 5. Former NARC champion Bud Kaeding of Campbell, though winless, is quietly having a solid season and is only 11 points out of the lead. Just three points behind Kaeding is Harrisburg, Oregon’s Tyler Thompson, who is leading the NARC Rookie of the Year chase and has shown some flashes as well, picking up multiple fast qualifier awards, twice earning the hard charger nod, and challenging for a win at Ocean Speedway in May.

Becker is only 20 points behind the leaders and at times has shown himself as a threat to win this season, most notably at Antioch Speedway in May when he led laps in the main event before a crash knocked him out of contention. Having last won at last year’s Dave Lindt Memorial, Becker looks to get back in the win column this Saturday with a second straight Lindt triumph.

Dominic Gorden of Clovis got his second career NARC victory on May 31st at the Dave Bradway Jr Memorial at Placerville Speedway. Gorden currently sits sixth in the point standings and hopes to get a second 410 victory for the season Saturday in Petaluma.

A full field of 410 sprint cars are expected to compete at the 16th event on the ultra-competitive 27-race NARC schedule.  To date, 15 races have produced nine different winners!

FAN INFO

Petaluma Speedway is located on the Petaluma Fairgrounds at 100 Fairgrounds Drive. Front gates open at 4:00 p.m. with racing scheduled to start at 6:00 p.m. General admission for adults is $25, with juniors 12-16, seniors 65+ and military in for $22.  Kids ages 6 to 11 are in for just $10. The Redwood Dwarf Cars, mini-stocks and hobby stocks are all scheduled to race on Saturday night with NARC.

ABOUT NARC

The Northern Auto Racing Club is the premier 410 winged sprint car series in the western United States. Since 1960, the traveling organization has thrilled fans at dirt tracks up and down the West Coast and crowned a “King of the West” champion. For more information on the NARC 410 sprint car series, including race results, points standings, and upcoming events, go to www.narc410.com.  You can also follow on various social media platforms.

The NARC 410 Sprint Car Racing Series is also sponsored by Hoosier Racing Tires and Floracing.com. Associate sponsors include Automotive Racing Products (ARP), Beacon Wealth Strategies, Brown & Miller Racing Solutions, Bullet Impressions, Jim Allen Promotions, Kimo’s Tropical Car Wash, Mettec Titanium, MyRacePass, Red Rose Transportation, Tarlton & Son, Wedg High Performance Karts, Williams Roofing, and Winters Performance Products.

2025 NARC 410 SPRINT CARS SERIES

(AFTER 15 EVENTS IN 27-RACE SERIES – 7/6/25)

1. DJ Netto, Hanford – 1890
2. Justin Sanders, Aromas – 1890
3. Bud Kaeding, Campbell – 1879
4. Tyler Thompson, Harrisburg, OR (R) – 1876
5. Sean Becker, Roseville – 1870
6. Dominic Gorden, Clovis – 1852
7. Gauge Garcia, Lemoore – 1825
8. Mariah Ede, Fresno (R) – 1780
9. Dominic Scelzi, Fresno – 1772
10. Tanner Holmes, Jacksonville, OR – 1760
11. Caeden Steele, Fresno – 1695
12. Landon Brooks, Rio Oso – 1478
13. Max Mittry, Redding – 1437
14. Billy Aton, Benicia – 1392
15. Shane Golobic, Fremont – 1260
16. Nick Parker, Tucson, AX – 1185
17. John Clark, Windsor – 1107
18. James McFadden, Alice Springs, NT, AUS – 1004
19. Jess Schlotfeldt, Arlington, WA – 972
20. Tim Kaeding, San Jose – 670
21. Levi Klatt, Langley, BC – 914

Upcoming Events
July 18 – Ocean Speedway – Watsonville, CA (Howard Kaeding Classic – Night 1, $5,000 to win)
July 19 – Ocean Speedway – Watsonville, CA ($10,000 to win Howard Kaeding Classic)
July 26 – Santa Maria Speedway – Nipomo, CA
August 2 – Ocean Speedway – Watsonville, CA (Johnny Key Classic)

NARC 2025 Winners
March 8 – D.J. Netto at Stockton Dirt Track (Salute to Leroy Van Connett)
April 12 – Justin Sanders at Silver Dollar Speedway (Mini Gold Cup)
May 10 – D.J. Netto at Antioch Speedway (Contra Costa County Clash)
May 16 – Justin Sanders at Ocean Speedway
May 17 – Tanner Holmes (Race 1) & Caeden Steele (Race 2) at Thunderbowl Raceway (Morrie Williams Memorial)
May 31 – Dominic Gorden at Placerville Speedway (Dave Bradway Jr Memorial)
June 7 – Justin Sanders at Silver Dollar Speedway (David Tarter Memorial)
June 11 – James McFadden at Southern Oregon Speedway
June 12 – James McFadden at Douglas County Dirt Track
June 13 – Jesse Schlotfeldt at Cottage Grove Speedway
June 14 – James McFadden at Willamette Speedway
June 15 – James McFadden at Grays Harbor Raceway (Timber Cup)
June 19 – Levi Klatt at Skagit Speedway (Super Dirt Cup – Night 1)
June 20 – Justin Sanders at Skagit Speedway (Super Dirt Cup – Night 2)
June 21 – Trey Starks at Skagit Speedway (Super Dirt Cup finale)

ZANESVILLE, OH (July 5, 2025) – Hudson O’Neal started sixth. He passed race leader Jonathan Davenport on lap 44 to win the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series presented by FloRacing, Freedom 60 on Saturday night at Muskingum County Speedway. O’Neal’s third series victory of the season paid $25,000 from a total purse of over $82,000. Davenport crossed the finish line in second, just 0.515 seconds behind O’Neal, but he failed post-race tech when his droop limiter chain was not tight, which moved him to 25th place in the finishing order. Garrett Alberson, who finished third, moved up to second in the final rundown. Brandon Sheppard, the previous night’s winner at Atomic and the leader for the first 8 laps of the 60-lap main event, rounded out the Big River Steel Podium in third.  In Lucas Oil Victory Lane for the 32nd time in his career, the 2023 Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series National Champion returned to victory at Muskingum County for the second time. He held off a slider by Davenport in the closing laps to secure the win after Davenport led from laps 9 through 43. “That was the advantage of not being out in the lead like Jonathan was. I was able to kind of drive some lines there, and I found that bottom. At first, whenever I tried, it didn’t quite have the speed to drive all the way to the lead, but as that top slowed down, I got a little better. This car was amazing. Hats off to Jason Durham and my crew; they gave me an outstanding race car, making all the right decisions on tires and everything else things,” said the Martinsville, Indiana native. “I was really good at getting into third place and being able to get out there and come back down the hill. It was awesome; everything played out right tonight. I was able to drive up through there in the heat race, and having a good starting spot in the feature was the main thing for us. I appreciate all of the fans who came out tonight, and the Moran Family and Muskingum for giving us a great race track to race on.” Alberson ran as high as second during the race after a side-by-side battle with Sheppard for several laps. “I had a very small balance issue, but our car was really close, and I am so proud of these guys. We have been working our butts off trying to develop a longer run program. We are really close. I am sure the battles (with Sheppard and O’Neal) hurt us, but Hud was really good; he just kind of worked over that bottom on me and did his job. I am just really happy to be here. I hate it for JD; I don’t know if it was a mechanical failure or what it was. That’s a tough deal, but I guess it happens to all of us at some point.” Sheppard, who earned his first series win of the season 24 hours earlier at Atomic Speedway, stayed in the hunt for most of the race and finished third. “I definitely felt like I was battling with someone for most of the race. I was pretty much the same all the way across the track. I was just a little bit snug. The track was super slick tonight, it was awesome, and I thought it put on a great show for all of these fans. This new car has been phenomenal since we unloaded it.” The winner’s SSI Motorsports, Longhorn Chassis is powered by a Cornett Racing Engine and sponsored by Big River Steel, Wheeler Metals, Merrill Bonding Company, Sub-Surface of Indiana, Professional Concrete, Cutting and Drilling, West Side Tractor Sales, Dyno One Inc., O’Neal’s Salvage and Recycling, Indiana USSSA Fast Pitch Softball, Bob and Tammy Burton, Houchens Insurance Group, Bobcat of Batesville, and Sunoco Race Fuels. Completing the top ten were Nathon Loney, Donald McIntosh, Brandon Overton, Logan Zarin and Carson Ferguson. Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series Race Summary Freedom 60Saturday, July 5, 2025Muskingum County Speedway – Zanesville, OH Allstar Performance Time TrialsFast Time Group A: Brandon Sheppard | 16.058 secondsFast Time Group B: Jonathan Davenport | 16.001 seconds (Overall) Penske Shocks Heat Race #1 Finish (8 Laps, Top 4 Transfer): 1. 1-Brandon Sheppard[1]; 2. 20RT-Ricky Thornton Jr[3]; 3. 99-Devin Moran[2]; 4. 22-Daniel Hilsabeck[4]; 5. 6-Clay Harris[7]; 6. 10-Nathon Loney[5]; 7. 93L-Cory Lawler[6] Summit Racing Products Heat Race #2 Finish (8 Laps, Top 4 Transfer): 1. 79-Donald McIntosh[4]; 2. 20B-Todd Brennan[1]; 3. 4-Tripp Gerrald[2]; 4. 76-Brandon Overton[3]; 5. C4-Freddie Carpenter[5]; 6. (DNS) K54-Kenneth Rucker; 7. (DNS) 0-Steve Prince Cool-It Thermo-Tec Heat Race #3 Finish (8 Laps, Top 4 Transfer): 1. 49-Jonathan Davenport[1]; 2. 71-Hudson O’Neal[4]; 3. 18D-Daulton Wilson[2]; 4. 19M-Spencer Hughes[5]; 5. 66C-Matt Cosner[3]; 6. 156-James Dennis[7]; 7. R54-Shane Greco[6] Simpson Race Products Heat Race #4 Finish (8 Laps, Top 4 Transfer): 1. 58-Garrett Alberson[1]; 2. 1Z-Logan Zarin[2]; 3. 93-Carson Ferguson[4]; 4. 60-Dan Ebert[3]; 5. 57-Caiden Black[5]; 6. W1-Cory Workman[6]; 7. K11-George Klintworth[7] Fast Shafts B-Main Race #1 Finish (9 Laps, Top 6 Transfer): 1. 6-Clay Harris[1]; 2. 66C-Matt Cosner[2]; 3. 57-Caiden Black[4]; 4. 156-James Dennis[6]; 5. R54-Shane Greco[10]; 6. C4-Freddie Carpenter[3]; 7. W1-Cory Workman[8]; 8. 93L-Cory Lawler[9]; 9. K11-George Klintworth[12]; 10. (DNS) 10-Nathon Loney; 11. (DNS) K54-Kenneth Rucker; 12. (DNS) 0-Steve Prince Freedom 60 Feature Finish (60 Laps): Pos – Start – Car # – Competitor – Hometown – Pay1 – 6 – 71 – Hudson O’Neal – Martinsville, IN – $25,8002 – 4 – 58 – Garrett Alberson – Las Cruces, NM – $10,7003 – 1 – 1 – Brandon Sheppard – New Berlin, IL – $6,7004 – 5 – 20RT – Ricky Thornton Jr – Chandler, AZ – $5,1005 – 10 – 18D – Daulton Wilson – Fayetteville, NC – $4,2006 – 25 – 10 – Nathon Loney – Danville, OH – $2,7007 – 3 – 79 – Donald McIntosh – Dawsonville, GA – $3,3008 – 15 – 76 – Brandon Overton – Evans, GA – $3,0009 – 8 – 1Z – Logan Zarin – Hookstown, PA – $2,20010 – 12 – 93 – Carson Ferguson – Lincolnton, NC – $2,80011 – 18 – 66C – Matt Cosner – Ridgeley, WV – $2,00012 – 16 – 60 – Dan Ebert – Lake Shore, MN – $2,60013 – 14 – 19M – Spencer Hughes – Meridian, MS – $2,50014 – 11 – 4 – Tripp Gerrald – Versailles, KY – $1,70015 – 20 – 156 – James Dennis – Lower Salem, OH – $1,60016 – 9 – 99 – Devin Moran – Dresden, OH – $2,50017 – 13 – 22 – Daniel Hilsabeck – Earlham, IA – $2,20018 – 23 – 93L – Cory Lawler – Hanover, PA – $2,20019 – 19 – 57 – Caiden Black – New Concord, OH – $1,50020 – 7 – 20B – Todd Brennan – Zanesville, OH – $1,50021 – 22 – C4 – Freddie Carpenter – Parkersburg, WV – $1,50022 – 24 – W1 – Cory Workman – Gratiot, OH – $1,50023 – 17 – 6 – Clay Harris – Jupiter, FL – $2,20024 – 21 – R54 – Shane Greco – Midway, WV – $1,50025 – 2 – 49 – Jonathan Davenport – Blairsville, GA – $2,800 Race Statistics  Entrants: 28Victory Fuel Pole Sitter: Brandon SheppardMD3 Lap Leaders: Brandon Sheppard (Laps 1-8); Jonathan Davenport (Laps 9-43); Hudson O’Neal (Laps 44-60)Hellraizer Jacks Halfway Leader: Jonathan DavenportWieland Feature Winner: Hudson O’NealMargin of Victory:  1.663 secondsColtman Farms Racing Cautions: Daniel Hilsabeck (Lap 11); Freddie Carpenter (Lap 14); Todd Brennan (Lap 17); Freddie Carpenter, Cody Workman (Lap 17 restart); Caiden Black (Lap 30); Carson Ferguson (Lap 52)Series Provisionals: Cory LawlerFast Time Provisional: Cory WorkmanEmergency Provisional: n/aTrack Provisional: Nathon LoneyBig River Steel Podium Top 3: Hudson O’Neal, Garrett Alberson, Brandon SheppardPenske Shocks Top 5: Hudson O’Neal, Garrett Alberson, Brandon Sheppard, Ricky Thornton, Jr., Daulton WilsonPEM 4th Place Feature: Ricky Thornton, Jr.DMI Rearends 5th Place Feature: Daulton WilsonWilwood Brakes Lucky 7th Place Feature: Donald McIntoshWehrs Machine 11th Place Feature: Matt CosnerDeatherage Opticians Lucky 13th Place Feature: Spencer HughesMD3 24th Place Feature: Shane GrecoHoker Trucking Hard Charger of the Race: Nathon Loney (Advanced 18 Positions)MD3 Most Laps Led: Jonathan Davenport (35 Laps)Sunoco Race for Gas Highest Finisher: Hudson O’NealMidwest Sheet Metal Spoiler Challenge Point Leader: Jonathan DavenportO’Reilly Auto Parts Rookie of the Race: Donald McIntoshPro Fabrication Headers Fastest Lap of the Race: Jonathan Davenport | Lap 19 | 16.877 secondsSlicker Graphics Slickest Move of the Race: Hudson O’NealFresh Roof Hard Luck Award: Devin MoranOuterwears Crew Chief of the Race: Jason DurhamARP Engine Builder of the Race: Cornett Race EnginesMiller Welders Chassis Builder of the Race: Longhorn ChassisDirt Draft Fastest in Hot Laps: Cory Lawler | 15.952 secondsTime of Race: 32 minutes 42 seconds Big River Steel Chase for the Championship Presented by ARP Point Standings:Pos – Car # – Competitor – Hometown – Points – Pay1 – 20RT – Ricky Thornton Jr – Chandler, AZ – 4845 – $264,2502 – 49 – Jonathan Davenport – Blairsville, GA – 4825 – $246,2003 – 99 – Devin Moran – Dresden, OH – 4585 – $184,3494 – 71 – Hudson O’Neal – Martinsville, IN – 4525 – $136,3755 – 58 – Garrett Alberson – Las Cruces, NM – 4310 – $94,5506 – 1 – Brandon Sheppard – New Berlin, IL – 4280 – $117,5007 – 76 – Brandon Overton – Evans, GA – 4145 – $90,5008 – 18D – Daulton Wilson – Fayetteville, NC – 3935 – $75,2259 – 93 – Carson Ferguson – Lincolnton, NC – 3740 – $62,42510 – 79 – Donald McIntosh – Dawsonville, GA – 3625 – $49,70011 – 22 – Daniel Hilsabeck – Earlham, IA – 3510 – $45,22512 – 19M – Spencer Hughes – Meridian, MS – 3275 – $44,62513 – 60 – Dan Ebert – Lake Shore, MN – 3245 – $37,60014 – 6 – Clay Harris – Jupiter, FL – 3050 – $36,75015 – 93L – Cory Lawler – Hanover, PA – 2840 – $27,925

HAUBSTADT, IN — July 5, 2025 — For the second time in Shannon Babb’s career, he stands alone at the top of the DIRTcar Summer Nationals all-time wins list.

The Moweaqua, IL driver took his seventh win at the track where he won his first career Hell Tour Feature in 1999, and overtook Billy Moyer for the No. 1 spot with his 102nd overall on Saturday night.

“It means a ton,” Babb said. “I got my first ever Hell Tour win right here in 1999, and the Helfrich family gets us one heck of a place to race at. The effort and the (perspective) they see of what a racetrack should be like is unreal. I’ll tell you one thing, I’m getting way too old for that, but it’s a torture test. It’s pretty cool my family’s here with me, and it just means a ton.”

Babb began the 40-lap Feature around Haubstadt, IN’s Tri-State Speedway as the polesitter with Parkersburg, WV’s Colton Burdett to his side for the start. Babb took the lead by hitting the top of the cushion while Burdett stayed even on the bottom lane, but could not overcome Babb’s speed on the straightaway.

Babb kept running the cushion of the track to hold Burdette from making a slide job attempt on him, while stray lapped cars had Babb adjust to the bottom lane to block Burdette’s momentum.

The “Moweaqua Missile” targeted the open lanes around him to squeeze by the lapped traffic while Burdett followed Babb’s shadow to stay in contention for his first career win with the Summer Nationals.

When Babb caught a larger group of lapped cars in his fold, he could not gain any ground as Burdette and Mark Whitener crept up to Babb’s bumper.

Moments before Burdett attempted to go for the winning pass, the caution was flown with four laps to go to keep Babb at the top of the leaderboard.

Babb executed a perfect restart aboard the No. 18 Longhorn Chassis while Whitener took over second place with a slide job through Turns 1-2. While he attempted the move on Babb with two laps remaining, Whitener was unable to get clearance for the spot as the four-time Summer Nationals champion broke the tie with Billy Moyer for No. 1 on the all-time wins list.

“I’ve watched enough races from a long time ago,” Babb said. “Don O’Neal showed me how to get around this place. The top coming down the hill, getting your wheel straight, and making long drag strips out it is hard to beat. I had that in the back of my mind the whole time.

“I’d seen Whitener there, and he probably could’ve slid me at some point if he really wanted to, but I could have crossed back over and got back going. I had the tires on fire, so I did get to slow down. I was just fortunate to be at the front.”

Up Next: The DIRTcar Summer Nationals Late Models and DIRTcar Summit Racing Equipment Modified Nationals finish Week 4 in the tour’s debut at Duck River Raceway Park on Sunday, July 6.

If you can’t make it to the track, you can watch all the action live on DIRTVision – either online or by downloading the DIRTVision App.

Feature (40 Laps): 1. 18-Shannon Babb[1]; 2. 5-Mark Whitener[8]; 3. 53L-Colten Burdette[2]; 4. 1-Tyler Erb[6]; 5. 21-Billy Moyer Sr[4]; 6. 15-Clay Stuckey[20]; 7. 75-Dillon McCowan[15]; 8. 91-Rusty Schlenk[10]; 9. 31M-Tyler Millwood[11]; 10. 25F-Jason Feger[16]; 11. 20-Tyler Neal[14]; 12. 14JR-Trey Mills[19]; 13. 8-Rob Anderzack[9]; 14. 17SS-Brenden Smith[5]; 15. 71R-Rod Conley[21]; 16. (DNF) 27M-Rodney Melvin[3]; 17. (DNF) 14-Haiden Cowan[7]; 18. (DNF) 5S-Kyle Hammer[12]; 19. (DNF) S21-Seth Daniels[23]; 20. (DNF) 29-Christian Hanger[22]; 21. (DNF) 81-Jason Riggs[17]; 22. (DNF) 81F-Jadon Frame[13]; 23. (DNF) 388-Jackson Hise[18]

Zach Fair Wins First Career Summit Modified Nationals Feature at Tri-State Speedway

In the opening 2025 DIRTcar Summit Racing Equipment Modified Nationals race in Indiana, a Hoosier State native claimed his first career tour win on Saturday night.

Petersburg, IN’s Zach Fair took his first career tour win at Tri-State Speedway as he used experience and knowledge of his local racetrack to keep the tour’s top drivers out of reach.

Fair began the night with a win in his Heat race, then drew the Pole Position for the night’s 25-lap battle around the 1/4-mile bullring.

Behind Fair was 2023 Summit Modified Nationals champ Tyler Nicely, who followed behind the No. 35S around the bottom lane of the track. While he attempted to run the middle and high lines of the track to create momentum, Fair extended his lead to over six seconds until the caution on Lap 13 brought the field back together for the final run to the finish.

Fair withstood the challenge of Nicely while John Clippinger battled Nicely for second place. As Nicely and Clippinger battled, Fair rebuilt to a four-second interval over his opponents as he scored his first career win after a 14-year wait since his first start at Haubstadt in 2011.

“It’s been a long time coming,” Fair said. “It’s been a long time coming, so this is awesome. We’re definitely gonna soak this one up. I can’t thank Dave and Junior (enough). We had a motor go down at Highland (Speedway). So last night, they picked this engine up and got it in there for us. I kind of thought I was done in 2018, but here we are, and we got it done.”

Up Next: The DIRTcar Summer Nationals Late Models and DIRTcar Summit Racing Equipment Modified Nationals finish Week 4 in the tour’s debut at Wheel, TN’s Duck River Raceway Park for the Independence Day Special on Sunday, July 6.

If you can’t make it to the track, you can watch all the action live on DIRTVision – either online or by downloading the DIRTVision App.

Feature (25 Laps): 1. 35S-Zach Fair[1]; 2. 25-Tyler Nicely[3]; 3. 16C-John Clippinger[7]; 4. 81K-Kyle Cole[11]; 5. 75-Daniel Adam[6]; 6. 99T-Tyler Loughmiller[8]; 7. 50-Tyler Weiss[2]; 8. 67-Chris Moore[18]; 9. 98-Zac Harris[12]; 10. 27G-Jason Garver[14]; 11. 1S-Brian Shaw[17]; 12. 2X-Wes Harms[20]; 13. 00-Troy Gay[22]; 14. (DNF) 10Y-Trent Young[9]; 15. (DNF) 45H-Chase Holland[4]; 16. (DNF) 12B-Eric Brantley[5]; 17. (DNF) 81C-Christopher Cole[10]; 18. (DNF) 95K-Levi Kissinger[13]; 19. (DNF) 327-Dustin Bruce[16]; 20. (DNF) 711B-Jerry Bland Jr[19]; 21. (DNF) 23B-Ethan Boomsma[21]; 22. (DNF) 24-Jarod Deckard[15]

Dallas Daniels (32) races down the straightaway ahead of other Mission AFT SuperTwins riders at the DuQuoin Mile. [Photo: American Flat Track/Tim Lester] DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (July 5, 2025) – The “Magic Mile” lived up to its nickname by delivering yet another last-lap stunner as Dallas Daniels (No. 32 Estenson Racing Yamaha MT-07 DT) claimed a scant-yet-pivotal victory in Saturday night’s Memphis Shades DuQuoin Mile, Round 8 of the 2025 Progressive American Flat Track, sanctioned by AMA Pro Racing.  Daniels’ win at the DuQuoin State Fairgrounds in DuQuoin, Illinois, wasn’t assured until the checkered flag flew, which confirmed an official 0.037-second margin of victory following a hectic five-rider showdown to the very end.   An early eight-rider scrap whittled down to six after a few minutes of fighting. It then took its final form of five – which included Daniels, title rival Briar Bauman (No. 3 RWR/Parts Plus/Latus Motors Harley-Davidson XG750R), James Ott (No. 19 G&G Racing Yamaha MT-07), Declan Bender (No. 70 Memphis Shades/Corbin/OTB Racing Yamaha MT-07), and Brandon Robinson (No. 44 Mission Roof Systems Harley-Davidson XG750R) – after Davis Fisher (No. 67 Rackley Racing/Bob Lanphere’s BMC Racing KTM 790 Duke) was forced out due to mechanical issues.  Bauman kept himself relevant with some impressive cornering and line choice, but as the laps wound down, it became more and more apparent that the Yamahas of Daniels, Ott, and Bender had the steam on this night.  With less than two minutes left on the clock, Bauman dropped back from first to fifth and then struggled mightily in his attempts to claw his way back into winning contention from that point forward.  Ott, meanwhile, gave Daniels all he could handle, while Bender looked more than capable of springing a massive upset with a perfect final lap.  But Daniels did what aspiring championship winners do, countering Ott’s final lap Turn 2 pass with a counter of his own, running back up the inside entering Turn 3. He then put his head down and narrowly outraced his challengers’ draft-pass attempts as the three completed a Yamaha lockout of the podium.  Ott earned his maiden Mission AFT SuperTwins podium 0.037 seconds off the win while Bender claimed the first of his Progressive AFT career a further 0.092 seconds adrift.  Daniels said, “That was huge… Not even just the win, but how we felt on the motorcycle today. It’s no secret that at the beginning of the season we’ve been struggling a little bit, just with some stuff. It’s not for lack of effort. My team has been busting their butts so much. This track – with the way that the corners are – is one where we’ve always lacked on the Yamaha the last few years. We’ve been making headway, and last year we were close to Jared (Mees), but not that close. This morning, I didn’t really feel the greatest, but I had a quiet confidence. I knew we were going to figure it out. I can’t give a big enough of a thanks to my whole Estenson Racing Monster Energy Yamaha team…  “It was an amazing day. It’s the first time I’ve won a Grand National in my home state. It’s something special.”  Robinson, meanwhile, held Bauman off for fourth just back of the top three.   As a result, Daniels and Bauman now boast 162 points and four wins apiece, with Bauman technically in the championship lead as a result of his three runners-up to Daniels’ two. It doesn’t get much closer than that with the Grand National Championship fight now officially at its halfway point.  Dalton Gauthier (No. 79 Racing Unlimited/Parts Bros/D&D Kawasaki Ninja 650) finished a lonely sixth, while Jarod VanDerKooi (No. 20 Fastrack Racing/Wally Brown Racing KTM 790 Duke), Trent Lowe (No. 48 American Honda/Progressive Insurance Honda Transalp), Dan Bromley (No. 62 Memphis Shades/Vinson Construction Suzuki GSX-8S), and Max Whale (No. 18 Moto Anatomy X Powered by Royal Enfield 650) rounding out the night’s top ten in that order.  AFT Singles presented by KICKER  In just over the span of a week, Tom Drane (No. 59 Estenson Racing Yamaha YZ450F) took a protracted wins drought and vulnerable AFT Singles presented by KICKER championship position and transformed them into a three-race victory streak and a commanding 20-point advantage.  The Australian did so in an intense Main Event that saw an eight-rider lead freight train storm past the checkered flag separated by a combined 0.342 seconds.  As it went, the heated rivalry between Drane and Chase Saathoff (No. 88 RWR/Parts Plus Honda CRF450R) got that much hotter Saturday night. Saathoff came up just 0.020 seconds short of defeating Drane after spending the entire race in a struggle just to prevent the Estenson Racing ace from making an escape and instead forcing him to fight it out in a pack war.  The two gestured angrily at one another following the conclusion of the race after being locked in ultra close quarters combat, including one particularly perilous moment in which Saathoff’s boot contacted Drane’s handlebar as they railed around a corner in tight proximity.  Afterward, Drane said, “I just wanted to get out there straight to the front and do everything I could to win that one, because that was dangerous coming off the last corner doing that. It is what it is, and I guess I just have to put my head down and do what I did and come out on top.”  In response, Saathoff said, “I thought I set myself up good (on the final lap), but it seems to me that Tom Drane doesn’t know how to go in a straight line sometimes. But, that’s okay. We’re going to look past it and move on to the next (race).”  Saathoff was joined in the joint attempt to overcome Drane’s day-long speed advantage for the bulk of the Main by eventual third-place finisher Trevor Brunner (No. 21 American Honda/Mission Foods CRF450R) and Bradon Pfanders(No. 83 Hannum’s HD/Pfanders Racing KTM 450 SX-F), who was shuffled back to sixth at the flag despite finishing just 0.252 seconds back of the win.  Despite his impressive form, Pfanders was displaced in that final rush to the stripe by Hunter Bauer (No. 24 Vinson Construction/Reel Medics Yamaha YZ450F) and Evan Renshaw (No. 65 1st Impressions Race Team Husqvarna FC450), who rounded out the top five.  Meanwhile, Chad Cose (No. 49 1st Impressions Race Team Husqvarna FC450) and Tarren Santero (No. 75 Mission Roof Systems Honda CRF450R) were rewarded with just seventh- and eighth-place results despite being in with a shot at the win as late as the race’s final corner.  Drane’s recent surge has granted him a significant advantage over Saathoff at the title fight’s halfway point, as he now leads 153-133. Brunner sits third at 114, while Santero is well back in fourth with 87 points.  Next Up:  Progressive American Flat Track will at last make its debut at the Short Track at Lucas Oil Speedway in Wheatland, Missouri, on Friday, July 18. Visit https://www.tixr.com/groups/americanflattrack/events/2025-lucas-oil-short-track-141381 to secure your tickets today.  For those that can’t catch the live action from the circuit, FloRacing is the live streaming home of Progressive AFT. Sign up now and catch every second of on-track action starting with Practice & Qualifying and ending with the Victory Podium at the end of the night at https://flosports.link/aft.

Dallas Daniels (32) races down the straightaway ahead of other Mission AFT SuperTwins riders at the DuQuoin Mile. [Photo: American Flat Track/Tim Lester] DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (July 5, 2025) – The “Magic Mile” lived up to its nickname by delivering yet another last-lap stunner as Dallas Daniels (No. 32 Estenson Racing Yamaha MT-07 DT) claimed a scant-yet-pivotal victory in Saturday night’s Memphis Shades DuQuoin Mile, Round 8 of the 2025 Progressive American Flat Track, sanctioned by AMA Pro Racing.  Daniels’ win at the DuQuoin State Fairgrounds in DuQuoin, Illinois, wasn’t assured until the checkered flag flew, which confirmed an official 0.037-second margin of victory following a hectic five-rider showdown to the very end.   An early eight-rider scrap whittled down to six after a few minutes of fighting. It then took its final form of five – which included Daniels, title rival Briar Bauman (No. 3 RWR/Parts Plus/Latus Motors Harley-Davidson XG750R), James Ott (No. 19 G&G Racing Yamaha MT-07), Declan Bender (No. 70 Memphis Shades/Corbin/OTB Racing Yamaha MT-07), and Brandon Robinson (No. 44 Mission Roof Systems Harley-Davidson XG750R) – after Davis Fisher (No. 67 Rackley Racing/Bob Lanphere’s BMC Racing KTM 790 Duke) was forced out due to mechanical issues.  Bauman kept himself relevant with some impressive cornering and line choice, but as the laps wound down, it became more and more apparent that the Yamahas of Daniels, Ott, and Bender had the steam on this night.  With less than two minutes left on the clock, Bauman dropped back from first to fifth and then struggled mightily in his attempts to claw his way back into winning contention from that point forward.  Ott, meanwhile, gave Daniels all he could handle, while Bender looked more than capable of springing a massive upset with a perfect final lap.  But Daniels did what aspiring championship winners do, countering Ott’s final lap Turn 2 pass with a counter of his own, running back up the inside entering Turn 3. He then put his head down and narrowly outraced his challengers’ draft-pass attempts as the three completed a Yamaha lockout of the podium.  Ott earned his maiden Mission AFT SuperTwins podium 0.037 seconds off the win while Bender claimed the first of his Progressive AFT career a further 0.092 seconds adrift.  Daniels said, “That was huge… Not even just the win, but how we felt on the motorcycle today. It’s no secret that at the beginning of the season we’ve been struggling a little bit, just with some stuff. It’s not for lack of effort. My team has been busting their butts so much. This track – with the way that the corners are – is one where we’ve always lacked on the Yamaha the last few years. We’ve been making headway, and last year we were close to Jared (Mees), but not that close. This morning, I didn’t really feel the greatest, but I had a quiet confidence. I knew we were going to figure it out. I can’t give a big enough of a thanks to my whole Estenson Racing Monster Energy Yamaha team…  “It was an amazing day. It’s the first time I’ve won a Grand National in my home state. It’s something special.”  Robinson, meanwhile, held Bauman off for fourth just back of the top three.   As a result, Daniels and Bauman now boast 162 points and four wins apiece, with Bauman technically in the championship lead as a result of his three runners-up to Daniels’ two. It doesn’t get much closer than that with the Grand National Championship fight now officially at its halfway point.  Dalton Gauthier (No. 79 Racing Unlimited/Parts Bros/D&D Kawasaki Ninja 650) finished a lonely sixth, while Jarod VanDerKooi (No. 20 Fastrack Racing/Wally Brown Racing KTM 790 Duke), Trent Lowe (No. 48 American Honda/Progressive Insurance Honda Transalp), Dan Bromley (No. 62 Memphis Shades/Vinson Construction Suzuki GSX-8S), and Max Whale (No. 18 Moto Anatomy X Powered by Royal Enfield 650) rounding out the night’s top ten in that order.  AFT Singles presented by KICKER  In just over the span of a week, Tom Drane (No. 59 Estenson Racing Yamaha YZ450F) took a protracted wins drought and vulnerable AFT Singles presented by KICKER championship position and transformed them into a three-race victory streak and a commanding 20-point advantage.  The Australian did so in an intense Main Event that saw an eight-rider lead freight train storm past the checkered flag separated by a combined 0.342 seconds.  As it went, the heated rivalry between Drane and Chase Saathoff (No. 88 RWR/Parts Plus Honda CRF450R) got that much hotter Saturday night. Saathoff came up just 0.020 seconds short of defeating Drane after spending the entire race in a struggle just to prevent the Estenson Racing ace from making an escape and instead forcing him to fight it out in a pack war.  The two gestured angrily at one another following the conclusion of the race after being locked in ultra close quarters combat, including one particularly perilous moment in which Saathoff’s boot contacted Drane’s handlebar as they railed around a corner in tight proximity.  Afterward, Drane said, “I just wanted to get out there straight to the front and do everything I could to win that one, because that was dangerous coming off the last corner doing that. It is what it is, and I guess I just have to put my head down and do what I did and come out on top.”  In response, Saathoff said, “I thought I set myself up good (on the final lap), but it seems to me that Tom Drane doesn’t know how to go in a straight line sometimes. But, that’s okay. We’re going to look past it and move on to the next (race).”  Saathoff was joined in the joint attempt to overcome Drane’s day-long speed advantage for the bulk of the Main by eventual third-place finisher Trevor Brunner (No. 21 American Honda/Mission Foods CRF450R) and Bradon Pfanders(No. 83 Hannum’s HD/Pfanders Racing KTM 450 SX-F), who was shuffled back to sixth at the flag despite finishing just 0.252 seconds back of the win.  Despite his impressive form, Pfanders was displaced in that final rush to the stripe by Hunter Bauer (No. 24 Vinson Construction/Reel Medics Yamaha YZ450F) and Evan Renshaw (No. 65 1st Impressions Race Team Husqvarna FC450), who rounded out the top five.  Meanwhile, Chad Cose (No. 49 1st Impressions Race Team Husqvarna FC450) and Tarren Santero (No. 75 Mission Roof Systems Honda CRF450R) were rewarded with just seventh- and eighth-place results despite being in with a shot at the win as late as the race’s final corner.  Drane’s recent surge has granted him a significant advantage over Saathoff at the title fight’s halfway point, as he now leads 153-133. Brunner sits third at 114, while Santero is well back in fourth with 87 points.  Next Up:  Progressive American Flat Track will at last make its debut at the Short Track at Lucas Oil Speedway in Wheatland, Missouri, on Friday, July 18. Visit https://www.tixr.com/groups/americanflattrack/events/2025-lucas-oil-short-track-141381 to secure your tickets today.  For those that can’t catch the live action from the circuit, FloRacing is the live streaming home of Progressive AFT. Sign up now and catch every second of on-track action starting with Practice & Qualifying and ending with the Victory Podium at the end of the night at https://flosports.link/aft.

CHEVROLET IN THE NTT INDYCAR SERIESHonda Indy 200 at Mid-OhioMid-Ohio Sports Car CourseLexington, OhioQualifying Report July 5 The Arrow McLaren duo of Christian Lundgaard in the No. 7 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet and Nolan Siegel in the No. 6 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet will lead Team Chevy to the green flag for the Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio on Sunday afternoon. Lundgaard’s outside front row matches the best of the season for the Danish driver, who also qualified second at The Thermal Club. The 90-lap race will be the fifth time he starts in the front three rows this season. Siegel’s fourth-place qualifying effort is the best of his short career and the second time he has advanced to the Firstone Fast Six in 2025. Lundgaard, with a lap at 65.2835 seconds, was over three-tenths of a second quicker than his competitors in the first qualifying group, and was joined by Siegel and Christian Rasmussen in the No. 21 ECR Splenda Chevrolet in advancing to the Fast 12. In the second group, the No. 20 ECR Java House Chevrolet, with Alexander Rossi behind the wheel, transferred to the Fast 12, in a group that saw positions six through twelve seperated by less than 0.05 seconds. The Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio will air on Sunday (July 6) at 1:30 pm (Eastern) on FOX, following the NTT INDYCAR SERIES morning warm-up on FS1 at 9:30 am (Eastern).

TUNE IN ALERT Sunday NTT INDYCAR SERIES Warm Up – 9:30am (ET)/8:30am (CT)/7:30am (MT)/6:30am (PT) – FS1/INDYCAR Radio Network/SIRIUSXM 218Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio (90 laps) – 1:30pm (ET)/12:30pm (CT)/11:30am (MT)/10:30am (PT) – FOX/INDYCAR Radio Network/SIRIUSXM 218 NTT INDYCAR SERIES QUALIFYING RESULTS FOR THE INDY 200 AT MID-OHIO

WHAT THEY’RE SAYING (QUOTES): Christian Lundgaard, No. 7 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet qualified 2nd: The last few races, we’ve tried to think about the long game and try to be focused on a better tire strategy going into the race. I think this weekend, we felt we didn’t need to do that, so we knew that could go for it. It wasn’t quite enough. That No. 10 car seems to be too strong.  Is it going to be fun to challenge Palou? Do you want to put pressure on him? We had Nolan (Siegel) in the Firestone Fast Six. He had an incredible qualifying, I think the best for him in INDYCAR. Proud of him for that, but that also means we have an extra car. I know they have Kyffin (Simpson) as well, so it will be a two-team battle.  Nolan Siegel, No. 6 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet qualified 4th:  I’m happy. P4 and running the used reds. I think we could have given a Christian (Lundgaard) a run for the front row on new reds, which would have been fun. Really happy to be starting fourth. Best INDYCAR starting position and nice to be in the fast six again. We’ve had a few rough weekends and things are really turning around. We’ve got some new faces on the No. 6 Arrow McLaren/NTT Data Chevrolet, but it’s all working well.  On the addition of Kyle Moyer Obviously, this is a great start to our relationship. I had never met Kyle until the setup day for our Iowa test on Tuesday. Really happy to have Kyle on board. Not just on this stand, but in general. Having him on the radio with me and on the stand, and having Scott Harner as oversight, we’ve got great experienced people on this stand. We’ve got a great mix of youth and experience. With Kate (Gundlach) in her first year as a race engineer. Eric’s (performance engineer) first weekend was my first weekend with the team at Laguna. We’ve got young people that are hungry for it and experienced proven faces, so obviously excited for the rest of the year.  Christian Rasmussen, No. 21 ECR Splenda Chevrolet qualified 10th: “It is wildly tight. I was fairly happy with my lap. I made a small mistake in, in turn nine, which cost us a little bit. So I think it maybe could have been a little bit better, but don’t know if we had it much for the fastest six. I don’t know. But, feeling good with the car balance. We’re just working away. We’ve been fairly okay all weekend long. So I have that six grid penalty for for tomorrow, so that’s gonna put us back a little bit. So I’m glad that we at least made it into the fast 12 so we don’t start all the way at the back. I feel good about my car.” Alexander Rossi, No. 20 ECR Java House Chevrolet qualified 12th: Conor Daly, No. 76 Juncos Holliger Racing Chevrolet qualified 13th: “I was just trying to hustle so much out of the first set of reds. We just kind of missed the the tire pressure window. And, for us it seemed to be just lap two was the only one that was going to work and and just in turn six I tried just too hard to get too much out of it and I mean we’re talking three- hundreds, right? So, it was a pretty mighty lap other than that. I mean we picked up almost seven-tenths from the run before. Just thankful for this team and we’ve been slowly getting there. Road America, we were like two seconds off the pace. So, this is a good step forward for us on the road course package and and we’re certainly in the fight for tomorrow.”  David Malukas, No. 4 Clarience Technologies/A.J. Foyt Racing Chevrolet qualified 14th:  “So really unfortunate. We actually did a really good job getting the car where it needed to be. Went to the top of the hill to finish off the lap in eight, and we had a little bit of a fuel pressure issue and it kind of shut down on us. So probably about half a second on top of that hill, whatever it may be, and we didn’t transfer by 1,000ths of a second (.0117 second). Really unfortunate, because we were there. The guys did a fantastic job, the whole crew, everybody, to get it there. But these things happen. And I think it comes down to us missing practice one, not being able to do the alternate tire to test all these things. So it’s a little bit of a guessing game, trying to go in fresh. Still kind of circles back to my mistake in the beginning of the weekend, but we’re starting off P-13. I think when everything filters out (with one car receiving an unapproved engine change penalty), so we’ll be on the inside row for four which I think is better. Outside of four is a bit scary, plus we have an extra set of new tires compared to everybody in front of us! So you know what? We planned this! (joking)” Pato O’Ward, No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet qualified 15th: “We’ve had a really fast car all weekend. Gapping issues in Q1 kept us from advancing. It’s a shame because we had the pace, so now we get to have fun from the back tomorrow.” Santino Ferrucci, No. 14 Sexton Properties/A.J. Foyt Racing Chevrolet qualified 17th: “I think as a group, we’d be qualifying better than seventeenth at the moment; just unfortunately missing a ton of rotation mid-corner for myself. I thought I drove well, and engineering, they’re doing a great job. The car felt really quick, but it’s also just really tight time-wise. We’ve got to figure out what we’re missing to get up to the top step in quals. But I have a feeling that our race car is going to be good, and we’ll continue to move forward.” Josef Newgarden, No. 2 PPG Team Penske Chevrolet qualified 18th:  “Honestly, we were just on the wrong side of close there. The PPG Chevy was great and the traffic was obviously better with the split groups in the first round. It’s just that this series is very tight and it doesn’t take much to end up where we did without having any issues.” Sting Ray Robb, No. 77 Juncos Holliger Racing Chevrolet qualified 19th: “I felt like we had a really good car today. The field is just so tight that, like, little things make a big difference, and I feel like we could have transferred if I just finished the last few turns on our lap. So it’s unfortunate that we’re starting where we’re starting, because we have a really good car.” Scott McLaughlin, No. 3 Odyssey Battery Team Penske Chevrolet qualified 21st: “I was getting held up. You get into a bad spot, you have to back off and you can’t use the tire at the right spot. I’m really bummed for the Odyssey Battery team. I generally feel like it should have been easy to transfer there. It’s pretty bad.” Will Power, No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet qualified 22nd:  On getting clear track during qualifying? “Much much better. There’s only 12 cars on track. Oh, man-our whole season would be different if we just had half-a-tenth in a bunch of qualifying sessions this year.” “Which goes to show how competitive this series is. When you get it right, it’s rewarding. But when you get it even just that little bit wrong, it can bite you. Not even what you feel is wrong. Like, there’s no mistakes in there. But, when you go from p six to P12 was on the same tenth, it’s amazing. It shows the series, man. It’s no joke.” On different strategies with the extra set of red tires? “I think so. It definitely is nice that we saved some reds and, maybe we do something else, some sort of a different strategy. We’ll see how it plays out tomorrow.” Callum Ilott, No, 90 PREMA Racing Chevrolet qualified 24th: “It was a super tight qualifying, we missed out by half a tenth to the top six in the Group and we were P12. So, it was an incredibly tight group. I think we just drew the short straw on that one. If we were in the other group, we were transferring with time. The car was good on reds, but we still have a bit of work to do to find time on blacks. We’ve improved quite a bit; it’s just a shame that the result of the position doesn’t show the improvement that we have made throughout the weekend.” Robert Shwartzman, No. 83 PREMA Racing Chevrolet qualified 27th: “I struggled incredibly with the car so far this weekend. From yesterday to today the car, we made a lot of changes but it’s still not quite where we want it to be. We took the risk; it didn’t work out. In my run I also had traffic, but even then, if I did do a lap I was quite far away. We will look to understand why we have these things happening and why especially we’re struggling so much on the road courses. We’ll be starting from the back tomorrow, the task in the race is to work on finding a better balance and to have the right strategy. We hope to make some places up but today was a difficult one.”

Christian LundgaardPress Conference THE MODERATOR: Joined by Christian Lundgaard, driver of the No. 7 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet with his second front-row starting position of the season, matching a second-place starting spot at Thermal. Best starting position here at Mid-Ohio in now his fourth start at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. Tell us about your qualifying session, Christian. CHRISTIAN LUNDGAARD: Yeah, pretty straightforward I would say. Really wasn’t the most entertaining. I think we were one of the few cars that decided to run a new set of primes in Q1 and Q2 as a bank lap. We knew we were going to be on the alts anyway, so we were in debate if we were going to use the third set or not. We ended up doing that in the Fast Six. Yeah, the worst that could happen was we started sixth, so at least we’re in a good spot to fight for it tomorrow. Q. For both of you guys, I know you both mentioned that you used three sets of reds during qualifying. I look at a guy like Kyle Kirkwood who just barely missed out on the Fast Six who only used two sets and has an extra set to use tomorrow. Some guys that have that extra set of new reds, what kind of an impact could that potentially make in how tomorrow’s race plays out? ALEX PALOU: Even Kyffin has — he’s starting third and he has one more set of alternates than us. It’s big. It’s big. It’s a huge advantage. We were debating. I think everybody was in the same boat of do we try and shoot for pole, start up front, try and keep position during the first couple stints and then try and be okay, or do we give the pole away or fighting for pole away and start from fifth or sixth. So we decided to go that route. But yeah, he’s starting third on another set of alternates. I think Siegel — CHRISTIAN LUNDGAARD: I think Siegel has two alts, too. ALEX PALOU: So there’s three guys that have better tires than us. CHRISTIAN LUNDGAARD: Yeah, I kind of agree with that. Q. Christian, he doesn’t work directly with you but he directly works over all of the drivers at Arrow McLaren, Kyle Moyer seems to have been an instant success with Nolan Siegel. From what you’ve seen of what Kyle brings to the team, what is it that helps benefit the operation? CHRISTIAN LUNDGAARD: From my side there is really no difference. Really whatever goes on behind the scenes, I think, is sometimes also some of the stuff that us drivers don’t really — we mind our business, and he’s on the 6 car, so he helps Nolan, but I don’t think anything is different for me this weekend. The 7 car has had the speed all year, and there’s been weekends where we’ve executed and we haven’t, and I don’t think this has really made a difference for us. I think that’s too early to say. Q. Hot start for you for the season, kind of up and down since. Is this kind of the reset button to start the second half, do you feel that coming into this weekend, especially knowing this team won here last year? CHRISTIAN LUNDGAARD: Yeah, obviously we’re going to try to replicate that. But no, I think ultimately we’ve had a very good season with ups and downs, as you mentioned, but there’s so much good and there’s very little bad and obviously the small mistakes are expensive in this kind of championship. We see the run that Alex has been on as well. Someday it’s going to be someone else, and I think we all know that. It’s kind of trying to grind on that momentum, and we’ve been a little out of it, I think, in certain parts it’s been expectations. In other parts it’s just been simple, stupid mistakes that have cost dearly. I think this weekend is just trying to replicate what we were doing at Road America but just do it better. Q. We saw some big names out early on in qualifying and some of the younger guys are going to be starting further up the front. How much of a difference do you think it’s going to make in the race starting with a bit of a mixed-up grid? CHRISTIAN LUNDGAARD: I mean, I don’t know. I feel like there’s more and more young drivers that are kind of showing potential, I would say, throughout this year, and I think Kyffin is definitely one of them. He’s been very competitive lately. I know what Nolan is capable of. I know he’s fast, and it’s nice to finally see him do it this weekend, get into the Firestone Fast Six. But racing in the front is kind of a different animal, and I think Alex will agree with this. As soon as you’re starting to check out, it’s the small details that matter. Some of them haven’t been exposed to that in the past, and that’s why I think you see the veterans always kind of making their way forward in the race even if they’re having a bad qualifying. Q. Just curious how the Iowa test went last week and what’s the challenge going to be to do back-to-back races there next week? CHRISTIAN LUNDGAARD: It’s going to be hot. I mean, I don’t know. I think all of us are going to think that it’s going to be very similar to last year, in a sense, and even with the race being a little longer than last year, I still think we’re going to see a pretty straightforward single-lane race. At least that’s my opinion. Do you disagree? Q. You said you have one set of new red tires, but you still have used reds for tomorrow’s race. If you’re on the blacks, though, is there anything you can do to defend from someone on the reds, maybe used Push-to-Pass or the hybrid or together because I don’t think it’s that easy to pass here? CHRISTIAN LUNDGAARD: Yeah, I think it depends. I don’t know, did you see that big of a difference between the tires? I was surprised how big of a difference there was on a new set of alts versus a used set. We didn’t really run a used set but we saw the difference from the other cars, and I think that helped us make the decision to put a third set on in the Fast Six. But how they’re going to do in the race, I don’t think we really know yet. I think some cars are very strong on primes, some cars are very strong on alts. Again, I think you can make both strategies work.

Josh Berry and the No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Mustang Dark Horse are set to start 29th in Sunday’s Grant Park 165, which will be contested on the 2.2-mile, 12-turn course through the streets of Chicago. Berry took that spot with lap at 86.416 miles per hour on the second of three laps he ran during qualifying on Saturday afternoon.That represented a significant increase in speed from practice earlier in the day.Among drivers who ran 10 consecutive green flag laps, Berry was 10th fastest, averaging 83.511 mph from the second through the 11th lap he ran.Sunday’s 75-lap, 165-mile race is scheduled to get the green flag at 1 p.m. local time (2 p.m. Eastern) with Stage breaks planned for Laps 20 and 45. TNT will carry the TV coverage.

NASCAR CUP SERIES CHICAGO STREET RACE TEAM CHEVY POST-QUALIFYING REPORT JULY 5, 2025

Team Chevy Qualifies One-Two-Three

MEDIA RESOURCES: Photo Gallery | Race AdvancesChevrolet Newsroom

·        Returning to the circuit that started his NASCAR career, Shane van Gisbergen started his double-duty weekend by driving Chevrolet to a sweep of the pole wins for the Chicago Street Race weekend. The 2023 NASCAR Cup Series Chicago Street Race winner laid down a monster best-lap of 89.656 seconds in his No. 88 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet to earn the pole position for the third rendition the event.   ·        Van Gisbergen’s pole – his third all-time in NASCAR’s top division – came after he drove the No. 9 JR Motorsports Chevrolet to the pole position for the 36-year-old Auckland, New Zealand, natives first start of the season in the NASCAR Xfinity Series. Van Gisbergen is the last driver to sweep the pole wins in a doubleheader weekend for NASCAR’s top-two division – accomplished at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course in 2024.   ·        Van Gisbergen led the Bowtie brigade to a sweep of the top-three starting positions with the pair of Spire Motorsports teammates, Michael McDowell and Carson Hocevar, driving their Chevrolet-powered machines to second- and third-place qualifying efforts, respectively.  ·        Having to qualify her way into tomorrow’s Grant Park 165, Katherine Legge drove her No. 78 Live Fast Motorsports Chevrolet to a best-lap of 92.368 seconds to earn her spot in the starting lineup for tomorrow’s event – making her the first woman to make a start in NASCAR’s top division at the Chicago Street Course.

TEAM CHEVY UNOFFICIAL TOP-10 STARTING LINEUPPOS.     DRIVER 1st – Shane van Gisbergen2nd – Michael McDowell3rd – Carson Hocevar6th – Kyle Busch 10th – Austin Dillon Chevrolet’s season statistics heading into the 20th NASCAR Cup Series race: Wins: 7Poles: 9Top-Fives: 37Top 10s: 76Stage Wins: 16

Post-Race Driver Quotes: Shane van Gisbergen, No. 88 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet – Pole Win QuotesWhere did you find that extra time when you went back out? “Yeah, that was epic! Our team did a great job. The No. 88 WeatherTech Chevrolet was ripping really good. I’m a lucky boy, I’ve got some great cars today — both the Cup and Xfinity car. This is pretty special. I’m looking forward to the race tomorrow. Practice wasn’t that great for us, but when we went out for qualifying, the car felt really good. We turned in two pretty good laps.” We heard you mention that the field has picked up its game. How do you do that for yourself? How do you up your game? “You can always do something better, right? You’re always learning. I learned a lot in the Xfinity Series car this morning, and that just gives you a great leg up for the Cup car. I think it’s great running both cars, it certainly helps.”  Katherine Legge, No. 78 Live Fast Motorsports Chevrolet “It’s a lot of pressure to come in with only 20 minutes of practice on a street course where there’s no room for error to put it in the show. I actually feel pretty good about it now. We would have been a lot faster, I think, had I not kept nicking the wall. I’ve given my crew a lot of work to do from that, but we had to keep pushing to put it in the show. I’m really proud of this team, and I’m very much looking forward to tomorrow.”    Shane van Gisbergen and Michael McDowell – Front-Row Press Conference QuotesHow did you feel about your car’s race trim? Van Gisbergen: “Yeah, my practice went okay. It’s very hot, so it’s slick out there at the times. They’re a lot slower than previous years. My car felt pretty good. I probably took it too easy. I had too much left at the end of practice, but yeah, I feel like my race car was pretty good. I liked a few things, and then in qualifying, I sharpened it up. My first lap was a pretty good banker and I knew I had a lot left. And then the next lap went pretty decent… probably had two- or three-tenths left, and pretty cool to lay it down.”  We saw quite a few drivers making mistakes or coming close to making mistakes today. Can you describe how on edge you guys are, and how little margin of error may be out there? Van Gisbergen: “Yeah, I think that’s the temperature. We’re over a second off, I think, from what we managed last year. The track’s just treacherous, and when it’s that hot and slick, the margin for error is just so small. On a track like this with no run-offs, you’ve really got to be — like I hit the wall two or three times, I think, on my qualifying lap. You’ve got to be that accurate and that close to the walls, and you have no margin left. I don’t blame the guys crash, it’s a very, very tough track, this one.”  You guys mentioned the heat, but how do you feel like the track looks compared to the last two years – similar or different, anything stand out to you guys? Van Gisbergen: “It’s the same for me.” McDowell: “Yeah, I think everything looks the same. I mean, for a street course, it’s miraculous how good they get the corners the same every year. I think some of that is because there’s some hard stops too, right, like there’s curves on the other side, and street markers there that kind of get it that way. There’s a couple little bumps that are slightly bigger, but for the most part, it’s the same. They do a good job of having the barriers in the same spot. Visual references — I feel like they’re the same. In the first couple of years, it was a little different. But I felt like this was really consistent.”  Brad Keselowski was saying that he thought there were areas of the track that were repaved last year, and they’re just much more treacherous this year…Van Gisbergen: “Yeah, I think it’s turn 12, turn 1, it’s lost a little grip and some color. But I still think that they’re the highest grip parts of the track. And there’s no bumps there, so yeah, I find it okay.” McDowell: “I think, overall, the day was just hotter. I mean we were about a second slower in qualifying and in rac, , so everywhere was a bit slicker. But yeah, there’s some new asphalt that we have to use too on the inside of turn 11. I don’t know — well SVG will use it for passing, he did last year there. But that’s about the only spot I feel like that’s much different.”  You two were among the fastest at Mexico, so are either of you surprised that the other one’s on the front row with you?McDowell: “I’m not surprised at all. As Jeff Gluck said this morning, asking what I was going to do to beat SVG, obviously I didn’t do enough… he still got me about a half second there (laughs). We still got some work to do, but our race trim was good. Tomorrow will be a mixed bag with potential weather in and out, so a lot of variables to go out there and navigate.” Van Gisbergen: “He (Michael McDowell) is a good road course racer. But you never know in NASCAR. There’s 15 guys that can turn up on a road course, and that’s the beauty of this series. Everyone’s so good, so you never know on a given weekend who’s going to be the challenger, so I’m not really surprised by anything in this sport.”

NASCAR CUP SERIES CHICAGO STREET RACE TEAM CHEVY DRIVER QUOTES JULY 5, 2025

Alex Bowman, driver of the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet and defending winner of the Chicago Street Race, met with the media in advance of the NASCAR Cup Series practice and qualifying session at the Chicago Street Course.

Media Availability Quotes:  WHAT IS IT LIKE TO HAVE BEEN IN CHICAGO, THE WIN LAST YEAR, AND REALLY JUST WHAT YOU’RE LOOKING FORWARD TO THIS WEEKEND?  “Yeah, for sure. This is a super fun event. Always look forward to it just from the standpoint of it’s so different than what we normally do, right? Like we do a lot of the same thing for most of the year. So, you know, walking through the city to get to the racetrack, kind of the lack of having buses and being in hotels with the teams and stuff like that, makes it different and a little more enjoyable. And then the challenge of a street course in general is super fun. So very technical, very little room for error. Yeah, and then obviously got here Thursday morning and had a little media tour, went to an animal shelter with Bob, tried to get Bob to adopt a dog. I think his wife is now trying to get him to adopt a dog as well. Super fun. Don’t try to get Bob to take a photo with you because he gets really mad. And, yeah, it was fun. It’s been a good time so far, so I’m ready to, I feel like I’ve been here for a year, so I’m ready to get on the racetrack.” ALEX, AFTER YOU WON THIS RACE LAST YEAR, I GUESS THE PERCEPTION WAS, HEY, MAYBE THIS SAVED YOUR JOB. YOU GUYS, JEFF GORDON, EVERYBODY’S LIKE, NO, ALEX, IS GOOD. I HAVE A CONTRACT. LOOKING BACK NOW, HOW IMPORTANT DO YOU THINK THIS VICTORY WAS TO CONTINUING AT HENDRICK MOTORSPORTS FOR THE FUTURE? “Yeah, I mean, I think there was a lot of rumors started by people that maybe don’t really know what they’re talking about in a sense, but at the same time, you know, I think it was really important to make the Playoffs and to finish the year strong, right? Like, we were able to have a really strong Playoff run. A little drama there that kind of ruined it, but you know, in general, like we did a really good job through the Playoffs, did what we needed to do. Wish we could have gone further, but we didn’t. So yeah, I mean, I think that was just important in general for the race team to end the season strong and obviously, you know, start this year strong as well, which I feel like we’ve been able to do. Had a rough two months there, but the last couple of weeks have been good for us and things are pointing in the right direction. So yeah, I think it was just important for the team, and it was definitely a good day for us.”  HOW MUCH DOES THE THREAT OF RAIN CHANGE YOUR STRATEGY DURING PRACTICE OR QUALIFYING AND TRYING TO SET UP THE CAR FOR YOUR BALANCE?  “Yeah, it’s difficult because I feel like most things that you would do for the car in the rain, are really going to hurt the car in the dry so trying to manage that the best you can and understand what those things are what the weather is really going to do. There have been so many times that we’re sure it’s going to rain and it doesn’t rain and sure it’s not going to rain it does rain so I wish I could be wrong about my job as much as the weatherman. But yeah I mean I think it’s continued to look like more rain tomorrow, so certainly have to be cognizant of it and, kind of know where we need to be with the race car to capitalize on that. You still have to qualify in the dry and probably looks like maybe start the race in the dry, so going to need to have a compromise of both worlds for sure.” INAUDIBLE QUESTION “Yeah, for sure. I think it’s a very important market for the teams and for all the partners involved. I would love to keep coming back here. I think this place is a lot of fun. I would also love to go back to Chicagoland and run the oval. I think that track would present huge challenges with a next-gen car with how rough it is. I’m sure it’s only gotten rougher. So, yeah, it would be a huge challenge but obviously would be a lot of fun. I think with those challenges typically come some pretty exciting races, and unique things.  So, yeah I love coming up here and hopefully we can continue to do that um obviously none of us know what the schedule does or doesn’t look like but um I think street course racing is super fun and that track’s cool as well.” IF WE GO SOMEWHERE ELSE, WHERE WOULD YOU WANT THAT TO BE? “Gosh I don’t know. I think there’s a lot of cool places I feel like you could put a street course. Obviously, there’s a lot of rumors flying right now about where that will or won’t be. I think the street course thing has been really fun from the driving aspect of it.  Just because it’s so technical like trying to make lap time around this place is so hard. So I’ve really enjoyed it, I think there’s a lot of great places you could put it. I think you could rotate it around. You could do a lot of different things. So, I think continuing with the street course on the schedule is pretty important.” YOU HAVE A BUBBA WALLACE MATCHUP THIS WEEK. YOU GUYS OBVIOUSLY HAVE A LITTLE BIT OF HISTORY FROM HERE LAST YEAR. DOES THAT ADD TO THE MATCHUP, AND IS THAT KIND OF WHY THIS IN-SEASON THING WAS CREATED, TO HAVE THESE TYPE OF SUBPLOTS ON THESE RACES?  “Yeah, I mean, I don’t know that it adds to it. Maybe we’ll get on stage and, like, fake fight like AJ and Michael did last week. But, no, I think he and I are totally good. But yeah, I mean, he’s been really fast here in the past. Like, you don’t tend to think of him as a road course guy, but here last year, he was really fast. So, definitely going to be a tough one, but yeah, I think, you know, adding excitement, it’s probably more for the fans, right? And from where I sit, like, I just try to go to work and do the best I can throughout the weekend and kind of not super focused on it. Obviously, I think if we get down to the final round, you’ll probably fixate on it a little bit more. But if it gives the fans something to talk about and be excited about, I think it’s really good.” WHERE ARE YOU ON THE PLAYOFF LEVEL AND HOW YOU WON THIS RACE LAST YEAR? DO YOU FEEL THERE’S ANY SIMILARITY WITH HOW YOU’RE COMING INTO THIS RACE? AND THEN WINNING, DO YOU HAVE ANY CONFIDENCE THAT YOU CAN COME BACK AND DO IT AGAIN?  “As far as confidence coming into this race, like, I feel like we’re plenty capable. Like, we’re typically pretty good at the road courses, have a lot of confidence coming into these places. You know, obviously the weather looks similar, so that adds a layer of confidence. I thought we were pretty good in the rain. We were really good as it started to kind of dry out and get patchy. So, yeah, I think we’re definitely confident. Hopefully it’s dry. I feel like the fans here deserve to just get a normal race, and I think we could put on a great show in the dry. Probably a little better than we do in the rain. But, yeah, we’ll have to wait and see.” ALEX, HOW DO YOU MANAGE THIS PRACTICE SESSION? IT SEEMS LIKE XFINITY HAS BEEN PRETTY EVENTFUL WITH GUYS PUSHING AND GETTING IN THE TIRE BARRIERS. BUT WITH SUCH A SHORT PERIOD OF TIME, RIDE QUALITY IS HUGE. WHAT’S ON YOUR CHECKLIST AS FAR AS THIS PRACTICE SESSION?  “Yeah, I think qualifying is massively important here. So, trying to make pace early, understand what you need for your car in qualifying and have the ability to make pace to lay down a lap there is really important. And then you know trying to figure out where your long run stuff is with longevity of the rear tires. Obviously, the next gen car really burns the rears off more than the fronts kind of different than the Xfinity car.  I think the Xfinity practice was a little bit chaotic last year too, so hopefully Cup practice is a little calmer and hopefully we’re on the good side of all that. I think that just shows how difficult this track is and how easy it is to you know overstep the line at a at a street course. Like it’s so narrow, so bumpy, and it’s only continuing to get rougher and rougher.  Chad Knaus looked at me like I was dumb when I said it got rougher. He’s like, ‘of course it did, it’s Chicago. There was a winter here, like it’s going to continue to get rougher every year’.  So, yeah I think it’s going to be tough but hopefully we’re on the good side of it.”