Two Cadillac V-Series.Rs aim to tame Long Beach street circuit in sprint race

DETROIT (April 12, 2023) – Though IMSA has raced on the temporary street circuit in Long Beach, California, since 2006, each year presents teams and drivers some unknowns. Questions in 2023 will be magnified with the new Grand Touring Prototype racecars. What is the impact of recently resurfaced sections of the 1.968-mile, 11-turn circuit on tire grip and wear? Will cornering speed be a concern while defending or attempting to overtake? What about traffic management in the 28-car field across three classes? One set of tires for the 100-minute race duration or change on the sole scheduled pit stop? All that, and more, will come into play this weekend in the third race of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. Cadillac Racing will aim to extend its winning streak at Long Beach to six races with the No. 01 Cadillac V-Series.R and No. 31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac V-Series.R competing in the GTP class.

Last April, Sebastien Bourdais set the track qualifying record at 1 minute, 9.472 seconds (101.980 mph) in earning the pole in the No. 01 Cadillac DPi-V.R. He and Renger van der Zande went on to take the checkered flag after 73 laps and lead a Cadillac Racing sweep of the podium for the second consecutive year. “It’s a very challenging street course, like most of them are, but when you do get it right it’s super rewarding. Obviously, we had a strong weekend last year with the pole and the win. It would be awesome to do it again with Cadillac,” said Bourdais, who also won three times in Long Beach in CART (2005-07). “The hairpin is tricky and it’s the slowest corner of the season, so it definitely is its own animal. But when I think about Long Beach, I think about Turn 1 more than the hairpin. That’s the place that has the highest approach speed, it’s a tricky braking zone over concrete slabs, it’s bumpy and pretty quick and the room for errors is tiny.” Cadillac leads the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship GTP Manufacturer Championship standings and the No. 31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac V-Series.R prepared by Action Express Racing sits atop the GTP Championship Team and Driver standings through two endurance races.

Media resourcesWeekend guide:* Cadillac Racing notes* Driver bios, team info* Long Beach stats, history* Cadillac V-Series.R info* Driver photos Long Beach waveConsecutive Cadillac Racing wins at circuit (no race in ’20):* 2022 (Renger van der Zande, Sebastien Bourdais)* 2021 (Pipo Derani, Felipe Nasr)* 2019 (Joao Barbosa, Filipe Albuquerque)* 2018 (Joao Barbosa, Filipe Albuquerque)* 2017 (Jordan Taylor, Ricky Taylor)* Also, Chevrolet Corvette DP won the 2016 and ’15 races GT wins at track2014: Johnny O’Connell drove the No. 3 Cadillac CTS-V.R (above)2012: Andy Pilgrim drove the No. 8 Cadillac CTS-V Coupe

In Round 2 on March 18, Cadillac earned its third consecutive victory and fifth in seven years in the Twelve Hours of Sebring as pole winner Pipo Derani, Alexander Sims and Jack Aitken combined to drive the No. 31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac V-Series.R. “It was brilliant to get the win at Sebring and the hard work continues with the race preparation,” said Sims, whose Action Express Racing team won three times (2018, 2019 and 2021) at Long Beach during the DPi era. “We have to work hard to get tuned into the track from a driving and car point of view and work out how these new cars work there. It’s a challenge but looking forward to it.” Cadillac leads the GTP Manufacturer Championship standings and the No. 31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac V-Series.R prepared by Action Express Racing sits atop the GTP Championship Team and Driver standings. Two practice sessions Friday precede same-day qualifications. USA will telecast the race at 5 p.m. ET Saturday, with Peacock streaming qualifying (8 p.m. ET) and the race. All on-track sessions will be broadcast at IMSA.com along with race coverage on Sirius 216, XM 207 and SiriusXM Online 992.

What they’re saying

No. 01 Cadillac V-Series.R Sebastien Bourdais: “Long Beach is a great event and definitely one of the highlights of the season. It’s always a fun place to race at. It’s a very challenging street course, like most of them are, but when you do get it right it’s super rewarding. Obviously, we had a strong weekend last year with the pole and the win. It would be awesome to do it again with Cadillac, but we know the competition will be tough. We definitely need points, but we’ve showed progress and pace. Hoping it all comes together this weekend and I’m really looking forward to it.” Renger van der Zande: “I think Long Beach (2022) is one of the best races in recent memory. Obviously, the car was lightning fast, blinding fast, but Sebastien got us up front and then I was able to finish it off. It’ll be a new track for this car, so we’ll have to see how it behaves. Tire degradation has always been a bit of a topic in Long Beach, so there is a lot of new news for this race which is a good thing. We’re prepared to go and make the most out of what we know and then fine tune things once we get there. Can’t wait to get this Cadillac on another street course race; It’s pretty special.”

No. 31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac V-Series.R Pipo Derani: “Looking forward to going back to Long Beach. It’s one of those race events that you’re always looking forward to – the first street track of the year. Excited to see how the new GTP cars are going to go around that track in particular. Felipe (Nasr) and I had the chance to win it together in 2021 in a very commanding way. Felipe put it on pole, and I got it from the lead and we just kept increasing until the cheered flag. Nice way to win. It’s one of those races where qualifying matters more than others because it’s just hard to pass like any other street track. Getting there with a win already under our belts this season, a pole position and the championship lead, but we’re going to attack the weekend the same way as if we had not won the last race or were not leading the championship. It’s still early days; we know how long this championship is and every point counts. Every point counts and attacking is the name of the game. We’re going to try to put it on pole again, of course, and make our lives a little bit easier for the race. If you put it on pole in Long Beach, it makes your life a lot easier.” Alexander Sims: “Looking forward to getting back to Long Beach; it has been awhile since I’ve been there in the GTs. It is certainly one of the unique places that we go to in IMSA with the relatively bumpy street course and medium- to slow-speed corners generally. It’s always the same at street tracks – when the walls are the limit it heightens the experience somewhat as the risk versus reward judgment that you’re making all the time is skewed a bit more. There is more risk that you can take but it’s not very comfortable as you could see last year by Bourdais’ pace the rewards are high if you’re able to achieve that but it’s super difficult to ignore the walls are there because you know any mistake and your race is probably over. It was brilliant to get the win at Sebring and the hard work continues with the race preparation. We have to work hard to get tuned into the track from a driving and car point of view and work out how these new cars work there. It’s a challenge but looking forward to it.” Cadillac Racing on the streets of Long Beach results 2022-2017Overall wins2022 (Renger van der Zande, Sebastien Bourdais)2021 (Pipo Derani, Felipe Nasr)2019 (Joao Barbosa, Filipe Albuquerque)2018 (Joao Barbosa, Filipe Albuquerque)2017 (Jordan Taylor, Ricky Taylor)* No race in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic

2022: Overall winner (No. 01 V-Performance Academy Cadillac DPi-V.R) start first – Renger van der Zande, Sebastien Bourdais          Second (No. 02 Cadillac Accessories Cadillac DPi-V.R) start second – Earl Bamber, Alex Lynn          Third (No. 5 Mustang Sampling Racing Cadillac DPi-V.R) start fifth – Tristan Vautier, Richard Westbrook          Fifth (No. 31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac DPi-V.R) start fourth – Pipo Derani, Tristan Nunez2021: Overall winner (No. 31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac DPi-V.R) start first – Pipo Derani, Felipe Nasr         Second (No. 01 Cadillac Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac DPi-V.R) start second – Renger van der Zande, Kevin Magnussen         Third (No. 5 Mustang Sampling Racing Cadillac DPi-V.R) start third – Tristan Vautier, Loic Duval2019: Overall winner (No. 5 Mustang Sampling Cadillac DPi-V.R) start fourth – Felipe Albuquerque, Joao Barbosa         Fifth (No. 84 JDC-Miller MotorSports Cadillac DPi-V.R) start seventh – Stephen Simpson, Simon Trummer         Sixth (No. 31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac DPi-V.R) start second – Pipo Derani, Felipe Nasr        Seventh (No. 50 Juncos Racing Cadillac DPi-V.R) start ninth – Kyle Kaiser, Will Owen        10th (No. 10 Konica Minolta Cadillac DPi-V.R) start 10th – Renger van der Zande, Jordan Taylor2018: Overall winner (No. 5 Mustang Sampling Racing Cadillac DPi-V.R) start fifth — Felipe Albuquerque, Joao Barbosa        Third (No. 10 Konica Minolta Cadillac DPi-V.R) start sixth – Renger van der Zande, Jordan Taylor        Seventh (No. 31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac DPi-V.R) start second – Felipe Nasr, Eric Curran2017: Overall winner (No. 10 Konica Minolta Cadillac DPi-V.R) start first – Jordan Taylor, Ricky Taylor        29th overall, seventh in class (No. 5 Mustang Sampling Racing Cadillac DPi-V.R) start second – Joao Barbosa, Christian Fittipaldi        32nd overall, eighth in class (No. 31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac DPi-V.R) start fifth – Eric Curran, Dane Cameron

Transcript: Championship leader discusses his outlook for the sprint race on street circuit

Pipo Derani, co-driver with Alexander Sims of the No. 31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac V-Series.R in the Grand Touring Prototype class of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, met with the media via Zoom conference to preview the April 14-15 race in Long Beach, California. Derani and Sims, along with Jack Aitken, co-drove to victory March 18 in the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring. Derani co-drove to victory at Long Beach in 2021 for Cadillac Racing, which has won every IMSA prototype race at Long Beach since the start of the DPi era in 2017. Q&A with Derani transcript:

You’ve had previous success at Long Beach. What is it going to take for you and Alex (Sims) to do it again?“Looking forward to going back to Long Beach. It’s one of those race events that you’re always looking forward to – the first street track of the year. Excited to see how the new GTP cars are going to go around that track in particular. Felipe (Nasr) and I had the chance to win it together in 2021 in a very commanding way. Felipe put it on pole, and I got it from the lead and we just kept increasing until the cheered flag. Nice way to win. It’s one of those races where qualifying matters more than others because it’s just hard to pass like any other street track. Getting there with a win already under our belts this season, a pole position and the championship lead, but we’re going to attack the weekend the same way as if we had not won the last race or were not leading the championship. It’s still early days; we know how long this championship is and every point counts. Every point counts and attacking is the name of the game. We’re going to try to put it on pole again, of course, and make our lives a little bit easier for the race. If you put it on pole in Long Beach, it makes your life a lot easier.”With no LMP2 or LMP3 cars at Long Beach, does that make it easier because you’re likely to have a better handle on the drivers in the other cars?“That really depends because sometimes despite being the quicker car you don’t quite know if the guy has seen you and sometimes you think he hasn’t seen you and then he blocks. I think it depends on the moment you’re in the race. Sometimes in the beginning it makes no sense, you make life easy. But later in the race when GTs might be fighting for their own race and we’re trying to overtake, multi-class racing can bring you this sort of situation and you have to deal with it as you go. Sometimes you have a pretty clean race and straightforward in that regard from our side of things and sometimes you have to be a bit more on the aggressive side and make sure that you get by so you don’t get overtaken by the car behind. It’s like a chess game with the GTs while you’re trying to do your own race. In general, over the last year, we have seen quite an improvement in that area from both sides. I think the GTs are a lot better and easier to deal with because you also have the pro guys inside. Going into Long Beach, the GT cars, especially at the end of the race where the pros will be finishing the race, should be more straightforward if we cooperate with each other.” What are your anticipations about passing for position between the GTP cars within the tight confines of Long Beach?“There are expectations for great racing and therefore if the cars are really running close to each other, especially at a place like Long Beach, you expect to have to muscle your way around some of your competition to try and have an edge. That’s all good for the sport. Long Beach being one of our shorter races that we have all year makes for a different dynamic, so everyone coming from a long race like Sebring has to quickly switch and go for a completely different strategy in order to achieve a good result. Therefore, a little bit of argy bargy is necessary. I think tight racing and competition like that brings more fans, which is what we need, and the more we have the more success everyone will have. GTP cars are a bit bigger than DPis, so muscling your way around will be a little bit trickier than it was before.” How does the tire situation and the short duration of the race affect the overall strategy?“I think that depends on how the weekend evolves. It’s the kind of thing that you see as you go. If you start up front, it’s definitely going to be one way. If you’re on the back, you might want to gamble a bit. It really depends car by car as well because one car might react differently to the tires than the other depending on setup. We also have different chassis, so that has an influence. We’re still all learning the cars. There are so many things we wish we knew already, but we don’t and tire is one of them. So, we have to see as we go. I’m hoping that it’s an easy decision instead of trying to make something out of the blue. I would like for it to be a simple decision instead of a gamble.”

New Sponsors to Nitro Chaos Championship Chase

OLATHE, KS (April 11, 2023) — Two-time Top Alcohol Dragster World Champion Megan Meyer will be making a new championship run this season in the inaugural Nitro Chaos Championship Series, a four-race gauntlet across the Midwest. Meyer will be competing at Nitro Chaos events beginning with Edgewater Sports Park near Cincinnati on April 28-29 with the attitude of having fun but also feeding the competitive fire that led her to two NHRA world championships. The popular world champion unveiled a new look racecar yesterday through her new YouTube channel with primary sponsor Gunk and new associate sponsor Shop Squad from NGK NTK. The racer and mother of one is looking forward to building on her Nitro Chaos success from last year.

Megan Meyer and Gunk/Shop Squad Dragster, photo courtesy of Megan Meyer Racing

“After we won the Nitro Chaos last year at Mo-Kan, it planted a seed in my head that maybe I could come back and do more of it,” said Megan, who stepped away from full-time competition after winning back-to-back NHRA Top Alcohol Dragster world championships in 2019-2020. “Representing Gunk and expanding our relationship with NGK and Shop Squad will make this adventure possible. We have so many exciting programs coming up this season I can’t wait to get to the track.”

Shop Squad is a support program from NGK NTK to advance the automotive repair industry through education, resources, and dialogue. Their Training Program is designed to educate automotive professionals on their parts and service channels and offers an online portal for on-demand learning. When automotive professionals sign up for Shop Squad an account is automatically created, and they have access to the expansive tech training portal.

“I can’t think of a better representative for the Shop Squad program than Megan Meyer,” said Jacklyn Donahue, Group Marketing Manager – Aftermarket, Niterra. “Her team knows all the ins and outs of what it takes to be an automotive professional. We are working together to build content and a community through her reach, creativity, and education and that is the goal of the Shop Squad program.” 

Megan and Shop Squad are partnering up with Boxo USA Tools and Chad Green Motorsports to promote a monthly Student Appreciation Contest for college students studying to become an automotive professional. Students can sign up each month using their simple online form and one winner each month will win prizes valued at over $500.

Last season Meyer represented Shop Squad at the Mo-Kan event with a local community event and display of the dragster and took top honors in the “A” Field outrunning teammate Julie Nataas in the final. This year Meyer will be racing for the championship and will also be taking fans along for the ride. Fans can follow Meyer’s journey through a five-part series called “Chasing Chaos” on her new YouTube channel. The team will have a videographer capturing behind-the-scenes footage as well as on track action. Fans can subscribe to “Chasing Chaos” here.

The unique Nitro Chaos series, which has a rules-free format that only requires entries to burn a minimum of 80% nitromethane, will hold championship events at Edgewater Sports Park near Cincinnati on April 28-29, Eddyville Raceway Park on May 26-28, Mo-Kan Dragway on July 14-15, and Thunder Valley Raceway Park on Sept. 22-23. 

“I know I’m going to be 100% committed to chasing points and trying to get a championship in a different series,” Megan said. “From my point of view, if I want to race, I want to do the best that I can and try to compete for a championship. The fact that there’s only four races is perfect for me and our family. At the same time, I’m trying not to get too serious about it, just have fun.”

“I know there’s going to be a lot of tough competition and a lot more cars this year,” Megan continued. “It’s going to be tough. We don’t really know exactly what we’re going up against, whereas in NHRA Top Alcohol Dragster you know every person, every car, what they can run, and what their strategies are. Now, it’s a completely different ballgame. I’m excited for this new challenge. I’m going to do the best that I can, and hopefully it works out in our favor.”

Fans can follow Megan on YouTube HERE

The Pevely, MO oval is set for its first of two doubleheaders this yearPEVELY, MO (April 11, 2023) – The World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Cars are heading to one of the country’s best bullrings.Federated Auto Parts Raceway at I-55 may be a third of a mile in distance, but it races every bit like a quarter mile with its narrow confines and high banks. The Pevely, MO racetrack routinely produces some of the sport’s most unforgettable moments and is one of the fastest tracks for its size.After a weekend in the northwest corner of Missouri and southeast region of Kansas, The Greatest Show on Dirt is headed south of St. Louis this weekend (April 14-15) to I-55 for the first of a pair of Pevely doubleheaders. The Series will return for the Ironman 55 (August 4-5), which puts $20,000 on the line for whoever conquers the demanding 55-lap finale.As an added bonus, the best Sprint Car drivers will be joined by the Xtreme Outlaw Midgets presented by Toyota each night and will again for Ironman weekend in August.BUY TWO DAY TICKET PACKAGE HEREBUY FRIDAY TICKETS HEREBUY SATURDAY TICKETS HERELet’s look at some of the weekend’s top storylines:CHAMPIONSHIP FIGHT: This past weekend at U.S. 36 Raceway and 81 Speedway proved to be eventful within the standings as the top three jockeyed for positioning on both nights.Carson Macedo came out looking the best with a rise from third to the lead. A pair of podiums elevated the Lemoore, CA native atop the points for the first time this year.It was a rollercoaster weekend for Brad Sweet with a Friday ascent before Saturday’s descent. The four-time and defending champion jumped into the top spot thanks to a third place effort to open the weekend. Then an incident Saturday at 81 Speedway resulting in a 14th-place finish dropped him to third.David Gravel entered as the points leader, but a Friday crash caused him to slip to third. The Big Game Motorsports driver rebounded on Saturday with a podium to rise to the runner-up spot.PEVELY PROS: In recent years, it’s been nearly a guarantee that Brad Sweet or Sheldon Haudenschild will be in the running for the win in Pevely. The duo has combined to win nine of the last 13 trips to I-55.Haudenschild’s success has been highlighted by his famed 2019 Ironman victory when he lapped up to sixth place and won by more than 10 seconds. The Wooster, OH native owns three more I-55 triumphs – one in 2020 and a weekend sweep of the Ironman in 2021. The pilot of the Stenhouse Jr./Marshall Racing #17 has also posted top fives in 12 of his 17 starts at the track.Sweet’s recent record in Pevely is wildly consistent. In his last 14 starts at the third-mile, the Kasey Kahne Racing driver has posted five wins, 12 podiums (including the last seven), and a 2.86 average finish.I-55 IMPROVEMENT: Early on in his career, Carson Macedo struggled at I-55, but he’s completed turned that narrative around.The driver of the Jason Johnson Racing #41 has made 14 World of Outlaws starts in Pevely. In the first seven starts, Macedo’s best finish was seventh with an average finish of 14.4. The seven since yielded a pair of victories – both last year – and a 4.6 average finish.Macedo looks to keep the momentum rolling to pad his points lead.SCHUCHART SEEKING WIN: The driver highest in points yet to visit Victory Lane this season is Shark Racing’s Logan Schuchart.The Hanover, PA native has been close this year with five top fives through 12 races, but the top spot has eluded him.I-55 has been kind to Schuchart. He triumphed in the 2018 Ironman 55 and owns 12 top fives in his most recent 15 starts.J-MAC MOTORING IN MISSOURI: James McFadden has already won twice this season, and his record at I-55 suggests another triumph could arrive this weekend.The Roth Motorsports driver is yet to win in Pevely, but he’s earned top fives in five of his last six starts including a trio of podiums.McFadden is coming off tallying his third top five of 2023 at 81 Speedway.SCELZI’S STEPPINGSTONES: After a tough start to the year, Gio Scelzi continues to improve during his rookie campaign.The Fresno, CA native has only missed the top 10 once in the last seven races, and this past weekend Scelzi posted his two best finishes of the season. On Friday at U.S. 36 Raceway he brought the KCP Racing #18 home seventh, then improved to sixth Saturday at 81 Speedway.Scelzi’s I-55 experience is limited, but in three starts at the Missouri oval he has earned one of his 14 career Series podiums.INVADERS: Plenty of drivers are expected to be on hand to complete a stout field.Among those who could best the World of Outlaws is Rico Abreu. The St. Helena, CA native has already won twice with The Greatest Show on Dirt in 2023 including the most recent event – the $20,000 to win Jason Johnson Classic. Pevely is one of two tracks where Abreu has won multiple Series events. He topped the 2016 Ironman finale and the 2018 Ironman opener.Justin Peck and Buch Motorsports plan to be in action. The 24-year-old finished eighth on both nights of the Ironman weekend last year. The Monrovia, IN native is also a former I-55 winner in MOWA Sprint Car action (’18). Buddy Kofoid is yet to miss a 2023 World of Outlaws race, and he expects that to continue in Pevely. Despite not being a full-time competitor, Kofoid still sits fifth in points courtesy of he and CMS Racing’s early season strength that’s including a Talladega Short Track victory and four podiums.Others expected to compete include Joe B. Miller (Millersville, MO), Ryan Timms (Oklahoma City, OK), Ayrton Gennetten (Versailles, MO), Jake Neuman (New Berlin, IL), Blake Hahn (Sapulpa, OK), and more.CURRENT CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS (12/84 Races)1. 41 – Carson Macedo (1684 PTS) 2. 2 – David Gravel (-8PTS) 3. 49 – Brad Sweet (-20PTS) 4. 1S – Logan Schuchart (-58PTS) 5. 11 – Michael Kofoid (-66PTS) 6. 17 – Sheldon Haudenschild (-88PTS) 7. 15 – Donny Schatz (-136PTS) 8. 83 – James McFadden (-138PTS) 9. 5 – Spencer Bayston (-140PTS) 10. 18 – Gio Scelzi (-170PTS)NOS ENERGY DRINK FEATURE WINNERS (7 Drivers):3 wins – David Gravel (Big Game Motorsports #2)2 wins – Brad Sweet (Kasey Kahne Racing #49), James McFadden (Roth Motorsports #83), Rico Abreu (Rico Abreu Racing #24)1 win – Carson Macedo (Jason Johnson Racing #41), Rico Abreu Buddy Kofoid (CMS Racing #11), Sheldon Haudenschild (Stenhouse Jr./Marshall Racing #17)FEATURE LAPS LED (9 Drivers):64 laps – Brad Sweet60 laps – James McFadden54 laps – David Gravel46 laps – Buddy Kofoid43 laps – Rico Abreu39 laps – Carson Macedo21 laps – Sheldon Haudenschild10 laps – Anthony Macri, Cory Eliason9 laps – Gio Scelzi, Brent MarksLOW-E INSULATION QUICKTIME AWARDS (8 Drivers):4 QuickTimes – Carson Macedo2 QuickTimes – David Gravel1 QuickTime – Anthony Macri, Logan Schuchart, Brian Brown, Donny Schatz, Buddy Kofoid, Rico AbreuHEAT RACE WINNERS (16 Drivers):6 Heat Wins – Buddy Kofoid, David Gravel5 Heat Wins – Carson Macedo4 Heat Wins – Brent Marks3 Heat Wins – Logan Schuchart, Sheldon Haudenschild2 Heat Wins – Spencer Bayston, Gio Scelzi, Brad Sweet, Jacob Allen1 Heat Win – James McFadden, Brian Brown, Donny Schatz, Danny Dietrich, Freddie Rahmer, Rico AbreuTOYOTA DASH APPEARANCES (23 Drivers):9 Dashes – David Gravel8 Dashes – Carson Macedo7 Dashes – Logan Schuchart, Brad Sweet6 Dashes – Buddy Kofoid, Jacob Allen 5 Dashes – Spencer Bayston4 Dashes – Brent Marks, Rico Abreu, Gio Scelzi, Sheldon Haudenschild3 Dashes – Donny Schatz, James McFadden2 Dashes – Brian Brown, Danny Dietrich, Brock Zearfoss1 Dash – Anthony Macri, Robbie Price, Cory Eliason, Justin Peck, Kasey Kahne, Freddie Rahmer, Devon BordenMICROLITE LAST CHANCE SHOWDOWN WINS (10 Drivers):1 LCS Win – Brock Zearfoss, Parker Price-Miller, Sheldon Haudenschild, Gio Scelzi, Noah Gass, Hunter Schuerenberg, James McFadden, Wayne Johnson, Ryan Timms, Ayrton GennettenKSE HARD CHARGER AWARDS (9 Drivers):2 Hard Chargers – Brock Zearfoss, James McFadden, Tyler Courtney1 Hard Charger – Donny Schatz, Gio Scelzi, Robbie Price, David Gravel, Logan Schuchart, Justin PeckPODIUM FINISHES (15 Drivers):6 Podiums – Brad Sweet, David Gravel5 Podiums – Carson Macedo4 Podiums – Buddy Kofoid2 Podiums – Jacob Allen, James McFadden, Sheldon Haudenschild, Rico Abreu1 Podium – Danny Dietrich, Logan Schuchart, Brian Brown, Kasey Kahne, Devon Borden, Spencer Bayston, Brent MarksTOP 10 FINISHES (26 Drivers):12 Top 10s – Carson Macedo10 Top 10s – Brad Sweet, David Gravel, Logan Schuchart9 Top 10s – Sheldon Haudenschild8 Top 10s – Michael Kofoid6 Top 10s – James McFadden, Spencer Bayston, Gio Scelzi, Rico Abreu5 Top 10s – Donny Schatz4 Top 10s – Brent Marks, Jacob Allen, Justin Peck3 Top 10s – Kasey Kahne, Tyler Courtney2 Top 10s – Aaron Reutzel, Brian Brown, Danny Dietrich, Brock Zearfoss1 Top 10 – Cory Eliason, Robbie Price, Zeb Wise, Devon Borden, Blake Hahn, Sam Hafertepe Jr.2023 WORLD OF OUTLAWS SPRINT CAR SCHEDULE & WINNERS:No. / Day, Date / Track / Location / Winner (Total Wins)1. Fri, Feb 10 / Volusia Speedway Park / Barberville, FL / David Gravel (1)2. Fri, Feb 10 / Volusia Speedway Park / Barberville, FL / David Gravel (2)3. Sat, Feb 11* / Volusia Speedway Park / Barberville, FL / James McFadden (1)4. Sun, March 5 / Volusia Speedway Park / Barberville, FL / Carson Macedo (1)5. Mon, March 6 / Volusia Speedway Park / Barberville, FL / David Gravel (3)6. Sat, March 18 / Lincoln Speedway / Abbottstown, PA / Rico Abreu (1)7. Fri, March 24 / Talladega Short Track / Eastaboga, AL / Buddy Kofoid (1)8. Sat, March 25 / Magnolia Motor Speedway / Columbus, MS / Brad Sweet (1)9. Fri, March 31 / Devil’s Bowl Speedway / Mesquite, TX / Brad Sweet (2)10. Sat, April 1 / Devil’s Bowl Speedway / Mesquite, TX / James McFadden (2)11. Fri, April 7 / U.S. 36 Raceway / Osborn, MO / Sheldon Haudenschild (1)12. Sat, April 8 / 81 Speedway / Wichita, KS / Rico Abreu (2)

MOORESVILLE, NC (April 11, 2023) — The four-wide style of racing is an acquired taste for many of the NHRA professional drivers. For reigning NHRA Rookie of the Year Camrie Caruso her return to The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway for the Vegas Four-Wide Nationals will be slightly bittersweet. Over the past two races Caruso has collected her first career Pro Stock win at the Arizona Nationals and her second career No. 1 qualifier at the Winternationals where she also raced to the semifinals before losing to eventual winner Dallas Glenn. Her fortunes have not been as successful in the four-wide format but the resilient and determined racer who currently lives in Mooresville, North Carolina is ready to give it another shot.

“I am trying to get used to the four-wide format,” said Caruso, a multi-category winner. “There is a lot going on when you stage and last year during my rookie year it was tough. I know the fans love it and we are here to put on a great show for the fans and our sponsors. My goal this year is to just get better and have some fun with it. Luckily, The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway is an awesome racetrack.”

Camrie Caruso and Powerbuilt Tools Chevrolet Camaro, photo by SR Driven Media

Last year Caruso rolled into the Vegas Four-Wide Nationals for her fourth professional Pro Stock race. The young driver was still figuring out a tremendous amount of information and procedures as she tried to acclimatize herself to the unique four-wide staging and racing procedure. Now with over 20 NHRA national events under her belt Caruso is ready to tackle the four-wide nationals again.

“I really feel a lot more comfortable in my Powerbuilt Tools Camaro this season,” said Caruso. “I am excited to see what we can do in Las Vegas. We have some momentum coming off Phoenix and Pomona and I just want to keep turning on win lights.”

Through three races this season Caruso has picked up the Arizona Nationals win and recorded the No. 1 qualifier at the Winternationals. She also participated in the Mission #2Fast2Tasty Challenge on Saturday of the Winternationals and while she did not advance to the final round, she picked up a championship point for her quick qualifying run during the qualifying and elimination round. The second-year pro knows that her goal of winning her first Pro Stock world championship will not happen during the regular season but picking up Mission #2Fast2Tasty Challenge points will give her a leg up at the end of the year.

“I love everything about the Mission #2Fast2Tasty Challenge and I am so glad we have been able to participate already,” said Caruso. “Once we get into the heart of the schedule this season it is going to be an awesome opportunity to pick up some money and more importantly those championship points. I know we will be counting them and so will a lot of the other Pro Stock teams.”

Caruso has added some off-track commitments to her schedule this season as well. At each NHRA national event Caruso participates in the “Just the Basics with Camrie Caruso” stage show joined by NHRA announcer Jason Galvin. The 20-25 minutes casual conversation is a chance for Caruso to let fans in on some of the ins and outs of being a first time NHRA guest as well as insider tips on what goes on at the racetrack. The show has been a welcome addition to the entertainment elements the NHRA has put together throughout the weekend to highlight many of the drivers and crew chiefs.

“I have loved the first couple of stage shows with Jason,” said Caruso. “We have talked about racing, where to get the best French Fries, the best time and worst time to ask for an autograph as well as what I like about each track. It is cool to talk with some of the fans before and after to get an idea of what they like about NHRA. This is one of the things that makes NHRA so unique is the drivers get out amongst the fans and really try to give them a unique experience. I can’t wait to get on the stage at the Las Vegas race on Friday.”

After Caruso spends time with the fans, she will have two qualifying sessions on Friday and two on Saturday to race her way into the 16-car qualified field. Final eliminations will begin for all the pro classes at noon on Sunday. There will be three rounds of racing which will all be broadcast nationally on FS1.

Team looking to extend southern California success after bizarre 2022 race DETROIT (April 11, 2023) – With its two longest races of the season in the rear-view mirror, Corvette Racing now faces its shortest contest of the season as it heads west to southern California for its only street race of the season. The Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach is an intense 100-minute dash for the Corvette Racing program and the rest of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. It’s an event that the team has won more than another team in series history – four times since 2014 – to go along with four more victories in the American Le Mans Series era from 2007-2013.

The familiar pairing of Antonio Garcia and Jordan Taylor will pilot the No. 3 Mobil 1/SiriusXM Chevrolet Corvette C8.R in the GT Daytona (GTD) PRO class. The two finished third in last year’s Long Beach race – the first street race for the GTD-spec C8.R – despite a bizarre pitlane incident that took the Corvette out of contention for the victory.

CORVETTE RACING MEDIA INFORMATION Corvette Racing media information is updated and available ahead of this weekend’s races at Long Beach (IMSA) and Portimao (WEC). Materials include: · IMSA & WEC race advances and quotes· Corvette Racing stats and figures· Corvette Racing racecar comparisons· Corvette Racing Fast Facts· Driver biographies

Taylor was the class pole-winner after a last-lap flyer and led the entirety of his first stint. A loose wheel nut during the pit stop escaped the Corvette pit, hit a stone and flew into the radiator of another car – a one-in-a-million occurrence that unfortunately netted the Corvette a drive-through penalty. Aside from that round of bad luck, there is reason to be confident again. Corvette Racing has a full year of data on the GTD-spec configuration, most notably the customer Michelin tire that all GTD teams must run in IMSA competition. Simulation tools aided the team’s preparation last year, and expectations are that 12 more months of work in the virtual world – plus sessions in the Chevrolet Driver in the Loop simulator – will put the C8.R in contention again. The results through the first two races are encouraging for this weekend. Garcia and Taylor – along with Tommy Milner – finished second in class to open the season in the Rolex 24 and ran out front most of the Sebring 12 Hours before late-race contact and on-track chaos meant a fifth-place result. The Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach is scheduled for 5:05 p.m. ET / 2:05 p.m. PT on Saturday, April 15. The race will air live on USA Network from 5-7 p.m. ET with full streaming coverage on Peacock. IMSA Radio will air qualifying and the race at IMSA.com along with Sirius 217, XM 207 and SiriusXM Online 992.

ANTONIO GARCIA, NO. 3 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R: “It’s been a long time since I’ve won at Long Beach. I feel like I’ve been through more ways of losing this race than winning it! There was a crash in the Hairpin that blocked the track one year, I had a shifting issue on the restart another and then last year with the wheel nut coming off in pitlane and going into another car… I’m ready for one normal year! But this is a fun event that is very unique. The fans are great and there are so many that come to watch us race. I hope we can give them a good show and finally another win for the 3 Corvette. We are due for it.”

JORDAN TAYLOR, NO. 3 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R: “It’s always nice to go back to Long Beach. It’s the first sprint race of the year. We’ve settled in with Daytona and Sebring with endurance races, and the end of those races gets pretty intense. But Long Beach, the whole event is intense, right from the start with practice. Last year we had a great car. We were on the pole and led for the whole first stint and then had a that crazy fluke incident on pitlane which kind of put us out of contention for the win. It would be nice to go back there and be as competitive as we were and execute as well as we did last year. Having a year under our belt with this car and this class, we learned a lot throughout last season that already has been beneficial this year.”

2023 WeatherTech SportsCar Championship – GTD PRO (After two of 11 events)Driver Standings1. Daniel Juncadella/Jules Gounon/Maro Engel – 7082. Ben Barnicoat/Jack Hawksworth – 6823. Klaus Bachler/Laurens Vanthoor/Patrick Pilet – 6594. Antonio Garcia/Jordan Taylor/Tommy Milner – 6435. Jordan Pepper/Romain Grosjean – 612 Team Standings1. No. 79 WeatherTech Racing – 7082. No. 14 Vasser Sullivan – 6823. No. 9 Pfaff Motorsports – 6594. No. 3 Corvette Racing – 6435. No. 63 Iron Lynx – 612 Manufacturer Standings1. Mercedes-AMG – 7082. Lexus – 6823. Porsche – 6594. Chevrolet – 6435. Lamborghini – 612 CORVETTE RACING AT LONG BEACH: By the Numbers• 1: As in one team, one manufacturer and one model of car for 16 years at Long Beach: Corvette Racing, Chevrolet and the Chevrolet Corvette.• 3: Generations of Corvette Racing entries at Long Beach since 2007 – Corvette C6.R (2007-13) and Corvette C7.R (2014-2019) and Corvette C8.R (2021-current). All three generations have won at least once at Long Beach.• 4: Number of Long Beach race victories for Corvette Racing’s duo of Antonio Garcia and Jordan Taylor.• 8: Number of drivers who have competed at Long Beach for Corvette Racing – Olivier Beretta, Antonio Garcia, Oliver Gavin, Jan Magnussen, Tommy Milner, Johnny O’Connell, Nick Tandy and Jordan Taylor. Each driver won at least once at Long Beach.• 8: Number of Long Beach victories in 15 appearances for Corvette Racing – more than any other IMSA entrant at the circuit.• 10: Number of Long Beach sports car victories for Chevrolet. Throw in 12 IndyCar wins, and Chevrolet has claimed 22 victories in the event’s two premier races.• 14: Manufacturer Championships for Chevrolet and Corvette Racing since 2001.• 19: Number of street circuit victories for Corvette Racing – more than any other IMSA entrant at the circuit.• 26: Tracks at which Corvette Racing has won races – Baltimore, Charlotte Motor Speedway, COTA, Canadian Tire Motorsport Park/Mosport, Daytona, Detroit, Houston, Laguna Seca, Le Mans, Lime Rock, Long Beach, Miami, Mid-Ohio, Monza, Portland, Road America, Road Atlanta, Sebring, Sonoma, St. Petersburg, Texas, Trois Rivieres, Utah, VIR, Washington DC and Watkins Glen• 30: Number of wins in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship for Corvette Racing since the start of 2014.• 34: Number of drivers for Corvette Racing since 1999. Ben Keating and Nico Varrone joined that list with their participation – and victory – in the 1,000 Miles of Sebring for the World Endurance Championship.• 123: Victories worldwide for Corvette Racing – 113 in North America and eight at Le Mans.• 269: Event starts by Corvette Racing since 1999.• 4,081.61: Number of racing miles completed by Corvette Racing in its 15 previous trips to Long Beach. That represents 2,074 laps around the 1.968-mile street circuit.• 353,311.01: Total number of racing miles completed by Corvette Racing since its inception. To put that in perspective, Corvette Racing is more than halfway to the distance traveled by Apollo 13 – the longest manned spaceflight in history: 622,268 miles. That means Corvette Racing has raced to the moon… and then some! Corvette Racing at Long Beach (wins in bold)2007No. 3 Corvette C6.R: Jan Magnussen/Johnny O’Connell – 2nd in GT1 (Magnussen fastest race lap)No. 4 Corvette C6.R: Olivier Beretta/Oliver Gavin – 1st in GT1 (Gavin pole) 2008No. 3 Corvette C6.R: Johnny O’Connell/Jan Magnussen – 1st in GT1 (Magnussen pole)No. 4 Corvette C6.R: Olivier Beretta/Oliver Gavin – 1st in GT1 (Gavin fastest race lap) 2009No. 3 Corvette C6.R: Jan Magnussen/Johnny O’Connell – 2nd in GT1No. 4 Corvette C6.R: Olivier Beretta/Oliver Gavin – 1st in GT1 (Beretta pole, fastest race lap) 2010No. 3 Corvette C6.R: Jan Magnussen/Johnny O’Connell – 2nd in GT2No. 4 Corvette C6.R: Oliver Gavin/Jan Magnussen – 9th in GT2 (Gavin fastest race lap) 2011No. 3 Corvette C6.R: Olivier Beretta/Tommy Milner – 5th in GTNo. 4 Corvette C6.R: Oliver Gavin/Jan Magnussen – 2nd in GT (Magnussen fastest race lap) 2012No. 3 Corvette C6.R: Jan Magnussen/Antonio Garcia – 4th in GTNo. 4 Corvette C6.R: Oliver Gavin/Tommy Milner – 1st in GT (Gavin fastest race lap) 2013No. 3 Corvette C6.R: Jan Magnussen/Antonio Garcia – 5th in GTNo. 4 Corvette C6.R: Oliver Gavin/Tommy Milner – 4th in GT (Gavin fastest race lap) 2014No. 3 Corvette C7.R: Jan Magnussen/Antonio Garcia – 1st in GTLM (Magnussen pole)No. 4 Corvette C7.R: Oliver Gavin/Tommy Milner – 3rd in GTLM (Milner fastest race lap) 2015No. 3 Corvette C7.R: Jan Magnussen/Antonio Garcia – 3rd in GTLMNo. 4 Corvette C7.R: Oliver Gavin/Tommy Milner – 7th in GTLM 2016No. 3 Corvette C7.R: Jan Magnussen/Antonio Garcia – 9th in GTLMNo. 4 Corvette C7.R: Oliver Gavin/Tommy Milner – 2nd in GTLM 2017No. 3 Corvette C7.R: Jan Magnussen/Antonio Garcia – 5th in GTLM (Magnussen pole)No. 4 Corvette C7.R: Oliver Gavin/Tommy Milner – 1st in GTLM 2018No. 3 Corvette C7.R: Jan Magnussen/Antonio Garcia – 4th in GTLMNo. 4 Corvette C7.R: Oliver Gavin/Tommy Milner – 1st in GTLM 2019No. 3 Corvette C7.R: Jan Magnussen/Antonio Garcia – 2nd in GTLMNo. 4 Corvette C7.R: Oliver Gavin/Tommy Milner – 3rd in GTLM 2021No. 3 Corvette C8.R: Antonio Garcia/Jordan Taylor – 2nd in GTLM (Taylor pole)No. 4 Corvette C8.R: Tommy Milner/Nick Tandy – 1st in GTLM (Tandy fastest race lap) 2022No. 3 Corvette C8.R: Antonio Garcia/Jordan Taylor – 3rd in GTD PRO (Taylor pole)

(April 10, 2023 – Ben Deatherage), Tulare, CA … Thunderbowl Raceway will feature two nights of incredible action this weekend as NAPA Auto Parts presents the NARC 410 Sprint Series for the Dennis Roth Classic. The Tulare 1/3-mile action track will host the tour on Friday, April 14th, and Saturday, the 15th, for the series’ first doubleheader of the 2023 season.  Saturday night will have a fantastic payout of $18,383.00 to the winner. Rico Abreu won the race last year in an electrifying battle in the main event. 

“This race is a true honor to Dennis and Teresa Roth.” said Roth Motorsports Team Manager Todd Ventura. “Fellow competitors and Dennis’ peers were the ones that wanted to have this event. When you have people with that amount of respect for you like Brent Kaeding, Jim Allen, and Ashley Smith who talked about it and made it come together, we are honored to be a part of it.” 

Dennis Roth and his wife, Teresa, are longtime Sprint Car supporters nationwide. Their race team, Roth Motorsports, boasts over 100 World Of Outlaw feature victories and multiple titles in California.   

“It’s a big deal for us because Dennis has been a great supporter of this race track,” commented Steve Faria, promoter of Thunderbowl Raceway. “He’s a special friend and we’re trying to make something special out of it.” 

Thunderbowl Raceway, since 2001, has had twenty-six different winners in the last fifty-six shows that the NARC 410 Sprint Series has put on. The house of Kaeding has reigned supreme as they are level at the top with seven wins each for Brent and Tim. Amazingly sixteen drivers have accomplished just a single triumph over the years. 

“It’s an honor to be able to put on this race for Dennis Roth,” stated NARC 410 Series General Manager Jim Allen, “he’s done so much for motorsports, and this is a real-world and real-life tribute that we are proud to honor those contributions.” 

Who to Watch

Corey Day is coming off an incredible win at Kings Speedway last weekend at the Anthony Simone Classic. It was his seventh career NARC 410 Sprint Series triumph in twenty-eight starts. The Clovis teenager was third at last year’s Roth Classic, and this is the only time he has been on the podium at the Thunderbowl with the tour. 

Aromas driver Justin Sanders was the runner-up to Day last Saturday in Hanford. Over the years at Thunderbowl, Justin has netted just one top five, a fourth at last year’s Roth, and two tens in five career NARC 410 Sprint Series starts at the track. 

Tim Kaeding is again teaming up with the famed Williams Motorsports #0 team. As mentioned above, the San Jose driver was sixth at the Simone last weekend and is tied with Brent Kaeding, for the most wins at Tulare. TK was seventh in the 2022 edition of the Roth Classic and, on top of his seven wins, has ten podiums, fourteen Top 5s, and twenty-one Top 10s in thirty-one starts.  

Kraig Kinser of Bloomington, Indiana, will make a guest appearance with the NARC 410 Sprint Series. He has four career starts with the series, all in 2015, co-sanctioned with the World Of Outlaws, and just one top ten result. That was a tenth-place result at Tulare on March 14th. 

Bud Kaeding is a driver to be on the lookout for, as the Campbell chauffeur knows how to pilot his way around the 1/3-mile clay oval. Bud has three career NARC 410 Sprint Series victories at the facility, most recently in 2018, in thirty-eight starts since 2001. Kaeding is also second on the all-time modern era list in the podium (14), Top 5 (20), and Top 10 (30) categories, with an average finish of 7.57. 

Also expected to compete will be Lemoore’s Cole Macedo, Fremont standout Shane Golobic, Tanner Holmes of Jacksonville, Oregon, Penngrove pilot Chase Johnson, two-time defending series champion Dominic Scelzi from Fresno, Clarksburg driver Justyn Cox, Ryan Bernal from Roseville, Oakley’s Dylan Bloomfield; Templeton’s Kaleb Montgomery, Nick Parker from Tuscon, and many more! 

Fan & Competitor Info

Thunderbowl Raceway is located at the Tulare County Fairgrounds in Tulare, California. Grandstand tickets are priced at $30.00 for Adults, $28.00 for Seniors, and Children (6-12) $15.00. Bleacher tickets are priced at $25.00 for Adults, $23.00 for Seniors, and Children (6-12) $13.00. Front Gates open at 4:00, Hot Laps at 5:00, and Racing is scheduled to kick off around 7:00. Also, visit the track website, www.thunderbowlraceway.com. 

The NARC 410 Sprint Series, presented by Napa Auto Parts, is the leading 410 Sprint Car tour west of the Rocky Mountains. Since 1960, they have enthralled countless thousands of fans from tracks up and down the Pacific Coast. For more information, visit their website at www.narc410.com or social media pages. 

The Dennis Roth Classic can be viewed live on Floracing.com, along with every NARC 410 Sprint Car Series race. 

The NARC 410 Sprint Car Racing Series is also sponsored by Hoosier Racing Tires, Floracing.com, and NAPA Auto Parts. Associate and product award sponsors include Automotive Racing Products (ARP), Beacon Wealth Strategies-Raymond James Financial, Brown & Miller Racing Solutions, Bullet Impressions, D & D Roofing, Diversified Machine Inc., Johnstone Supply, Kaeding Performance Center, Kimo’s Tropical Car Wash, KSE Racing Enterprises, Lifeline LLC, Starr Property Management, Sunnyvalley Bacon, System 1 Ignition, Ultra Lite Brakes, Williams Roofing, Wilwood Disc Brakes, and Winters Performance Products.

NARC 410 SPRINT CAR SERIES 
CHAMPIONSHIP POINT STANDINGS
(AFTER ONE EVENT IN 22-RACE SERIES)

1	Corey Day, Clovis	142
2	Justin Sanders, Aromas	139
3	Shane Golobic, Fremont	138
4	Chase Johnson, Penngrove	137
5	Dominic Scelzi, Fresno	136
6	Tim Kaeding, San Jose	135
7	Justyn Cox, Clarksburg	135
8	Tanner Holmes, Jacksonville, OR	133
9	Bud Kaeding, Campbell	132
10	Kaleb Montgomery, Templeton	131
11	Sean Becker, Roseville	130
12	Ryan Bernal, Roseville	129
13	Joey Ancona ®, Concord	128
14	Dawson Faria ®, Fresno	127
15	Mauro Simone ®, Fresno	126
16	Michael Pombo ®, Easton	125
17	Jake Hodges ®, Camarillo	124
18	Dylan Bloomfield, Oakley	123
19	Craig Stidham, Fresno	122
20	Nick Parker ®, Tuscon, AZ	121

SOCIAL MEDIA INFORMATION

Facebook: NARCKingoftheWest
 Facebook (History page): NARCSprintCarHistory
 Twitter: NARC410 
 Instagram: NARC410
 YouTube: NARC410 
 TikTok: NARC410 
 Live Stream PPV:  Floracing.com 
 

UPCOMING EVENTS:
April 29th – Antioch Speedway – The Contra Costa County Clash 
May 6th- Silver Dollar Speedway – David Tarter Memorial 
May 13th-14th-Kings Speedway – Peter Murphy Classic

First two of 11 Xtreme-POWRi Challenge Series races, Abreu makes Xtreme debut doing double duty

PEVELY, MO (April 10, 2023) – The Xtreme Outlaw Midget Series presented by Toyota gets back into action at Federated Auto Parts Raceway at I-55 this Friday-Saturday night, April 14-15, for the I-55 Outlaw Showdown weekend.

Racing alongside the World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series, the Xtreme Outlaws team-up with the POWRi National Midget League for the first of 11 races on the newly announced Xtreme Outlaw-POWRi Challenge Series, which awards a $2,500 check to the winner of the miniseries.

The Midgets will take to the track for two consecutive nights, racing 30 laps for a $4,000 grand prize Friday night before a 35-lap, $5,000-to-win Feature on Saturday.

Tickets will be available at the gate on race day or can be purchased in advanced at the link below. If you can’t be at the track in person, stream all the action live on DIRTVision.

BUY TICKETS

Here are the drivers to watch for and the storylines to follow this weekend:

ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT – Jade Avedisian has some work to do if she wants to keep her 30-point gap in the Series points standings this weekend.

In the Series’ last venture out to I-55 last August, Avedisian struggled to find a rhythm, resulting in finishes of 15th and 14th in the two-day event. Those were two of her final starts for her former team at Chad Boat Industries and has since made the transition over to her new team at Keith Kunz Motorsports – a group which she’s already won with once in two Series starts.

After the first victory of the year in March at the Southern Illinois Center, she took that points lead out of the building, and in doing so broke another record, becoming the first female in dirt track racing history to lead the points standings of a national Midget tour.

A CHANCE FOR TWO – Chance Crum took home a big trophy after the Series’ debut at I-55 last year, winning the Friday night portion of the Ironman 55 weekend and picking up his first career Xtreme Outlaw victory.

He makes his return to Pevely this weekend on the heels of a fourth-place run in the Rudeen Racing #26 three weekends ago in Oklahoma with POWRi, leading the majority of the laps before falling back before the checkered.

The 25-year-old from Snohomish, WA, currently sits sixth in the Series points standings after finishes of 13th and fifth in Du Quoin last month.

SO CLOSE, NOT SO FAR – Only 0.3 seconds separated 20-year-old Karter Sarff from his first career Series victory at I-55 last year.

Sarff, of Mason City, IL, started third on the grid and stayed in the top-three the entire race, taking the lead early and leading laps 5-14 before giving it up to Crum at the halfway point. Sarff maintained pace with Crum and made it exciting with a last-ditch effort out of Turn 4 coming to the stripe on the final lap but was unsuccessful, settling for runner-up.

This weekend, he’ll get another chance at the Xtreme Outlaw field, as he saddles up his Provisio Partners #21K after making both Features last month in Du Quoin.

LOOKING UP – If his past starts at I-55 are any indication, Zach Daum has a lot to look forward to this weekend as he climbs back behind the wheel of his self-owned King Chassis #5d.

Daum, the defending Series champion from Pocahontas, IL, ended up +12 in position over Ironman 55 weekend last year with runs of ninth-to-fifth on Friday and 11th-to-third on Saturday. Though it wasn’t a win, Daum has been to I-55 Victory Lane before, taking the checkers in a POWRi event there in 2016.

I-55 comes at the right time for Daum, as he needs a couple strong finishes to get back in the hunt for his fifth national Midget championship. He currently sits 11th after a top-five and a DNF in Du Quoin.

BIG DEBUT – Fresh off his second win of the season against the World of Outlaws Sprint Cars on Saturday night, Rico Abreu is set for his Xtreme Outlaw Midget Series debut this weekend.

Abreu, the 2014 USAC National Midget Series champion and two-time Chili Bowl Nationals winner from St. Helena, CA, will take the wheel of a Tanner Thorson Racing entry for his first career Xtreme Outlaw Series appearance, while also piloting his own Rico Abreu Racing #24 Sprint Car with the World of Outlaws.

He’s had success in both divisions at I-55 in the past, sweeping both POWRi Midget events on Ironman 55 weekend in 2019 and capturing the coveted 55-pound dumbbell trophy as Ironman 55 victor with the Sprint Car in 2016.

THIS WEEKEND AT A GLANCE

When and where
• Friday-Saturday, April 14-15 at Federated Auto Parts Raceway at I-55 in Pevely, MO

On the internet
Xtreme Outlaw Midget Series presented by Toyota
Twitter – @Xtreme_Outlaw
Instagram – @XtremeOutlaw
Facebook – @XtremeOutlawSeries.WRG

Live broadcast
DIRTVision – DIRTVision.com. Platinum annual FAST PASS for $299 or monthly FAST PASS for $39/month.

Current championship points standings (view full standings)
1. Jade Avedisian (442pts); 2. Kyle Jones 412pts (-30); 3. Landon Brooks 409pts (-33); 4. Shane Cottle 402pts (-40); 5. Gavin Miller 397pts (-45); 6. Chance Crum 387pts (-55); 7. Thomas Meseraull 387pts (-55); 8. Cannon McIntosh 384pts (-58); 9. Mitchel Moles 381pts (-61); 10. Ethan Mitchell 364pts (-78).

Toyota Feature winners (2 drivers)
1 win – Cannon McIntosh (Dave Mac-Dalby Motorsports); Jade Avedisian (Keith Kunz Motorsports)

Toyota Feature laps led (4 drivers)
26 laps – Thomas Meseraull
22 laps – Shane Cottle
14 laps – Jade Avedisian
8 laps – Cannon McIntosh

Whitz RC Racing Products Fast Time Awards (2 drivers)

1 Fast Time – Cannon McIntosh, Ethan Mitchell

Heat Race winners (9 drivers)
2 wins – Jade Avedisian
1 win – Austin Barnhill, Shane Cottle, Gavin Miller, Thomas Meseraull, Corbin Rueschenberg, Nick Drake, Kyle Jones, Chance Crum

High-points honors
1 honor – Gavin Miller, Chance Crum

Last Chance Showdown wins (4 drivers)
1 win – Kyle Jones, Landon Brooks, Karter Sarff, Howard Moore

DIRTVision Hard Charger Awards (2 drivers)
1 Award – Mitchel Moles, Chase Johnson

Podium finishes (6 drivers)
1 podium – Cannon McIntosh, Shane Cottle, Thomas Meseraull, Jade Avedisian, Chase McDermand, Kyle Jones

Top-10 finishes (16 drivers)
2 top-10s – Jade Avedisian, Kyle Jones, Landon Brooks, Gavin Miller
1 top-10 – Shane Cottle, Chance Crum, Thomas Meseraull, Cannon McIntosh, Mitchel Moles, Ethan Mitchell, Zach Daum, Taylor Reimer, Chase McDermand, Chase Johnson, Austin Barnhill, Corbin Rueschenberg

2023 Schedule & Winners – Race No. Day, Date / Track / Location / Winner (Total Wins)
1. Fri, March 10 / Southern Illinois Center / Du Quoin, IL / Cannon McIntosh (1)
2. Sat, March 11 / Southern Illinois Center / Du Quoin, IL / Jade Avedisian (2)

Along with bringing in the TRD 410 engine, Toyota has also increased its partnership with the World of Outlaws, Super DIRTcar Series and Xtreme Outlaw Midget SeriesCONCORD, NC (April 10, 2023) – Racing has been the engine of Andy Graves’ life. A robust engine that’s guided him to Hendrick Motorsports for nine years, Chip Ganassi Racing for six years – including an Indianapolis 500 win in 2000 – and Toyota Racing Development for more than 16 years, helping build their presence across multiple forms of motorsports.But when he wants to remember why he fell in love with auto racing, Sprint Car and Midget races are his Eden.That passion has led Toyota to the World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series with the development of the TRD Toyota 410 engine and increased partnership – now the Official Vehicle of the Series and Dash sponsor.“At TRD, since we’ve been involved with the USAC Midget program, we always knew and always felt like there was a hole there in our grassroots ladder and the World of Outlaws 410 Sprint Car would be a perfect fit,” said Graves, the executive competition engineering, technical director for TRD. “There’d been light discussions over the years about that. I think it really stemmed from, after the 2017 season we had another great year in NASCAR, winning the championship with Martin Truex (Jr.) and Furniture Row Racing. I put it back on the agenda (in 2018) before our group, our executive committee, because of my love for 410 Sprint Cars.“When I was younger, at 14 years old, in the summers I worked for Jeff Swindell. I had the passion for Sprint Cars and it fit really nice for Jack (Irving, the executive commercial director for TRD) and his driver development ladder, and for us to fit in the community. During that time, during the end of 2018, beginning of 2019, we finally got the green light and the approval to start moving forward with it.”FIRST STEPSWith the goal of eventually selling their own parts and hoping to see close to half of Sprint Car fields powered by TRD engines, Graves said they thought working with two engine builders would help speed up the process. Especially with having to start from a clean sheet.First up for the challenge was Rick Long, owner and president of Speedway Engine Development, who they already had a relationship with. Then, off the recommendations of Christopher Bell and Kyle Larson, Graves approached Tom Rider with Rider Racing Engines out of Pennsylvania to also help with the program.“I feel like that is a pretty powerhouse of a combination when you have those two guys on your team,” Graves said.In the TRD engine’s first full season with the World of Outlaws this year, it’s already visited Victory Lane twice in the first 10 races with James McFadden and Roth Motorsports.“It’s a pretty cool stat to be a part of,” McFadden said. “I’m an engine builder by trade. I’ve done that my whole career until I came over here working with the World of Outlaws. So, to be a part of a development deal is really fun and something that I’m really interested in.“It’s tough at times, you really have to be on your game as soon as you hit the track with these guys and when you’re trying to develop something, it can put you on the back foot but so far so good. It’s been pretty good. These things run really well.”The path to that success wasn’t easy. Like the development of the Ford FPS 410, TRD’s new engine was also plagued by COVID supply issues. Manufacturers couldn’t get materials. And when they could, it still took months to get it.The TRD engine – from Rider – made its official debut on Jan. 29, 2021, with Giovanni Scelzi and KCP Racing at an All Star Circuit of Champions race. The day prior, Scelzi and the team made practice laps with it. Thirty minutes into the session Long called Graves to warn him that the crankshaft had just broke on the engine he had on his dyno. While the engine in Scelzi’s car survived the weekend, crankshaft issues lingered throughout the year.Taking advice from their NHRA Toyota team, Kalitta Motorsports, they switched to Callies Performance Products crankshafts and the issue went away. However, they weren’t out of the water yet.After spending almost all of 2021 dealing with the crankshaft issue, they suffered head sealing issues in 2022. This year, Graves said he feels like they’ve finally got their arms around everything.During those development years, the engine was still victorious, though. Tyler Courtney brought the engine its first victory at the end of 2021 during a Non-Wing Sprint Car event with the National Auto Club Racing Series at Kings Speedway in Hanford, CA. Then, in 2022, Aaron Reutzel brought the engine its first Winged Sprint Car victory during a weekly show at Knoxville Raceway.“It’s cool to say I have a little piece of Toyota’s history coming into Sprint Car racing,” Courtney said. “They’ve made a name for themselves in all forms of motorsports. To be the, ‘quote–unquote’ first winner for them, whether it was a super high-class race or not, I can always say I was the first Sprint Car winner for Toyota.”TEAM BUILDINGReutzel was one of the first drivers Toyota teamed with to run the TRD engine, off the recommendation of Graves and Bell. When the two parties agreed to work together in 2021, Reutzel was making the move to Roth Motorsports and introduced Graves to Dennis and Teresa Roth. However, between Reutzel not finishing the season with the team and crankshaft issues, a TRD engine never made it into the Roth #83 that year.Scelzi was Toyota’s other driver, but with the young Californian and his KCP Racing still trying to develop their program at the time, Graves said they all agreed it wasn’t the right time for them to take on the development of the new engine.So, for the 2022 season, knowing they still wanted at least two teams to help run the engine, Toyota continued its partnership with Roth Motorsports – now fielding the #83 for James McFadden – and followed Reutzel to his new team with Ridge & Sons Racing.McFadden scored his first win with Roth at Lakeside Speedway that year, which was a race after they pulled the TRD engine out of the car due to it hitting its mileage limit.Going into 2023, Todd Ventura, Roth’s team manager, pushed Graves and his team into taking the next step. He thought they were ready to run the entire 87-race World of Outlaws schedule.“I don’t think we thought we were ready to go World of Outlaws racing,” Graves said with a chuckle. “[Ventura] had a lot of faith in us.”That faith payday off in the third race of the season when McFadden won at Volusia, bringing Toyota its first World of Outlaws win and Roth Motorsports its 100th win. A month and a half later, he won again at Devil’s Bowl, securing another milestone win for Toyota – he had won Volusia with the Rider engine and Devil’s Bowl with the Speedway engine.“We made a decision over the winter that we wanted each of the guys running our engines to be split,” Graves said. “We wanted half of their pool to be Rider engines and the other half to be Speedway because we wanted to accelerate our learning curve even more. The only way to do that was to be able to get our engine partners and ourselves to be more involved in every part and piece and in each other’s engines in order to solve those problems quicker.“For James to get a win at Volusia with a Rider and then to follow it up with a win at Devil’s Bowl with a Speedway TRD engine is just phenomenal. We’re super excited and hopefully a lot better things to come this year.”GROWING ROOTSThe 410 engine program and partnership with the World of Outlaws is a key element in Toyota’s hopes to further engage with the grassroots community and have another platform to work with drivers in the highest level of dirt racing.They’ve already had a strong presence in dirt Midget racing and have increased that, joining as the presenting sponsor of the Xtreme Outlaw Midget Series. Now, along with joining the World of Outlaws Sprint Cars, Toyota has also partnered with the World of Outlaws CASE Construction Equipment Late Model Series and Super DIRTcar Series, becoming the Official Vehicle for each.“Obviously, [the World of Outlaws] put on a hell of a show,” Irving said. “They have the best drivers. They do an amazing job with how they manage a race and how they deal with tech at a race. They run a very clean, well ran program. When we visited them years back, when Andy first pitched this, you couldn’t be more impressed with what they have for people who are at the track, for marketing people like us who want to engage at the track, the ability to receive data and use their video services and everything else, make it an easy partnership for Toyota.“They are a great group to deal with. A long time ago I was told you should do business with people you like, and they are an easy group to like. From our perspective to further partner with them, we love what they’re doing with the Xtreme Midget program. It is extremely important how well they tech the cars and how consistent they are with the rules and how they implement them. That has been a big part for us. It helps the teams kind of save themselves from themselves. I think for us, to be able to have drivers that get to race against the best there are at doing what they do, it was a pretty natural progression to partner with them a little bit further.”To attend World of Outlaws events and see the TRD Toyota 410 engine in action, CLICK HERE.If you can’t make it to the track, you can watch all the action live on DIRTVision.

Inside Line Promotions – HANFORD, Calif. (April 10, 2023) – Dominic Scelzi scored a top-five result last Saturday during the NARC 410 Sprint Car Series season opener hosted by Kings Speedway.

Scelzi kicked off the Anthony Simone Classic by qualifying seventh quickest out of the 30 entrants. He then finished where he started in a heat race – second – to advance into the dash. Scelzi gained a pair of positions to finish fifth in the dash, lining him up on the inside of the third row in the A Main.

“The track seemed to get faster later in qualifying,” he said. “We were quick time for a long time, but ended up seventh. We did what we needed to in the heat race to make the dash and moved forward in it. In the feature we ran fourth almost the whole race, but got passed on the last lap to finish fifth. We just missed it a little bit. I think we know where we could have been better.”

The fifth-place outing was Scelzi’s third straight top five to start the year.

Next up for the team is the Dennis Roth Classic this Friday and Saturday at Thunderbowl Raceway in Tulare, Calif. Scelzi’s family owned team will field a second car with Trey Starks behind the wheel.

“I’m really looking forward to the Dennis Roth Classic,” Scelzi said. “It’s a big event that is in honor of someone who has done so much for racing. We were second in the 410 feature and won the 360 feature last year during the Dennis Roth Classic so we’re going into it confident. It will also be great to have Trey in a second car of ours to show support for the event.”

QUICK RESULTS –

April 8 – Kings Speedway in Hanford, Calif. – Qualifying: 7; Heat race: 2 (2); Dash: 5 (7); Feature: 5 (5).

SEASON STATS –

3 races, 0 wins, 3 top fives, 3 top 10s, 3 top 15s, 3 top 20s

UP NEXT –

Friday and Saturday at Thunderbowl Raceway in Tulare, Calif., for the Dennis Roth Classic with the NARC 410 Sprint Car Series

No. 33 Corvette looks to continue early-season momentum after Sebring win DETROIT (April 10, 2023) – It’s a new track for Corvette Racing in the FIA World Endurance Championship this weekend, but the team is hoping for a familiar result in its second race of the season. Nicky Catsburg, Ben Keating and Nico Varrone will look for consecutive GTE Am victories in the No. 33 Mobil 1/SiriusXM Chevrolet Corvette C8.R when Corvette Racing visits Portugal for the Six Hours of Portimão.

The trio of drivers claimed a convincing victory in the 1,000 Miles of Sebring in their first race together to grab the early-season lead in the GTE Am Drivers Championship. It also was Corvette Racing’s first win in its first season of GTE Am competition. But rather than a familiar track where the program has thousands of miles of testing under its belt, Portimão is an unknown commodity.

CORVETTE RACING MEDIA INFORMATION Corvette Racing media information is updated and available ahead of this weekend’s WEC round at Portimao.  Materials include: · WEC race advance and quotes· Corvette Racing stats and figures· Corvette Racing racecar comparisons· Corvette Racing Fast Facts· Driver biographies

The 2.891-mile, 15-turn circuit is new to the Corvette Racing team but not new to the WEC calendar, having played host to the championship in 2021. It’s also not new to the three Corvette Racing drivers, each of whom have competed previously at Portimão in WEC competition and other racing championships. Varrone is the most recent driver having time at Portimão, having contested the European Le Mans Series in 2022 at the circuit. Keating was part of the GTE Am field at the circuit in the 2021 WEC event. For those who enjoy trivia, Catsburg drove a Corvette C6.R in the 2011 FIA GT1 Championship. Although there is no real-life experience at Portimão from a team perspective, the Corvette program has done its homework in the virtual world with Driver in the Loop simulator sessions at the GM Tech Center in Charlotte with Keating getting a couple of days work in during the last two weeks. After Portimão, Corvette Racing will contest the final five rounds on the WEC on tracks where it gained valuable experience in last year’s championship with the mid-engine C8.R.  The Six Hours of Portimão for the FIA World Endurance Championship is scheduled for 7 a.m. ET / noon Western European Time on Sunday, April 16. MotorTrend and MotorTrend Plus will provide both live television and streaming coverage. Radio Le Mans will stream audio coverage of qualifying and the race.

NICKY CATSBURG, NO. 33 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R: “Portimão for us will be a huge challenge. It’s a new track for the team. Usually some of the teams that have had cars there before in other championships like ELMS may have a bit of an advantage. It will be a steep learning curve for us. There won’t be as much practice time as there was at Sebring. Nico was there last year so he will be someone Ben and I can learn from. We’ve had the best season start possible so we’re all very much looking forward to seeing what we can do at Portimão. It will be more difficult here. Some of our competition at Sebring eliminated themselves, and I don’t think that will happen again. We need to be on-point but I feel like have the right team and right drivers for this race. Let’s continue where we left off at Sebring.”

BEN KEATING, NO. 33 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R: “I’ve only been to Portimão once for a race event. It was a track that was very hard for me to feel like I had learned it and was up to speed. After the three practice sessions and qualifying, I still didn’t feel that way. I remember getting on the radio after my first stint and saying that I’d like to start the whole weekend again right now. That’s how long it took me to be comfortable. It’s not an easy track to learn. It’s very different. We will put more energy into our tires at this track than any other track we go to by a significant amount. There is a ton of elevation change, a ton of off-camber and blind corners. It takes a long time as a driver to feel like you have this place figured out. But that’s also what makes it fun.“Every car has a track that it likes and doesn’t like. I just think the handling of the Corvette and where we can carry a higher minimum speed around these low-speed, technical corners. We can carry the momentum better, we can handle the elevation change better and can handle the off-camber and off-balance corners better. I’m really excited about going to Portimão in the Corvette and having one race weekend there under my belt.”

NICO VARRONE, NO. 33 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R: “I’m really looking forward to the second round of the WEC at Portimão. We had a great start to the season at Sebring in our home race and on home soil for the team. Getting the victory there is the perfect start to our season. I really want to thank everyone at Corvette Racing for the amazing welcome at Sebring. The first race was special. There were a lot of nerves but everyone on the team – the engineers, the mechanics, everyone there – made me feel really comfortable. Now we’ll go for more at Portimão!“Portimão for me is a track where I have a lot of good memories in my short career. The circuit is very much like a roller coaster, so I think for every driver it’s fun. As a team, we have a lot of confidence. Based on what I know, I think this should be a good track for us. We have the success ballast for being the championship leaders and winning at Sebring, so that will be a little bit of a disadvantage for us but we have a great team and great lineup. I’m really confident. The aim is to try and score the most amount of points possible. For sure, we are going for the win but if we can’t do that then we will maximize our result and keep getting points for the championship.”

2023 FIA World Endurance Championship – GTE Am (After two of seven events)Driver Standings1. Ben Keating/Nicky Catsburg/Nico Varrone – 382. Christian Ried/Julien Andlauer/Mikkel Pedersen – 273. Daniel Serra/Scott Huffaker/Takeshi Kimura – 234. Simon Mann/Stefano Constantini/Ulysse De Pauw – 185. Davide Rigon/Francesco Castellacci/Thomas Flohr – 15 Team Standings1. No. 33 Corvette Racing – 382. No. 77 Dempsey-Proton Racing – 273. No. 57 Kessel Racing – 234. No. 21 AF Corse – 185. No. 54 AF Corse – 15 Corvette Racing By the Numbers• 1: As in one team, one manufacturer and one model of car for 25 years: Corvette Racing, Chevrolet and the Chevrolet Corvette.• 14: Manufacturer Championships for Chevrolet and Corvette Racing since 2001.• 19: Number of street circuit victories for Corvette Racing – more than any other IMSA entrant at the circuit.• 26: Tracks at which Corvette Racing has won races – Baltimore, Charlotte Motor Speedway, COTA, Canadian Tire Motorsport Park/Mosport, Daytona, Detroit, Houston, Laguna Seca, Le Mans, Lime Rock, Long Beach, Miami, Mid-Ohio, Monza, Portland, Road America, Road Atlanta, Sebring, Sonoma, St. Petersburg, Texas, Trois Rivieres, Utah, VIR, Washington DC and Watkins Glen• 34: Number of drivers for Corvette Racing since 1999. Ben Keating and Nico Varrone joined that list with their participation – and victory – in the 1,000 Miles of Sebring for the World Endurance Championship.• 123: Victories worldwide for Corvette Racing – 113 in North America and eight at Le Mans.• 269: Event starts by Corvette Racing since 1999.• 353,311.01: Total number of racing miles completed by Corvette Racing since its inception. To put that in perspective, Corvette Racing is more than halfway to the distance traveled by Apollo 13 – the longest manned spaceflight in history: 622,268 miles. That means Corvette Racing has raced to the moon… and then some!

No. 2 Cadillac V-Series.R team aims for continued improvement in second race of season

DETROIT (April 10, 2023) – Following an impressive debut of the hybrid Cadillac V-Series.R in the FIA World Endurance Championship, Cadillac Racing turns its attention to the opening leg of the European schedule and the 6 Hours of Portimão in Portugal this weekend. Earl Bamber, Alex Lynn and Richard Westbrook will share the driving duties of the No. 2 Cadillac V-Series.R In the 11-car Hypercar class on the Algarve International Circuit. “It will be the first time we run the car in Europe. That will be a challenging weekend,” said Bamber after the team opened with a fourth place in the 1000 Mile of Sebring on March 17.

Its sister racecars – the No. 01 Cadillac V-Series.R and the No. 31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac V-Series.R – on Saturday will seek to give the iconic brand six consecutive victories on the streets of Long Beach, California, in the third race of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season.  The 100-minute race is scheduled for 5 p.m. ET on the 1.968-mile, 11-turn circuit. The No. 31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac V-Series.R, co-driven by Pipo Derani, Alexander Sims and Jack Aitken, started from the pole and went on to claim the victory in the Twelve Hours of Sebring on March 18. It was Cadillac’s third consecutive win on the 3.741-mile, 17-turn course and first in the recast Grand Touring Prototype class.

Media resources * French version of Portimão preview* Cadillac Racing driver bios, team info* Cadillac Racing car and driver photos* Cadillac Racing victory list, accolades* 6 Hours of Portimão entry list

“We have a solid car and we can’t wait to get to the rest of the WEC season and the IMSA season and show the world how great it is,” GM sports car racing program manager Laura Wontrop Klauser said. “Every time we turn the car on, we learn something. Whether if we move it or even if it sits still, we learn something, and the racing is the best way possible to learn. We can only grow and get better.” The 6 Hours of Portimão will mark the third race for the No. 2 drivers in the new Cadillac V-Series.R powered by a 5.5-liter V-8 normally aspirated engine developed by GM’s Performance and Racing propulsion team paired with the spec energy recovery system.  They opened with a fourth place in the Rolex 24 At Daytona in January followed by the strong showing at Sebring International Raceway. “We’ll keep giving it the same effort we’ve given it so far and try to build on this good result,” team manager and strategist Stephen Mitas said. The WEC has visited the Algarve International Circuit once (June 2021) – an eight-hour race in which Westbrook co-drove a Hypercar entry with Ryan Briscoe and Romain Dumas that qualified 11th and placed 30th overall (54 laps behind). Bamber and Lynn have raced at the circuit in various formulas.

Completed in 2008, the racecourse has hosted the Formula One Portuguese Grand Prix, MotoGP and the Lamborghini Super Trofeo World Finals among other races and is an annual stop for the European Le Mans Series. Bamber observed that many of the circuit’s 15 turns have personality and that its undulating 4,653 kilometers (2.891 miles) length is akin to riding on a roller coaster. Two free practices Friday and one Saturday totaling 150 minutes precede the 15-minute Hypercar qualifying session. Green flag for the 6 Hours of Portimão is scheduled for 7 a.m. ET/noon local Sunday.As announced late last month, a second Cadillac V-Series.R is entered for the 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchampson April 29. Sebastien Bourdais and Renger van der Zande will drive the No. 3 Cadillac V-Series.R.

Algarve International Circuit Length: 4,653 kilometers(2,891 miles)Turns: 15Nature: Undulating road courseOpened: 2008Previous WEC visit: 2021

What they’re saying

Earl Bamber: “I’m very excited for Portugal. We had a great day in Sebring, fighting for a podium, and I think we all want to go one step higher and make it there this time. The team has been doing some really good preparation and I know we are going to make positive steps every race. It’s a learning process in the WEC, but we have all eyes forward to make it on to the podium.” Alex Lynn: “It was a strong showing for the whole crew in Sebring, and we’re all excited to now get our European adventures started. This will be the first time competing with this car in Europe, and we’ve put a lot of time into understanding what the car needs, making efforts across the simulator and now it’s about executing a clean race. There is this big buildup to Le Mans, where we can score some serious points beforehand. We’re really looking forward to continuing to learn and carrying on with this strong momentum that this car and team has provided.”Richard Westbrook: “We had a lot of positives come out of our first WEC race — reliability, good points and we got a ton of data. With how our car was running, it is disappointing not to have come away with a podium finish at Sebring. But we are a brand-new WEC team and are still learning about the car and the WEC rules. It will be a bit of going into the unknown at Portimao because it is unlike any track we’ve raced on or tested on in the U.S. Still, I’m looking forward to the challenge and confident we’ll continue to score more solid points in the championship.”

April 9, 2023

Harrison Burton and the No. 21 DEX Imaging team avoided the pitfalls that come with racing on the dirt at Bristol Motor Speedway and came away with a 15^th-place finish in the Food City Dirt Race.

That equaled Burton’s previous best finish of the season, at Auto Club Speedway in February.

Burton and the DEX Imaging Mustang lined up 20^th for the start of Sunday’s 250-lap race on the clay-covered Bristol track. 

The team struggled in the early going, finishing 30^th in the first 75-lap Stage but improved to 24^th by the end of the second Stage.

As the race went on, Burton and the DEX Mustang moved further through the field. With 66 laps remaining, Burton moved into the top 20 and ran there for the remainder of the race.

With just under 10 laps left to run, Burton moved into the top 15 and was running there when the checkered flag flew.

Next up for the No. 21 team is a trip to the Wood Brothers’ home track, Martinsville Speedway, for next Sunday’s NOCO 400.

 

NASCAR CUP SERIES BRISTOL MOTOR SPEEDWAY FOOD CITY DIRT RACE TEAM CHEVY POST-RACE REPORT APRIL 9, 2023

TOP TEAM CHEVY UNOFFICIAL TOP-10 RESULTS:POS.   DRIVER3rd      AUSTIN DILLON, NO. 3 BREZTRI CAMARO ZL14th      RICKY STENHOUSE JR., NO. 47 KROGER / IRISH SPRING CAMARO ZL16th      JUSTIN HALEY, NO. 31 TIDE CAMARO ZL1 TOP-FIVE UNOFFICIAL RESULTS: POS.  DRIVER1st      Christopher Bell (Toyota)2nd      Tyler Reddick (Toyota)3rd      Austin Dillon (Chevrolet)4th      Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (Chevrolet)5th      Chase Briscoe (Ford) The 2023 NASCAR Cup Series season continues at Martinsville Speedway with the NOCO 400 on Sunday, April 16, at 3 p.m. ET. Live coverage can be found on FS1, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.

TEAM CHEVY POST-RACE QUOTES: Austin Dillon, No. 3 BREZTRI Camaro ZL1Finished: 3rdA third place finish after starting on the outside pole. Austin, you had one heck of a racecar tonight, even after having to come through mid-pack and back up to the front. It seemed like your car was one of the few that was driving right at certain points of the night. Tell us about your race.“I just have to thank SMI for all of the hard work they’ve done with this dirt racing. I don’t care what anybody says, that was an amazing show throughout the field. I felt like it was some great racing.  Have to thank the good Lord above. It’s Easter and that’s what we’re really here to celebrate. But man, that was a fun time. I really wish we could have brought home the No. 3 BREZTRI Chevy into victory lane. We were second in both stages and getting a third-place finish was big for us. Getting the momentum rolling. I had a lot of fun out there. Just wasn’t good enough against the fence when it mattered. We needed the track to kind of go back to our run. Right there at the end, we were kind of circling the middle and the car was really good. The No. 3 BREZTRI Chevy was fast, just not enough at the end.”  Kyle Larson, No. 5 HendrickCars.com Camaro ZL1Finished: 35th We saw contact earlier in the race between you and Ryan Preece. We saw it again off turn two and continue down the straightway. What caused it to continue?  “Yeah, I’m guessing he was paying me back for whatever I did earlier. He ran me straight into the fence and my car was broke and we crashed. It sucks, but I should just be mad at myself for spinning out earlier and putting myself back there. Just sucks.”  You were looking for a long run; you said you had a better car when you could go out there for a while. “Yeah, just the tires seemed to operate better when they were hotter. Just didn’t get to run very long there at the end.”  Noah Gragson, No. 42 Sunseeker Resort Camaro ZL1Finished: 33rd“I felt like we had a much better No. 42 Sunseeker Resorts Chevy from the heat races to the race. Luke Lambert (crew chief) and the rest of the Sunseeker team really did a great job of making adjustments to the car and improving it; going from dead last in the heat race and starting 36th in the race, and then getting up into the top-10. The team did a great job, a great effort in making adjustments. I caught the wall in the second stage and then with probably about 40 or 50-laps to go, just broke a toe link so that took us out of contention. But I felt like we had a really good Chevy. Just proud of everyone’s efforts from where we started the weekend to where we ended. I felt like we got way better. Just appreciate everyone’s hard work.”  Erik Jones, No. 43 Club Wyndham Camaro ZL1Finished: 14th“Yeah, I’d say that was pretty good. We kind of just survived the chaos and obviously had an up and down day going three laps down early on. To come back and finish in the top-15 is pretty solid. We just need to find a little more in the car and get a little bit better for next year, but I’m definitely happy to get out of here with a decent finish after a night like that. Proud of everyone’s efforts on our Club Wyndham Chevy, looking forward to Martinsville next week.” Ricky Stenhouse Jr., No. 47 Kroger / Irish Spring Camaro ZL1Finished: 4th I heard you on the radio today say that you felt like you were pulling a trailer behind this No. 47 Chevy. Kind of describe what you were dealing with out there.“It honestly felt like I hadn’t run dirt cars much. We just struggled a little bit yesterday. The guys worked really hard all night coming up with something different. We changed our No. 47 Irish Spring Camaro around and we were better. We still didn’t have enough to run up front there, but we methodically kind of picked and chose lanes. We got to running the bottom really well and made up a lot of time on restarts. They all just kind of fell our way there.  Really good to get a top-five and a bounce-back after last weekend. I hope that was a good show. I thought the race track was as good as it could be. You could run kind of all over the place, so hats off to the track.”

TEAM CHEVY RACE HIGHLIGHTS: Stage One·       With the starting lineup set by qualifying heat races, Chevrolet’s Kyle Larson and Austin Dillon accumulated the most passing and finishing points to take front-row starting spots in tonight’s NASCAR Cup Series’ (NCS) Food City Dirt Race.  ·       Polesitter Larson led all 75-laps in Stage One marking his second stage win of the 2023 season.  ·       Larson led Chevrolet to a one-two-three finish in the opening stage with Richard Childress Racing teammates Dillon and Kyle Busch finishing in the second and third-positions, respectively.  ·       While William Byron was caught-up in the race’s first caution on lap 10, he was able to drive his No. 24 RaptorTough.com Camaro ZL1 back through the field to salvage a top-10 finish in Stage One.  ·       Team Chevy Stage One: Top-101st      Kyle Larson, No. 5 HendrickCars.com Camaro ZL12nd      Austin Dillon, No. 3 BREZTRI Camaro ZL13rd      Kyle Busch, No. 8 Cheddar’s Scratch Kitchen Camaro ZL19th      Justin Haley, No. 31 Tide Camaro ZL110th     William Byron, No. 24 RaptorTough.com Camaro ZL1 Stage Two·       At the conclusion of Stage One, the field came down pit road for the race’s first round of stops.  ·       Stage One winner Kyle Larson chose the outside lane of the front-row to lead the field to the green for Stage Two.  ·       The 75-lap Stage Two saw three lead changes with Kyle Busch pacing the field for six laps, ultimately ending the stage in the fifth position.  ·       Showcasing the speed of the No. 3 BREZTRI Camaro ZL1, Austin Dillon drove to back-to-back runner-up finishes in both stages. Dillon led Chevrolet to four top-10 finishes in Stage Two.  ·       Team Chevy Stage Two: Top-102nd      Austin Dillon, No. 3 BREZTRI Camaro ZL13rd      Kyle Larson, No. 5 HendrickCars.com Camaro ZL15th      Kyle Busch, No. 8 Cheddar’s Scratch Kitchen Camaro ZL19th      Justin Haley, No. 31 Tide Camaro ZL1 Final Stage / Post-Race Notes·       The Stage Two break saw pit strategy come into play with a handful of teams choosing to stay out for track position. Of those cars includes Team Chevy drivers William Byron, Josh Berry and Ross Chastain.  ·       While Kyle Larson brought his No. 5 HendrickCars.com Camaro ZL1 team to pit road, the team opted to not change tires and do a fuel-only stop.  ·       A caution flew with 75 laps to go involving Larson and the No. 5 HendrickCars.com Camaro ZL1 team. Suffering too much damage to repair, Larson was forced to retire early from the race.  ·       Austin Dillon led Chevrolet to the checkered flag, driving his No. 3 BREZTRI Camaro ZL1 home with a third-place finish. ·       2023 Daytona 500 Champion Ricky Stenhouse Jr. took a fourth-place finish to give Chevrolet two top-five finishes in the series’ only appearance on dirt this season.

NASCAR CUP SERIES BRISTOL MOTOR SPEEDWAY FOOD CITY DIRT RACE TEAM CHEVY QUALIFYING REPORT APRIL 8, 2023

LARSON, DILLON DRIVES CHEVROLET TO A FRONT-ROW SWEEP AT BRISTOL   TEAM CHEVY UNOFFICIAL TOP-20 STARTING LINEUP:  POS.   DRIVER1st      KYLE LARSON, NO. 5 HENDRICKCARS.COM CAMARO ZL1 2nd     AUSTIN DILLON, NO. 3 BREZTRI CAMARO ZL1 5th      KYLE LARSON, NO. 8 CHEDDAR’S SCRATCH KITCHEN CAMARO ZL1 10th    WILLIAM BYRON, NO. 24 RAPTORTOUGH.COM CAMARO ZL116th    ROSS CHASTAIN, NO. 1 ADVENT HEALTH CAMARO ZL117th    ALEX BOWMAN, NO. 48 ALLY CAMARO ZL1 18th    ERIK JONES, NO. 43 CLUB WYNDHAM CAMARO ZL1  TOP-FIVE UNOFFICIAL STARTING LINEUP: POS.  DRIVER1.       Kyle Larson (Chevrolet)2.       Austin Dillon (Chevrolet)3.       JJ Yeley (Ford)4.       Christopher Bell (Toyota)5.       Kyle Busch (Chevrolet)

BRISTOL, Tenn. (April 8, 2023) – Coming off his first NASCAR Cup Series (NCS) win of the 2023 season, Kyle Larson and the No. 5 HendrickCars.com Camaro ZL1 team will lead the field to the green from the pole position in tomorrow’s Food City Dirt Race. The starting lineup for the NCS’ only appearance on dirt was set by a unique format to the series. The field was split into four heat races with the lineups determined by random draw. Drivers were awarded passing and finishing points with the driver accumulating the most points taking the pole position.  A notable favorite heading into the weekend, Larson powered his No. 5 HendrickCars.com Camaro ZL1 from the sixth starting position to the lead in a single lap and never looked back to take the heat three win. The 30-year-old California racked up a field-high 15 points to take the pole position. Fellow Team Chevy driver Austin Dillon drove his No. 3 BREZTRI Camaro ZL1 from a fifth-place starting position to the heat one win to start alongside Larson for a Chevrolet front-row sweep.  FOX will broadcast the NCS’ Food City Dirt Race on Sunday, April 9, at 7 p.m. ET. Live coverage can also be found on the PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.

KYLE LARSON, NO. 5 HENDRICKCARS.COM CAMARO ZL1 – Pole Winner QuotesCAN YOU JUST EXPLAIN HOW YOU GOT FROM SIXTH TO FIRST SO QUICKLY? “Well (Matt) Crafton has never been in a Cup car, so I think he’s probably a little bit just slow on shifting and taking it all easy. So I had a good launch on him and got to the outside of him. And then Corey (LaJoie) went to the bottom of (turn) three; I had a run down the backstretch and was able to get to his outside. So it just kind of worked out that the outside lane launched really well and my car turned well enough to stay rotated to get by them.” ON THE RESTARTS WHEN YOU HAD TO CHOOSE, COULD YOU SEE THE CHOOSE BOX? “I never did. We didn’t have a restart in my heat.” DID YOU SEE THEM TESTING IT? “I could see it from our trailer, but it’s at a different angle than what will be on the track. But it didn’t seem like there were any issues, I guess. Yeah, it’s just funny that we need a drone to choose. I think it’s a little over-complicated, for sure (laughs).” 

NASCAR CUP SERIES BRISTOL MOTOR SPEEDWAY FOOD CITY DIRT RACE TEAM CHEVY PRESS CONF. TRANSCRIPT APRIL 8, 2023

ROSS CHASTAIN, NO. 1 ADVENT HEALTH CAMARO ZL1 met with the media in advance of the NASCAR Cup Series qualifying heat races at Bristol Motor Speedway. Press Conference Transcript:  FIRST OFF, HAVE YOU SEEN ANY OF THE MEMES THAT HAVE COME OUT THIS PAST WEEK ON TWITTER OF YOUR CAR BEING PHOTOSHOPPED INTO IMAGES WITH THE HASHTAG ‘BLAME ROSS’ OR ‘THANKS ROSS’? “Yeah, I’ve looked at all of them, or as much as I could. There are some awesome, some not-so-awesome. But a lot of fun looking through all of that. I got a lot of good laughs out of it.” WHAT WAS YOUR REACTION TO DENNY HAMLIN’S PENALTY BEING UPHELD BY THE APPEAL COMMITTEE? “That doesn’t really involve me. I don’t really have an opinion on it. Not really my deal.” CHRISTOPHER BELL GETS OUT OF THE CAR AND CALLS YOU A WRECKING BALL AND THEN LATER SAYS HE REALLY DIDN’T DO ANYTHING WRONG. HOW DO YOU DEAL WITH A GUY SAYING THAT AND THEN SAYING IT WASN’T YOUR FAULT. YOU SEEM TO ALWAYS BE TAGGED WITH THINGS THAT MAYBE YOU SHOULDN’T BE.“I do think looking at it – being as real looking at this whole situation as I can be – I do think it’s easy for a lot of good reasons for guys to point a finger at me very easily and just assume that I’m at fault. But I do think we should probably, as racecar drivers, hold ourselves to a little higher standard and maybe put in a little more effort to get the full story when we get out the car.. ask for a video. I do that with my team, even something as silly or simple at Martinsville last fall, I asked to see it. But we can also get information during the race and I think that spotters, crew chiefs, whoever is talking to us, can tell us honestly what happened from their point-of-view.. not biased as we all are.  But then again, I want Phil Surgen (crew chief) and Brandon McReynolds (spotter) to be the most biased guys in the whole facility here at Bristol this weekend; be on my side and back me up no matter what. I think there can be a lot more facts given to us as drivers. We’re probably self-appointed alphas in our groups, where we’re always right. When we say our car is tight, the car is tight. If your crew chief believes you, then he’s going to loosen the car up. That’s kind of a whole spinoff, but I think we could just do a better job of holding ourselves accountable to finding out all the facts before we go stay stuff on cameras and microphones that we have opportunity to get to quicker than we actually have the opportunity to get to the facts.” LOOKING AHEAD AT TALLADEGA – THAT WIN LAST YEAR, WHAT DID THAT VICTORY MEAN? WHAT DO YOU RECALL FROM THOSE LAST LAPS? “Just an incredible career-changing win. To win at one of the superspeedways is just such a crazy lottery to get it done. Thought I would have to pay a lot more dues and will probably have to pay even more dues now and pay it back for many years to come to get another one. But I really remember speeding on pit road; getting freaked out and hitting the gas with a car exiting his stall to my left. And then trying to get the lucky dog and making a very crazy move to try to split the pack up, and then to get the lucky dog and fight back up there. At the end, I just remember them all turning right – like one after another, they just kept pulling to the outside lane and I just stayed on the bottom.” CARSON HOCEVAR LOOKED AT YOU AS A MENTOR AND HE GOT A WIN LAST WEEK. HOW HAVE YOU SEEN HIM EVOLVE OVER THE LAST FEW YEARS? “Yeah, a lot. I’ve seen a lot. I got to know Carson (Hocevar) when he came to Niece Motorsports. He was something that Al and Cody believed in early on, and with a little bit of sponsorship, they’ve raced him for two years. And then coming into this year, for Worldwide Express to come on full-time on his truck and take every race, as well as the No. 41 truck that I split with several other drivers. I know every step along the way – from talking about race trucks to pitching him to Worldwide Express to Rob Rose in his motorhome at Martinsville a year ago and initially Worldwide saying ‘no’. And then going back to him – Niece fighting some more and me helping where I could with just my opinion of getting behind him early and support him. We have equal conversations about business as we do about racing. He doesn’t need my help driving a race truck fast.. that’s came natural to him. It’s hopefully helping these younger guys with what not to do. They’re going to have a lot of decisions in their lives and in their career, and if they’re around long enough, they’re going to make the wrong decision a lot. And that’s OK, as long as you keep going.  For Carson, it’s just been about me trying to help him minimize mistakes – whether it be on the race track for sure, but on Tuesday at 10 a.m., you can make an equally bad decision. Just try to surround him with good people that help mitigate those mistakes. And going fast, he’s pretty much got that and he’s got a good group around him helping him go fast. I don’t have a whole lot to say there, other than when I’m driving the truck, it’s really good to bounce ideas off each other.” IN TERMS OF WHAT CHRISTOPHER BELL SAID LAST WEEK AND HE DID LATER RETRACT IT – DID HE REACH OUT TO YOU OR DO YOU HOPE THAT HE REACHES OUT TO YOU AND APOLOGIZE PERSONALLY AS OPPOSED TO SOCIAL MEDIA? “I don’t really have a thought on if he should or shouldn’t.. that’s up to him. But from what I saw, he didn’t apologize to me. He apologized to William (Byron). No hard feelings here. If you want to say something to me, like say it to me. I was standing right over to his side, so I’m around.” WITH THE DRAW FOR THE HEAT RACES, YOU’RE LAST IN YOUR HEAT RACE. IS THIS ONE OF THOSE TIMES WHERE DRAWING LAST IS BETTER THAN DRAWING ON THE POLE WITH THE PASSING POINTS? “I don’t really know what would be the best. I feel like I’m starting south of town in like Johnson City (laughs). I feel like I have a really stacked heat race just looking at it. Definitely if I could choose, I would probably choose a different one. I think I counted six dirt racers and four of us that are not true dirt racers. I’ll probably get to learn the most though, so if nothing else, I’ll get to learn and watch. Like Kyle (Busch) was saying before I jumped up here, it’s so hard to just not spin out. I have so much to learn. I mainly just want to finish the race. I haven’t finished one of these yet for various reason. If on the last lap, we roll across to the checkered flag, that’s goal number one. The heat race, I’m not too worried about where we start.” BACK TO THE FALLOUT FROM LAST WEEK, AS YOU’VE NAVIGATED THROUGH THE LAST YEAR AND A HALF, HAS IT BEEN DIFFICULT HAVING THIS REPUTATION OF BEING THE ESCAPE GOAT WHERE GUYS KIND OF POINT THE FINGER AT YOU. DO YOU PAY ANY ATTENTION TO IT WHEN YOU LEAVE THE RACE TRACK, OR IS IT A DONE DEAL AS SOON AS YOU GET OUT OF THE RACECAR? “So what’s so crazy is – we got out and one of my guys, jokingly, said what’s the No. 20 going to say about you. And we laughed because we didn’t think anything. And then we hear about it a couple minutes later, we were jaws on the ground on pit road there. It caught us completely by surprise that we would get blamed for that. But tying it all together to the last year and a half or whatever – last week, that’s nothing (laughs). That’s easy. I think the only person that had more fun looking at those memes was Tyler Reddick. I think he had a lot of fun watching that stuff.” THINKING AHEAD TO THE COCA-COLA 600, I THINK YOU’VE HAD FIVE STARTS IN THAT RACE. WITH THAT SAID, HOW HARD IS IT FOR YOU AS A RELATIVELY NEW DRIVER, TO GET USED TO 600 MILES AT CHARLOTTE? IT’S A LONG WAY, MENTALLY AND PHYSICALLY.“It is. The Coca-Cola 600 last year and the Southern 500 were two races last year that hurt the most that we lost. I thought we had real opportunities to win both of those, which is just an incredible thought that we had opportunities to win those iconic races in this sport. I don’t do much different though to prepare. It’s going to be painful a little bit, and it’s going to be mentally-taxing. Those first two with Premium Motorsports and Jay Robinson were a whole lot harder than what it’s been the last two with CGR and Trackhouse Racing. It’s a whole lot easier to run 600 miles in a fast car. It’s a whole lot hard to run 600 miles, or 588 miles, in a slow car.  Look, those races with Jay were so much about just getting to the next caution, getting to the next stage break. Hoping someone crashed or blew up, or whatever, and there were tires on pit road that we could buy at half-price, and we’d run some of those stints on scuffs. And then something would happen and Jay would come on the radio – hey buddy, we have stickers.. get ready to pass some cars. Just mitigating the laps down. Trying to manage those races was so mentally challenging. Knowing that Jay did not and could not afford for us to be crashing cars, where now it’s about going fast and winning races. Those laps and those years have molded me into who I am today. I can say it’s a lot harder to be a slow car in the Coca-Cola 600 than it is to be a fast car like I am in now.”

NASCAR CUP SERIES BRISTOL MOTOR SPEEDWAY FOOD CITY DIRT RACE TEAM CHEVY PRESS CONF. TRANSCRIPTAPRIL 8, 2023

KYLE BUSCH, NO. 8 CHEDDAR’S SCRATCH KITCHEN CAMARO ZL1 met with the media in advance of the NASCAR Cup Series qualifying heat races at Bristol Motor Speedway. Press Conference Transcript:  KYLE, YOU JUST CAME IN WITH A GRAND ENTRANCE. WHAT DID YOU BRING EVERYONE? “I brought some croissants for everyone from Cheddar’s Scratch Kitchen. Awesome opportunity to have them on board with us here this weekend. They have a couple stores close nearby that they were able to get those fluffy, delicious-tasting croissants all ready to go for everybody in the media center today.  Welcome, go back there, grab you some and enjoy.” TWO COMPLETELY DIFFERENT TYPES OF CARS AND OF COURSE THE TRACK IS COMPLETELY DIFFERENT, BUT DID YOU LEARN ANYTHING THURSDAY NIGHT AT BULLS GAP THAT WILL APPLY HERE AT ALL THIS WEEKEND? “(Laughs) No, not really. I guess just getting the gist of getting back on dirt and kind of feeling the sliding around; the nature of how to get cars to go on dirt. But completely different applications with the racecars and the way the vehicles are; how heavy they are, the tires they have, the way they are built, everything like that. Just fun to get over there and do something different. I enjoy the dirt racing stuff, whether it’s the micros or the dirt late models. I always try to get my hands behind one as much as I can. But really, that was the first time I’ve done it in two years since being here at Bristol dirt in Davenport’s car. I don’t get a chance a whole lot.” NASCAR ANNOUNCED SOME CHANGES TO WHAT THE APPEALS COMMITTEE CAN DECIDE ON AN APPEAL, AND THEY ALSO SAY THEY’RE GOING TO START SHOWING PARTS AND PIECES THAT ARE TAKEN. WILL THAT HELP AT ALL WITH ANY TRANSPARENCY?  “No, I don’t believe so.  I’m actually kind of surprised on the whole Denny (Hamlin) deal. He did a really, really good job of explaining. I listened to his podcast from this week. I’ve been through some of those appeals before. You think you’ve done a good job selling your case and they actually kind of backdown on the other side. And so you think you have a really good shot of getting something reversed or overturned, and then it just completely sideswipes you that it doesn’t happen that way.  I have no clue how that is a penalty when in the rulebook – if you basically get into somebody or wreck somebody, then it can be a penalty of any sort that they want to enforce on you or infringe on you – so at the Clash, how come Joey Logano wasn’t penalized for wiping me out, you know what I mean? Every time somebody crashes from somebody else from car contact, it can be a penalty or it can be a fine, or whatever. Their rulebook contradicts itself quite a lot and all of us have a very, very hard understanding of exactly what’s what. It is what it is and we’ll keep going.” DO YOU PLAN TO APPEAL THE TRUCK PENALITES THAT CAME OUT THIS WEEK? “No, no point in appealing. We’ll lose. I don’t have enough money to afford lawyers, so we’ll let it go. That’s not in the budget.” WHAT’S THE DYNAMIC BEEN FOR YOU WORKING WITH YOUR CREW CHIEF RANDALL BURNETT AS YOU WORK ON BUILDING ON THE SUCCESS FROM YOUR AUTO CLUB WIN? “Working with Randall (Burnett) has been super good. We’ve had a great relationship thus far. And just the communication styles – his background, my background being from similar demographics if you will from racing in the short-track, late model, ranks.. things like that. We understand each other a lot. It’s just the nature of how do we apply what we’re doing to the race track better. I feel like that’s kind of our struggle and we’re continuing to work on that, and find the pieces of how we can further improve on our processes of how we go about building a setup and making it translate to be successful at the track.  California (Auto Club Speedway) was awesome. That was a lot based off what they did last year and it worked. Some of the other stuff that we’ve done this year we’ve based off of that, but we’ve also kind of gone towards something more similar to what I’ve been accustomed to driving; being a little bit on the snugger-side than what (Tyler) Reddick was always used to. Maybe we just need to forget anything that I tell him how to do and go more off of what they have always been doing.” NASCAR HAS RACED AT A VARIETY OF DIFFERENT TRACKS. HOW IMPORTANT IS IT FOR THE SERIES, OVERALL, TO DIVERSIFY ITS SCHEDULE?“I believe it’s probably the most diverse, if not the most diverse, in any form of motorsports.. even in any form of sport, for that matter. Soccer, football, baseball – they all look the same. They all might not exactly feel the same, but they all look the same. And when we go to the race track, they don’t look anything close to each other. The Clash is entirely different looking than what Martinsville (Speedway) is, and those are probably the two most comparable race tracks that we have on the schedule. Having the opportunity to race at superspeedways like Daytona (International Speedway) and Talladega (Superspeedway); the short-tracks of Bristol (Motor Speedway), Bristol dirt, Martinsville Speedway; the Clash and even the 1.5-mile tracks that are somewhat cookie-cutter. A lot of them are very different.” WE HAVE THE ALL-STAR RACE COMING UP. YOUR TEAMMATE GOT TO DO SOME TIRE TESTING THERE. WHAT KIND OF FEEDBACK DO YOU EXPECT FROM HIM AND WHAT ARE YOUR FEELINGS TOWARDS NORTH WILKESBORO? “There’s not going to be a whole lot of grip there. I think the grip was gone probably back in the ‘80s and they haven’t touched it since. It almost would have been worth probably putting dirt on it before us going there so then you had dirt smeared into all the rocks and acted as an aggravate, and it would burn off and lose grip as you went. So that could have been interesting, but it didn’t get the dirt on it quite in time before they made the decisions for all of us to go out there. I’m looking forward to it. I think it’s going to be cool to just get back to a nostalgic venue. I enjoy all the NASCAR footage from stuff from the early 2000s and 1990s when I really kind of tuned in and started watching. I don’t know that you can go watch film of past races there and learn a whole lot; maybe a little bit. But I certainly do remember the times of Terry Labonte being there in the silver car, the iron man car, and then Jeff Gordon winning the last race there. Just the moments between Earnhardt and Bodine, Earnhardt and Rudd, and a lot of the other guys that kind of feuded a little bit there at North Wilkesboro. It’s a cool place.” GOING BACK TO THE 2015 SEASON – WHEN YOU SEE SOMEBODY IN YOUR CAR AS YOUR REHABILITATING, HOW DOES THAT IMPACT YOU IN THE SENSE OF SEEING SOMEBODY IN THE CAR, BUT ALSO SEEING THE SPORT CONTINUE ON? “Yeah, to me, there’s two ways – probably more – that you could go about it. But the two that I think about is that it shows you how small you are as a piece of the sport. It will be there with or without you. That was always Bill France Sr.’s line, I believe, years and years ago – that the show will go on, and we don’t need you, you need us.  But then the second nature to that is when you’re on the sidelines injured or whatever it might be and you see your racecar going out there, you miss it. You miss being in there and that I think goes to show your drive, determination, passion, fire, desire. Everything for what your passion is in being a racecar driver and being here in this sport. It gave me a new recognition to – could I retire and just walk away in the 2015 season, just be done and not worry about coming back. You kind of think through some of those. And then you go through a couple of weekends of watching the car go around the race track without you in it and you’re like – no, I don’t like this.. I don’t think I could do that. So you want to get back out there and I think that kind of re-lights that fire. It was good to have that for me.” IN TERMS OF THE RULINGS AND AS YOU NOTE HOW THE RULEBOOK KIND OF CONFLICTS – DO YOU NEED CLARIFICATION FROM NASCAR.. IS THAT SOMETHING YOU SEEK? OR IN ONE SENSE ARE YOU ALMOST HOPING THAT NASCAR STARTS CALLING THINGS A LITTLE BIT MORE AGGRESSIVELY AND INSERTING THEMSELVES IN TOWARDS MAKING A DECISION? “Well, I think where I agree a lot with Denny (Hamlin) is – if we’re supposed to be self-policing and have the opportunity to be able to go out there and do something if someone did something to us and us to be able to go back and retaliate, how are we supposed to do that? Tell me what is and isn’t OK. Apparently saying it two days after the fact is not OK. Saying it right after the fact when you’re still ‘hot and bothered’ is OK.  The nature of it is, to me, how do you clean this up? I think you can clean up a lot of it by doing what we’re all supposed to be doing at the local short-track ranks – penalizing those that are involved in the caution and sending them to the rear of the field. If there is a spin and you got punted by somebody and the caution is drawn, those two go to the back. The one spinning is already going to the back, but the one that caused the spin should have to go to the back. That’s not a fix, but that’s just a start to kind of help in the instance of what all goes down.  You want to bring up an example from COTA. You had the No. 1 that got into the No. 48 who go into the No. 99 – so who do you penalize between the No. 48 and the No. 1, right? All of them.. anybody that is involved in the caution, go to the back. That’s how we do it with the kids racing at seven years old (laughs). So if we can teach seven and eight year olds that’s not the way you’re supposed to do it and you need to race clean, then surely we should be able to teach 18 or 19 year olds to Harvick’s 46 or 47. We should be able to figure it out.” DID YOU SEE IMPROVEMENTS AT RICHMOND (RACEWAY) WITH THE SHORT-TRACK PACKAGE THAT YOU THINK WILL HELP AT MARTINSVILLE (SPEEDWAY)?“So far with the lower downforce package, I have been loose. We have not figured out how to get my back-end into the race track like I need it to be. That has definitely been our struggle. I don’t see the same struggle from some of the other guys. They’ve been able to figure it out a lot better than we have, so they’ve been faster. But as far as the aero-deficiencies that you see following other cars – yes, it’s better. On a one to 10 scale, if we were a seven bad before, I think we’re still probably a five. When I ran the Xfinity car at Phoenix (Raceway), I would say that it had one, one and a half, maybe a two at the worst moments of aero-deficiencies following people. So the way we used do things is better than the Next Gen way of doing things.” REGARDING THE COCA-COLA 600, WHAT IS IT NOW AS FAR AS PHYSICALLY TAXING OR MENTALLY TAXING, IS IT BOTH? “You’re kind of going based off of the man versus machine of that era. I would say that parts and pieces of the cars were a lot different back then, so you kind of had to drive them differently back then; taking care of your equipment, not using up your stuff and whatnot. The cars now are about bulletproof.. just run them as hard as you can all race long, all the time, and that wears on a driver, for sure. Just being on top of it every single lap and giving it everything all the time.  So yeah, it’s definitely physically demanding. I’ve had Coca-Cola 600’s where after the race is over, I’m fine.. I’m good. I have no issue. And then I’ve had Coca-Cola 600’s where I looked up at the scoreboard, it was mile marker 500 and I was like – OK, we should be done and I’m like ‘damn we still have 100 more to go.. this is going to be a night’. So I think it kind of depends on your routine, your workout, that sort of stuff. I’ve also had more superspeedway races probably where I felt more mental fatigue, just with all the decision-making processes that you have to think through, where the Coca-Cola 600 I don’t think is too terrible on that for me.” ON MARTINSVILLE, NO MATTER WHAT THE PACKAGE IS, WERE YOU SURPRISED TO SEE A GUY LIKE WILLIAM BYRON GO OUT AND LEAD 490 AND SOME ODD LAPS AT MARTINSVILLE? “Yeah, you would think at least coming to pit road and having a stumble on pit road or something like that would kind of shuffle up the order, at least once maybe twice, during a race. But it didn’t really do that.  Yeah, you are kind of surprised by that. We had a little bit of that with the old car, too. Martin Truex Jr., myself, at the Coca-Cola 600 actually – we led how many laps of that race. So it’s not always unprecedented. You see someone be able to run upfront and dominate a race, but with this Next Gen car last year, it was a lot easier to mess up peoples’ aero following you and make them suffer more than what you were out front. Hopefully that doesn’t happen this time around.” LOOKING BACK ON THE WIN HERE LAST YEAR, THAT AS IT TURNED OUT, ALLOWED YOU TO KEEP YOUR STREAK AND THEN BROKE IT THIS YEAR TO SET THE RECORD. WOULD HAVE EVER THOUGHT GOING INTO IT THAT A WIN ON DIRT WOULD HAVE BEEN SO IMPORTANT TO THAT STREAK? “No, no definitely not. It certainly shines a light of just how important every single race, every single week, is. And for the nature of us going to all these different venues and having the diversity that we do in the race tracks that we go to is fun to a point. I think this was a little bit more gimmicky.. just not a true race track that we’ve been accustomed to going to, and I don’t know that we’re really capturing the Cup Series allure here, just with these cars. Like dirt cars are dirt cars.. they’re fun on dirt. You can drive them way differently. You can drive them harder and whatnot. These things here, you’re literally trying to not spin out when you’re going around there on the race track. So how do you make a pass when you’re already past the limit of spinning out. It’s tough. It just makes for a tough race. Makes it for a little better track position race. No different than anything else that we really do. But that dirt race last year was certainly significant to my years of winning races and capitalizing on that when we did. Lucky for us.” CHANDLER SMITH SAID EARLIER THIS WEEK ON A PODCAST THAT HE HAS THE UPMOST RESPECT FOR YOU AND STILL WANTS TO TALK TO YOU ABOUT WHAT HAPPENED AT PHOENIX (RACEWAY). DO YOU HAVE ANY INTEREST IN TALKING TO CHANDLER OR HAVE YOU ALREADY MOVED ON?“I’ve pretty much already moved on. I think it will come at due time. But if you had the upmost respect for someone, you wouldn’t race them the way I got raced, so I’ll leave it at that.”

(4/8/23 – By Ben Deatherage) Hanford, California … Seventeen-year-old Corey Day outgunned race leader Justin Sanders in an entertaining NARC 410 Sprint Car Series season opener during the 30-lap NAPA Auto Parts Anthony Simone Classic at King Speedway.  It was Day’s seventh career series victory and it was worth a stout $10,000 payday.

Day started sixth in the 25-car grid aboard the potent Meyers Constructors #14 sprint car and wasted no time powering his way to the front.  Sanders, who started on the pole in the Mittry Family sprinter, quickly built a comfortable gap over the rest of the field before the first stoppage on lap four. However, he would have his hands full on the restart with a Day who had already moved up to the runner-up spot..

Day would overtake Sanders coming to the line on lap seven.  However, another caution flag appeared before the circuit was completed, and Sanders reclaimed the lead. The third and final incident of the feature was with six laps completed.  From there on out, it would be a fierce dogfight with twenty-four clicks running incident free.

As lapped traffic became a significant factor, Sanders would have to make critical passes with the tail end of the field. Day also quickly dispatched the slower cars and kept Sanders in his crosshairs. With laps running down quickly, and the two playing a highspeed game of cat and mouse, Day made his winning move on the 23rd circuit.

From there on out, the Clovis teenager was dominant building a significant lead as he raced to the checkered.

“That was probably the best we’ve ever been here in Hanford; we were lights out,” said Day in victory lane. “I had a feeling we were going to have a long green flag run there.

“I have to give huge hats off to Shane (Bowers)” continued Day. “It was on rails, and we struggled all night with car speed. I was having to drive it hard to keep up with the pace they were setting.”

Justin Sanders had to settle for second, chased by the Works Limited machine driven by Shane Golobic.  Chase Johnson powered from fourteenth to end the night in fourth, while defending series champion Dominic Scelzi rounded out the top five finishing order.  Tim Kaeding, Justyn Cox, Oregon driver Tanner Holmes, Bud Kaeding, and Kaleb Montgomery rounded out the top 10.  Sean Becker claimed the Williams Roofing Hardcharger award with his 24th to 11th effort.

A Non-Wing, non-points feature was run at the very end of the night. It is the second time that NARC has sanctioned a wingless event since 1985.  Ryan Bernal dominated the topless 15-lapper for his first ever NARC victory.  Bernal, running for car owner Keith Day, would pace the field the entire distance to win his first NARC-sanctioned event.

“I felt so at home being in a non-wing car,” commented Ryan, “hats off to Peter (Murphy, promoter at Kings Speedway) for changing stuff up. It’s great to add something extra for the fans to see.”

Corey Day and Chase Johnson were second and third at the finish line. Campbell’s Bud Kaeding ended the race fourth over fifth, finishing ahead Dawson Faria from Tipton.

The event drew thirty teams from California, Oregon, Nevada, and Arizona for a crowd thirsty for racing.

NAPA AUTO PARTS FEATURE (30 laps): 1. 14-Corey Day[6]; 2. 2X-Justin Sanders[1]; 3. 57-Shane Golobic[3]; 4. 24-Chase Johnson[14]; 5. 41-Dominic Scelzi[5]; 6. 0-Tim Kaeding[9]; 7. 42X-Justyn Cox[8]; 8. 18T-Tanner Holmes[4]; 9. 69-Bud Kaeding[18]; 10. 2K-Kaleb Montgomery[12]; 11. 21-Sean Becker[24]; 12. 22-Ryan Bernal[7]; 13. 88A-Joey Ancona[11]; 14. 12B-Dawson Faria[22]; 15. 10-Mauro Simone[25]; 16. 37-Michael Pombo[21]; 17. 4-Jake Hodges[23]; 18. (DNF) 83V-Dylan Bloomfield[19]; 19. (DNF) 36-Craig Stidham[16]; 20. (DNF) 115-Nick Parker[20]; 21. (DNF) 83-Mitchell Faccinto[13]; 22. (DNF) 29-Willie Croft[2]; 23. (DNF) 17-Kalib Henry[17]; 24. (DNF) 88N-DJ Netto[15]; 25. (DNF) 2XM-Max Mittry[10]

WILLIAMS ROOFING HARDCHARGER: Sean Becker – 24th – 11th

METTEC TITANIUM LAP LEADERS: Sanders 1-22, Day 23-30.

ARP FAST QUALIFIER (30 Cars): Justyn Cox – 13.52 seconds

BROWN AND MILLER RACING SOLUTIONS HEAT ONE (6 laps): 1. 42X-Justyn Cox[1]; 2. 29-Willie Croft[2]; 3. 83-Mitchell Faccinto[3]; 4. 69-Bud Kaeding[4]; 5. 26-Billy Aton[5]; 6. 75-Bill Smith[6]

KIMO’s TROPICAL CAR WASH HEAT TWO (6 laps): 1. 2X-Justin Sanders[1]; 2. 41-Dominic Scelzi[2]; 3. 24-Chase Johnson[3]; 4. 83V-Dylan Bloomfield[4]; 5. 37-Michael Pombo[5]; 6. 10-Mauro Simone[6]

BEACON WEALTH STRATEGIES – RAYMOND JAMES HEAT THREE (6 laps): 1. 57-Shane Golobic[1]; 2. 14-Corey Day[4]; 3. 12B-Dawson Faria[5]; 4. 88A-Joey Ancona[2]; 5. 551-Angelique Bell[6]; 6. (DNF) 88N-DJ Netto[3]

LIFELINE USA HEAT FOUR (6 laps): 1. 18T-Tanner Holmes[2]; 2. 2XM-Max Mittry[1]; 3. 21-Sean Becker[6]; 4. 115-Nick Parker[4]; 5. 36-Craig Stidham[3]; 6. 4-Jake Hodges[5]

 NAPA AUTO PARTS HEAT FIVE (6 laps): 1. 0-Tim Kaeding[1]; 2. 22-Ryan Bernal[4]; 3. 17-Kalib Henry[3]; 4. 2K-Kaleb Montgomery[2]; 5. 5R-Ryan Rocha[5]; 6. (DNS) 15-Cody Key

SUNNYVALLEY “POWERED BY BACON” TROPHY DASH (10 laps): 1. 2X-Justin Sanders[3]; 2. 29-Willie Croft[1]; 3. 57-Shane Golobic[4]; 4. 18T-Tanner Holmes[2]; 5. 41-Dominic Scelzi[7]; 6. 14-Corey Day[5]; 7. 22-Ryan Bernal[8]; 8. 42X-Justyn Cox[6]; 9. 0-Tim Kaeding[9]

KAEDING PERFORMANCE SEMI-MAIN (10 Laps): 1. 88N-DJ Netto[1]; 2. 36-Craig Stidham[2]; 3. 37-Michael Pombo[4]; 4. 4-Jake Hodges[5]; 5. 551-Angelique Bell[9]; 6. 75-Bill Smith[7]; 7. (DNF) 10-Mauro Simone[8]; 8. (DNF) 26-Billy Aton[3]; 9. (DNS) 5R-Ryan Rocha; 10. (DNS) 15-Cody Key

Non Wing Main (15 Laps): 1. 22-Ryan Bernal[4]; 2. 14-Corey Day[7]; 3. 24-Chase Johnson[6]; 4. 69-Bud Kaeding[5]; 5. 12B-Dawson Faria[3]; 6. 4-Jake Hodges[2]; 7. (DNS) 83V-Dylan Bloomfield

Nineteen-race Super Late Model regional series begins April 7 at All-Tech Raceway

CONCORD, NC (April 5, 2023) – Dirt Late Model racing’s newest regional tour, the Hunt the Front Super Dirt Series presented by Sweet Victory Apparel, has joined the DIRTcar family for its inaugural season.

All 19 races in the Series’ highly anticipated first year will be under the DIRTcar banner, adhering to the 2023 DIRTcar Late Model rulebook, starting with its inaugural event at All-Tech Raceway in Lake City, FL on April 7. Drivers will also earn points in the DIRTcar Late Model national and regional points standings.

Participating drivers with active DIRTcar memberships will also receive the extra benefits included with their membership – including points fund eligibility, additional insurance and more.

“Our goal for the regional guys was to make it feel more like what they’re used to when they go to national events,” said Series Director Joshua Joiner. “Whether it be the World of Outlaws or DIRTcar-sanctioned events, when they have them down here in the south. Or even Eldora for the World 100 or the [Dirt Late Model] Dream – it’s done professionally with the way that DIRTcar operates. Being able to be a part of that and bring some of that to our tour made sense to us.”

In considering a rules package for their inaugural season, Joiner and the Hunt the Front staff made the decision to align with DIRTcar to take advantage of the sanctioning body’s widespread reach, driver/track benefits and nationally recognized rules and regulations.

Joiner took note of the newly established Unified Dirt Late Model Car Construction Rules and National Late Model Tire specs that DIRTcar assisted in rolling out last year and knew they would be the perfect fit for his fledgling organization.

“From the driver’s standpoint, [those rules] make a lot of sense,” Joiner said. “As a race team, we’re behind that 100 percent and happy to see it, so it made sense for us to support it and be a part of it when we started our series.”

The new Super Late Model series, headquartered in Milton, FL, was born from the family of one of dirt racing’s most successful YouTube channels – Hunt the Front. The trio of brothers – Joshua, Joseph and Jonathan Joiner – and friend/driver Jesse Enterkin, brought the brand to life in the spring of 2019, producing vlogs from their experiences at the shop and the track, first as a local Crate-engine team with a single car to their present-day operation as a three-car team attending regional and national-level Super Late Model events.

Their expanding involvement in motorsports led to their first dip into event promotion in the fall of 2021 with the inaugural running of the Southern Showcase. The event’s success brought it back to Deep South Speedway in Loxley, AL, for a second edition last November, and laid the bricks for the spawning of the new regional Series in 2023.

“We just didn’t feel like there was a really good option at the regional level for drivers at the level that our driver, Joseph, was,” Joiner said. “I look at the guys like Will Herrington, Payton Freeman, Sam Seawright, and a whole list of other guys – not just us – we needed something like this to want to race.

“It’s not to discredit any of what the other series in the Southeast are doing; everyone has a different way of doing things and how they see the best way of doing it.”

The inaugural slate of races was built with the intention of attracting full-time drivers, reducing travel costs, and avoiding overlap with other national/regional events. Joiner said Hunt the Front has strategic breaks in their calendar to allow full-time teams to compete in the bigger Late Model events dotted throughout the year while still being able to attend all 19 Series events without conflict. They’re certain these principles will result in increased car counts.

“We want the guys who want to run those [national] races to be a part of our series,” Joiner said. “When there’s a World of Outlaws race in Georgia somewhere, we don’t want to schedule a race that’s less than two hours away and keep our series regulars from being able to run against the best in the country.”

The Hunt the Front Super Dirt Series begins its inaugural season this Friday with a $20,000-to-win event at All-Tech Raceway. For more information and a full schedule of events, visit HTFSeries.com.

Ahead of season’s first street circuit after bizarre finish one year ago… Corvette Racing’s Jordan Taylor participated in a media availability Wednesday to preview next week’s Acura Sports Car Challenge for the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship at the Long Beach street circuit. Taylor and teammate Antonio Garcia will look to better their third-place finish last year in the No. 3 Mobil 1/SiriusXM Chevrolet Corvette C8.R:

PREVIEWING THIS YEAR’S RACE AND FIRST SPRINT EVENT OF THE SEASON.“It’s always nice to go back to Long Beach. It’s the first sprint race of the year. We’ve settled in with Daytona and Sebring with endurance races, and the end of those races gets pretty intense. But Long Beach, the whole event is intense, right from the start with practice. Last year we had a great car. We were on the pole and led for the whole first stint and then had a that crazy fluke incident on pitlane which kind of put us out of contention for the win. It would be nice to go back there and be as competitive as we were and execute as well as we did last year. Having a year under our belt with this car and this class, we learned a lot throughout last season that already has been beneficial this year. I’m looking forward to getting back there and seeing what we learned throughout 2022 and be able to put that to good use once the sprint races start.” HOW HAS THE CORVETTE EVOLVED AFTER A YEAR IN GTD PRO?“The car last year honestly was great to drive all year. We’d leave sessions and be nitpicking things to work on here and there… little bit of understeer, little bit of oversteer. We were just off the pace. It was hard to kind of exploit the pace of the car without taking huge measures. At some tracks we went to, we had big setup swings to try things, but for the most part it never really worked. I feel like we have our car in a great working window. It was competitive in GTLM (GT Le Mans); last year we had some competitive weekends but it depends on the track and the event to where we stack up. We still do a lot of work in the simulator prepping for each event. We always go into the weekends with a strong car. We saw last year that we’d go in with our sim setup and we’d be pretty much right in the window of where we wanted to be. Last year at Long Beach we had a great car there. We were on pole and led the whole first stint. When things are going well, they’re going very well. Last year we put ourselves in a lot of positions to win races. At Watkins Glen we were leading up until the last couple of stops and things out of our control put us out of contention. I have a lot of confidence going to Long Beach. We had a good car last year and have made strides since then. We should be right at the front of the pack.”

LOOKING AT THE VARIOUS CHARACTERISTICS OF THE CARS IN GTD PRO, WHERE IS THE STIFFEST COMPETITION?“The Porsche got a pretty big change for Sebring, and they were obviously super-fast. In Practice One, the GTD car was fastest overall and the 9 car never really showed speed until when it needed to. So I feel like they’ve got some stuff in-hand to show when they need to. The Mercedes was strong all year last year, so I’m sure they’ll be strong now that they have two proper pros in the car for the sprint races. When you look at Sebring and Daytona, a lot of different cars were competitive so our eyes are on everybody at this point.” THE GTD AND GTD PRO CARS ARE MIXED A LOT ON-TRACK. HOW DOES THAT IMPACT YOUR FOCUS AND STRATEGY?“Not everyone is like Bill (Auberlen, a pro driver) in that class. Most of the guys don’t move out of the way that nicely. It’s the same thing Bill said – if there’s a guy in between you and someone you’re battling against, you’re going to fight that guy pretty hard just to have that buffer in-hand. We saw at the end of the Rolex 24 where there was GTD PRO, then GTD, then GTD PRO again. That kind of separates the race especially on those last restarts where it’s going to be difficult to see a proper battle in your own class. At the end of Sebring, we got hit by a GTD car going into Turn Seven on the last restart and put us out of contention. It’s difficult when you put everyone in the same situation without a class split, but it’s just the way things are right now.” PERFORMANCE DIFFERENCES IN BEING OVERTAKEN BY GTP CARS THIS YEAR VERSUS DPI CARS A YEAR AGO?“It’s much different. The way they make speed seems different. They come by you a bit quicker on the straights and then their cornering speeds – especially in the medium-speed corners – is quite a bit lower than back in the DPi days. At Sebring, I had a BMW come by me and it must have been on a double-stint on the tires. It passed me into 15 and was so slow at apex that I was actually able to drive back around him. It’s a much different car, it seems, for them to learn and adapt to. It makes the style of racing a bit different because now in GT, we know that they struggle on second-stint tires and it will put us in a position to probably want to be a little more defensive in those sorts of spots to not lose laptime when they go by us. It’s definitely a learning process. They come by you a lot quicker in the straights like at Daytona before the Kink and out of the Kink. They’d arrive much quicker and when you wouldn’t expect it from years past in a DPi. When we go to different tracks, it’s going to be learning where those places are, and where they can get by us and where they can’t compared to what it was like back in DPi.” AFTER YOUR CUP PERFORMANCE AT COTA AND THINKING ABOUT A STREET RACE FOR CUP GUYS AT CHICAGO, HOW MANY TRIES WILL IT TAKE FOR THEM TO GET A CHECKERED FLAG?“If it’s anything like COTA, they won’t have much green-flag running! When I got out of the car, Ricky (Taylor) was the first person I saw, and I was like, ‘Holy cow. That was ridiculous, what that was like on those last restarts just getting beaten around.’ I was glad to see that at least everyone else had same opinion, even in the paddock, saying that it was an especially aggressive finish to the race. I think it was a bit of wake-up call for a lot of the regulars to start thinking about it. Having those guys never been to a street course race and how strong those cars are, I think they’re going to be bouncing off the walls and probably doing more damage to the barriers than the cars themselves.” WITH THE NEW GTP CARS A BIT BIGGER AND BEING SLOWER THROUGH THE CORNERS, DO YOU ANTICIPATE HAVING BEING A LITTLE MORE AGGRESSIVE IN TAKING THE LINE AWAY BEFORE YOU GET TO A CORNER?“I think so. We saw at Sebring that if you got passed in the wrong spot, you’d lose quite a bit of time. At Long Beach, especially, if they get by you at Turn One and they can’t really get away from you all the way through Four or Five, it could be a pretty big loss. I’m sure you’ll see guys getting pretty aggressive. Now there are also a lot of new drivers in GTP that are young and hungry to show what they can do. At Sebring and Daytona, some of those guys would come by you and were pretty aggressive even in endurance races and taking a line away from GT cars kind of unknowingly. We need to be a little more proactive in showing some of those guys our intentions as well entering the corner. For sure, I think you’ll see a lot of the guys near the front of the GT pack being especially aggressive, especially late in the runs, when those guys are on used tires.”