Photography: John Force Racing / Auto Imagery / Gary Nastase

PROCK DOMINATES PLAYNHRA FUNNY CAR ALL-STAR CALLOUT, FORCE AND BECKMAN CAPTURE NO. 1 QUALIFIER SPOTSJohn Force Racing leads the way across the board Sunday at the Cornwell Quality Tools U.S. Nationals at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park.

SUNDAY RECAP – IndianapolisRace 14 of 20

Photography: John Force Racing / Auto Imagery / Gary Nastase

PROCK DOMINATES PLAYNHRA FUNNY CAR ALL-STAR CALLOUT, FORCE AND BECKMAN CAPTURE NO. 1 QUALIFIER SPOTSJohn Force Racing leads the way across the board Sunday at the Cornwell Quality Tools U.S. Nationals at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park.

BROWNSBURG, IND. (Aug. 31, 2025) – John Force Racing collectively ran the table Sunday at the NHRA Mission Foods Cornwell Quality Tools U.S. Nationals at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park, with Brittany Force and Jack Beckman earning the No. 1 Qualifier spots in Top Fuel and Funny Car, respectively, and Austin Prock grabbing the trophy and the $80,000 winner’s check in the PlayNHRA Funny Car All-Star Callout. Prock defeated Cruz Pedregon and Matt Hagan in the Callout with runs of 3.907 seconds and 3.910 seconds but saved his best run of the week for the final round against Ron Capps, whom he beat for last year’s U.S. Nationals title. Capps got the holeshot but the Cornwell Tools Chevrolet SS Funny Car was soon ahead and pulling away at the lights with a run of 3.873 seconds at 333.00 mph to Capp’s 4.048 and 302.01. The run also moved Prock to second in the qualifying order for Monday’s eliminations. “Driving for Cornwell Tools, you always want to take out your sponsor’s competitors. We raced Cruz this morning, so we had ‘Tools Wars’ this morning first round and then worked out to where we had a Tool War in the final against Ron Capps,” Prock said. “So anytime we turn on the win light, it’s exciting, but when you’re racing against one of your sponsor’s competitors, and you can turn on the win light, it tastes a little better. So, all the people at Cornwall Tools were definitely stoked that we got the job done.” The reigning 2024 NHRA Funny Car Champion also clinched the 2025 regular season championship, and with it a $150,000 bonus, running his Sunday total to $230,000. Prock will line up against No. 15 qualifier Julie Nataas (4.099, 279.85) in Monday’s first round of eliminations. Force earned her fourth No. 1 Qualifier of the season and fifth career U.S. Nationals low elapsed time (2019, 2021, 2022, 2024, 2025) with Friday’s night session run of 3.666 seconds at 339.79 mph. Her Cornwell Quality Tools Top Fuel Dragster also had passes at 3.779 seconds at 337.41 mph (Q3 Saturday afternoon) and 3.767 seconds at 338.85 mph (Q4 Sunday afternoon). “We feel ready and confident going into race day tomorrow,” Force said. “You can’t look at all the excitement that is Indy. For me, it’s just, it’s no different than when we were running in Brainerd last weekend, or two weeks from now when we’ll be running in Reading. Our focus is always one run at a time, and we want to win everywhere we go. It doesn’t matter what racetrack we’re at or what event is happening. We always want to win.  “Now, the U.S. Nationals? Yes, this is a special one. This is on everybody’s bucket list. Everybody wants to win here, especially our Cornwell Quality Tools team.” Force will face No. 16 qualifier Ida Zetterstrum in Monday’s first round of eliminations. Beckman’s Friday night qualifying lap of 3.865 seconds at 332.26 mph in the Brute Force PEAK Antifreeze and Coolant Chevrolet SS established the Funny Car benchmark throughout the extended five rounds of qualifying. In the PlayNHRA Funny Car All-Star Callout, the two-time NHRA Funny Car Champion took out Bob Tasca III in a close first-round matchup (3.951 seconds at 332.02 mph versus 3.972 and 322.43). He lost lane choice to Capps for the semifinals and had a strong run going until the the crankshaft broke right before the lights. Capps ran 3.912 seconds at 333.33 mph to Beckman’s 3.993 and 282.012. “We broke the crankshaft in half,” said Beckman. “I heard Jason Galvin announcing and it looked like maybe the car spun the tires because you saw one of the holes go dead. No, it was way worse than that. It snapped the crankshaft in half down there. But, if there’s a silver lining on that, it didn’t happen Monday on race day. So, we put another engine in it went out in the final round of qualifying and pushed hard trying to get bonus points. Our numbers looked great until it spun the tires, but we know exactly what we need to do for race day. And tomorrow’s going to be exceptionally quick first round because we’re starting an hour early (at 10 a.m. ET). Beckman will go up against No. 16 qualifier Justin Schriefer (4.103, 280.78) in the first round of eliminations. Track & TV SchedulesFinal eliminations are scheduled for 10 a.m. ET on Monday, Sept 1. Coverage of Monday’s elimination rounds begins at 12 p.m. ET on FS1 and shifting to FOX at 2 p.m. ET.

CHEVROLET IN THE NTT INDYCAR SERIES 1.33-mile Nashville Superspeedway tri-ovalLebanon, TennesseeRace ReportAugust 31 LEBANON, Tennessee (August 31, 2025) – Josef Newgarden and the No. 2 Astemo Team Penske Chevrolet won an exciting 2025 NTT INDYCAR SERIES season finale, giving the Bowtie five trips to victory lane in the last seven races. Team Chevy dominated a chaotic race, leading 207 of 225 laps, with Scott McLaughlin in the No. 3 DEX Imaging Team Penske Chevrolet joining his teammate on the podium and Conor Daly in the No. 76 Juncos Hollinger Chevrolet finishing fifth.  Pole winner Pato O’Ward in the No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet dominated early, leading 116 of the first 126 laps until a mechanical issue ended his day early.  The No. 14 Phoenix Investors A.J. Foyt Racing Chevrolet, with Santino Ferrucci behind the wheel, was on the move early, going from 12th to fourth before a penalty sent him to the back of the field before finishing eighth, leading all drivers with 36 on-track passes.  Newgarden’s win is the 237th all-time for Chevrolet in the INDYCAR SERIES and the 127th since the introduction of the twin-turbo 2.2L V6 in 2012. Newgarden now has 32 career wins, all of them powered by Chevrolet, leading all Bowtie drivers. It was Newgarden’s 20th win on an oval and 14th trip to victory lane on a short oval (those 1.3-mile or under). Of Team Penske’s 246 wins, 124 have been Chevrolet-powered, including 87 since 2012. It was his first win at Nashville Superspeedway and the 14th different track that the 34-year-old has visited victory lane, extending his win streak to 11 years. McLaughlin’s daring last-lap pass rewarded him with his third podium of the season and the 22nd of his career. After a hard impact in Turn 2, David Malukas in the No. 4 Clarience Technologies A.J. Foyt Racing Chevrolet, out of an abundance of caution, was taken to the hospital. He was released after all scans came back clear.

Borchetta Bourbon Music City Grand Prix Race Results:

WHAT THEY’RE SAYING Josef Newgarden, No. 2 Astemo Team Penske Chevrolet won: I’m just glad we got one without anything going wrong. For the No. 2 crew. Just happy to celebrate with this team. They deserve it. It’s rewarding for our team; they’ve done a great job. Obviously, Will won in Portland, which was a huge lift for everybody, and he really deserved it. I think he could have won this race today. It was a shame to see what happened to him. He’s a legend. It was great for our team, Astemo, and Team Chevy. Tough year, tough, tough year, but good to get a win here at the end.  How about doing it here at home in Nashville and the great crowd.  It’s pretty great. I think we should be racing in Nashville to end the year all the time. We don’t need to be going anywhere else. I don’t care if it’s this track or somewhere else. But, in the vicinity would be a good thing. It’s great to be at home. Pumped! Just pumped! Scott McLaughlin, No. 3 DEX Imaging Team Penske Chevrolet 3rd: “I’m not exhausted. I’m fine. I’m just really gutted for my guys. I just got a little high there. Just trying to protect my entry and, just got too high.  I can’t believe the DEX Imaging Chevy was okay. I think it was a little bent at the end, but I wanted a podium bad, and I just kept my foot in it. And the last lap, I just sent it, and I was like, if I hit the fence, I hit the fence. I don’t know. But the handle only went away little bit. But I just held it flat, and didn’t really care if we went in the fence or not. And thankfully, it stuck, and I was glad to get the boys a podium. But congrats to Josef. Congrats to the team Penske. It’s a great end to our year. We were good today. Just not good enough.”

Conor Daly, No. 76 Juncos Holliger Racing Chevrolet 5th: “Honestly, I was just hoping we were gonna finish it out there because I I didn’t know how good the reds would be, on a restart when they cool down. And Scott (McLaughlin) was proof. We both fired it into turn one on that last restart, and we nearly ended up both in the wall just with no grip. So, to hang on to a top five is really cool. Appreciate the All American Rejects for being a part of our car. And Chevrolet, honestly, thank you so much to Chevrolet all year. It’s just good to finish on a high note. This team deserved it after a tough start to the weekend. Just wish we could have finished it off on the podium.” Callum Ilott, No, 90 PREMA Racing Chevrolet 9th: “It was a good race. We stabilised in the mid pack throughout the middle of the race, and we decided that the Alternate was good towards the end of the race. I did have a bit of vibration during one of the stints which was a bit scary. However, we were able to move forwards after the last stop with the newer tires and made some decent moves. The crew did a good job in the pits and Chevrolet did a great job with the engine, so overall a positive way to end the season.” Santino Ferrucci, No. 14 Phoenix Investors A.J. Foyt Racing Chevrolet 8th:“Honestly, my crew did a phenomenal job all day. This one’s on me, and under the caution – you know? I was in the mindset of Gateway, and I pitted off of turn three, instead of off of turn four. Gave us an end of the line penalty when we were running sixth early on in the race, and that would have made for an easy day. “But, you know, we came back, finished eighth, passed probably 10 cars on one of those restarts. I mean, the guys did an incredible job over the wall, passed a bunch of people in pit lane as well. So a little hairy at the end there between a couple of competitors, and broke the front wing and finished off the last stint with the front wing all mangled too. So, honestly, it was a hell of a day. “I had a really good feeling for the high line in the first half of the race. Once the front wing broke and I was kind of sure it was if something was wrong, it was a little bit more of a gamble for me. And when I got towards the end of the race, I was just trying not to take too many more chances than I needed to. “I can’t wait until next year, and I want to thank Sexton Properties, Phoenix Investors, Vensure HR, ABC Supply, and Homes for our Troops. I mean, this whole team’s done a phenomenal job. Cannot wait to come back next year.” Alexander Rossi, No. 20 Ed Carpenter Racing Java House Chevrolet 10th: “It was going to be tough starting where we did. We stayed aggressive on strategy all day and got a respectable result. The No. 20 Java House Chevrolet was good all weekend, we just didn’t seem to have overall pace. Lots of positives to take from the year, lots of room to grow. We’ll start prepping for 2026 now.” Robert Shwartzman, No. 83 PREMA Racing Chevrolet 14th: “That’s the final round finished. I don’t really have much to say after we lost the Rookie of the Year battle in the final few laps after my drive through penalty. I was defending for my position on the restart and got the penalty, so we lost out on the title and on a top ten finish as I was running eighth at the time. It’s a shame because the car was really fast and I was having a lot of fun, so I’m sure we could’ve finished in the top ten even though I did make a mistake in the final pit stop. Thanks to the team for the great car, it felt really good all weekend, it’s just a shame with the final result.” Sting Ray Robb, No. 77 Juncos Holliger Racing Chevrolet 16th: “Year-end finale at Nashville Superspeedway. It was chaos. Seems like there was a lot of attrition out there. Some big hits for some of the leaders, which was pretty crazy to see, but that just shows you how competitive the series is and how tough the track was today. So, I’m really happy with this team. “You know, they’ve worked so hard this year, and I’m very thankful to be a part of it and to come back to a place where I won a championship before it feels like home. So, I know that we got some learning to do, but, this is going be a season to build on for sure. And I think that, Conor did a great job this year. Congrats to him for today for another top five. That was really fun to see. We’ll put our heads back on after a couple week break and then see what we can learn and see how we can move forward.” Nolan Siegel, No. 6 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet 17th: “We had a lot of pace. We qualified 7th yesterday with a really strong run, but then we had the engine change so we started 16th today. That put us in the thick of it in the race. This season we’ve had many days where there’s been a lot of potential, and we haven’t ended up finishing the weekend. I’ve made mistakes, other issues happened that were out of our control, we’ve just had bad luck. All in all, it was really important to build momentum for 2026. Today, to do a race distance, have a clean day, smooth day: that’s what we did.” Will Power, No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet finished 21st: “The Verizon Chevy was fast today, and it definitely showed there to start the race. I wish it had all played out differently so we could end the season with a strong result that I know our team was capable of. Really excited for Josef (Newgarden) to get the win, though.”  Pato O’Ward, No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet finished 24th: “We were moving today in the No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet. All weekend it’s been such a joy to drive. Sadly, we ended up moving into the wall. That’s sometimes how it goes. These things are out of your control. All you can do is move on, keep on growing, keep on working on the things that we know we’ve been doing well, and also get better. Thank you to all the fans. Thank you to all of our partners who have been with us all year, and we look forward to 2026.” Christian Lundgaard, No. 7 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet finished 25th: “It’s been an amazing season with this team and credit to the No. 7 VELO Arrow McLaren Chevy crew for giving it our all from start to finish. They gave me a fast car all weekend, and we could have clinched third in the standings with the pace we had. Unfortunately our day ended with an issue outside our control, and that was it for the season. We’re keeping our spirits high and know we’ve got more to accomplish in 2026. Thanks to our team partners and the Arrow McLaren fans who’ve been cheering us on all year long.” David Malukas, No. 4 Clarience Technologies A.J. Foyt Racing Chevrolet finished 26th:  Christian Rasmussen, No. 21 Ed Carpenter Racing Splenda Stevia Chevrolet finished 27th: I got away pretty good at the start. I got a good jump and got an opportunity to go to the high side, which is where I wanted to be. It seemed like I lost the rear end. I’m not sure why. I guess it was just very low grip. It was low grip up there and around I went.

NTT INDYCAR SERIES News ConferenceSunday, August 31, 2025Josef NewgardenJonathan DiuguidPress Conference THE MODERATOR: We’re joined by the champion of the race, Josef Newgarden. First win of the season. 32nd career win, which ties him with Al Unser Jr. for ninth all time. Also joined by Penske Racing president Jonathan Diuguid. Josef, better late than ever to get a win here in 2025. Your thoughts, to do it here in Nashville? JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Very special. Never a bad time to show up and have a good day. I think the team really performed like you expect from Team Penske. I think we’ve had the same core that Team Penske’s always had throughout this whole year in a lot of ways. You saw it again today, just the men and women across the board. Really didn’t matter which car. There was a point midway through the race, I came on the radio, Look at Will, looked amazing, incredible. He could have won the race today. I think Scott could have won the race. That’s the cool thing about Team Penske. You walk into that building, it really doesn’t matter which car you’re looking at, I would be privileged to step in any one of them. I think they give you a shot to win the race. It’s cool to be part of this team. We’ve got great leadership and depth across the board. I think that’s what carried us through this weekend to bring in this result. THE MODERATOR: Jonathan, a nice finish for 2025, two at the podium, the win at Portland. A lot of good things happening towards the end. JONATHAN DIUGUID: Yeah, obviously to win the last race of the season is a good stepping off point for next year, the best way you can end the championship or season. It’s been a difficult year for us, but we’ve had strong performances the last few races. Like Josef mentioned, all three cars led laps today throughout different phases. New downforce configuration this weekend. We didn’t know how it was going to pan out. When it came time to go, Scott and Josef was at the front, Will was up there earlier on. A really solid day for the entire group. THE MODERATOR: Open it up for questions. Q. Josef, if you were sitting here a year ago, this would have been a normal thing. Felt like there’s a lot of relief after what has been the craziest year where nothing went right. Talk about this, a classic Newgarden feel to this victory. JOSEF NEWGARDEN: I don’t have a great answer for you. It doesn’t feel that different. Nothing went diabolically wrong. I tried to throw it in the bin there in the final pit stop. On the edge, but not over it (smiling). Like a meteor didn’t come out of the sky today, which was nice. Other than that, it felt like a normal day in a lot of respects. It was not an easy race. I did not have the car where I wanted it at the start right away. I’m like, Okay, we’re nowhere where we need to be, let’s be patient. We just did our thing like we always do: assessed everybody, hung there, went when we needed to go. We got the car in a really good spot in the end. I was like, Now we have a race-winning car. Let’s close the deal. That whole sequence felt very normal to me. Just proud of the team. More than anything, when I show up and I’m ready to see the team rewarded for the effort. I really mean that. You have no idea what goes on. Some of you guys do know what goes on. It is grueling to get to these races and to get through the weekend, put a car on the track that’s capable of winning, hitting all your marks every second of the race. It’s just so difficult to do. To get that reward for the team… We had it in Portland, which was great for everybody. We had it today. That’s probably the highlight for me, just to see everybody rewarded for the effort and what they put in the end. Q. (Question about many drivers with problems in the race.) JOSEF NEWGARDEN: I become so oblivious to it at this point, I’m not even looking for it anymore. If it happened, I would expect it, so… Yeah, I was just driving today. Q. John, two wins from the last three races. You said y’all aren’t really trying to do anything differently. The ingredients are there. Just needed to have clean runs. Speak to that. Seems proof that the formula is there. JONATHAN DIUGUID: Yeah, no, Josef mentioned it before, we got a good, strong core. Didn’t mean that we didn’t have difficult conversations about where we needed to be. Different issues with other cars, people making mistakes, it shows how tight the field is. We didn’t lift off the gas for these last few races, we pushed down further. I think that goes to show how we showed up today and how we raced on all three cars. Q. Josef, we used to talk about how significant it was for you to win at Indy. You won there. Talked about winning here. It’s not the same, close, but where does it rank? JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Oh, definitely up there. This was a hard race to win today. There was no gimmes. Got such depth across the board, everybody is so close as far as the competitive landscape, it’s just hard to find an advantage on anyone nowadays. This was a hard race to win. It’s satisfying when you win a race in this environment. Then to win it at my hometown was really gratifying. I mean, I used to come here when was 12, 13 years old and I would watch stockcar races, INDYCAR races. I’d watch anything that came here. I sat in those stands, wherever I was able to go at the end of the race. Had no idea that I would have a racing career at that point in my life. It’s cool to come full circle and to be so close to home. I love being here in Nashville, too, for the season finale. I like it for INDYCAR. It’s a great destination for us. Good for Nashville and certainly good for the series. I think we should continue that tradition. I love this track. Whether it’s here, somewhere else in the future, as long as we’re in the Nashville vicinity, I’m going to be a happy guy. Q. Talk about how much this means to you in terms of your confidence level going into 2026. JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Honestly no difference. I think it’s probably more a team question. This season, tough year on the team. I think the schedule was tough this year. Everybody just kept working, kept their head down, kept doing their jobs. If anything, that’s what’s gratifying I think for us as a unit. It definitely can send us into the off-season and we can go to work. At the end of the day we need to go to work. We need to have a better 2026, and we’re ready to do that. Q. Obviously your team has been informed about the tire troubles of Pato O’Ward. What was going through your mind when you had this information? Did you feel it could happen to you as well? JOSEF NEWGARDEN: I immediately got feedback from the team that we were doing a pretty good job at managing our temperatures. We seemed to be in line with our metrics. That gave me a lot of comfort. I think we heightened our awareness to it after that. The guys were feeding me a lot of information after that to make sure I stayed in line. I wasn’t too worried because of what they were telling me. Q. Penske started off the season, especially at the Indy 500, as a team who almost nothing went your way. How does this result revitalize the team going into 2026? JONATHAN DIUGUID: I think Josef mentioned it. The INDYCAR season ends beginning of September. There’s long winter off months. Being able to finish with a win, it’s the last race that everyone went to. It’s hugely rewarding and a good springboard for 2026. Q. Josef, when you saw Scott have his trouble after such a tumultuous season, what did that feel like in the cockpit where suddenly you’re in the lead, got a break that went your way? JOSEF NEWGARDEN: I’ll be straight up with you, I was about to pass him. I didn’t care. I was like whatever. That’s a real answer for you. Q. Obviously the end of the season has been much better than the beginning of the season for Team Penske. Was there a moment internally that was a pivot point in positivity? JONATHAN DIUGUID: No, not really. Obviously our short oval package is quite strong. We were strong in Iowa, Milwaukee, strong here this weekend. The calendar helped us a little bit. As Josef mentioned, we have to improve on some other types of circuits. Today it was about execution. That’s the biggest thing, showing the group and the team we could still do it. Just brings a level of excitement back. Q. After such a difficult season, is it a relief to take victory at home, knowing you would have entered a winter with a winless year? What does that mean to you, winning at home? JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Please don’t be mad at me. It really didn’t cross my mind. I wasn’t worried about any of that. For me, genuinely you got to focus on just doing the best job that you can, everything within your control. I think the same on the team side. If you do that, you leave, you do the best job you could, you can be satisfied to some degree leaving the track. That was my only focus. I had a little bit of a mistake there at that last pit stop. If that had hurt us ultimately for the result, I would have been bummed by that because that was in my control. But that was the focus is what I’m trying to tell you. I just was trying to hit my marks as best that I could today. That’s all that was going through my mind. Q. Up-and-down season. Did you take an extra moment to take this all in? The competition level in INDYCAR, these are hard to come by. JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Definitely. I mean, not yet, to answer your question. I’m ready to go home. Q. Josef, busy off-season coming up with a baby on the way. How much are you looking forward to not racing, just getting back and being a dad and husband again for a little while? JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Yeah, I mean, candidly I’m looking forward to it. I’d like to go away and start to miss it again. Sometimes that’s what you want, is to miss something. That’s my plan. Q. You mentioned throughout the season keeping the faith a little bit, looking at each race and trying to take it individually. How do you think that helped you throughout the season? JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Yeah, I mean, I think whenever there’s difficulty, I’m going to let Jonathan speak to this, it was a trying year for the team. I think for us just to stay focused. It’s one thing individually, but I think it’s even harder from a whole team standpoint to do that. JONATHAN DIUGUID: What Josef was mentioning, when you’re not winning, you can question everything. You can question Josef’s performance to the pit crew to the car setup to reliability, everything that affected our year. We really have to sit down and focus on our processes, try to trust in what you believe is right. I think what we’ve seen over the past couple races is that the processes work. We have a little bit more work to do to get back to the top of where we’re used to being. In general it’s easy to get sidetracked, get down on yourself, questioning everything. That’s where the team excelled, we just sat and talked about the facts, how we need to improve together. Q. Did you try to go whole doughnut there on the celebration? JOSEF NEWGARDEN: I did, yeah. I was going to do that. I got the angle wrong. I’ll just leave is there. I wanted to go in the crowd. I thought that was cool if they opened the gate. I almost lied about it. I was just going to half slide. But I messed it up, unfortunately. I was going to burn that thing to the ground, too. That’s the saddest thing for me. Chevrolet probably wouldn’t have been happy about that. It’s probably good what happened, to be quite honest with you. I was going to go until it stopped. Q. You said something like this was for the pigs. Can you explain that at all? JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Yeah, I said no one’s going to understand that. Chad Gordon, my crew chief on the 2 car, he gave an incredible pre-race speech in Milwaukee. I think you’ll have to ask him about this. I don’t know that I’m going to relay this speech. It involved pig farming. He had a stuffed pig today. It was for the pigs. Yeah, I don’t know how to elaborate much more on this. He gave a great team speech and we all felt it. We rallied behind that at the end of today. That’s about the only way I can surmise it for you. Q. Was this about bacon or poop? JOSEF NEWGARDEN: No, no, no. It was with team moral. JONATHAN DIUGUID: More wholesome than that. JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Very wholesome. Q. Does this win at all change how you will look back on this season? JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Boy, that’s a good question. I don’t know. No. I mean, probably not, if I really think about it. Mostly because I’ve seen the win potential in this team all year, I mean, so many different times. Whether it’s Indianapolis or it’s a place like Long Beach or St. Petersburg. Actually, I think the glaring weak point for us right now is road courses. But there’s been a lot of strength across the calendar. This win, it’s not even like it’s validation. I saw the potential of it all year for the group. I don’t really feel differently about it being realized. I’m just happy for everybody. Happy that they’re able to enjoy it. JONATHAN DIUGUID: Does keep your season winning streak alive. JOSEF NEWGARDEN: I got to be honest, I didn’t care about that anymore. I really didn’t. I know we have that. But what does it matter? I used to be a big stats guy. I don’t care about stats anymore. That doesn’t anymore, I guess is my point. Q. Did you feel something wrong with the tires or do you feel like the tires are weaker? It was said maybe we have to talk with the company because the tires are wrong with all the competition. JONATHAN DIUGUID: I think there were some tire issues today. Majority of the field got it right. The tires performed well all day, both the alternates and the primaries. Not to say that they did anything wrong. Like Josef mentioned, we kind of did our homework and knew what we needed to do. We’ve suffered with tire issues on short ovals from years ago, tried to understand what we needed to do. That’s what paid off today, not having a tire failure. But the degradation of our tires was quite low relative to everybody else. Q. Josef, as you head into this off-season, you told us yesterday you would love a week or two, then be able to get back at it, you’ve used these off-seasons to evaluate your approach. Do you have any plans on using this off-season to look at or change anything up about how you go about trying to attack 2026? JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Not at the moment. Q. About 22 laps to go, you take the lead from Scott McLaughlin. The caution flies. What was your thought there? JOSEF NEWGARDEN: At that point we were in prime position to seal the victory. That was the only thing in my mind, was let’s close the deal here. When you get an opportunity to close the deal in an INDYCAR race, you want to do that. Harder than it looks, to be quite honest with you. It’s like climbing a mountain to get to that point. You put yourself in position to say, Okay, we’ve run this day, we are here, let’s close the deal and get the result. I knew for us, they’re giving me this scorecard, this is how many laps, this is what you need to do. I’m looking at my tools, looking at everything, planning how do I need to drive this last 12 or 13 laps when it goes green. That’s what’s going through my mind. We’ve done all this work, gotten to this point, let’s close the deal and realize the victory. THE MODERATOR: Anytime you can tie the great Al Unser Jr. in the stat sheet, that’s a pretty good year. Congratulations. JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Thank you.

NTT INDYCAR SERIES News ConferenceSunday, August 31, 2025Scott McLaughlinPress Conference THE MODERATOR: Third-place finishing driver today, Scott McLaughlin. One of those races you look back and watch, a lot of action. SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: Yeah. THE MODERATOR: Your thoughts on finishing 2025 with a podium? SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: I had an absolute blast, man. That was so much fun. Restarts were intense. Yeah, it did string out a little bit, as it always does, mid to late stint. I think the exchanges and the restarts were phenomenal. Yeah, obviously bittersweet for me. Third is great. I’m glad I sort of held on to that at the end. I felt like I could have held off Josef there. He was controlling his lane. I just turned a little late, got caught. Nearly saved it. Once you’re sort of out there, it’s hard to get it back. Thankful I was able to straighten the wheel just before I hit the fence. The car was straight. I was able to push on, yeah. Very good end to our season. Great team win. But I’m pissed off at myself. THE MODERATOR: For? Could have been more? SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: I feel like it’s just been one of those years, haven’t quite put everything together. Had plenty of speed. Very lucky to get a podium today. I have to give massive props to Kyffin Simpson. Probably the best oval race I’ve had. Felt like 2006 or something. Pinned around the outside, gave me some room. If he came up, I was in the fence hard. Big props to Kyff. Really, really happy to race him. I thought the racing out there was really fair. I don’t know what happened to Malukas and Foster. Yeah, I thought it was a really good, proper goddamn INDYCAR oval race. Yeah, anyway, let’s get this going. I want to go to Broadway (smiling). THE MODERATOR: Open it up for questions for Scott McLaughlin. Q. In the long off-season is there a possibility we see you somewhere else, maybe in Europe? SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: I’m racing at Suzuka in a couple weeks in a Corvette. Working on a couple other things right now. Won’t be at Petit. It’s my daughter’s birthday, first birthday. I’ll actually be in Australia at the time spending a little bit of time there. Not racing anything, just going to hang by the beach, have a bit of fun. I don’t know. Couple little forks in the iron, in the pot. THE MODERATOR: Stokes. Iron in the fire. SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: Iron in the fire. There we go. Yeah, that’s where we’re at. Q. Would you mind taking us through those final laps with you’re battles with Kyffin Simpson. What did you think when he overtook you in the closing laps? SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: I made sure as soon as he got in front of me, I kept that lane open as much as I could. I didn’t care if I was the only one up there. I used it until I couldn’t. Kept there, kept there. I got a really good run off one, sort of psyched him to go to defend me. I wasn’t going to pass him on the inside into three. I wanted him to go so it cramped his entry. Then I was able to get a really good run through three, four. Basically just held it flat. It was one of those ones where if I’m in the fence, worst case probably sixth. Like I said, that kid raced me with a lot of respect. He’s getting better and better every week. I really did enjoy racing him. Like I said, probably my best battle ever on an oval. Q. We need some more of these bigger ovals on the schedule. They’re a lot of fun. This season for Team Penske as a whole, up and down. Talk about St. Pete to today, the roller coaster of a season you’ve had with the team. What does it mean to finish on the podium and take that momentum into the off-season? SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: Yeah, I think we’ve had really good speed all year, as we’ve always said. Not quite Palou. He’s been standout. That’s on top of everyone. Massive props to him. Everyone needs to be better. Certainly a different team, different look, different look inside. It’s got a great future. I see light at the end of the tunnel. Very excited for what’s ahead. I think Roger is pumped and ready to go. Wants not only INDYCAR to be amazing, but our team, too. He’s pushing us. Yeah, it’s exciting. Yeah, I’m glad to finish out the way it is. It’s nice to have a beautiful, long off-season. At the same time I kind of wish we had six or seven races left. It’s not realistic. These big ovals are great. We need people to come to them. At the end of the day it’s on everyone to work yourselves, everyone be positive, get people coming to our races. Very excited for the future of INDYCAR. I can’t wait to be a part of it. Hopefully we can, yeah, as a team grow and grow. Q. What does this do for your confidence going into the off-season, having had a strong end to the season? SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: Yeah, I don’t think I lost a heap of confidence throughout the year. It’s just nice to have a couple good results. Like I said, it’s bittersweet to end right now, knowing we were coming into our own a little bit, having strong results. It’s kind of nice to have this off-season now. I felt like we just got our feet on the ground with people. Now we can really work this off-season to be better, work together, smoothen things out. We know exactly where we need to be better. We have the people, the personnel, to improve. I’m very excited for that. But yeah, it’s a long off-season. Is it a needed off-season? I think so. It’s going to be really nice for us. Yeah, I’m sad as a race car driver I’m not racing my car next week. Q. It’s been a tough season across the board for everybody at Team Penske. A little bit of cause to celebrate when Will won a couple weeks ago. Roger finally I don’t want to say looked ecstatic, but he looked relieved when he left Victory Lane. How important was it to finally see the guy that runs everything to get a break? SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: Yeah, I mean, I’m glad Josef won because I would have got a kick up the ass. Fantastic. I’m very happy for Roger. He’s been through a lot obviously. But he’s a great leader, someone that I respect immensely. Yeah, very happy for him to just get some results. As we know, we are strong on ovals. We needed to be better at other places. Important we had a win here. Important that we won on an oval. Yeah, it’s just nice to give him some results and give him something to be happy with. Q. When you had the moment out of turn two, how quickly did you go from being upset that you nearly lost it to the fact that you realized you’re not in that bad of shape? SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: Yeah, I dropped the right rear. I tried to save it. Went up the track a little bit. Then I knew I was definitely gone. I tried to sort of pedal it a little bit and straighten the wheel when I hit the fence. Thankfully that saved it. I was pleased. Entry of three, this thing is kind of still straight. For me it was just about cleaning the tires off. Benny, my engineer/strategist, was super good on the radio, kept me calm, which is sometimes hard to do. Yeah, the restart, I think Conor Daly, he had alternates on, a mushy feeling tire. Softer, but felt a little bit loose on the restart. That’s why I lost out to Palou there. Yeah, I’m sad I probably didn’t get to keep second because I think I had something there for Josef. Would have been fun. Hey, we’re good. Keep pushing. Q. Penske started off the season and especially at the Indy 500 as a team where almost nothing went your way. How does this result revitalize the team going into 2026? SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: Like I said, it’s bittersweet to end right now because we’re on a bit of a momentum. Gives us a chance to reset, recuperate, smoothen things out within the team. We’re in a great spot right now. Really genuinely see a lot of light at the end of the tunnel. Everyone is getting better. We’ve got to get better ourselves. But I’m really trusting and confident that the (indiscernible) gets better, get better for next year, start the season right in 2026. 2026? Jesus. Q. You mentioned your battle with Kyffin. You were teammates in IMSA. You hear a lot of drivers talk about the best oval racing happens when you trust the driver that is alongside of you. Talk about your relationship. SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: Outside of the LMP2 thing, I haven’t raced Kyffin a ton, at least on an oval. I put a lot of trust in what Kyffin was doing. I raced him how I would race Alex Palou or Josef or anyone like that. He raced me like them. That’s a huge credit to him and his development. I know he’s put a lot of work in to be better, be stronger. Obviously he’s in a Ganassi car, which is strong. We all know that. Still got to pedal the thing. He ran a really good race. Yeah, man, I couldn’t believe how long we were side by side for, especially in P3, P4. I thought it would have run out, he would have washed it up. Honestly thought I was in the fence probably four or five laps to go. I thought he was going to wash up. I was sort of prepared for it. Yeah, like stellar job by him. I’m no oval veteran. Like, I got a little bit more experience. It was nice to race a dude that genuinely respected the outside lane. Honestly, man, it felt like I was Helio and Sam Hornish. It was sick. It was really cool. I was trying to give the fans something. When I went across the line, I could see everybody – probably cheering Josef – but thought they were cheering me (laughter). We had a good time. Good kid. THE MODERATOR: Great way to finish up 2025. Congratulations. SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: Cheers.

CHEVROLET IN THE NTT INDYCAR SERIESBorchetta Bourbon Music City Grand Prix1.33-mile Nashville Superspeedway tri-ovalLebanon, TennesseeRace ReportAugust 31 LEBANON, Tennessee (August 31, 2025) – Josef Newgarden and the No. 2 Astemo Team Penske Chevrolet won an exciting 2025 NTT INDYCAR SERIES season finale, giving the Bowtie five trips to victory lane in the last seven races. Team Chevy dominated a chaotic race, leading 207 of 225 laps, with Scott McLaughlin in the No. 3 DEX Imaging Team Penske Chevrolet joining his teammate on the podium and Conor Daly in the No. 76 Juncos Hollinger Chevrolet finishing fifth.  Pole winner Pato O’Ward in the No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet dominated early, leading 116 of the first 126 laps until a mechanical issue ended his day early.  The No. 14 Phoenix Investors A.J. Foyt Racing Chevrolet, with Santino Ferrucci behind the wheel, was on the move early, going from 12th to fourth before a penalty sent him to the back of the field before finishing eighth, leading all drivers with 36 on-track passes.  Newgarden’s win is the 237th all-time for Chevrolet in the INDYCAR SERIES and the 127th since the introduction of the twin-turbo 2.2L V6 in 2012. Newgarden now has 32 career wins, all of them powered by Chevrolet, leading all Bowtie drivers. It was Newgarden’s 20th win on an oval and 14th trip to victory lane on a short oval (those 1.3-mile or under). Of Team Penske’s 246 wins, 124 have been Chevrolet-powered, including 87 since 2012. It was his first win at Nashville Superspeedway and the 14th different track that the 34-year-old has visited victory lane, extending his win streak to 11 years. McLaughlin’s daring last-lap pass rewarded him with his third podium of the season and the 22nd of his career. After a hard impact in Turn 2, David Malukas in the No. 4 Clarience Technologies A.J. Foyt Racing Chevrolet, out of an abundance of caution, was taken to the hospital. He was released after all scans came back clear.

Borchetta Bourbon Music City Grand Prix Race Results:

WHAT THEY’RE SAYING Josef Newgarden, No. 2 Astemo Team Penske Chevrolet won: I’m just glad we got one without anything going wrong. For the No. 2 crew. Just happy to celebrate with this team. They deserve it. It’s rewarding for our team; they’ve done a great job. Obviously, Will won in Portland, which was a huge lift for everybody, and he really deserved it. I think he could have won this race today. It was a shame to see what happened to him. He’s a legend. It was great for our team, Astemo, and Team Chevy. Tough year, tough, tough year, but good to get a win here at the end.  How about doing it here at home in Nashville and the great crowd.  It’s pretty great. I think we should be racing in Nashville to end the year all the time. We don’t need to be going anywhere else. I don’t care if it’s this track or somewhere else. But, in the vicinity would be a good thing. It’s great to be at home. Pumped! Just pumped! Scott McLaughlin, No. 3 DEX Imaging Team Penske Chevrolet 3rd: “I’m not exhausted. I’m fine. I’m just really gutted for my guys. I just got a little high there. Just trying to protect my entry and, just got too high.  I can’t believe the DEX Imaging Chevy was okay. I think it was a little bent at the end, but I wanted a podium bad, and I just kept my foot in it. And the last lap, I just sent it, and I was like, if I hit the fence, I hit the fence. I don’t know. But the handle only went away little bit. But I just held it flat, and didn’t really care if we went in the fence or not. And thankfully, it stuck, and I was glad to get the boys a podium. But congrats to Josef. Congrats to the team Penske. It’s a great end to our year. We were good today. Just not good enough.”

Conor Daly, No. 76 Juncos Holliger Racing Chevrolet 5th: “Honestly, I was just hoping we were gonna finish it out there because I I didn’t know how good the reds would be, on a restart when they cool down. And Scott (McLaughlin) was proof. We both fired it into turn one on that last restart, and we nearly ended up both in the wall just with no grip. So, to hang on to a top five is really cool. Appreciate the All American Rejects for being a part of our car. And Chevrolet, honestly, thank you so much to Chevrolet all year. It’s just good to finish on a high note. This team deserved it after a tough start to the weekend. Just wish we could have finished it off on the podium.” Callum Ilott, No, 90 PREMA Racing Chevrolet 9th: “It was a good race. We stabilised in the mid pack throughout the middle of the race, and we decided that the Alternate was good towards the end of the race. I did have a bit of vibration during one of the stints which was a bit scary. However, we were able to move forwards after the last stop with the newer tires and made some decent moves. The crew did a good job in the pits and Chevrolet did a great job with the engine, so overall a positive way to end the season.” Santino Ferrucci, No. 14 Phoenix Investors A.J. Foyt Racing Chevrolet 8th:“Honestly, my crew did a phenomenal job all day. This one’s on me, and under the caution – you know? I was in the mindset of Gateway, and I pitted off of turn three, instead of off of turn four. Gave us an end of the line penalty when we were running sixth early on in the race, and that would have made for an easy day. “But, you know, we came back, finished eighth, passed probably 10 cars on one of those restarts. I mean, the guys did an incredible job over the wall, passed a bunch of people in pit lane as well. So a little hairy at the end there between a couple of competitors, and broke the front wing and finished off the last stint with the front wing all mangled too. So, honestly, it was a hell of a day. “I had a really good feeling for the high line in the first half of the race. Once the front wing broke and I was kind of sure it was if something was wrong, it was a little bit more of a gamble for me. And when I got towards the end of the race, I was just trying not to take too many more chances than I needed to. “I can’t wait until next year, and I want to thank Sexton Properties, Phoenix Investors, Vensure HR, ABC Supply, and Homes for our Troops. I mean, this whole team’s done a phenomenal job. Cannot wait to come back next year.” Alexander Rossi, No. 20 Ed Carpenter Racing Java House Chevrolet 10th: “It was going to be tough starting where we did. We stayed aggressive on strategy all day and got a respectable result. The No. 20 Java House Chevrolet was good all weekend, we just didn’t seem to have overall pace. Lots of positives to take from the year, lots of room to grow. We’ll start prepping for 2026 now.” Robert Shwartzman, No. 83 PREMA Racing Chevrolet 14th: “That’s the final round finished. I don’t really have much to say after we lost the Rookie of the Year battle in the final few laps after my drive through penalty. I was defending for my position on the restart and got the penalty, so we lost out on the title and on a top ten finish as I was running eighth at the time. It’s a shame because the car was really fast and I was having a lot of fun, so I’m sure we could’ve finished in the top ten even though I did make a mistake in the final pit stop. Thanks to the team for the great car, it felt really good all weekend, it’s just a shame with the final result.” Sting Ray Robb, No. 77 Juncos Holliger Racing Chevrolet 16th: “Year-end finale at Nashville Superspeedway. It was chaos. Seems like there was a lot of attrition out there. Some big hits for some of the leaders, which was pretty crazy to see, but that just shows you how competitive the series is and how tough the track was today. So, I’m really happy with this team. “You know, they’ve worked so hard this year, and I’m very thankful to be a part of it and to come back to a place where I won a championship before it feels like home. So, I know that we got some learning to do, but, this is going be a season to build on for sure. And I think that, Conor did a great job this year. Congrats to him for today for another top five. That was really fun to see. We’ll put our heads back on after a couple week break and then see what we can learn and see how we can move forward.” Nolan Siegel, No. 6 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet 17th: “We had a lot of pace. We qualified 7th yesterday with a really strong run, but then we had the engine change so we started 16th today. That put us in the thick of it in the race. This season we’ve had many days where there’s been a lot of potential, and we haven’t ended up finishing the weekend. I’ve made mistakes, other issues happened that were out of our control, we’ve just had bad luck. All in all, it was really important to build momentum for 2026. Today, to do a race distance, have a clean day, smooth day: that’s what we did.” Will Power, No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet finished 21st: “The Verizon Chevy was fast today, and it definitely showed there to start the race. I wish it had all played out differently so we could end the season with a strong result that I know our team was capable of. Really excited for Josef (Newgarden) to get the win, though.”  Pato O’Ward, No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet finished 24th: “We were moving today in the No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet. All weekend it’s been such a joy to drive. Sadly, we ended up moving into the wall. That’s sometimes how it goes. These things are out of your control. All you can do is move on, keep on growing, keep on working on the things that we know we’ve been doing well, and also get better. Thank you to all the fans. Thank you to all of our partners who have been with us all year, and we look forward to 2026.” Christian Lundgaard, No. 7 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet finished 25th: “It’s been an amazing season with this team and credit to the No. 7 VELO Arrow McLaren Chevy crew for giving it our all from start to finish. They gave me a fast car all weekend, and we could have clinched third in the standings with the pace we had. Unfortunately our day ended with an issue outside our control, and that was it for the season. We’re keeping our spirits high and know we’ve got more to accomplish in 2026. Thanks to our team partners and the Arrow McLaren fans who’ve been cheering us on all year long.” David Malukas, No. 4 Clarience Technologies A.J. Foyt Racing Chevrolet finished 26th:  Christian Rasmussen, No. 21 Ed Carpenter Racing Splenda Stevia Chevrolet finished 27th: I got away pretty good at the start. I got a good jump and got an opportunity to go to the high side, which is where I wanted to be. It seemed like I lost the rear end. I’m not sure why. I guess it was just very low grip. It was low grip up there and around I went.

NTT INDYCAR SERIES News ConferenceSunday, August 31, 2025Josef NewgardenJonathan DiuguidPress Conference THE MODERATOR: We’re joined by the champion of the race, Josef Newgarden. First win of the season. 32nd career win, which ties him with Al Unser Jr. for ninth all time. Also joined by Penske Racing president Jonathan Diuguid. Josef, better late than ever to get a win here in 2025. Your thoughts, to do it here in Nashville? JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Very special. Never a bad time to show up and have a good day. I think the team really performed like you expect from Team Penske. I think we’ve had the same core that Team Penske’s always had throughout this whole year in a lot of ways. You saw it again today, just the men and women across the board. Really didn’t matter which car. There was a point midway through the race, I came on the radio, Look at Will, looked amazing, incredible. He could have won the race today. I think Scott could have won the race. That’s the cool thing about Team Penske. You walk into that building, it really doesn’t matter which car you’re looking at, I would be privileged to step in any one of them. I think they give you a shot to win the race. It’s cool to be part of this team. We’ve got great leadership and depth across the board. I think that’s what carried us through this weekend to bring in this result. THE MODERATOR: Jonathan, a nice finish for 2025, two at the podium, the win at Portland. A lot of good things happening towards the end. JONATHAN DIUGUID: Yeah, obviously to win the last race of the season is a good stepping off point for next year, the best way you can end the championship or season. It’s been a difficult year for us, but we’ve had strong performances the last few races. Like Josef mentioned, all three cars led laps today throughout different phases. New downforce configuration this weekend. We didn’t know how it was going to pan out. When it came time to go, Scott and Josef was at the front, Will was up there earlier on. A really solid day for the entire group. THE MODERATOR: Open it up for questions. Q. Josef, if you were sitting here a year ago, this would have been a normal thing. Felt like there’s a lot of relief after what has been the craziest year where nothing went right. Talk about this, a classic Newgarden feel to this victory. JOSEF NEWGARDEN: I don’t have a great answer for you. It doesn’t feel that different. Nothing went diabolically wrong. I tried to throw it in the bin there in the final pit stop. On the edge, but not over it (smiling). Like a meteor didn’t come out of the sky today, which was nice. Other than that, it felt like a normal day in a lot of respects. It was not an easy race. I did not have the car where I wanted it at the start right away. I’m like, Okay, we’re nowhere where we need to be, let’s be patient. We just did our thing like we always do: assessed everybody, hung there, went when we needed to go. We got the car in a really good spot in the end. I was like, Now we have a race-winning car. Let’s close the deal. That whole sequence felt very normal to me. Just proud of the team. More than anything, when I show up and I’m ready to see the team rewarded for the effort. I really mean that. You have no idea what goes on. Some of you guys do know what goes on. It is grueling to get to these races and to get through the weekend, put a car on the track that’s capable of winning, hitting all your marks every second of the race. It’s just so difficult to do. To get that reward for the team… We had it in Portland, which was great for everybody. We had it today. That’s probably the highlight for me, just to see everybody rewarded for the effort and what they put in the end. Q. (Question about many drivers with problems in the race.) JOSEF NEWGARDEN: I become so oblivious to it at this point, I’m not even looking for it anymore. If it happened, I would expect it, so… Yeah, I was just driving today. Q. John, two wins from the last three races. You said y’all aren’t really trying to do anything differently. The ingredients are there. Just needed to have clean runs. Speak to that. Seems proof that the formula is there. JONATHAN DIUGUID: Yeah, no, Josef mentioned it before, we got a good, strong core. Didn’t mean that we didn’t have difficult conversations about where we needed to be. Different issues with other cars, people making mistakes, it shows how tight the field is. We didn’t lift off the gas for these last few races, we pushed down further. I think that goes to show how we showed up today and how we raced on all three cars. Q. Josef, we used to talk about how significant it was for you to win at Indy. You won there. Talked about winning here. It’s not the same, close, but where does it rank? JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Oh, definitely up there. This was a hard race to win today. There was no gimmes. Got such depth across the board, everybody is so close as far as the competitive landscape, it’s just hard to find an advantage on anyone nowadays. This was a hard race to win. It’s satisfying when you win a race in this environment. Then to win it at my hometown was really gratifying. I mean, I used to come here when was 12, 13 years old and I would watch stockcar races, INDYCAR races. I’d watch anything that came here. I sat in those stands, wherever I was able to go at the end of the race. Had no idea that I would have a racing career at that point in my life. It’s cool to come full circle and to be so close to home. I love being here in Nashville, too, for the season finale. I like it for INDYCAR. It’s a great destination for us. Good for Nashville and certainly good for the series. I think we should continue that tradition. I love this track. Whether it’s here, somewhere else in the future, as long as we’re in the Nashville vicinity, I’m going to be a happy guy. Q. Talk about how much this means to you in terms of your confidence level going into 2026. JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Honestly no difference. I think it’s probably more a team question. This season, tough year on the team. I think the schedule was tough this year. Everybody just kept working, kept their head down, kept doing their jobs. If anything, that’s what’s gratifying I think for us as a unit. It definitely can send us into the off-season and we can go to work. At the end of the day we need to go to work. We need to have a better 2026, and we’re ready to do that. Q. Obviously your team has been informed about the tire troubles of Pato O’Ward. What was going through your mind when you had this information? Did you feel it could happen to you as well? JOSEF NEWGARDEN: I immediately got feedback from the team that we were doing a pretty good job at managing our temperatures. We seemed to be in line with our metrics. That gave me a lot of comfort. I think we heightened our awareness to it after that. The guys were feeding me a lot of information after that to make sure I stayed in line. I wasn’t too worried because of what they were telling me. Q. Penske started off the season, especially at the Indy 500, as a team who almost nothing went your way. How does this result revitalize the team going into 2026? JONATHAN DIUGUID: I think Josef mentioned it. The INDYCAR season ends beginning of September. There’s long winter off months. Being able to finish with a win, it’s the last race that everyone went to. It’s hugely rewarding and a good springboard for 2026. Q. Josef, when you saw Scott have his trouble after such a tumultuous season, what did that feel like in the cockpit where suddenly you’re in the lead, got a break that went your way? JOSEF NEWGARDEN: I’ll be straight up with you, I was about to pass him. I didn’t care. I was like whatever. That’s a real answer for you. Q. Obviously the end of the season has been much better than the beginning of the season for Team Penske. Was there a moment internally that was a pivot point in positivity? JONATHAN DIUGUID: No, not really. Obviously our short oval package is quite strong. We were strong in Iowa, Milwaukee, strong here this weekend. The calendar helped us a little bit. As Josef mentioned, we have to improve on some other types of circuits. Today it was about execution. That’s the biggest thing, showing the group and the team we could still do it. Just brings a level of excitement back. Q. After such a difficult season, is it a relief to take victory at home, knowing you would have entered a winter with a winless year? What does that mean to you, winning at home? JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Please don’t be mad at me. It really didn’t cross my mind. I wasn’t worried about any of that. For me, genuinely you got to focus on just doing the best job that you can, everything within your control. I think the same on the team side. If you do that, you leave, you do the best job you could, you can be satisfied to some degree leaving the track. That was my only focus. I had a little bit of a mistake there at that last pit stop. If that had hurt us ultimately for the result, I would have been bummed by that because that was in my control. But that was the focus is what I’m trying to tell you. I just was trying to hit my marks as best that I could today. That’s all that was going through my mind. Q. Up-and-down season. Did you take an extra moment to take this all in? The competition level in INDYCAR, these are hard to come by. JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Definitely. I mean, not yet, to answer your question. I’m ready to go home. Q. Josef, busy off-season coming up with a baby on the way. How much are you looking forward to not racing, just getting back and being a dad and husband again for a little while? JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Yeah, I mean, candidly I’m looking forward to it. I’d like to go away and start to miss it again. Sometimes that’s what you want, is to miss something. That’s my plan. Q. You mentioned throughout the season keeping the faith a little bit, looking at each race and trying to take it individually. How do you think that helped you throughout the season? JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Yeah, I mean, I think whenever there’s difficulty, I’m going to let Jonathan speak to this, it was a trying year for the team. I think for us just to stay focused. It’s one thing individually, but I think it’s even harder from a whole team standpoint to do that. JONATHAN DIUGUID: What Josef was mentioning, when you’re not winning, you can question everything. You can question Josef’s performance to the pit crew to the car setup to reliability, everything that affected our year. We really have to sit down and focus on our processes, try to trust in what you believe is right. I think what we’ve seen over the past couple races is that the processes work. We have a little bit more work to do to get back to the top of where we’re used to being. In general it’s easy to get sidetracked, get down on yourself, questioning everything. That’s where the team excelled, we just sat and talked about the facts, how we need to improve together. Q. Did you try to go whole doughnut there on the celebration? JOSEF NEWGARDEN: I did, yeah. I was going to do that. I got the angle wrong. I’ll just leave is there. I wanted to go in the crowd. I thought that was cool if they opened the gate. I almost lied about it. I was just going to half slide. But I messed it up, unfortunately. I was going to burn that thing to the ground, too. That’s the saddest thing for me. Chevrolet probably wouldn’t have been happy about that. It’s probably good what happened, to be quite honest with you. I was going to go until it stopped. Q. You said something like this was for the pigs. Can you explain that at all? JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Yeah, I said no one’s going to understand that. Chad Gordon, my crew chief on the 2 car, he gave an incredible pre-race speech in Milwaukee. I think you’ll have to ask him about this. I don’t know that I’m going to relay this speech. It involved pig farming. He had a stuffed pig today. It was for the pigs. Yeah, I don’t know how to elaborate much more on this. He gave a great team speech and we all felt it. We rallied behind that at the end of today. That’s about the only way I can surmise it for you. Q. Was this about bacon or poop? JOSEF NEWGARDEN: No, no, no. It was with team moral. JONATHAN DIUGUID: More wholesome than that. JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Very wholesome. Q. Does this win at all change how you will look back on this season? JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Boy, that’s a good question. I don’t know. No. I mean, probably not, if I really think about it. Mostly because I’ve seen the win potential in this team all year, I mean, so many different times. Whether it’s Indianapolis or it’s a place like Long Beach or St. Petersburg. Actually, I think the glaring weak point for us right now is road courses. But there’s been a lot of strength across the calendar. This win, it’s not even like it’s validation. I saw the potential of it all year for the group. I don’t really feel differently about it being realized. I’m just happy for everybody. Happy that they’re able to enjoy it. JONATHAN DIUGUID: Does keep your season winning streak alive. JOSEF NEWGARDEN: I got to be honest, I didn’t care about that anymore. I really didn’t. I know we have that. But what does it matter? I used to be a big stats guy. I don’t care about stats anymore. That doesn’t anymore, I guess is my point. Q. Did you feel something wrong with the tires or do you feel like the tires are weaker? It was said maybe we have to talk with the company because the tires are wrong with all the competition. JONATHAN DIUGUID: I think there were some tire issues today. Majority of the field got it right. The tires performed well all day, both the alternates and the primaries. Not to say that they did anything wrong. Like Josef mentioned, we kind of did our homework and knew what we needed to do. We’ve suffered with tire issues on short ovals from years ago, tried to understand what we needed to do. That’s what paid off today, not having a tire failure. But the degradation of our tires was quite low relative to everybody else. Q. Josef, as you head into this off-season, you told us yesterday you would love a week or two, then be able to get back at it, you’ve used these off-seasons to evaluate your approach. Do you have any plans on using this off-season to look at or change anything up about how you go about trying to attack 2026? JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Not at the moment. Q. About 22 laps to go, you take the lead from Scott McLaughlin. The caution flies. What was your thought there? JOSEF NEWGARDEN: At that point we were in prime position to seal the victory. That was the only thing in my mind, was let’s close the deal here. When you get an opportunity to close the deal in an INDYCAR race, you want to do that. Harder than it looks, to be quite honest with you. It’s like climbing a mountain to get to that point. You put yourself in position to say, Okay, we’ve run this day, we are here, let’s close the deal and get the result. I knew for us, they’re giving me this scorecard, this is how many laps, this is what you need to do. I’m looking at my tools, looking at everything, planning how do I need to drive this last 12 or 13 laps when it goes green. That’s what’s going through my mind. We’ve done all this work, gotten to this point, let’s close the deal and realize the victory. THE MODERATOR: Anytime you can tie the great Al Unser Jr. in the stat sheet, that’s a pretty good year. Congratulations. JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Thank you.

NTT INDYCAR SERIES News ConferenceSunday, August 31, 2025Scott McLaughlinPress Conference THE MODERATOR: Third-place finishing driver today, Scott McLaughlin. One of those races you look back and watch, a lot of action. SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: Yeah. THE MODERATOR: Your thoughts on finishing 2025 with a podium? SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: I had an absolute blast, man. That was so much fun. Restarts were intense. Yeah, it did string out a little bit, as it always does, mid to late stint. I think the exchanges and the restarts were phenomenal. Yeah, obviously bittersweet for me. Third is great. I’m glad I sort of held on to that at the end. I felt like I could have held off Josef there. He was controlling his lane. I just turned a little late, got caught. Nearly saved it. Once you’re sort of out there, it’s hard to get it back. Thankful I was able to straighten the wheel just before I hit the fence. The car was straight. I was able to push on, yeah. Very good end to our season. Great team win. But I’m pissed off at myself. THE MODERATOR: For? Could have been more? SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: I feel like it’s just been one of those years, haven’t quite put everything together. Had plenty of speed. Very lucky to get a podium today. I have to give massive props to Kyffin Simpson. Probably the best oval race I’ve had. Felt like 2006 or something. Pinned around the outside, gave me some room. If he came up, I was in the fence hard. Big props to Kyff. Really, really happy to race him. I thought the racing out there was really fair. I don’t know what happened to Malukas and Foster. Yeah, I thought it was a really good, proper goddamn INDYCAR oval race. Yeah, anyway, let’s get this going. I want to go to Broadway (smiling). THE MODERATOR: Open it up for questions for Scott McLaughlin. Q. In the long off-season is there a possibility we see you somewhere else, maybe in Europe? SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: I’m racing at Suzuka in a couple weeks in a Corvette. Working on a couple other things right now. Won’t be at Petit. It’s my daughter’s birthday, first birthday. I’ll actually be in Australia at the time spending a little bit of time there. Not racing anything, just going to hang by the beach, have a bit of fun. I don’t know. Couple little forks in the iron, in the pot. THE MODERATOR: Stokes. Iron in the fire. SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: Iron in the fire. There we go. Yeah, that’s where we’re at. Q. Would you mind taking us through those final laps with you’re battles with Kyffin Simpson. What did you think when he overtook you in the closing laps? SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: I made sure as soon as he got in front of me, I kept that lane open as much as I could. I didn’t care if I was the only one up there. I used it until I couldn’t. Kept there, kept there. I got a really good run off one, sort of psyched him to go to defend me. I wasn’t going to pass him on the inside into three. I wanted him to go so it cramped his entry. Then I was able to get a really good run through three, four. Basically just held it flat. It was one of those ones where if I’m in the fence, worst case probably sixth. Like I said, that kid raced me with a lot of respect. He’s getting better and better every week. I really did enjoy racing him. Like I said, probably my best battle ever on an oval. Q. We need some more of these bigger ovals on the schedule. They’re a lot of fun. This season for Team Penske as a whole, up and down. Talk about St. Pete to today, the roller coaster of a season you’ve had with the team. What does it mean to finish on the podium and take that momentum into the off-season? SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: Yeah, I think we’ve had really good speed all year, as we’ve always said. Not quite Palou. He’s been standout. That’s on top of everyone. Massive props to him. Everyone needs to be better. Certainly a different team, different look, different look inside. It’s got a great future. I see light at the end of the tunnel. Very excited for what’s ahead. I think Roger is pumped and ready to go. Wants not only INDYCAR to be amazing, but our team, too. He’s pushing us. Yeah, it’s exciting. Yeah, I’m glad to finish out the way it is. It’s nice to have a beautiful, long off-season. At the same time I kind of wish we had six or seven races left. It’s not realistic. These big ovals are great. We need people to come to them. At the end of the day it’s on everyone to work yourselves, everyone be positive, get people coming to our races. Very excited for the future of INDYCAR. I can’t wait to be a part of it. Hopefully we can, yeah, as a team grow and grow. Q. What does this do for your confidence going into the off-season, having had a strong end to the season? SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: Yeah, I don’t think I lost a heap of confidence throughout the year. It’s just nice to have a couple good results. Like I said, it’s bittersweet to end right now, knowing we were coming into our own a little bit, having strong results. It’s kind of nice to have this off-season now. I felt like we just got our feet on the ground with people. Now we can really work this off-season to be better, work together, smoothen things out. We know exactly where we need to be better. We have the people, the personnel, to improve. I’m very excited for that. But yeah, it’s a long off-season. Is it a needed off-season? I think so. It’s going to be really nice for us. Yeah, I’m sad as a race car driver I’m not racing my car next week. Q. It’s been a tough season across the board for everybody at Team Penske. A little bit of cause to celebrate when Will won a couple weeks ago. Roger finally I don’t want to say looked ecstatic, but he looked relieved when he left Victory Lane. How important was it to finally see the guy that runs everything to get a break? SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: Yeah, I mean, I’m glad Josef won because I would have got a kick up the ass. Fantastic. I’m very happy for Roger. He’s been through a lot obviously. But he’s a great leader, someone that I respect immensely. Yeah, very happy for him to just get some results. As we know, we are strong on ovals. We needed to be better at other places. Important we had a win here. Important that we won on an oval. Yeah, it’s just nice to give him some results and give him something to be happy with. Q. When you had the moment out of turn two, how quickly did you go from being upset that you nearly lost it to the fact that you realized you’re not in that bad of shape? SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: Yeah, I dropped the right rear. I tried to save it. Went up the track a little bit. Then I knew I was definitely gone. I tried to sort of pedal it a little bit and straighten the wheel when I hit the fence. Thankfully that saved it. I was pleased. Entry of three, this thing is kind of still straight. For me it was just about cleaning the tires off. Benny, my engineer/strategist, was super good on the radio, kept me calm, which is sometimes hard to do. Yeah, the restart, I think Conor Daly, he had alternates on, a mushy feeling tire. Softer, but felt a little bit loose on the restart. That’s why I lost out to Palou there. Yeah, I’m sad I probably didn’t get to keep second because I think I had something there for Josef. Would have been fun. Hey, we’re good. Keep pushing. Q. Penske started off the season and especially at the Indy 500 as a team where almost nothing went your way. How does this result revitalize the team going into 2026? SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: Like I said, it’s bittersweet to end right now because we’re on a bit of a momentum. Gives us a chance to reset, recuperate, smoothen things out within the team. We’re in a great spot right now. Really genuinely see a lot of light at the end of the tunnel. Everyone is getting better. We’ve got to get better ourselves. But I’m really trusting and confident that the (indiscernible) gets better, get better for next year, start the season right in 2026. 2026? Jesus. Q. You mentioned your battle with Kyffin. You were teammates in IMSA. You hear a lot of drivers talk about the best oval racing happens when you trust the driver that is alongside of you. Talk about your relationship. SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: Outside of the LMP2 thing, I haven’t raced Kyffin a ton, at least on an oval. I put a lot of trust in what Kyffin was doing. I raced him how I would race Alex Palou or Josef or anyone like that. He raced me like them. That’s a huge credit to him and his development. I know he’s put a lot of work in to be better, be stronger. Obviously he’s in a Ganassi car, which is strong. We all know that. Still got to pedal the thing. He ran a really good race. Yeah, man, I couldn’t believe how long we were side by side for, especially in P3, P4. I thought it would have run out, he would have washed it up. Honestly thought I was in the fence probably four or five laps to go. I thought he was going to wash up. I was sort of prepared for it. Yeah, like stellar job by him. I’m no oval veteran. Like, I got a little bit more experience. It was nice to race a dude that genuinely respected the outside lane. Honestly, man, it felt like I was Helio and Sam Hornish. It was sick. It was really cool. I was trying to give the fans something. When I went across the line, I could see everybody – probably cheering Josef – but thought they were cheering me (laughter). We had a good time. Good kid. THE MODERATOR: Great way to finish up 2025. Congratulations. SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: Cheers.

Chevrolet wins at Nashville Superspeedway: 1 2025 – Josef Newgarden – Team Penske2002 – Alex Baron – Blair Racing Chevrolet poles at Nashville Superspeedway: 2 2025 – Pato O’Ward – Arrow McLaren2005 – Tomas Scheckter – Panther Racing Chevrolet podiums at Nashville Superspeedway: 7 Chevrolet podiums at Nashville Superspeedway by driver: Josef Newgarden (2), Alex Barron (1), Gil de Ferran (1), Sam Hornish (1), Scott McLaughlin (1), Pato O’Ward (1) Chevrolet podiums at the Milwaukee Mile by team: Team Penske (4), Arrow McLaren (1), Blair Racing (1), Panther Racing (1) Chevrolet laps led at Nashville Superspeedway: 272 Chevrolet laps led at Nashville Superspeedway by driver: Pato O’Ward (137), Josef Newgarden (114), Sam Hornish (99), Alexander Rossi (48), Tony Renna (35), Scott Sharp (16), Alex Barron (11), Scott McLaughlin (7), Will Power (5), Conor Daly (2), David Malukas (1)Chevrolet laps led at Nashville Superspeedway by team: Arrow McLaren (169), Team Penske (126), Panther Racing (103), Kelley Racing (51), Blair Racing (11), Juncos Hollinger Racing (2), A.J. Foyt Racing (1) Manufacturer History at Nashville Superspeedway Wins (with competition): 3 – Honda (2024, 2005, 2004)3 – General Motors (Chevrolet/Oldsmobile)2 – Chevrolet (2002, 2025)1 – Oldsmobile (2001)1 – Toyota (2003) Poles (with competition): 2 – Honda (2024, 2004)2 – General Motors (Chevrolet/Oldsmobile)1 – Chevrolet (2005)1 – Infiniti (2002)1 – Oldsmobile (1)1 – Toyota (2003)

August 31, 2025 — LEBANON, TN

• Honda sweeps 2025 NTT INDYCAR SERIES titles
• Palou, Honda wrapped up drivers’ and manufacturers’ titles in Portland
• Louis Foster clinches Rookie of the Year in battle to the line

Alex Palou bolstered his incredible championship season with another podium finish in the 2025 NTT INDYCAR SERIES season finale at Nashville Superspeedway.

Palou led the charge for Honda this season, taking 8 of the 12 Honda-powered wins en route to the drivers’ and manufacturers’ titles. Palou’s wins included St. Petersburg, Thermal, Barber, the Indy GP, Road America, Iowa, and Laguna Seca, as well as a win at the 109th running of the Indianapolis 500. His podium today makes 13 podium finishes in 17 races in 2025.

Honda’s other four wins this season came at the hands of Andretti Global’s Kyle Kirkwood—at the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach, Detroit Grand Prix and World Wide Technology Raceway—as well as Palou’s Chip Ganassi Racing teammate Scott Dixon at the Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio presented by the all-new 2026 Passport.

Kirkwood finished the year fourth in the championship standings, while Scott Dixon took home third place. All-in-all six Honda-powered drivers finished in the top-10 in the championship points standings including Felix Rosenqvist (P6), Colton Herta (P7) and Marcus Armstrong (P8).

Those 12 victories propelled Honda to their seventh championship in the NTT INDYCAR SERIES and 11th in American Open Wheel competition. Honda’s previous titles came in 1996, 1998, 1999, 2001, 2004, 2005 and a four-year consecutive run from 2018 to 2021.

Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing’s Louis Foster’s Rookie of the Year title is the fourth-consecutive Rookie of the Year win for a Honda-powered driver. The battle between Foster and Robert Shwartzman came down to just two points at the finish, 213-211.

This year is the first year since 2005 that Honda has won the Indianapolis 500 and swept all three IndyCar championships in the same season.

Borchetta Bourbon Music City Grand Prix Honda Race Results      

2nd Alex Palou	Chip Ganassi Racing Honda
4th Kyffin Simpson	Chip Ganassi Racing Honda
6th Kyle Kirkwood	Andretti Global Honda
7th Felix Rosenqvist	Meyer Shank Racing Honda
11th Colton Herta	Andretti Global Honda
12th Scott Dixon	Chip Ganassi Racing Honda
13th Rinus VeeKay	Dale Coyne Racing Honda
15th Marcus Ericsson	Andretti Global Honda
18th Devlin DeFrancesco	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Honda
19th Marcus Armstrong	Meyer Shank Racing Honda
20th Louis Foster-R	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Honda
22nd Graham Rahal	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Honda
23rd Jacob Abel-R	Dale Coyne Racing Honda

R – Rookie

Quotes

Alex Palou (#10 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda) finished second, 2025 champion: “I’m happy, but also a little sad that the season has just ended and that we couldn’t get the win as well to close it out. I tried really, really hard but I was not really comfortable with the car in the second lane, so that made it a bit tough when heading into traffic. I feel as though the #10 Honda was the fastest car when running in clean air. We had all the speed that we needed; it was just not the best at going through traffic. I’m still super happy with the P2 and of course to celebrate the championship today. I can’t thank this #10 team, that has been working so hard to make us so good on track, enough. I also can’t thank Honda enough—congratulations to everyone at Honda and HRC. Let’s do it again!”

Kyffin Simpson (#8 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda) finished fourth: “The #8 Honda felt great. We had great power and it was super strong all day. It felt like we could race against anyone in the field on that restart near the end. We were super strong from the get-go and I was able to capitalize on it. It was a great, great day for us, for Honda, and for Chip Ganassi Racing. I’m super happy about it!”

Kyle Kirkwood (#27 Andretti Global Honda) finished sixth: “It was a good day for the Hondas. Not quite a win here today, but very, very close. It was smooth sailing for us for most of the race until around lap 200, I got pinched onto the apron and it almost sent me into the wall. I was able to save it, but that cost us a handful of positions but that’s part of it. We’ll take a sixth place today, and we finished fourth in the championship, which is huge. Good day for us in the #27 Honda. We’ve secured the manufacturers’ championship for Honda, and this team has worked tirelessly to get us further up in the drivers’ championship than we’ve ever been. It’s certainly been a great season.”

Louis Foster (#45 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda) Rookie of the Year: “This means a lot. This is the main thing that the team has been trying to achieve this year. Rookie of the Year was one of our biggest goals to accomplish and we managed to just scrape it right the end. It’s a great relief, honestly. I’m super, super happy that we’ve been able to do that and massive thank you to RLL and Honda. I think there’s a lot to learn still, but we’ve also learned a lot in return. There’s still more to come from me and the team. Next year and we’re going to work hard to try and achieve even more.”

Champion Alex Palou finishes second in Nashville, Louis Foster takes Rookie of the Year crown

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August 31, 2025 — LEBANON, TN

• Honda sweeps 2025 NTT INDYCAR SERIES titles
• Palou, Honda wrapped up drivers’ and manufacturers’ titles in Portland
• Louis Foster clinches Rookie of the Year in battle to the line

Alex Palou bolstered his incredible championship season with another podium finish in the 2025 NTT INDYCAR SERIES season finale at Nashville Superspeedway.

Palou led the charge for Honda this season, taking 8 of the 12 Honda-powered wins en route to the drivers’ and manufacturers’ titles. Palou’s wins included St. Petersburg, Thermal, Barber, the Indy GP, Road America, Iowa, and Laguna Seca, as well as a win at the 109th running of the Indianapolis 500. His podium today makes 13 podium finishes in 17 races in 2025.

Honda’s other four wins this season came at the hands of Andretti Global’s Kyle Kirkwood—at the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach, Detroit Grand Prix and World Wide Technology Raceway—as well as Palou’s Chip Ganassi Racing teammate Scott Dixon at the Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio presented by the all-new 2026 Passport.

Kirkwood finished the year fourth in the championship standings, while Scott Dixon took home third place. All-in-all six Honda-powered drivers finished in the top-10 in the championship points standings including Felix Rosenqvist (P6), Colton Herta (P7) and Marcus Armstrong (P8).

Those 12 victories propelled Honda to their seventh championship in the NTT INDYCAR SERIES and 11th in American Open Wheel competition. Honda’s previous titles came in 1996, 1998, 1999, 2001, 2004, 2005 and a four-year consecutive run from 2018 to 2021.

Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing’s Louis Foster’s Rookie of the Year title is the fourth-consecutive Rookie of the Year win for a Honda-powered driver. The battle between Foster and Robert Shwartzman came down to just two points at the finish, 213-211.

This year is the first year since 2005 that Honda has won the Indianapolis 500 and swept all three IndyCar championships in the same season.

Borchetta Bourbon Music City Grand Prix Honda Race Results      

2nd Alex Palou	Chip Ganassi Racing Honda
4th Kyffin Simpson	Chip Ganassi Racing Honda
6th Kyle Kirkwood	Andretti Global Honda
7th Felix Rosenqvist	Meyer Shank Racing Honda
11th Colton Herta	Andretti Global Honda
12th Scott Dixon	Chip Ganassi Racing Honda
13th Rinus VeeKay	Dale Coyne Racing Honda
15th Marcus Ericsson	Andretti Global Honda
18th Devlin DeFrancesco	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Honda
19th Marcus Armstrong	Meyer Shank Racing Honda
20th Louis Foster-R	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Honda
22nd Graham Rahal	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Honda
23rd Jacob Abel-R	Dale Coyne Racing Honda

R – Rookie

Quotes

Alex Palou (#10 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda) finished second, 2025 champion: “I’m happy, but also a little sad that the season has just ended and that we couldn’t get the win as well to close it out. I tried really, really hard but I was not really comfortable with the car in the second lane, so that made it a bit tough when heading into traffic. I feel as though the #10 Honda was the fastest car when running in clean air. We had all the speed that we needed; it was just not the best at going through traffic. I’m still super happy with the P2 and of course to celebrate the championship today. I can’t thank this #10 team, that has been working so hard to make us so good on track, enough. I also can’t thank Honda enough—congratulations to everyone at Honda and HRC. Let’s do it again!”

Kyffin Simpson (#8 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda) finished fourth: “The #8 Honda felt great. We had great power and it was super strong all day. It felt like we could race against anyone in the field on that restart near the end. We were super strong from the get-go and I was able to capitalize on it. It was a great, great day for us, for Honda, and for Chip Ganassi Racing. I’m super happy about it!”

Kyle Kirkwood (#27 Andretti Global Honda) finished sixth: “It was a good day for the Hondas. Not quite a win here today, but very, very close. It was smooth sailing for us for most of the race until around lap 200, I got pinched onto the apron and it almost sent me into the wall. I was able to save it, but that cost us a handful of positions but that’s part of it. We’ll take a sixth place today, and we finished fourth in the championship, which is huge. Good day for us in the #27 Honda. We’ve secured the manufacturers’ championship for Honda, and this team has worked tirelessly to get us further up in the drivers’ championship than we’ve ever been. It’s certainly been a great season.”

Louis Foster (#45 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda) Rookie of the Year: “This means a lot. This is the main thing that the team has been trying to achieve this year. Rookie of the Year was one of our biggest goals to accomplish and we managed to just scrape it right the end. It’s a great relief, honestly. I’m super, super happy that we’ve been able to do that and massive thank you to RLL and Honda. I think there’s a lot to learn still, but we’ve also learned a lot in return. There’s still more to come from me and the team. Next year and we’re going to work hard to try and achieve even more.”

David Salters (President, Honda Racing Corporation USA): “Indy 500 win, Drivers’ Championship, Manufacturers’ Championship, Rookie of the Year, 12 wins and 10 pole positions from 17 races—winning the first 10 in succession—what an absolutely superb achievement for Honda by our brilliant HRC associates. There is no greater pleasure than contributing to Honda Racing’s rich racing history and heritage. Our teams were brilliant, all contributed points towards the manufacturers’ championship, together with Chip Ganassi’s outstanding team at CGR and the prodigiously talented Alex Palou, we had a dominant season. The greatest achievement in a sporting series is to dominate, it happens rarely. Thank you to the challenging spirit of our Honda Racing associates, we dominated. We will pat each other on the back, hug, and enjoy the moment, then re-group and back to work. Thank you team HRC US—Bravo!”

Trent Lowe (48) leads Henry Wiles (911) and Brandon Price (92) during the Mission AFT SuperTwins Main Event Sunday at the Springfield Mile II presented by Drag Specialties event. [Photo: American Flat Track/Tim Lester] DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (August 31, 2025) – Trent Lowe (No. 48 American Honda/Progressive Insurance Honda Transalp) scored Honda’s first twin-cylinder premier-class victory in more than a quarter century in a momentous and pivotal Springfield Mile II presented by Drag Specialties, the penultimate round of the 2025 Progressive American Flat Track season, sanctioned by AMA Pro Racing.  Lowe dove past long-time leader Dallas Daniels (No. 32 Estenson Racing Yamaha MT-07 DT) entering Turn 3 on the race’s final lap and then held off the Mission AFT SuperTwins title contender by a scant 0.026-second margin at the checkered flag.  Despite that minor disappointment, it was still a huge day for Daniels at the Illinois State Fairgrounds in Springfield, Illinois, when taking the bigger picture into consideration.   While seven riders finished within a second of the win, three of the race’s most significant figures weren’t included among them. Early leader Jeffrey Carver, Jr. (No. 123 Happy Trails Racing, Carver’s BBQ Kawasaki Ninja 650) was the first to pull out with mechanical issues. He was joined a few minutes later by AFT Singles champ Tom Drane (No. 59 Estenson Racing Yamaha MT-07 DT), who was ensconced in the lead pack in his premier-class debut before being forced out with problems of his own.  Moments later – and most consequentially of all – then-Grand National Championship leader Briar Bauman (No. 3 RWR/Parts Plus/Latus Motors Harley-Davidson XG750R) was black-flagged while racing up front as a result of smoke that billowed from his machine.  Daniels’ runner-up, combined with Bauman being credited in 14th, completely alters the championship outlook with just a single race remaining. The Estenson Racing Yamaha rider now leads his Rick Ware Racing Harley rival by 13 points with only 23 points left in play. That means even if Bauman wins the finale, Daniels needs to finish just seventh or better in order to defeat him for the ‘25 Mission AFT SuperTwins crown.  Despite that shift, this day belongs to Lowe, who delivered the Big Red SuperTwins program its first win since kicking off the initial development of a Honda Transalp-based racebike ahead of the 2024 season. It was also the first for Lowe, who had already made a strong impression in his first full premier-class season.  The Indiana native’s win was the first for a Honda twin-cylinder since Rich King claimed victory at the 1998 Joliet Half-Mile aboard a Honda RS750. It was also the first such podium since King finished second at the Springfield Mile later that same year. Honda’s last win of any kind in the premier-class came back in 2016 with Jake Johnson riding a Honda CRF450R at the DAYTONA Short Track II.  Afterward, Lowe said, “First and foremost, I want to thank my whole team. I’ve been a little bit of a pain, but there has to be a little bit of conflict in the pit area just to kind of get everything going. I’m serious, they’re serious. We all want to figure this out.   “I have to give a huge shout out to Mission Foods, Jerry Stinchfield, Mike Turner and the whole Turner family, Steve Watt, Kenny Coolbeth, Randy Triplett, Mike Lozano, the whole Maxwell Industries crew, and Al Lamb’s Dallas Honda… I’m just so thankful for this. These guys put so much into this. It just means a lot to finally get one here.”  Meanwhile, Brandon Price (No. 92 HRP Racing/Duffs Speed Machine Yamaha MT-07) closed out a remarkable comeback weekend with a third to add to yesterday’s runner-up.   He was followed closely to the line by Declan Bender (No. 70 Memphis Shades/Luczak Racing Yamaha MT-07), Henry Wiles (No. 911 1st Impressions Racing KTM 790 Duke), and Brandon Robinson (No. 44 Mission Roof Systems Harley-Davidson XG750R).  Davis Fisher (No. 67 Rackley Racing/Bob Lanphere’s BMC Racing KTM 790 Duke) was the last rider to finish in the lead pack, just 0.548 seconds off the win yet relegated to seventh in the final order.

Lowe Takes Honda to Victory, Daniels Grabs Command of Title Fight in Consequential Springfield Mile II

Trent Lowe (48) leads Henry Wiles (911) and Brandon Price (92) during the Mission AFT SuperTwins Main Event Sunday at the Springfield Mile II presented by Drag Specialties event. [Photo: American Flat Track/Tim Lester] DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (August 31, 2025) – Trent Lowe (No. 48 American Honda/Progressive Insurance Honda Transalp) scored Honda’s first twin-cylinder premier-class victory in more than a quarter century in a momentous and pivotal Springfield Mile II presented by Drag Specialties, the penultimate round of the 2025 Progressive American Flat Track season, sanctioned by AMA Pro Racing.  Lowe dove past long-time leader Dallas Daniels (No. 32 Estenson Racing Yamaha MT-07 DT) entering Turn 3 on the race’s final lap and then held off the Mission AFT SuperTwins title contender by a scant 0.026-second margin at the checkered flag.  Despite that minor disappointment, it was still a huge day for Daniels at the Illinois State Fairgrounds in Springfield, Illinois, when taking the bigger picture into consideration.   While seven riders finished within a second of the win, three of the race’s most significant figures weren’t included among them. Early leader Jeffrey Carver, Jr. (No. 123 Happy Trails Racing, Carver’s BBQ Kawasaki Ninja 650) was the first to pull out with mechanical issues. He was joined a few minutes later by AFT Singles champ Tom Drane (No. 59 Estenson Racing Yamaha MT-07 DT), who was ensconced in the lead pack in his premier-class debut before being forced out with problems of his own.  Moments later – and most consequentially of all – then-Grand National Championship leader Briar Bauman (No. 3 RWR/Parts Plus/Latus Motors Harley-Davidson XG750R) was black-flagged while racing up front as a result of smoke that billowed from his machine.  Daniels’ runner-up, combined with Bauman being credited in 14th, completely alters the championship outlook with just a single race remaining. The Estenson Racing Yamaha rider now leads his Rick Ware Racing Harley rival by 13 points with only 23 points left in play. That means even if Bauman wins the finale, Daniels needs to finish just seventh or better in order to defeat him for the ‘25 Mission AFT SuperTwins crown.  Despite that shift, this day belongs to Lowe, who delivered the Big Red SuperTwins program its first win since kicking off the initial development of a Honda Transalp-based racebike ahead of the 2024 season. It was also the first for Lowe, who had already made a strong impression in his first full premier-class season.  The Indiana native’s win was the first for a Honda twin-cylinder since Rich King claimed victory at the 1998 Joliet Half-Mile aboard a Honda RS750. It was also the first such podium since King finished second at the Springfield Mile later that same year. Honda’s last win of any kind in the premier-class came back in 2016 with Jake Johnson riding a Honda CRF450R at the DAYTONA Short Track II.  Afterward, Lowe said, “First and foremost, I want to thank my whole team. I’ve been a little bit of a pain, but there has to be a little bit of conflict in the pit area just to kind of get everything going. I’m serious, they’re serious. We all want to figure this out.   “I have to give a huge shout out to Mission Foods, Jerry Stinchfield, Mike Turner and the whole Turner family, Steve Watt, Kenny Coolbeth, Randy Triplett, Mike Lozano, the whole Maxwell Industries crew, and Al Lamb’s Dallas Honda… I’m just so thankful for this. These guys put so much into this. It just means a lot to finally get one here.”  Meanwhile, Brandon Price (No. 92 HRP Racing/Duffs Speed Machine Yamaha MT-07) closed out a remarkable comeback weekend with a third to add to yesterday’s runner-up.   He was followed closely to the line by Declan Bender (No. 70 Memphis Shades/Luczak Racing Yamaha MT-07), Henry Wiles (No. 911 1st Impressions Racing KTM 790 Duke), and Brandon Robinson (No. 44 Mission Roof Systems Harley-Davidson XG750R).  Davis Fisher (No. 67 Rackley Racing/Bob Lanphere’s BMC Racing KTM 790 Duke) was the last rider to finish in the lead pack, just 0.548 seconds off the win yet relegated to seventh in the final order.

Trent Lowe (48) celebrates his Main Event victory with the team and the checkered flag Sunday. [Photo: American Flat Track/Tim Lester] AFT Singles presented by KICKER  With the 2025 championship already decided, the AFT Singles presented by KICKER category simply delivered a Springfield Mile classic. A huge pack of riders went bar-to-bar for ten minutes plus two laps, with 11 riders taking the checkered flag within a second of victory.  But despite the extraordinarily close margin, victory once again belonged to the newly crowned class king, Tom Drane (No. 59 Estenson Racing Yamaha YZ450F).  The Australian cemented his reputation as a young master of the Springfield Mile, now boasting five wins in the last six AFT Singles Main Events contested at the venue (and that’s even after compacting yesterday’s 1-1-1 into a single victory).  Other than a single, momentary stint outside the top five, Drane factored heavily at the front throughout, trading the lead with fellow front-row runners Trevor Brunner (No. 21 American Honda/Mission Foods CRF450R), Chad Cose (No. 49 1st Impressions Race Team Husqvarna FC450), and polesitter Kage Tadman (No. 288 1st Impressions Race Team Husqvarna FC450).  Meanwhile, Jared Lowe (No. 63 Big R/Little Debbie Racing Honda CRF450R), Bradon Pfanders(No. 83 Hannum’s HD/Pfanders Racing KTM 450 SX-F), and Tyler Raggio (No. 55 Raggio/Sluggo/Unsettled Racing KTM 450 SX-F) poked at them from meters behind, with Walker Porter (No. 100 American Honda/Mission Foods CRF450R), Aidan RoosEvans (No. 26 FRA Trust/ATV’s and More Yamaha YZ450F), Hunter Bauer (No. 24 Vinson Construction/Reel Medics Yamaha YZ450F), and Ryder Reese (No. 244 Mission Foods Roof Systems) a double draft away from pulling the upset.  Despite the seeming unpredictability of the contest, Drane calmly positioned himself where he needed to be on the final lap, pulling in behind late leader Brunner as the pack negotiated the race’s final two corners.  The Estenson Racing star pulled out at just the right moment, soaring past in time to grab the checkered flag by 0.028 seconds over the Turner Honda pilot.  “I’ve had a really good run here,” Drane said. “Ever since we first came here in ‘22, I’ve always done well here. I had a great bike underneath me, which really helped. Big thanks to my whole Estenson Racing Monster Energy team. They’ve put in a lot of work and given me a really fast bike. It’s been amazing. We’ve had a really good year.”  Cose edged teammate Tadman once again for third, the two taking the stripe 0.086 and 0.150 seconds behind Drane, respectively.  Raggio edged Lowe and Pfanders for fifth, while Porter, RoosEvans, and Bauer rounded out the top ten. Rookie Reese missed out on a third-career top ten despite finishing just 0.892 behind race winner Drane.  Speaking of Drane, he now has seven race wins on the season and 18 for his career, putting him in position to tie Dallas Daniels and Kody Kopp for most single-season wins and Shayna Texter-Bauman for second in career AFT Singles Main Event wins in two weeks at the ‘25 season finale.  Next Up:  Progressive American Flat Track will conclude an epic 2025 Grand National Championship season with the Arby’s Lake Ozark Short Track presented by Arrowhead Brass at Lake Ozark Speedway in Eldon, Missouri, on Saturday, September 13.  Visit https://www.tixr.com/groups/americanflattrack/events/lake-ozark-short-track-126438 to purchase your tickets now.  For those that can’t catch the live action from the circuit, FloRacing is the live streaming home of Progressive AFT. Sign up now and catch every second of on-track action starting with Practice & Qualifying and ending with the Victory Podium at the end of the night at https://flosports.link/aft.  FOX Sports coverage of the Springfield Mile I presented by Drag Specialties, featuring in-depth features and thrilling onboard cameras, will premiere on FS1 on Saturday, September 6, at 10:00 a.m. ET (7:00 a.m. PT). The Springfield Mile II presented by Drag Specialties will air the following Saturday, September 13, at  10:00 a.m. ET (7:00 a.m. PT)

Toyota drivers qualify in prime positions for Monday’s eliminations

INDIANAPOLIS (Aug. 31, 2025) – Kalitta Motorsports’ Doug Kalitta and J.R. Todd swept the nitro categories’ Mission Foods #2Fast2Tasty Challenges on Saturday during qualifying for the U.S. Nationals at Indianapolis Raceway Park. Kalitta claimed his fifth Mission Foods #2Fast2Tasty Challenge win, which crowned him the Top Fuel challenge champion of 2025, gaining valuable bonus points for the Countdown to the Championship that begins in two weeks. For Todd, it was his second challenge win of the season that joined his challenge triumph at Bristol in June. The wins by Kalitta and Todd completed Toyota’s streak of victories in all 13 challenge events this season in either Top Fuel or Funny Car. 

Kalitta was also the quickest Toyota Top Fuel Dragster after the five qualifying sessions, earning the No. 4 seed and moving into second in the Top Fuel points standings ahead of tomorrow’s regular season finale. Shawn Langdon, Kalitta’s teammate and the Top Fuel points leader, enters tomorrow as the sixth seed and 47 points in front of Kalitta as he searches to win the inaugural Top Fuel regular season championship. Langdon also posted a 340.90 mph speed in Q4, which set the track speed record at Indianapolis Raceway Park. 

In Funny Car, Ron Capps led the Toyota GR Supra Funny Car contingent, earning the No. 3 seed for tomorrow’s eliminations as he seeks his third U.S. Nationals win. Todd will be the No. 7 seed tomorrow and Julie Nataas starts tomorrow 15th.

Eliminations of the U.S. Nationals from Indianapolis Raceway Park begin tomorrow at 10 a.m. EST with live TV coverage beginning at 2 p.m. EST on FOX.

Toyota Post-Qualifying Recap

NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series 

Indianapolis Raceway Park

U.S. Nationals

Race 14 of 20

TOYOTA TOP FUEL QUALIFYING POSITIONS

Name	Car	Qualifying Position	First Round Opponent
Brittany Force*	Cornwell Tools Chevrolet Dragster	1st	I. Zetterstrom
Doug Kalitta	Mac Tools Toyota Top Fuel Dragster	4th	T. Schumacher
Antron Brown	Matco Tools Toyota Top Fuel Dragster	5th	J. Ashley
Shawn Langdon	Applied Innovation/Kalitta Air Careers Toyota Top Fuel Dragster	6th	C. Millican
Steve Torrence	CAPCO Contractors Toyota Top Fuel Dragster	7th	T. Stewart
Justin Ashley	SCAG Power Equipment Toyota Top Fuel Dragster	12th	A. Brown

TOYOTA FUNNY CAR QUALIFYING POSITIONS  

Name	Car	Qualifying Position	First Round Opponent
Jack Beckman*	Peak Chevrolet Funny Car	1st*	J. Schriefer
Ron Capps	Carlyle Tools Toyota GR Supra Funny Car	3rd	S. Hyde
J.R. Todd	DHL Toyota GR Supra Funny Car	7th	B. Tasca III
Julie Nataas	Airmine DC Motorsports Toyota GR Supra Funny Car	15th	A. Prock

*non-Toyota driver

TOYOTA QUOTES

DOUG KALITTA, Mac Tools Toyota Top Fuel Dragster, Kalitta Motorsports

TF Qualifying Result: 4th

How are you feeling entering tomorrow’s eliminations?

“Yeah, so we ended up fourth for tomorrow. Looks like it’s going to be a good spot to start in. Conditions will be cool at 10 a.m. (when eliminations begin), so hopefully, we should have a good car for tomorrow. The Mac Tools Toyota Dragster is running well, so we’ll see how it goes!”

You also claimed another #2Fast2Tasty Challenge win. How does it feel?

“Yeah, I’m super stoked with all of my guys. Alan (Johnson, crew chief) and Mac (Savage, crew chief) and all the Mac Tools Toyota guys. We couldn’t have done it without Mission Foods and everybody that supports this great effort out here. It’s just great to race on a Saturday, or Sunday, (in the Mission Foods #2Fast2Tasty Challenge). It’s greatly appreciated all that they do for us and just real fortunate to pull this off.”

J.R. TODD, DHL Toyota GR Supra Funny Car, Kalitta Motorsports

FC Qualifying Result: 7th

How nice is it to end Saturday with a #2Fast2Tasty Challenge win?

KALITTA, TODD SWEEP #2FAST2TASTY CHALLENGES IN U.S. NATIONALS QUALIFYING

Toyota drivers qualify in prime positions for Monday’s eliminations

INDIANAPOLIS (Aug. 31, 2025) – Kalitta Motorsports’ Doug Kalitta and J.R. Todd swept the nitro categories’ Mission Foods #2Fast2Tasty Challenges on Saturday during qualifying for the U.S. Nationals at Indianapolis Raceway Park. Kalitta claimed his fifth Mission Foods #2Fast2Tasty Challenge win, which crowned him the Top Fuel challenge champion of 2025, gaining valuable bonus points for the Countdown to the Championship that begins in two weeks. For Todd, it was his second challenge win of the season that joined his challenge triumph at Bristol in June. The wins by Kalitta and Todd completed Toyota’s streak of victories in all 13 challenge events this season in either Top Fuel or Funny Car. 

Kalitta was also the quickest Toyota Top Fuel Dragster after the five qualifying sessions, earning the No. 4 seed and moving into second in the Top Fuel points standings ahead of tomorrow’s regular season finale. Shawn Langdon, Kalitta’s teammate and the Top Fuel points leader, enters tomorrow as the sixth seed and 47 points in front of Kalitta as he searches to win the inaugural Top Fuel regular season championship. Langdon also posted a 340.90 mph speed in Q4, which set the track speed record at Indianapolis Raceway Park. 

In Funny Car, Ron Capps led the Toyota GR Supra Funny Car contingent, earning the No. 3 seed for tomorrow’s eliminations as he seeks his third U.S. Nationals win. Todd will be the No. 7 seed tomorrow and Julie Nataas starts tomorrow 15th.

Eliminations of the U.S. Nationals from Indianapolis Raceway Park begin tomorrow at 10 a.m. EST with live TV coverage beginning at 2 p.m. EST on FOX.

Toyota Post-Qualifying Recap

NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series 

Indianapolis Raceway Park

U.S. Nationals

Race 14 of 20

TOYOTA TOP FUEL QUALIFYING POSITIONS

Name	Car	Qualifying Position	First Round Opponent
Brittany Force*	Cornwell Tools Chevrolet Dragster	1st	I. Zetterstrom
Doug Kalitta	Mac Tools Toyota Top Fuel Dragster	4th	T. Schumacher
Antron Brown	Matco Tools Toyota Top Fuel Dragster	5th	J. Ashley
Shawn Langdon	Applied Innovation/Kalitta Air Careers Toyota Top Fuel Dragster	6th	C. Millican
Steve Torrence	CAPCO Contractors Toyota Top Fuel Dragster	7th	T. Stewart
Justin Ashley	SCAG Power Equipment Toyota Top Fuel Dragster	12th	A. Brown

TOYOTA FUNNY CAR QUALIFYING POSITIONS  

Name	Car	Qualifying Position	First Round Opponent
Jack Beckman*	Peak Chevrolet Funny Car	1st*	J. Schriefer
Ron Capps	Carlyle Tools Toyota GR Supra Funny Car	3rd	S. Hyde
J.R. Todd	DHL Toyota GR Supra Funny Car	7th	B. Tasca III
Julie Nataas	Airmine DC Motorsports Toyota GR Supra Funny Car	15th	A. Prock

*non-Toyota driver

TOYOTA QUOTES

DOUG KALITTA, Mac Tools Toyota Top Fuel Dragster, Kalitta Motorsports

TF Qualifying Result: 4th

How are you feeling entering tomorrow’s eliminations?

“Yeah, so we ended up fourth for tomorrow. Looks like it’s going to be a good spot to start in. Conditions will be cool at 10 a.m. (when eliminations begin), so hopefully, we should have a good car for tomorrow. The Mac Tools Toyota Dragster is running well, so we’ll see how it goes!”

You also claimed another #2Fast2Tasty Challenge win. How does it feel?

“Yeah, I’m super stoked with all of my guys. Alan (Johnson, crew chief) and Mac (Savage, crew chief) and all the Mac Tools Toyota guys. We couldn’t have done it without Mission Foods and everybody that supports this great effort out here. It’s just great to race on a Saturday, or Sunday, (in the Mission Foods #2Fast2Tasty Challenge). It’s greatly appreciated all that they do for us and just real fortunate to pull this off.”

J.R. TODD, DHL Toyota GR Supra Funny Car, Kalitta Motorsports

FC Qualifying Result: 7th

How nice is it to end Saturday with a #2Fast2Tasty Challenge win?

“Wish it was Monday! Yeah, it’s good to get some bonus money, and bonus points are the biggest thing going into the Countdown. It’s great to have Mr. Gonzalez (Juan Gonzalez, CEO, Mission Foods) here from Mission Foods to give us a chance to put on a race for the fans on a Saturday. Want to thank them for coming out and supporting us. Yeah, that was wild. I was about to go when he (Austin Prock) did and next thing you know, the win light is on. We go up there and spin, but either way, the big picture is Dickie (Venables, crew chief) is saying ‘we’re working towards race day,’ and I’m kind of seeing what we can get away with. I like that mentality.”

GREAT FALLS, MT (Aug. 30, 2025) — It’s been an uphill battle for Seth Bergman in 2025, but the reigning American Sprint Car Series champion endured the struggles and finally broke through to Victory Lane Saturday night at Electric City Speedway.

The reigning Series champion from Snohomish, WA, has not been silent about he and his team’s struggles through the first half of the year, notching only two top-five finishes and no wins in his first six Series races before diverting from the national schedule in late June. But after a return to the national 360 circuit last weekend — posting back-to-back runner-up efforts at fellow Montana oval Big Sky Speedway — Bergman let his improvements shine again on Saturday, leading the final 14 laps of the main event to win the finale of the Montana Roundup.

“Our team definitely needed this win,” Bergman said. “It feels good to be leaving a racetrack, for once this year, feeling good about it and getting a win.”

Despite the difficulties Bergman and his team have experienced with their new equipment this season, they never gave up or lost hope. It paid off in the end, awarding Bergman his first career Feature win at Electric Cit, the 26th of his national Series career and first since November 2024.

“It’s been such a struggle, and it’s been a while since we’ve won a race,” Bergman said. “There’s no way around it. It starts wearing on a driver and you start doubting yourself. Even though I’m very confident and confident in my abilities, after a while, it gets trying. So, you’ve really gotta dig deep and know you can still do it, and ultimately, give yourself good race cars.”

From the outside pole, Bergman settled in behind Series points leader Sam Hafertepe Jr. on the opening circuit and chased him around the 3/8-mile oval for the first 16 laps before a big opportunity presented itself on Lap 17.

When Hafertepe stumbled on the cushion in Turns 1 and 2, Bergman was right there to take advantage. He pointed the Oklahoma Chiller No. 23 low off Turn 2, drag raced Hafertepe side-by-side down the backstretch and threw a big slidejob on the Hill’s Racing No. 15H in Turns 3 and 4 to take the lead.

“I just made a mistake there,” Hafertepe, of Sunnyvale, TX, said. “It’s kind of unlike me to do that kind of stuff, but I did it tonight.”

“I knew I had to slide him really hard, and that was sketchy sliding to a parking curb, basically, off Turn 4,” Bergman said. “It’s hard to get in there really hard and then get your car angled and slowed up enough to where it doesn’t throw you over.”

Despite several restarts in the second half of the race, including a red-flag period after Blake Hahn crashed in Turn 4 while running second on Lap 25, Bergman was able to hold his ground out front and went unchallenged the rest of the distance.

“Once I got the lead, I knew I couldn’t slow my pace down,” Bergman said. “I just had to focus on being precise and landing on the curb in the right spots and making sure it didn’t throw me up.”

Jason Martin, of Liberal, KS, crossed the finish line second for his third-straight podium finish, complimenting his second win of the season he earned on Friday night. With that finish, the 2023 Series champion overtook Matt Covington for third in the championship points standings and now trails leader Hafertepe by 164 points with 12 races remaining in the chase for the Emmett Hahn Trophy.

“Can’t complain. We drove a lot of miles to take a little bit of money home, so that’s good,” Martin said. “It’s been a rollercoaster of a year, and I feel like we’ve got our confidence going, and Chase and I are working really, really well on this race car and it goes pretty good.”

Hafertepe was able to hold on to finish third after leading the opening 16 circuits. It was a return-to-form for the five-time Series champion after going three-straight races without a top-10 finish following his ninth Series win of the season two weeks ago at WaKeeney Speedway.

“I felt like we had probably the best car, and I just got to driving it a little too hard, and probably shouldn’t have been driving it that hard,” Hafertepe said. “I got tripped up on the curb there, and we bent a lot of parts on our race car. Lucky to finish. Really, just hanging on the rest of the race.”

Fourteen-year-old Ryder McCutcheon crossed the stripe in fourth place, garnering his first career national Sprint Car top-five result, while Matt Covington crossed fifth to complete the top five.

UP NEXT

The American Sprint Car Series is back in action in Kansas and Nebraska next Friday–Sunday, Sept. 5–7, starting with a double-Feature program Friday at Lakeside Speedway before visits to 81 Speedway on Saturday and Eagle Raceway on Sunday.

Tickets for all three events will be sold at the track on race day. If you can’t be there, stream every lap live on DIRTVision.

ABBREVIATED RESULTS (view all results)

Seth Bergman Breaks Through at Electric City for First American Sprint Car Series Win of 2025

GREAT FALLS, MT (Aug. 30, 2025) — It’s been an uphill battle for Seth Bergman in 2025, but the reigning American Sprint Car Series champion endured the struggles and finally broke through to Victory Lane Saturday night at Electric City Speedway.

The reigning Series champion from Snohomish, WA, has not been silent about he and his team’s struggles through the first half of the year, notching only two top-five finishes and no wins in his first six Series races before diverting from the national schedule in late June. But after a return to the national 360 circuit last weekend — posting back-to-back runner-up efforts at fellow Montana oval Big Sky Speedway — Bergman let his improvements shine again on Saturday, leading the final 14 laps of the main event to win the finale of the Montana Roundup.

“Our team definitely needed this win,” Bergman said. “It feels good to be leaving a racetrack, for once this year, feeling good about it and getting a win.”

Despite the difficulties Bergman and his team have experienced with their new equipment this season, they never gave up or lost hope. It paid off in the end, awarding Bergman his first career Feature win at Electric Cit, the 26th of his national Series career and first since November 2024.

“It’s been such a struggle, and it’s been a while since we’ve won a race,” Bergman said. “There’s no way around it. It starts wearing on a driver and you start doubting yourself. Even though I’m very confident and confident in my abilities, after a while, it gets trying. So, you’ve really gotta dig deep and know you can still do it, and ultimately, give yourself good race cars.”

From the outside pole, Bergman settled in behind Series points leader Sam Hafertepe Jr. on the opening circuit and chased him around the 3/8-mile oval for the first 16 laps before a big opportunity presented itself on Lap 17.

When Hafertepe stumbled on the cushion in Turns 1 and 2, Bergman was right there to take advantage. He pointed the Oklahoma Chiller No. 23 low off Turn 2, drag raced Hafertepe side-by-side down the backstretch and threw a big slidejob on the Hill’s Racing No. 15H in Turns 3 and 4 to take the lead.

“I just made a mistake there,” Hafertepe, of Sunnyvale, TX, said. “It’s kind of unlike me to do that kind of stuff, but I did it tonight.”

“I knew I had to slide him really hard, and that was sketchy sliding to a parking curb, basically, off Turn 4,” Bergman said. “It’s hard to get in there really hard and then get your car angled and slowed up enough to where it doesn’t throw you over.”

Despite several restarts in the second half of the race, including a red-flag period after Blake Hahn crashed in Turn 4 while running second on Lap 25, Bergman was able to hold his ground out front and went unchallenged the rest of the distance.

“Once I got the lead, I knew I couldn’t slow my pace down,” Bergman said. “I just had to focus on being precise and landing on the curb in the right spots and making sure it didn’t throw me up.”

Jason Martin, of Liberal, KS, crossed the finish line second for his third-straight podium finish, complimenting his second win of the season he earned on Friday night. With that finish, the 2023 Series champion overtook Matt Covington for third in the championship points standings and now trails leader Hafertepe by 164 points with 12 races remaining in the chase for the Emmett Hahn Trophy.

“Can’t complain. We drove a lot of miles to take a little bit of money home, so that’s good,” Martin said. “It’s been a rollercoaster of a year, and I feel like we’ve got our confidence going, and Chase and I are working really, really well on this race car and it goes pretty good.”

Hafertepe was able to hold on to finish third after leading the opening 16 circuits. It was a return-to-form for the five-time Series champion after going three-straight races without a top-10 finish following his ninth Series win of the season two weeks ago at WaKeeney Speedway.

“I felt like we had probably the best car, and I just got to driving it a little too hard, and probably shouldn’t have been driving it that hard,” Hafertepe said. “I got tripped up on the curb there, and we bent a lot of parts on our race car. Lucky to finish. Really, just hanging on the rest of the race.”

Fourteen-year-old Ryder McCutcheon crossed the stripe in fourth place, garnering his first career national Sprint Car top-five result, while Matt Covington crossed fifth to complete the top five.

UP NEXT

The American Sprint Car Series is back in action in Kansas and Nebraska next Friday–Sunday, Sept. 5–7, starting with a double-Feature program Friday at Lakeside Speedway before visits to 81 Speedway on Saturday and Eagle Raceway on Sunday.

Tickets for all three events will be sold at the track on race day. If you can’t be there, stream every lap live on DIRTVision.

ABBREVIATED RESULTS (view all results)

Feature (30 Laps): 1. 23-Seth Bergman[2]; 2. 36-Jason Martin[3]; 3. 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr[1]; 4. 17W-Ryder McCutcheon[6]; 5. 95-Matt Covington[7]; 6. 71-Brady Baker[8]; 7. 2B-Garrett Benson[5]; 8. 00-Kory Wermling[19]; 9. 37-Trever Kirkland[18]; 10. 4L-Lane Taylor[10]; 11. 2J-Zach Blurton[16]; 12. 45X-Kyler Johnson[14]; 13. 12H-Elijah Gile[17]; 14. 28-Joe Perry[21]; 15. 38B-Bryan Brown[23]; 16. 2JR-Kelly Miller[4]; 17. 88R-Ryder Laplante[13]; 18. 16G-Austyn Gossel[12]; 19. 52-Blake Hahn[9]; 20. 10-Landon Britt[11]; 21. 88-Terry Easum[22]; 22. 24M-Ian Myers[15]; 23. 88C-Brogan Carder[20]

Thornton Wins First Career Hillbilly Hundred

SARVER, PA (August 30, 2025) – Ricky Thornton Jr. led wire-to-wire, winning the 57th Annual Summit Racing Equipment Hillbilly Hundred presented by Arizona Sport Shirts on Saturday night at Lernerville Speedway. Thornton’s 13th Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series win of the season was worth $30,000 and marked his first victory in dirt late model racing’s oldest, ongoing race that began in 1967. Thornton faced a tough challenge from Jonathan Davenport after a lap 90 caution when the top two in the series championship points made contact in a side-by-side battle. Thornton was able to pull away from Davenport in the final nine laps to win by 1.397 seconds. Max Blair, who started 13th, rounded out the Big River Steel Podium in third after passing Devin Moran right before the final caution of the race. Moran finished fourth. Brandon Overton earned the Hoker Trucking Hard Charger of the Race as he finished fifth after starting 21st. In Lucas Oil Victory Lane for the 55th time in his career, Thornton has now won three of the last four Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series presented by FloRacing events. “I am glad that the first yellow came out. I really didn’t get a great start; I let JD get out in front of me. I felt like whoever got out front would be the one to beat, whether your car is better or not. We tried a bunch of different things today, and I felt we were a lot better. I still think we need to improve a lot once it finally cleans off, but overall, it was a really good night for us. You have to start the night off well with good qualifying, have a solid heat race, and a good start to the feature, said the Chandler, Arizona native who now resides in Indianola, Iowa. “I felt like I was kind of sliding myself into three and four, then they took away the top line, making it so I couldn’t get out there where they could hail Mary around me. I got to traffic and felt almost better around the bottom, and I think you slow your pace down so much when you get to a lapped car, so I needed to stay down there. On that last restart, I felt like I got a decent restart; I saw JD under me and thought, alright, drive it in hard into one and slide myself, and I got a run off of two. By the time I heard him, it was already too late, and I was into him. Obviously, I know he was going to be mad; you definitely don’t want to run a competitor off the track like that.” Davenport was seeking his third career Hillbilly Hundred victory. He took home $15,000 for a second-place finish and gave his viewpoint on the lap 91 restart. “I got a pretty good restart, and I was planning to slide him when I got into one, but just like a few other times when I’d get a run on him, Thornton was going to come all the way to the bottom. So I was either going to crash us both or do something else, and I didn’t want to do that. I moved back to the top and got a really good run. I doubt he saw me, but if he heard me, you know, whatever, he says he didn’t. It is what it is; as he said, whoever gets out in front is going to be really hard to beat.” Blair, who also finished third in the track’s signature event, the Firecracker 100, in June, worked his way methodically to a podium finish after starting on the inside of row number seven. “I love this place when it gets slippery like that. I need to improve in the heat races so I can start a little higher than 13th. We were really strong at the end of the race, so congrats to Ricky — he’s on a roll. It’s getting down to crunch time in this championship, and it’s cool to see him racking up all these wins. Hopefully, he can keep it up and go back-to-back.” The winner’s Koehler Motorsports, Longhorn Chassis is powered by a Cornett Racing Engine and sponsored by Ultimate Towing and Recovery, Hoker Trucking, Knight’s Companies, Coltman Farms Racing, Elite Ready Mix, Capital Waste, Bilstein Shocks, Sunoco Race Fuels, EMD Wraps, and Certified Inspection Services. Completing the top ten were Mike Marlar, Carson Ferguson, Tim McCreadie, Brandon Sheppard, and Tyler Erb. Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series Race Summary 57th Summit Racing Equipment Hillbilly Hundred presented by Arizona Sport Shirts | Night 2Saturday, August 30, 2025Lernerville Speedway | Sarver, PA Allstar Performance Time TrialsFast Time Group A: Jonathan Davenport | 15.357 seconds (Overall)Fast Time Group B: Ricky Thornton, Jr. | 15.406 seconds  Penske Shocks Heat Race #1 Finish (8 Laps, Top 4 Transfer): 1. 49-Jonathan Davenport[1]; 2. 19M-Joseph Joiner[2]; 3. 58-Garrett Alberson[4]; 4. 111-Max Blair[3]; 5. 1Z-Logan Zarin[5]; 6. 9-Tim McCreadie[10]; 7. 24-Tyler Wyant[7]; 8. 10L-Gary Lyle[9]; 9. 14H-Haiden Cowan[8]; 10. 14R-Clay Ruffo[6] Summit Racing Products Heat Race #2 Finish (8 Laps, Top 4 Transfer): 1. 99-Devin Moran[1]; 2. 157-Mike Marlar[2]; 3. 22-Daniel Hilsabeck[3]; 4. 555-Brock Pinkerous[4]; 5. 60-Dan Ebert[6]; 6. 77-Tyler Dietz[8]; 7. 76-Brandon Overton[5]; 8. 14-Dan Angelicchio[9]; 9. 55-Chris Schneider[7] Cool-It Thermo-Tec Heat Race #3 Finish (8 Laps, Top 4 Transfer): 1. 20RT-Ricky Thornton Jr[1]; 2. 1-Brandon Sheppard[2]; 3. 93-Carson Ferguson[3]; 4. 22*-Drake Troutman[4]; 5. 1*-Chub Frank[6]; 6. 6-Clay Harris[5]; 7. J4-John Garvin Jr[8]; 8. 93L-Cory Lawler[10]; 9. 79-Donald McIntosh[7]; 10. B22-Bump Hedman[9] Simpson Race Products Heat Race #4 Finish (8 Laps, Top 4 Transfer): 1. 71-Hudson O’Neal[2]; 2. 99B-Boom Briggs[1]; 3. 1C-Alex Ferree[3]; 4. 48-Colton Flinner[6]; 5. 1T-Tyler Erb[8]; 6. 66L-Levi Yetter[5]; 7. 40B-Kyle Bronson[4]; 8. 29-Ken Schaltenbrand[9]; 9. 66-Justin Kann[7] Fast Shafts B-Main Race #1 Finish (10 Laps, Top 4 Transfer): 1. 9-Tim McCreadie[3]; 2. 1Z-Logan Zarin[1]; 3. 76-Brandon Overton[6]; 4. 60-Dan Ebert[2]; 5. 14H-Haiden Cowan[9]; 6. 14-Dan Angelicchio[8]; 7. 24-Tyler Wyant[5]; 8. 14R-Clay Ruffo[11]; 9. 55-Chris Schneider[10]; 10. 77-Tyler Dietz[4]; 11. 10L-Gary Lyle[7] UNOH B-Main Race #2 Finish (10 Laps, Top 4 Transfer): 1. 1T-Tyler Erb[2]; 2. 6-Clay Harris[3]; 3. 40B-Kyle Bronson[6]; 4. 1*-Chub Frank[1]; 5. 29-Ken Schaltenbrand[8]; 6. B22-Bump Hedman[10]; 7. 93L-Cory Lawler[7]; 8. 66L-Levi Yetter[4]; 9. 79-Donald McIntosh[9]; 10. J4-John Garvin Jr[5] 57th Summit Racing Equipment Hillbilly Hundred presented by Arizona Sport Shirts | Night 2 Feature Finish (100 Laps): Pos – Start – Car # – Competitor – Hometown – Pay1 – 2 – 20RT – Ricky Thornton Jr – Chandler, AZ – $31,3002 – 1 – 49 – Jonathan Davenport – Blairsville, GA – $16,1003 – 13 – 111 – Max Blair – Centerville, PA – $7,0004 – 3 – 99 – Devin Moran – Dresden, OH – $6,5005 – 21 – 76 – Brandon Overton – Evans, GA – $5,2006 – 7 – 157 – Mike Marlar – Winfield, TN – $3,5007 – 10 – 93 – Carson Ferguson – Lincolnton, NC – $3,7008 – 17 – 9 – Tim McCreadie – Watertown, NY – $2,5009 – 6 – 1 – Brandon Sheppard – New Berlin, IL – $3,10010 – 18 – 1T – Tyler Erb – New Waverly, TX – $2,30011 – 8 – 99B – Boom Briggs – Bear Lake, PA – $2,20012 – 9 – 58 – Garrett Alberson – Las Cruces, NM – $2,80013 – 23 – 60 – Dan Ebert – Lake Shore, MN – $2,80014 – 25 – 79 – Donald McIntosh – Dawsonville, GA – $2,60015 – 15 – 555 – Brock Pinkerous – Ellenville, NY – $1,80016 – 4 – 71 – Hudson O’Neal – Martinsville, IN – $2,55017 – 5 – 19M – Joseph Joiner – Milton, FL – $2,40018 – 14 – 22* – Drake Troutman – Hyndman, PA – $1,65019 – 27 – 29 – Ken Schaltenbrand – Sarver, PA – $1,60020 – 20 – 6 – Clay Harris – Jupiter, FL – $2,25021 – 19 – 1Z – Logan Zarin – Hookstown, PA – $1,55022 – 11 – 22 – Daniel Hilsabeck – Earlham, IA – $2,20023 – 26 – 93L – Cory Lawler – Hanover, PA – $2,20024 – 16 – 48 – Colton Flinner – Allison Park, PA – $1,50025 – 12 – 1C – Alex Ferree – Saxonburg, PA – $1,50026 – 22 – 40B – Kyle Bronson – Brandon, FL – $1,50027 – 28 – 77 – Tyler Dietz – Saxonburg, PA – $1,50028 – 24 – 1* – Chub Frank – Bear Lake, PA – $1,500 Race Statistics  Entrants: 38Victory Fuel Pole Sitter: Jonathan DavenportMD3 Lap Leaders: Ricky Thornton, Jr. (Laps 1-100)Hellraizer Jacks Halfway Leader: Ricky Thornton, Jr.Wieland Feature Winner: Ricky Thornton, Jr.Margin of Victory: 1.397 secondsColtman Farms Racing Cautions: Garrett Alberson, Daniel Hilsabeck (Initial Start); Colton Flinner (Lap 2); Kyle Bronson (Lap 15); Donald McIntosh (Lap 16); Joseph Joiner (Lap 18); Tim McCreadie (Lap 26); Ken Schaltenbrand (Lap 37); Cory Lawler (Lap 39); Hudson O’Neal (Lap 43); Ken Schaltenbrand (Lap 90)Series Provisionals: Donald McIntosh; Cory LawlerFast Time Provisional: n/aEmergency Provisional: n/aTrack Provisional: Ken Schaltenbrand; Tyler DietzBig River Steel Podium Top 3: Ricky Thornton, Jr., Jonathan Davenport, Max Blair Penske Shocks Top 5: Ricky Thornton, Jr., Jonathan Davenport, Max Blair, Devin Moran, Brandon OvertonPEM 4th Place Feature: Devin MoranDMI Rearends 5th Place Feature: Brandon OvertonWilwood Brakes Lucky 7th Place Feature: Carson FergusonWehrs Machine 11th Place Feature: Boom BriggsDeatherage Opticians Lucky 13th Place Feature: Dan EbertMD3 24th Place Feature: Colton FlinnerHoker Trucking Hard Charger of the Race: Brandon Overton (Advanced 16 positions) MD3 Most Laps Led: Ricky Thornton, Jr. (100 Laps)Sunoco Race for Gas Highest Finisher: Ricky Thornton, Jr.Midwest Sheet Metal Spoiler Challenge Point Leader: Ricky Thornton, Jr.O’Reilly Auto Parts Rookie of the Race: Dan EbertPro Fabrication Headers Fastest Lap of the Race: Ricky Thornton, Jr. | Lap 1 | 17.615 secondsSlicker Graphics Slickest Move of the Race: Ricky Thornton Jr.Fresh Roof Hard Luck Award: Daniel HilsabeckOuterwears Crew Chief of the Race: Zack FrieldsARP Engine Builder of the Race: Cornett Racing EnginesMiller Welders Chassis Builder of the Race: Longhorn ChassisDirt Draft Fastest in Hot Laps: Jonathan Davenport | 15.251 secondsTime of Race: 1 hour 5 minutes 27 seconds Big River Steel Chase for the Championship Presented by ARP Point Standings:Pos – Car # – Competitor – Hometown – Points – Pay1 – 20RT – Ricky Thornton Jr – Chandler, AZ – 7735 – $455,8502 – 49 – Jonathan Davenport – Blairsville, GA – 7695 – $399,4003 – 99 – Devin Moran – Dresden, OH – 7270 – $273,7494 – 71 – Hudson O’Neal – Martinsville, IN – 7185 – $275,2255 – 1 – Brandon Sheppard – New Berlin, IL – 6965 – $232,1006 – 58 – Garrett Alberson – Las Cruces, NM – 6910 – $171,4507 – 76 – Brandon Overton – Evans, GA – 6645 – $146,9008 – 18D – Daulton Wilson – Fayetteville, NC – 5980 – $115,1259 – 93 – Carson Ferguson – Lincolnton, NC – 5825 – $99,12510 – 79 – Donald McIntosh – Dawsonville, GA – 5705 – $86,15011 – 22 – Daniel Hilsabeck – Earlham, IA – 5485 – $79,65012 – 60 – Dan Ebert – Lake Shore, MN – 5240 – $76,87513 – 6 – Clay Harris – Jupiter, FL – 5085 – $71,80014 – 93L – Cory Lawler – Hanover, PA – 4460 – $47,225