Chevy Racing–INDYCAR–Road America–qualifying
CHEVROLET IN THE NTT INDYCAR SERIES XPEL Grand Prix at Road America Presented by AMRRoad America Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin Qualifying Report June 21, 2025 Santino Ferrucci saved just enough fuel to land on the podium in third place behind the wheel of the No. 14 Sexton Properties AJ Foyt Racing Chevrolet in honor of long-time sponsor Marlyne SextonStarting 18th, Ferrucci scored his fourth consecutive top-five NTT INDYCAR Series finishTook the checkered flag and coasted to a stop in turn one out of fuel as the race played out with fuel strategy as a result of early cautions Ferrucci now sits ninth in the standingsDavid Malukas, No. 4 Clarience Technology AJ Foyt Racing Chevrolet, finished seventh, and Nolan Siegel, No. 6 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet finished eighth |
| The NTT INDYCAR SERIES, along with the Team Chevy drivers and teams, have a weekend off before visiting another historic natural terrain road course, the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, on July 4th weekend. NTT INDYCAR SERIES UNOFFICIAL RACE RESULTS FROM THE XPEL Grand Prix at Road America Presented by AMR |
 |
| WHAT THEY’RE SAYING (Quotes): Santino Ferrucci, No. 14 Sexton Properties/A.J. Foyt Racing Chevrolet finished 3rd: “All I could think about to myself is that we are doing this for Marlyne (Sexton – team’s longtime sponsor). They were counting down the laps, and I told Mike (strategist Armbrester) I’ve got to focus because this is getting stressful and just let me drive. The crew did an amazing job – awesome job on stops. And, I stalled it too. Even with the stall, to come back and finish how we did was pretty amazing. This one goes to Marlyne. She was running with us today. I’m very proud. This one tastes a little bit sweeter.” When asked about four straight top fives “And, two podiums. We’re performing. We’re back to where we were at the end of last year. I feel it. I’ve got to get my qualifying performance up. ’Til then I like padding my passing stats.” David Malukas, No. 4 Clarience Technologies/A.J. Foyt Racing Chevrolet finished 7th: “I had an incident at the start of the race that put us in the back, but, man, I couldn’t believe it. That was probably one of the most chaotic races I’ve ever been a part of, and it was a lot of fun. I had no idea what was going on. I was really hot, and around lap 35 I was hallucinating from the heat and seeing bears in the carousel. I’m just joking, maybe not, but yeah, it was a lot of heat, lot of fun, lot of passing, and we finished right where we started. So good recovery, really good job from the team and the entire crew at the No. 4 Clarience Technologies Chevy.” Nolan Siegel, No. 6 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet finished 8th: Scott McLaughlin, No. 3 XPEL Team Penske Chevrolet finished 12th: “Just an unfortunate day today. That’s about all I can say. We drove out to the lead there but those early yellows just gave so many opportunities to do something different with strategy. In the end that is what got us. I appreciate all of the support from XPEL for the No. 3 team and we really want to win this race for them and for Chevy. That’s racing.” Alexander Rossi, No. 20 ECR Java House Chevrolet finished 13th: “Honestly, it was a really good day. Not necessarily because of the end result, but we found a direction in warm up and it translated to the race. We had to be aggressive with the strategy because of where we were starting. It almost worked! We had to come in for a splash at the end from 3rd. The team did a lot of not giving up this weekend and it was positive that we were able to find a pretty good car by the race.” Will Power, No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet finished 14th: “Tough day where the yellows fell for us. Couldn’t do much with that. Another rough day for us, man. Very, very, very tough season. Move onto the next one.” Callum Ilott, No, 90 PREMA Racing Chevrolet finished 15th: “Overall it was a very tough race and it was super hot out there. The crew and team did a great job. From our side we just went a little backwards. I struggled to get some forward momentum at times. The car was quite on edge in areas I didn’t really need it to be, so on restarts it was quite tough, but we managed to fight back. I think there was a bit more in the result if I had a bit more push to pass towards the end because we were quite a bit faster than the two guys ahead of me. We’ve fought that one hard, we should have come away with a bit more but at least we took home some solid points and a decent weekend and in general.” Pato O’Ward, No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet finished 17th: Christian Rasmussen, No. 21 ECR Splenda Chevrolet finished 18th: “This weekend was tough one at Road America. We really struggled not only with pace but finding a good balance for the car the whole time. We have a lot of improvement to do at Road America for next year. However, I am looking forward to Mid-Ohio. We had a strong weekend there last year, it was our strongest of the year. We have that to look forward to!” Conor Daly, No. 76 Juncos Holliger Racing Chevrolet finished 22nd: “A decent day going for us at the beginning, but completely locked the rears down in Turn 5. Really strange and we had some really difficult brake issues for the rest of the day. I’m not sure if it started there, but bad there was bad rear locking. I ended up in the gravel, which was my mistake. I just tried to fight back, but couldn’t do much. Apologies to the team. Obviously, drivers make mistakes sometimes and today I did. I’ll take responsibility for that, and move on to the next one.” Christian Lundgaard, No. 7 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet finished 24th: Josef Newgarden, No. 2 PPG Team Penske Chevrolet finished 25th: “I really feel that the PPG Chevy was a top five car today. Our strategy likely wasn’t going to work out to where we could win but it is disappointing to find ourselves with another DNF. We had to pit off strategy for our second stop for a tire puncture, which put us in the strategy position we were in. Just pushing hard there on black tires to try and keep up with the 9 car and just pushed too hard in Turn 14.” Sting Ray Robb, No. 77 Juncos Holliger Racing Chevrolet finished 26th: “I’m all good. We got a really good run, and on the push pass for most of the straightaway there, but it felt like I had to get enough run and get up by him. And we set up the move, and I don’t know. “I’m going have to go watch a replay and see what happened, but, it’s pretty frustrating. I mean, everyone is being aggressive out there, and it’s just it’s not the way you want your day to go at all. So, I thought we had a good car. I thought we were going to move forward. Looking at where Dixon’s at right now, I think that he’s going up in the field, and we were right there with him. So, pretty frustrating when you see those guys. We’re starting to have a good day when this happened.” Robert Shwartzman, No. 83 PREMA Racing Chevrolet finished 27th: “A very sad finish to the weekend here in Road America. We managed to make the car a bit better but we had an issue in FP2 where something happened under braking and I locked the rears and spun. We didn’t fully figure out what was the issue and we had it in the race as well. I managed to do a pretty OK start, getting to 15th and then defending from Rinus [Veekay] I just locked the rears and lost it. It was something that just caught me by surprise; I just arrived at the corner, braked and it was like I was pulling a handbrake and the car just immediately snapped. It was a super weird feeling. Sometimes we have a good weekend sometimes a bad one. This was overall a better one, we just need to learn from it and improve ourselves for the next round.” Santino FerrucciPress Conference Transcript THE MODERATOR: Currently joined by Santino Ferrucci, driver of the No. 14 Sexton Properties AJ Foyt Racing Chevrolet, coming home with another podium this season, second runner-up finish of 2025, fourth top 5 of the season, third career podium as well. THE MODERATOR: Santino, second runner-up finish here in 2025. Did you bring beer with you for the media center? SANTINO FERRUCCI: No, I just did the one shotgun down in Turn 1. Felt great at the time. Obviously starting 18th, not ideal. We had a really fast race car all weekend long. We didn’t get to run on the red tires on Friday and one of the setup changes we made in FP2 we weren’t sure about, and then obviously we were really quick on the prime tires in qualifying, and we were just way too tight for quals. But warmup was awesome. Small changes overnight. We knew we’d come through the field, so at the start of the race, I was just unlike myself, trying to be super patient and not make mistakes, not get into too many people because it was mayhem back there, and the way the strategy unfolded, I stalled in the pits on one of the stops. Thankful for the hybrid so I could fire back up and only lose four or five spots. We had a massive fuel target for the last two stints, so kudos to Chevrolet for giving me the tools to do that and honestly to my engineering team for giving me a car that can fuel save. Podium is — I’m happy getting on podium for Marlene Sexton in the memorial car for her, and she’s watching down on us today clearly. So pretty happy about that. Q. Santino, did you ask for the beer or did the fan offer it to you? SANTINO FERRUCCI: They offered, and I had asked for Spotted Cow since we’re here, but they gave me, I believe it was a Miller. I’ve been learning my shotgunning skills from the Chili Bowl, so if I did okay I’m happy with that. Giving my dirt racing guy some credit. Q. All in all, the satisfaction of making it work until the end, you were really happy. Even if you ran out of fuel you’re out there taking bows and soaking it up with the fans? SANTINO FERRUCCI: I’m not going to lie, I was stressed. I was really stressed out. I saw Felix come out of the pits in front of me, and they were like, yeah, there’s your fuel target, lifting at like the 800-foot mark going into 5 going, hmm, this is going to be a long 15-something laps. Then I could see on the dash the 27 car coming and know that he’s quick. Yeah, no, I just tried to put my head down and do what I do best and hold him off. Q. Santino, can you talk a little bit more about Marlene? Obviously we’ve seen Sexton Properties on the car for a while, but this wasn’t a company, this was really her being a huge engine behind the team. Knowing her daughter is obviously grieving, as well, this is a pretty heavy time and an amazing result? SANTINO FERRUCCI: Yeah, I didn’t know her late husband, but also was a very big AJ fan and helped AJ back in the day. Marlene has been on the car since I’ve been driving for AJ Foyt and for Larry, and obviously I would not have had a full season ride without Larry and her support, and what they’ve accomplished last year is where we’ve brought this team all the way from barely making leadership circle to winning the 500, top 10 in the points, fighting for top 5s consistently. It’s her support that’s been behind us. So I’m very honored to be running that car with her riding along this weekend. To have the daughters here this weekend, as well, Tracy and Nicole, was pretty amazing on the grid. It was hard not to be emotional about it. It’s someone that was family to the team had passed away last week. Looking forward to her memorial next week and celebration of life, and I’m just happy she was riding on board with us today to witness some greatness. Q. Last season P10, strong year. You and James Schnabel form a really great union. You start over this year with Michael Armbrester, and the two of you seem like you’re finding a groove as well. Talk about the bond the two of you are building. SANTINO FERRUCCI: Yeah, so me and Michael were working together all the way through to about Detroit, so Michael got promoted to technical director and he’s still on my stand and calls my races, and now my new race engineer is Adam Kolesar, so a little bit weird to have an engineering switch in the middle of the season, but we went fifth, second, fifth, third, so I’d say it’s going pretty good. Obviously James is a brilliant guy and a great talent, and I think he’s proved himself very well with myself and with Malukas, and then my bond with Mike and Adam, C.J. and all of our stand has gone really well. It was just about catching our stride. I think we’ve found some really good baselines, and I’m looking forward to the second half of the season together. Q. Considering we weren’t really quite sure what the red tires were going to do before we got into the race, and for the heat today, did you expect as much passing before the race started? SANTINO FERRUCCI: We thought it was going to be a red race. To be honest, we thought we’d get further in qualifying, so to show up this morning and have three sets of sticker reds — we started on the prime tire, and we had a ton of pace on it compared to everybody around us because that was the tire that we’ve been running on all weekend. We just stayed committed to triple reds and it still paid off. Tough running a very long stint the way we did. I didn’t exactly get to run Q laps like I would have liked, like you did. But no, all in all, I think Firestone did a great job this weekend, and I think this is a track that they should kind of make a bit of a benchmark for. Q. We saw some tempers flare and some paybacks out there. Did you have a good front row seat for any of it? SANTINO FERRUCCI: I noticed that a little bit. Although, my favorite part of this race, your teammate Marcus, I pushed him past two cars down the straight, go-karting style. He lined it up for me and pulled out and I think he knew that I was going to push him because we’ve become a little bit more friendly sitting next to each other at autograph session, and I full on pushed him all the way down the frontstretch past two cars. It was great. We both cleared them, too. Q. There was also some concern about the hybrid with the heat, maybe having some failures. Did you notice any issues over the weekend? SANTINO FERRUCCI: No issues for me. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
| Chevrolet at Road America WINS Chevrolet Wins: 11 2024 – Will Power – Team Penske (photo above)2022 – Josef Newgarden – Team Penske2018 – Josef Newgarden – Team Penske2016 – Will Power – Team Penske1993 – Paul Tracy – Team Penske1992 – Emerson Fittipaldi – Team Penske1991 – Michael Andretti – Newman Haas Racing1990 – Michael Andretti – Newman Haas Racing1989 – Danny Sullivan – Team Penske1988 – Emerson Fittipaldi – Patrick Racing1987 – Mario Andretti – Newman Haas Racing POLES Chevrolet Poles: 13 2021 – Josef Newgarden – Team Penske2020 Race #2 – Pato O’Ward – Arrow McLaren2020 Race #1 – Josef Newgarden – Team Penske2018 – Josef Newgarden – Team Penske2017 – Helio Castroneves – Team Penske2016 – Will Power -Team Penske1993 – Paul Tracy – Team Penske1992 – Paul Tracy – Team Penske1991 – Bob Rahal – Galles Racing1990 – Danny Sullivan – Team Penske1989 – Danny Sullivan – Team Penske1988 – Danny Sullivan – Team Penske1987 – Mario Andretti – Newman Haas Racing PODIUMS Chevrolet Podiums: 33 · Chevrolet podiums at Road America by driver: Josef Newgarden (6), Will Power (5), Mario Andretti (3), Emerson Fittipaldi (3), Michael Andretti (2), Rick Mears (2), Pato O’Ward (2) Bob Rahal (2), Al Unser Jr. (2), Helio Castroneves (1), Santino Ferrucci (1), Tony Kanaan (1), Scott McLaughlin (1), Danny Sullivan (1), and Paul Tracy (1)· Chevrolet podiums at Road America by team: Team Penske (19), Newman Haas Racing (5), Arrow McLaren (2), Galles Racing (2), Rahal Hogan Racing (2), A.J. Foyt Racing (1), Chip Ganassi Racing (1) and Patrick Racing (1) LAPS LED Chevrolet Laps Led: 688Chevrolet laps led at Road America by driver: Josef Newgarden (159), Will Power (81), Michael Andretti (79), Emerson Fittipaldi (76), Danny Sullivan (62), Paul Tracy (55), Mario Andretti (50), Pato O’Ward (43), Al Unser Jr. (24), Scott McLaughlin (18), Helio Castroneves (17), Max Chilton (7), Felix Rosenqvist (7), Kevin Magnussen (6), Oliver Askew (2), and Simon Pagenaud (2)Chevrolet laps led at Road America by team: Team Penske (435), Newman Haas Racing (129), Arrow McLaren (56), Patrick Racing (35) Galles Racing (24), Carlin (7), and Ed Carpenter Racing (2) |
| HISTORICAL INFORMATION Manufacturer history at Road America Wins – 35 11 — Chevrolet (2024, 2022, 2018, 2016, 1993, 1992, 1991, 1990, 1989, 1988, 1987)9 — Honda (2023, 2021, 2020 R2, 2020 R1, 2019, 2017, 2000, 1998, 1997)7 — Ford (2006, 2004, 2003, 1999, 1996, 1995, 1994)6 — Cosworth (2007, 1986, 1985, 1984, 1983, 1982)2 — Toyota (2002, 2001) Earned Poles – 35 13 — Chevrolet (2021, 2020 R2, 2020 R1, 2018, 2017, 2016, 1993, 1992, 1991, 1990, 1989, 1988, 1987)7 — Ford (2006, 2004, 2003, 2001, 1999, 1998, 1995)6 — Cosworth (2007, 1986, 1985, 1984, 1983, 1982)6 — Honda (2024, 2023, 2022, 2019, 2000, 1996)1 – Ilmor (1994)1 — Mercedes (1997)1 — Toyota (2002) INDYCAR SERIES Manufacturer Championships (since 1979) 21 – General Motors (Chevrolet and Oldsmobile combined)16 – Chevrolet (6 Championship Auto Racing Teams & 10 INDYCAR)10 – Honda (4 Championship Auto Racing Teams & 6 INDYCAR)9 – Cosworth (9 Championship Auto Racing Teams)5 – Oldsmobile (5 INDYCAR)2 – Ford (2 Championship Auto Racing Teams)2 – Toyota (1 Championship Auto Racing Teams & 1 INDYCAR)1 – Ilmor (1 Championship Auto Racing Teams)1 – Mercedes Benz (1 Championship Auto Racing Teams) |
BUDDY HULL TAKES THE HEAT IN VIRGINIA
PETERSBURG, VA. (June 22, 2025) — While the American Rebel Light Virginia NHRA Nationals may seem like it’s the middle of the Mission Foods Drag Racing Series season for most, for Buddy Hull and the Jim Dunn Racing team, it was a new beginning. Hull debuted a new car, with a new Blaze Exhaust Probes livery to match. After three runs made over the course of two days, it’s safe to say that this new car will help launch Hull in the right direction for the rest of the season.
“The car is completely different,” said Hull. “It drives so much better. The car does exactly what I tell it to do. I turn right, it goes right. I turn left, it goes left. So it’s a really nice car. We accomplished what we needed to this weekend. The car showed great promise for the rest of the year.”
Two weeks ago in Bristol, Hull had a trip in the sand trap that pushed the Jim Dunn Racing team to pull out a new car. This weekend was Hull’s first time making passes in it, but he adapted quickly. With each run that he made in the car, his elapsed time and speed improved. Coming into race day, Hull was competing out of the No. 14 qualifying position, going up against recent New England Nationals winner J.R. Todd. His first-round run was his best of the weekend, a 4.171 second pass at 294.56 mph. Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough to get past Todd’s 4.115 second, 307.86 mph pass.
Buddy Hull and the Blaze Funny Car battled valiantly at Virginia Motorsports Park this weekend
“That last run was a bit of a gas-off, which is what happened to us in Q1 and Q2 too,” said Hull. “I have to do my job better, I was dead-late at the starting line, and I’m never late like that. I don’t know what was wrong with my head, but I’ll fix that. Other than that, I think the team did exactly what we were supposed to do this weekend.”
All teams battled the crippling heat this weekend, making it nearly impossible to perform personal bests. Knowing that those were the conditions that this new car faced, Hull is optimistic about what it is capable of at future races. He is also even more confident in his abilities to control his new ride.
“The car dropped a hole out there probably around 600 or 700 feet, and I caught it right away,” said Hull. “I kept it right in the middle of the groove and gave us our best shot. I could see him the whole time, but I wouldn’t give it up. I will always give it my best race.”
The heat tested drivers, team and fans alike during the two-day event. Hull is grateful for everyone who stuck it out and provided a fantastic environment for him and his competitors to still put on an exciting show.
“NHRA fans are the most loyal, most badass fans on the planet,” said Hull. “It doesn’t matter if it’s 95 degrees or 55 degrees out. They show up to the racetrack. They want to see a show. And it’s really cool as a driver to see that level of support. Virginia is a beautiful racetrack and a beautiful area. We always love coming out here. We’re looking forward to hopefully slightly cooler conditions next weekend in Norwalk.”
Hull and the Jim Dunn Racing team will be back in competition next weekend at the Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals on June 26-29 at Summit Racing Equipment Motorsports Park. There will be two qualifying sessions on Friday, June 27 and two more qualifying sessions on Saturday, June 21. For tickets or more information on the Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals visit nhra.com.
Qualifying Results
Q1: 7.506 sec, 88.95 mph; Qual. 14
Q2: 5.184 sec, 144.64 mph; Qual. 14
Q3: No run; Qual. 14
Bonus Points: 0
Race Results
First Round
J.R. Todd, Lawrenceburg, Ind., DHL Toyota GR Supra, (.090), 4.115 sec, 307.86 mph def. Buddy Hull, Dallas, Tex., Mooneyes Dodge Charger, (.168), 4.171 sec, 294.56 mph
LANGDON VICTORIOUS IN RICHMOND FOR THIRD WIN OF NHRA TOP FUEL SEASON
Claims Toyota’s fifth Top Fuel win in 2025
NORTH DINWIDDIE, V.A. (June 22, 2025) – On a hot day at Virginia Motorsports Park, Shawn Langdon was victorious in Top Fuel for the 2025 NHRA Virginia Nationals. The triumph by the Kalitta Motorsports driver is his third of the season and the 22nd of his Top Fuel career. For Toyota, Langdon’s victory is its fifth Top Fuel win this season and marks the third straight weekend with a victory in the nitro categories after wins in Funny Car the last two races.
Langdon defeated Toyota teammate Justin Ashley in the finals on Sunday, who made his fourth final round this season. Doug Kalitta advanced to the semifinals on Sunday, while Steve Torrence (second round) was the other Toyota Top Fuel Dragster to make it past round one.
In Funny Car, J.R. Todd made the semifinals, leading the Toyota GR Supra Funny Car duo. His Toyota teammate Ron Capps advanced to round two.
The NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series returns to action next weekend at Summit Motorsports Park in Norwalk, Ohio, for the 10th race of the 2025 season.
Toyota Post-Race Recap
NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series
Virginia Motorsports Park
NHRA Virginia Nationals
Race 9 of 20
TOYOTA TOP FUEL FINISHING POSITIONS
| Name | Car | Final Result | Round-by-Round |
| Shawn Langdon | Kalitta Air Careers Toyota Top Fuel Dragster | Winner | W (3.905) v. C. Ferre (4.070) W (3.952) v. D. Mercier (12.443) W (6.350) v. T. Stewart (Red light violation) W (3.940) v. J. Ashley (4.167) |
| Justin Ashley | SCAG Power Equipment Toyota Top Fuel Dragster | Runner-up | W (3.934) v. D. Foley (3.999) W (3.925) v. S. Torrence (4.568) W (4.442) v. D. Kalitta (5.856) L (4.167) v. S. Langdon (3.940) |
| Doug Kalitta | Mac Tools Group Toyota Top Fuel Dragster | Semi-finals | W (3.877) v. A. Brown (3.933) W (3.882) v. C. Millican (4.014) L (5.856) v. J. Ashley (4.442) |
| Steve Torrence | CAPCO Contractors Toyota Top Fuel Dragster | Second Round | W (3.920) v. J. Hart (4.041) L (4.568) v. J. Ashley (3.925) |
| Antron Brown | Matco Tools Toyota Top Fuel Dragster | First Round | L (3.933) v. D. Kalitta (3.877) |
TOYOTA FUNNY CAR FINISHING POSITIONS
| Name | Car | Final Result | Round-by-Round |
| J.R. Todd | DHL Toyota GR Supra Funny Car | Semi-finals | W (4.115) v. B. Hull (4.171) W (4.075) v. H. Green (4.151) L (5.342) v. A. Prock (4.115) |
| Ron Capps | NAPA Auto Care Toyota GR Supra Funny Car | Second Round | W (4.032) v. C. Green (4.047) L (10.668) v. D. Wilkerson (4.063) |
*= Non-Toyota driver
TOYOTA QUOTES
SHAWN LANGDON, Kalitta Air Careers Toyota Top Fuel Dragster, Kalitta Motorsports
TF Final Result: Winner
How ready is your team for the championship competition after another victory?
“I mean, I feel like they’ve been ready for a while now. I have a great group of guys, everyone at Kalitta Air; Brian Husen (crew chief) leading the way with a great group of crew guys. These guys put this car together flawlessly and give me a chance every Sunday. I just do the best I can. Obviously, you run against guys like Tony (Stewart) and then Justin (Ashley) in the final. I could see Justin peeking out a little bit where he was starting to drive away, and then something happened, and I saw him disappear. The win light is obviously a good thing on Sunday. Very happy for my team, they’ve been busting their butts. Everyone at Kalitta Air, Toyota, Mac Tools and DHL. Thank you, guys!”
J.R. TODD, DHL Toyota GR Supra Funny Car, Kalitta Motorsports
FC Final Result: Semi-finals
Take us through your weekend and thoughts going to Norwalk next weekend.
“Definitely not going to be as hot in Norwalk (next weekend), so that’ll be a plus. These were really tricky conditions (this weekend). Really proud of Dickie (Venables, crew chief) and the guys (who) battled this weekend. Good qualifying effort; pretty much went down the track every run, other than the semifinals. Hate to lose against those guys (Austin Prock) that way. Never want to give them away. But a good points day and (we’ll) carry this momentum into Norwalk.”
Melanie Johnson Scores First Top Alcohol Dragster Victory at Norwalk’s Cavalcade of Stars
Norwalk, Ohio (June 22, 2025) – In just her sixth career start in Top Alcohol Dragster competition, Melanie Johnson drove to a hard-earned first victory at the University Hospitals 19th Annual Cavalcade of Stars, held at Summit Motorsports Park in Norwalk, Ohio. The event marked a North Central Regional stop on the NHRA Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series tour and featured a competitive 8-car field.
Johnson, piloting the McPhillips Racing A/Fuel Dragster, qualified third with a best run of 5.241 seconds at 273.61 mph, which was the quickest pass of the second qualifying session.
She kicked off eliminations with a decisive first-round victory over Jared Dreher, laying down a 5.254 at 274.66 mph with a .064 reaction time. In the semifinals, Johnson delivered a clutch performance against seasoned competitor Matt Cummings, running 5.283 at 275.96 mph with a .043 light to advance to her first regional final.
The final round was decided at the starting line when opponent Jamie Noonan went red by .042 seconds. Johnson left cleanly with a .048 reaction time and pedaled her way to a 5.454 at 264.49 mph to secure her inaugural Top Alcohol Dragster win.
Summit Motorsports Park owner Bill Bader Jr. presents Melanie Johnson with her Wally and Cavalcade of Stars Trophy. photo credit Melanie Johnson Racing
“I am so proud of this McPhillips Racing team and of myself,” Johnson said. “I know they are going to give me a great car every round and I’ve been working so hard to be consistent in the car with my procedures and reaction times. There’s a lot of work that goes on behind the scenes to be successful in this sport and it’s really fun to see that hard work pay off!”
Johnson licensed in the McPhillips Racing dragster in August 2024 and has gotten comfortable in the car quickly. Even with limited seat time, she’s been in the mix at every race, and her Norwalk win in just her fifth event of the season is proof that she’s settling into the class well.
Richie McPhillips commented on what the team has been working on over the past six weeks since the last race Johnson was in the car. “Before we rolled into Norwalk, we spent some time testing at Cecil County Dragway. We’ve been chasing consistency with a pretty touchy racecar, and Jim Halsey and his crew gave us a great track to work through our issues. We also worked with Rob and Bob at Boninfante Friction to dial in our clutch program, and that got us closer. The car came off the trailer consistent this weekend. We were hoping to be a little quicker, but we’ll keep working on that. A lot of this weekend’s success came from the work Mel put in during her time off. Her reaction times were solid from the first hit, and that makes a difference on all fronts. It was great to get her first win and build some momentum heading into the next stretch of races.”
Top Alcohol Dragster driver Melanie Johnson celebrates her first career victory at Norwalk’s Cavalcade of Stars, photo credit Melanie Johnson Racing
The win was also a meaningful milestone for the entire McPhillips Racing team, who continue to build on their decades-long legacy in the class. Johnson also acknowledged the support of Alan Johnson Performance Engineering (AJPE), the championship-winning engine business run by her father, Alan Johnson.
Melanie Johnson and the McPhillips Racing team will be back in action next weekend at the Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals.
Jacob Denney Drives from 24th for Fourth Xtreme Outlaw Midget Win, First at I-55
PEVELY, MO (June 21, 2025) – No matter what position Jacob Denney starts in for an Xtreme Outlaw Midget Series presented by Toyota Feature, he is a threat for victory.
After losing a cylinder in his primary No. 67 JBL Audio Toyota-powered LynK Chassis in Heat racing, the Series points leader climbed back from a 24th-place Feature start for his fourth win of the 2025 season.
At the front, Denney’s Keith Kunz/Curb-Agajanian Motorsports (KKM) teammates Cannon McIntosh and Gavin Miller led the field to the green flag at I-55 Federated Auto Parts Raceway Park, with McIntosh claiming the lead as Miller ran behind in second place.
Denney did not waste time in his climb towards the front as he climbed up to 18th by the end of Lap 2, then into the top 15 on the following circuit.
While McIntosh and Miller spread out to a two-second lead, Xtreme-POWRi Challenge Series points leader Karter Sarff caught the two drivers as they began to face lap traffic. Sarff used the cushion to pass by Miller, then performed a slide job on McIntosh into Turns 1 and 2 to claim the lead.
By Lap 11, Denney crossed into the top-10 as he used multiple lanes of the track to pass as many cars as he could to work up the field towards his KKM teammates in the second half of the 25-lap race.
As the Galloway, OH driver entered the podium on Lap 18, Sarff lost control of his No. 21K in Turn 4, which sent him flipping multiple times. Sarff climbed out of the car under his own power, but his chase towards a fourth I-55 win came to an end.
McIntosh inherited the lead for the dash towards the finish line as Denney drove by Miller on the restart on the high side for second place.
Denney and McIntosh dueled for the lead in the final laps with slide jobs on each other until Denney got clear of the No. 71K with four laps to go as he wheeled towards his fourth win of the 2025 Xtreme Outlaw Midgets season.
“Kaleb (Wyrick) told me before the night started that we were going to win,” Denney said. “So, we kind of threw a Hail Mary at it before we went off for the Feature because we had nothing to lose.
“Once I started getting rolling, I felt like I slid a car a lap because I knew I didn’t have any time to waste. Once I got up there, I was stuck there and had to find the clean air on the straightaway. I ripped off (the top for) a lap, and I was like ‘Alright, we’re gonna be good.’ I had to capitalize on those last seven laps, and we got it done.”
McIntosh finished the night in second place to end his weekend at Pevely, MO, with two consecutive podiums at I-55.
“I felt like we were pretty good most of the race,” McIntosh said. “I don’t know what happened on the last restart. I had good footing, but I couldn’t keep the left rear on the ground. Sucks to lead most of the race and not finish it off.”
Miller ended the night in third for his sixth podium in the last seven Xtreme Outlaw Midget Features of 2025.
“Me and Cannon were pretty similar,” Miller said. “Especially on the long run, I played with my shocks a little bit, stiffen up the right rear so we were better through the holes. Unfortunately, Jacob got by us there, but I gotta thank everyone that makes this possible.”
Chase McDermand finished the night in fourth place, and Series rookie Colton Robinson earned his first career top-five finish to close the St. Louis Firecracker Faceoff weekend.
RECAP NOTES:
Smith Titanium Quick Time Award: Chase McDermand
Toyota Heat 1: Michael Faccinto
CASM Safety Products Heat 2: Zach Daum
TJ Forged Heat 3: Shannon McQueen
High-Point Driver: Michael Faccinto
Summit Racing Equipment Hard Charger: Jacob Denney (+23)
Honest Abe Roofing 16th Place Finisher: Zach Boden
Up Next: The Xtreme Outlaw Midgets get back to racing in July alongside the Midwest Open Wheel Association at Spoon River Speedway for the Midwest Vintage Sprint Car Nationals on Friday-Saturday, July 18-19.
Troutman Breaks Through for First World of Outlaws Victory at I-55
PEVELY, MO (June 21, 2025) – It was only a matter of time until Drake Troutman became a winner with the World of Outlaws Real American Beer Late Model Series presented by DIRTVision.
As it turned out, his time came on Saturday night at I-55 Federated Auto Parts Raceway Park in the final night of the St. Louis Firecracker Faceoff.
The triumph was the latest chapter in a career-changing month for the 20-year-old rising star. Three weeks ago at Mississippi Thunder Speedway, Troutman bagged the richest win of his life in the $100,000-to-win Modified World Championship. He then turned his attention to the DIRTcar Summer Nationals, and wasted little time delivering Team22 Motorsports a win for the first time on the third night of the tour at Peoria Speedway.
But the ultimate goal was always to win World of Outlaws, and Troutman finally reached the mountaintop on Saturday night.
“Winning, you just get in a routine I guess, and the morale of everything’s up when you’re winning races, or whenever you get your first win,” Troutman said. “All of us racers are just a bunch of head cases. If we sucked the night before, our confidence is down and it’s just tough. If you win the night before, you go into the next night like ‘this car is good, we feel good, everyone’s happy and in good spirits.’ It’s all performance driven.”
Troutman started the race on the outside of Row 2 behind two other drivers searching for their first World of Outlaws victory in Mike Harrison and Jake Timm. Harrison jumped out to the early advantage and kept the loaded field at bay. Behind him, Troutman edged out Timm to slide into third on Lap 10 in the battle of former Modified standouts turned MD3 Rookie of the Year contenders.
That left Brian Shirley as the only driver sitting between Troutman and the leader, but a bicycle in Turn 1 was all Troutman needed to get by on the bottom. Shirley pulled a slider into Turn 3 to briefly reclaim the spot, but Troutman crossed him back over to pull back ahead. The pair continued swapping spots a lap later, but a strong drive off Turn 2 allowed Troutman to get far enough ahead to hold on for good.
At that point, 1.2 seconds and a handful of lap cars separated Harrison and Troutman, but it didn’t stay that way for long. Troutman was all over the back of the No. 33 at the halfway mark, and when Harrison’s slip up on the cushion in Turn 4 opened the door, Troutman didn’t hesitate to walk through.
Troutman got to spend the final 18 laps doing something he has grown increasingly comfortable with over the past few weeks – controlling a race from the lead. On a treacherous racetrack with an endless stream of traffic in front of him, Troutman didn’t let anyone get within striking distance on his way to the checkered flag.
“My biggest thing is obviously still, I’m not going to try to go out there and run over anyone by any means,” Troutman said. “But just getting more aggressive, you know. I’ve always been the type that, I wasn’t going to take a lane if I didn’t know if I could for sure clear it. I’m still like that, but I just feel like I’m getting a little bit more aggressiveness out of the car, which is helping me out.”
While Harrison came up one spot short of a storybook ending at one of his home tracks, the Highland, IL driver maintained second to ensure the St. Louis crowd had one of their own standing on the podium.
“I’ve got to give it to [Troutman], he’s a hell of a young racer and he’s got a very bright future ahead of him,” Harrison said. “That’s part of being out in front and dealing with lap cars, not being able to take advantage of the leader when you’re running second or third. Just the nature of racing and there ain’t nothing you can do about it, it’s just part of it.”
Coming home third was Shirley, who bounced back from a DNF on Friday with his first World of Outlaws podium since Raceway 7 four races ago.
“I feel like I probably drove a little soft, should have probably got up there and raced a little bit harder,” Shirley said. “I was trying to just be as smooth as I could without tearing anything up, because we were definitely bouncing around. All in all it was a good night.”
Tyler Erb and Bobby Pierce completed the top five.
RACE NOTES:
Tyler Erb set the Dirt King Simulators Fastest Hot Lap.
Cade Dillard won the Simpson Quick Time Award.
Bobby Pierce won Real American Beer Heat 1.
Aaron Marrant won STAKT Products Heat 2.
Brian Shirley won Keyser Manufacturing Heat 3.
Mike Harrison won Jarrett Rifles Heat 4.
Jake Timm won Real American Beer Heat 5.
Drake Troutman won Real American Beer Heat 6.
Brenden Smith and Kayden Clatt won the Landa Pressure Washers Last Chance Showdowns.
Mike Harrison won the Bilstein Pole Award.
Tyler Erb won the FOX Factory Hard Charger Award.
Drake Troutman was the MD3 Rookie of the Race.
Mike Harrison won the WELD Racing Second-Place Finisher Award.
Tyler Erb was the ARP Fourth-Place Finisher.
Bobby Pierce was the MSD Fifth-Place Finisher.
Ryan Gustin was the Swift Springs Sixth-Place Finisher.
Frank Heckenast Jr. was the VP Racing Fuels Eighth-Place Finisher.
Jake Timm was the Lifeline USA Ninth-Place Finisher.
Tanner English was the COMP Cams 10th-Place Finisher.
Nick Hoffman was the Cometic Gaskets 12th-Place Finisher.
UP NEXT: The World of Outlaws Real American Beer Late Model Series presented by DIRTVision is back in action with Monday Madness at Independence Motor Speedway on Monday, June 23. Get your tickets in advance by clicking here.
If you can’t make it to the track, stream every lap live on DIRTVision.
Feature (40 Laps): 1. 22*-Drake Troutman[4]; 2. 33-Mike Harrison[1]; 3. 3S-Brian Shirley[3]; 4. 1-Tyler Erb[21]; 5. 32-Bobby Pierce[6]; 6. 19R-Ryan Gustin[7]; 7. 12-Ashton Winger[17]; 8. 99JR-Frank Heckenast Jr[10]; 9. 49-Jake Timm[2]; 10. 96-Tanner English[8]; 11. 24-Ryan Unzicker[12]; 12. 9-Nick Hoffman[11]; 13. 75-Dillon McCowan[9]; 14. 17SS-Brenden Smith[19]; 15. 20TC-Tristan Chamberlain[28]; 16. 09-Michael Leach[15]; 17. 31-Tyler Millwood[22]; 18. 5-Mark Whitener[16]; 19. 74X-Ethan Dotson[24]; 20. 19-Dustin Sorensen[27]; 21. 28-Dennis Erb Jr[13]; 22. 1X-Aaron Marrant[5]; 23. 40B-Kyle Bronson[26]; 24. 50-Kayden Clatt[20]; 25. 9M-Tim McCreadie[23]; 26. 25-Jason Feger[25]; 27. 97-Cade Dillard[14]; 28. 2-Cody Overton[18]
Treb Jacoby Sweeps St. Louis Firecracker Faceoff at I-55 With Summit Modifieds
PEVELY, MO (June 21, 2025) – Treb Jacoby joked he was closing in on Nick Hoffman’s nearly 70-win record with the DIRTcar Summit Racing Equipment Modified Nationals after scoring his second Hell Tour win Friday night. Twenty-four hours later, he took another step closer.
“That was fun!” Jacoby belted out after parking his car in Victory Lane at I-55 Federated Auto Parts Raceway Park for the second straight night during the World of Outlaws St. Louis Firecracker Faceoff.
He went toe-to-toe with World of Outlaws Real American Beer Late Model Series presented by DIRTVision star Ethan Dotson and outdueled the likes of Kenny Wallace and Chase Holland to pick up his third Hell Tour win in seven and another win at his home track.
The O’fallon, MO driver started third in the 25-lap Feature but didn’t stay there long. Ethan Dotson ran away with the lead on the opening lap and brought Jacoby with him.
While Dotson cruised around the bottom, Jacoby navigated the aggressive character of the top lane and kept Dotson within reach. By Lap 5, he was close enough to push Dotson down the backstretch and used that proximity to dive under him going into Turn 1.
The two crossed lanes in the middle of the corner, with Jacoby drifting to the top while Dotson cranked his car back down the track to build momentum off Turn 2 and drive away from Jacoby down the backstretch.
Seeing the benefits the top lane provided for Jacoby, Dotson made that his new course around the top of the 1/3-mile dirt track. He used it to his advantage, pulling ahead by over a second.
However, Dotson’s hopes of a victory were dashed when he hit a rut going into Turn 1, causing the rear of his car to bounce violently multiple times. When his car finally came to a rest, it had suffered too much suspension damage from the bounces to continue.
That put Jacoby in the lead with 16 laps remaining.
A couple of cautions brought the field back to Jacoby’s rear bumper, placing Wallace and Holland as his new challengers. But neither could keep up with him on the restarts as Jacoby ended the race with a more than 2.5-second lead over Wallace.
“I had an idea; I think I showed Ethan Dotson a little too early my cards. He stepped it up a notch, and I’m not going to lie, I said in my car, ‘Let’s get after it, Ethan, let’s race!” Jacoby said. “He got a little high over there, and it took him out. I was looking forward to [racing him]. I was going to drop my balls down a little lower every lap to run with him.
“But we finally found a line that was smooth under yellow. They had us navigating the tow truck and we were packing the racetrack in in the line I chose to run. So, I was kind of being defensive at the same time, trying to keep anybody from sliding me. I’m wore out. I don’t know what to say. I’m speechless. We finally won a Hell Tour race from outside of the front row.”
He’s only got 66 more Summit Modified Nationals victories to go to catch Hoffman.
UP NEXT: The DIRTcar Summit Racing Equipment Modified Nationals continue their Hell Tour journey with the DIRTcar Summer Nationals Late Models at Lincoln (IL) Speedway on Sunday, June 22. Tickets will be available at the gate.
If you can’t make it to the track, you can watch every Hell Tour race live on DIRTVision.
RESULTS:Feature (25 Laps): 1. J82-Treb Jacoby[3]; 2. 36-Kenny Wallace[4]; 3. 51-Timmy Hill[7]; 4. 22-Josh Harris[9]; 5. 13-Charlie Mefford[8]; 6. 66-Cole Falloway[12]; 7. 28-Tom Smallwood[17]; 8. 98-Joshua Hawkins[11]; 9. 70-Josh Russell[24]; 10. 8A-Austin Holcombe[10]; 11. 10X-Jim Black[18]; 12. 1A-Steve Meyer Jr[22]; 13. 75-Daniel Adam[13]; 14. 24S-Jacob Steinkoenig[15]; 15. 66W-Adam Wright[14]; 16. 94-Austin Rettig[26]; 17. 23B-Ethan Boomsma[19]; 18. 45S-Chandler Smith[23]; 19. 45H-Chase Holland[6]; 20. (DNF) 777-Trevor Neville[5]; 21. (DNF) 4G-Paul Schrempf Jr[21]; 22. (DNF) 5-Ethan Dotson[1]; 23. (DNF) 21-Randy Dickman[27]; 24. (DNF) 5S-Owen Steinkoenig[16]; 25. (DNF) 14-CJ Springer[20]; 26. (DNF) 14C-Rick Conoyer[2]; 27. (DNS) 24H-Mike Harrison; 28. (DNS) 4T-Jake Trebilcock
Blake Hahn Wins Batesville for First American Sprint Car Series Victory of 2025
LOCUST GROVE, AR (June 21, 2025) — It was a longer wait than anticipated, but Blake Hahn and his championship-winning team are back in Victory Lane with the American Sprint Car Series.
Coming into Saturday’s event at Batesville Motor Speedway, Hahn — the two-time Series champion from Sapulpa, OK — had posted four top-five finishes in his last five races, including two second-place finishes, but had not yet punched through to Victory Lane.
He knew he and his team were close. He could feel it. And finally, great speed and good fortune fell his way. Hahn inherited the lead on Lap 14 of the main event and led the final 12 laps for his first win of the year on the national 360 Sprint Car circuit and 23rd of his career.
“We’re happy to be on the podium, that’s the way to chip away at the points lead,” Hahn said. “I feel like we definitely have the car to contend for a championship at the end of the year, we’ve just got to get everything dialed in and narrow-down the mistakes.”
Though he walked away victorious in the end, Hahn spent the first half of the race in pursuit of Austyn Gossel, who took the lead from the pole on the opening lap and began to open up a gap on Hahn and the rest of the field.
Gossel, 25, of Fort Collins, CO, appeared to be on his way to a first career Series win until he collided with a lapped car on Lap 14. Hayden Martin was slowing on the top side of Turn 1 when Gossel came into the corner at full speed and made hard contact with the rear of Martin, sending his No. 67 car flipping and landing on the track exit ramp outside Turn 1.
“(Martin) was in front of another car, and that other car in front of me veered out of the way, and by that time, I couldn’t see,” Gossel said. “The next thing I know… it looked like he was trying to exit the track, which I don’t know who in the right mind does that and stays out there that long and not think that the leaders are coming… it’s just devastating.
“Definitely had the car to win. Best car I’ve ever felt. And now it’s destroyed.”
Both drivers were uninjured in the incident, but damage to the cars was too much to continue and were both hooked off the racetrack.
This handed the lead to Hahn, who got the advantage on the restart and held the field off the rest of the way to bag the win and the $4,000 grand prize.
“I just knew that if I made sure not to blow through the rubber on the first lap, I should be pretty good,” Hahn said. “Just get up there and get some good, consistent laps and just keep that momentum up. Really, just try and keep the tires underneath me and not blow them off too much.”
After coming within one spot of victory in the Series’ previous event two weeks earlier at Texarkana 67 Speedway, Hahn’s hunger for victory only increased, as did his team’s. Though the appetite has been settled for now, Hahn still wants more in pursuit of a third national championship.
“Having my grandpa (Series founder Emmett Hahn) in my corner is definitely a great thing — he pushes me to be the best driver I can possibly be,” Hahn said. “Even after finishing second at Texarkana, he wanted more. Our team’s never happy anything other than a win.”
Home-state racer Brady Baker, 17, of Alexander, AR, crossed the finish line second, marking his best career Series finish. 2023 Series champion Jason Martin rounded out the podium in third, tying his best finish of the season with the Series this year.
Mississippi racer Brad Bowden claimed the Hard Charger honors, gaining 13 spots of position in his drive from 20th on the starting grid up to a seventh-place finish.
Seth Bergman topped Qualifying and set a new track record with his lap of 12.429 seconds.
Heat Races were won by Jason Martin (Heat 1), Matt Covington (Heat 2) and Austyn Gossel (Heat 3).
Gossel was the winner of the Honest Abe Roofing Dash.
UP NEXT
The American Sprint Car Series is back in action next Friday–Saturday, June 27–28, at Tulsa Speedway for the annual Dirt Down in T-Town event. Tickets for the event will be sold at the track on race day.
If you can’t be there to watch in person, stream every lap live on DIRTVision.
FEATURE RESULTS
Feature (25 Laps): 1. 52-Blake Hahn[2]; 2. 71-Brady Baker[3]; 3. 36-Jason Martin[5]; 4. 3-Derek Hagar[10]; 5. 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr[7]; 6. 88-Terry Easum[9]; 7. 8X-Brad Bowden[20]; 8. 88R-Ryder Laplante[15]; 9. 95-Matt Covington[4]; 10. 14-Jordon Mallett[17]; 11. 938-Bradley Fezard[12]; 12. 10-Landon Britt[19]; 13. 2B-Garrett Benson[8]; 14. 17W-Harli White[13]; 15. 12W-Dale Wester[18]; 16. 45X-Kyler Johnson[11]; 17. 16G-Austyn Gossel[1]; 18. 23-Seth Bergman[6]; 19. 67-Hayden Martin[23]; 20. 2J-Zach Blurton[22]; 21. 84-Brandon Hanks[14]; 22. 47-Dale Howard[16]; 23. (DNS) 8-Joseph Wray IV; 24. (DNS) 17-Hayden Brinkley
Rookie Louis Foster leads Honda 1-2-3 in Road America qualifying
June 21, 2025 — ELKHART LAKE, WI
- Rahal Letterman Lanigan’s Louis Foster scores first-career NTT INDYCAR SERIES pole position
- Championship leader Alex Palou qualifies P2 in his #10 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda
- Kyle Kirkwood makes it a Honda 1-2-3 as he goes for his third win in a row
There’s a new face at the front of the field, and Rahal Letterman Lanigan rookie Louis Foster scored his first-career NTT INDYCAR SERIES pole position for the XPEL Grand Prix at Road America.
Foster will start alongside three-time and reigning series champion Alex Palou as Palou looks to get back to victory lane for the sixth time this season and extend his 73-point lead in the drivers’ championship fight.
Starting third is Andretti Global’s Kyle Kirkwood—giving Honda a 1-2-3 at the front of the field. Kirkwood and Palou have been the only two winners this season, with the Florida native taking wins at the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach in April, and the last two times out at the Detroit Grand Prix and Worldwide Technology Raceway. Kirkwood will be looking for his third win in as many races, and on as many different track types, in tomorrow’s race.
Foster’s Rahal Letterman Lanigan teammate, Graham Rahal, also made the Firestone Fast Six round of qualifying, setting the sixth fastest time in that session.
Honda has gone eight for eight to open the 2025 NTT INDYCAR SERIES season, including winning the Indianapolis 500 with Alex Palou last month. Eight wins in a row is an IndyCar record since the series returned to multi-manufacturer competition in 2012. Honda currently leads rival Chevrolet 723-575.
XPEL Grand Prix Honda Qualifying Results
| 1st Louis Foster-R | Rahal Letterman Lanigan Honda |
| 2nd Alex Palou | Chip Ganassi Racing Honda |
| 3rd Kyle Kirkwood | Andretti Global Honda |
| 6th Graham Rahal | Rahal Letterman Lanigan Honda |
| 12th Felix Rosenqvist | Meyer Shank Racing Honda |
| 14th Marcus Ericsson | Andretti Global Honda |
| 15th Marcus Armstrong | Meyer Shank Racing Honda |
| 16th Colton Herta | Andretti Global Honda |
| 19th Devlin DeFrancesco | Rahal Letterman Lanigan Honda |
| 22nd Rinus VeeKay | Dale Coyne Racing Honda |
| 23rd Kyffin Simpson | Chip Ganassi Racing Honda |
| 25th Scott Dixon | Chip Ganassi Racing Honda |
| 27th Jacob Abel-R | Dale Coyne Racing Honda |
R – Rookie
Quotes
Louis Foster (#45 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda) qualified 1st: “Shaved the mustache and ended up on pole, I liked the mustache though, so we’ll see how the race goes tomorrow. If we win tomorrow, you’ll never see one on my face again. Our Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing car was really fast. We got good power from the Honda engine. And it’s always great to start in front of Alex and Kyle, a Honda 1-2-3 and those guys have been quick all season. Hopefully we can stay in front tomorrow and bring home a win.”
Alex Palou (#10 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda) qualified 2nd: “Really good day. I’m super happy to be starting tomorrow on the front row. It’s always a bit frustrating when you miss pole by just a little bit—but at the same time it’s great to start up front. I’m looking forward to it. We have a great race car with lots of speed and we’re going to try and get the win tomorrow.”
Kyle Kirkwood (#27 Andretti Global Honda) qualified 3rd: “We only got one lap there at the end, so I’m somewhat disappointed with that. We had an MGU issue right before we wanted to send it and that prevented us from getting a second fast lap, which was needed to even try and go for the pole. But, nonetheless, we did a good job reacting to the issue, responding to it, remedying it, and then getting on track to be able to go P3 for tomorrow. P3 has been a really good starting spot here in the past so we’ll see what happens.”
FULL CIRCLE: Buddy Kofoid Claims $250,000 Huset’s High Bank Nationals Title
The Californian cashes in for a third straight six-figure check from Huset’s
BRANDON, SD (June 21, 2025) – There’s no doubt Michael “Buddy” Kofoid reached redemption last September at Huset’s Speedway, but now the story has come full circle.
The first heartbreaking chapter written in 2023 is well known. Kofoid and the Roth Motorsports team leading the $250,000-to-win BillionAuto.com Huset’s High Bank Nationals presented by Menards with less than 10 laps to go. Then suddenly the No. 83 slowed with mechanical issues, handing him a crushing defeat.
Mother Nature didn’t allow the 2024 running on its original June date, so the World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series returned to Huset’s on Labor Day weekend to finish it off. The result? Kofoid cemented his name as a Huset’s High Bank Nationals champion and pocketed $100,000.
This year the weather complied, and the event was set to go on as planned with the champion banking a record-tying $250,000. Kofoid kicked things off with a $100,000 score on Thursday at the Huset’s Hustle, and then two days later he added another six-figure payday.
The Penngrove, CA native started on the pole of the 40-lap Feature but lost the top spot early as Friday’s prelim winner Bill Balog ripped around him on the top. Kofoid refused to be rattled and began his pursuit. Balog stayed strong early on, but a restart on Lap 17 proved pivotal. Balog got slightly out of shape taking the green, and it left Kofoid an opening to rocket to his inside and finish a slide job exiting Turn 2. Balog got a little hung up in the cushion, preventing him from trying to crossover. That proved to be the winning move as Balog narrowed the gap in traffic late, but a caution with three to go gave Kofoid the clean track he needed to win. From a devastating DNF two years ago to his name being on the quarter of a million dollars check in 2025. Kofoid won the Huset’s High Bank Nationals.
“I think when it hits the bank account it’ll feel real,” Kofoid said in disbelief. “I’m at a loss for words and out of breath. The track was not what I thought it would be with the cushion being that choppy and that low. I thought the bottom would be good early, and Bill circled me right away. He’s been so good here. To go up against him and beat him here is special and against everyone here. I feel like we had every good Sprint Car driver in the country here. To beat all of them is just incredible.
“Dylan (Buswell) is so incredible at what he does. I’m so lucky I don’t have to race against him, and I’m so lucky to have him in my corner. He’s been the best thing that’s ever happened in my racing career. And of course, Nate (Knotts) and John (Snavely) do an outstanding job.”
Saturday’s win made it three straight six-figure scores at Huset’s for Kofoid. His third victory worth at least $100,000 put him in elite company as the seventh driver with at least a trio, joining Donny Schatz (13), Steve Kinser (four), Mark Kinser (four), Danny Lasoski (four), David Gravel (four), and Kyle Larson (four). He also joined Brent Marks and David Gravel as only the third competitor to cash two six-figure paychecks in the same week. Kofoid racked up $362,000 total for four nights of work at Huset’s.
The runner-up spot belonged to Bill Balog, capping a strong week for the “North Pole Nightmare.” The Hartland, WI resident finished seventh Wednesday, second Thursday, won Friday, and closed it out with another second. The performance earned him nearly $100,000 for the week. Balog felt he was simply missing a little speed that could’ve helped him better compete with Kofoid.
“I was just having a little trouble restarting there, and he was just right on me,” Balog said. “So, I was trying to go faster and stuff, and he finally got me there. But congratulations to Roth Motorsports, Dylan, Buddy, and all the guys over there. I thought maybe in lapped traffic we could do something, but it just didn’t develop for us.”
Sheldon Haudenschild brought the Stenhouse Jr.-Marshall Racing/NOS Energy Drink No. 17 home in the third position. The Wooster, OH native challenged both Kofoid and Balog for the runner-up spot at various points of the race and had speed from start to finish. Ultimately, the result was the final step of the podium worth $25,000.
“I was just able to kind of get down to the bottom there, and I was squirting off the bottom good,” Haudenschild explained. “I feel like they really weren’t trying anything in (Turns) 1 and 2, and I was kind of able to move around. What an intense race. I was hoping to get to lapped traffic. It was getting pretty dicey there, just not how it played out.”
Garet Williamson and Logan Schuchart completed the top five.
Anthony Macri marched from 20th to 11th to earn the KSE Racing Products Hard Charger.
Heat Races belonged to Bill Balog (NOS Energy Drink Heat One), Buddy Kofoid (Real American Beer Heat Two), Garet Williamson (WIX Filters Heat Three), David Gravel (TheGreatestStoreonDirt.com Heat Four), Giovanni Scelzi (Toyota Heat Five), and Sheldon Haudenschild (NOS Energy Drink Heat Six).
The SPA Technique Polesitter Award went to Buddy Kofoid.
Landon Crawley won the Micro-Lite Last Chance Showdown.
The Smith Titanium Brake Systems Break of the Race went to Carson Macedo.
UP NEXT: The World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Cars head back to the “Badger State” for two nights at New Richmond, WI’s Cedar Lake Speedway on June 27-28 with a massive fireworks show set for the final night. For tickets, CLICK HERE.
If you can’t make it to the track, catch every lap live on DIRTVision.
FEATURE RESULTS:
NOS Energy Drink Feature (40 Laps): 1. 83-Michael Kofoid[1]; 2. 17B-Bill Balog[2]; 3. 17-Sheldon Haudenschild[4]; 4. 23-Garet Williamson[3]; 5. 1S-Logan Schuchart[13]; 6. 2-David Gravel[5]; 7. 10-Ryan Timms[9]; 8. 7BC-Tyler Courtney[7]; 9. 18-Giovanni Scelzi[6]; 10. 2C-Cole Macedo[14]; 11. 39M-Anthony Macri[20]; 12. 88T-Tanner Thorson[21]; 13. 21H-Brady Bacon[17]; 14. 15-Donny Schatz[23]; 15. 9R-Chase Randall[11]; 16. 3-Tim Kaeding[22]; 17. 16-Riley Goodno[16]; 18. 55V-Kerry Madsen[8]; 19. 1A-Ashton Torgerson[15]; 20. 45X-Landon Crawley[19]; 21. 55-Hunter Schuerenberg[12]; 22. 49-Brad Sweet[10]; 23. 21-Brian Brown[24]; 24. 41-Carson Macedo[18]
For complete results, CLICK HERE.
Jonathan Davenport Claims First Career Firecracker 100
 |
| SARVER, PA (June 21, 2025) – Jonathan Davenport checked off another bucket list win by capturing his first career Firecracker 100 presented by Experience Butler County on Saturday at Lernerville Speedway. Davenport became the 13th different driver to win the crown jewel event since its inception in 2007, capturing his 88th career victory in the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series presented by FloRacing, worth $50,000. Davenport led 98 of the 100 laps but had to reclaim the lead from Ricky Thornton Jr. on lap 86 after a chaotic restart on lap 85. Once Davenport regained the lead, he went on to win the race, finishing ahead of Thornton, Max Blair, Garrett Alberson, and Mason Zeigler. Thornton, who last year became the first driver to win the race in back-to-back years, got off to a good start by leading the first circuit. However, that was short-lived as Davenport, who started third, charged into the lead on the second lap. Davenport and Thornton then ran one-two for 72 laps until Blair was able to pass Thornton for second place on the 73rd lap. Blair then stayed within shouting distance of Davenport until the sixth and final caution of the race was called with 84 laps completed. On the restart, Blair got a run on Davenport as the two made contact in turn four. Thornton slipped by both of them to take the lead for one lap (lap 85), but that was short-lived as Davenport regained the lead for good on lap 86 and went on to win. In Lucas Oil Victory Lane for the fifth time in 2025, Davenport now trails Thornton by just five points as they head into the series’ next two events at Atomic and Muskingum County on July 4th and 5th. “Check that one off, I have had this one circled for a while. Thanks to all of you fans for coming out here, that was awesome. My car was really good there, and I don’t know what happened on that one restart. I got hit by two different people there. I had been running the same line for a long time. I don’t know what went on, it knocked the left front off of it and the steering rack is all messed up I couldn’t hardly turn it and so the steering wheel was turning like a quarter turn after that it was all gas and brake and trying not to spin the tires,” said the Blairsville, Georgia native. “I just couldn’t steer at all down on that end anymore, and then I couldn’t turn down in this hole like I needed to anymore. Anyway, thank goodness we held on, it was a little closer than I wanted it to be there at the end. I didn’t really know what to do with those two lapped cars there, but I figured if I could stay just behind them and keep my speed up, and maybe someone couldn’t slide in there.” “I really felt like I got rolling there a couple of times, up through lapped traffic, once you get by the first two or three there, and then they kind of spread out and then run one line instead of all over the place. I knew the top was good, but I didn’t know how good it was. There was just enough lip there so somebody could throw a Hail Mary for a couple of laps and get a good run on me, luckily that didn’t happen, it was just an awesome race track.” Thornton, who was looking to win the Firecracker for the third year in a row, was the only other leader of the race, leading two laps, and took home $20,000 for second place. “I went down in turn three and just caught the hole wrong and destroyed the left side of his (Davenport’s) car. That’s not how I wanted to pass him I had to slow down there going into one and let him get back in front of me. We race together too much to go in there and destroy a guy for the win. I felt like I needed to get a little bit better. Overall, it was a really good weekend for us. Congrats to JD, his stuff was really good, so I felt like if we could play in traffic a little bit long, but I didn’t want to destroy two cars and each other and cause a bunch of yellows.” Blair, who fell back as far as 11th in the running order, climbed to second after battling with Thornton for several laps, rounded out the Big River Steel Podium in third after falling back a spot in the frantic lap 85 restart, and collected $10,000 for third. “I don’t know what really happened. I thought JD was entering a little higher, and I had a good run down the backstretch and charged it, and it didn’t work out, and Ricky got back by. If that yellow didn’t come out when I got to second, I think I may have had a shot at it, who knows how it would have played out in lapped traffic, but to run third to these two we will take that every day.” The winner’s Double Motorsports Longhorn Chassis is powered by a Clements Racing Engine and sponsored by Nutrien Ag Solutions, DynaGro Seed, ASC Warranty, Mark Martinn Automotive, Midwest Sheet Metal, and Mega Plumbing of the Carolinas. Completing the top ten were Hudson O’Neal, Gregg Satterlee, Chub Frank, Carson Ferguson, and Donald McIntosh. Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series Race Summary 19th Annual Firecracker 100 presented by Experience Butler CountySaturday, June 21, 2025Lernerville Speedway – Sarver, PA Allstar Performance Time TrialsFast Time Group A: Ricky Thornton Jr. | 17.018 seconds (Overall)Fast Time Group B: Devin Moran | 17.182 seconds Penske Shocks Heat Race #1 Finish (8 Laps, Top 3 Transfer): 1. 20RT-Ricky Thornton Jr[1]; 2. 76-Brandon Overton[4]; 3. 60-Dan Ebert[2]; 4. 7-Ross Robinson[5]; 5. 6-Clay Harris[3]; 6. 1Z-Logan Zarin[7]; 7. 66-Justin Kann[6]; 8. 14-Dan Angelicchio[8]; 9. 22T-Ethan Thompson[9] Summit Racing Products Heat Race #2 Finish (8 Laps, Top 3 Transfer): 1. 49-Jonathan Davenport[5]; 2. 48-Colton Flinner[7]; 3. 22G-Gregg Satterlee[2]; 4. 18D-Daulton Wilson[3]; 5. 2-Dan Stone[8]; 6. 15K-Wil Herrington[4]; 7. EZ1-Ron Fink[9]; 8. 555-Brock Pinkerous[1]; 9. 1C-Alex Ferree[6] Cool-It Thermo-Tec Heat Race #3 Finish (8 Laps, Top 3 Transfer): 1. 72-Michael Norris[1]; 2. 1-Brandon Sheppard[2]; 3. 11R-Josh Rice[3]; 4. 19M-Spencer Hughes[4]; 5. 27-Michael Lake[5]; 6. 4-Gary Stuhler[6]; 7. 11-Trevor Collins[7]; 8. 4S-Danny Snyder[8] Simpson Race Products Heat Race #4 Finish (8 Laps, Top 3 Transfer): 1. 99-Devin Moran[1]; 2. 111-Max Blair[2]; 3. 79-Donald McIntosh[4]; 4. 9-Breyton Santee[3]; 5. 12-Ryan Montgomery[5]; 6. 57-Charlie Sandercock[7]; 7. B22-Bump Hedman[8]; 8. 8-Matt Sponaugle[6]; 9. 6M-Matt Martin[9] Lucas Oil Products Heat Race #5 Finish (8 Laps, Top 3 Transfer): 1. 58-Garrett Alberson[2]; 2. 71-Hudson O’Neal[1]; 3. 25Z-Mason Zeigler[5]; 4. 1*-Chub Frank[4]; 5. 29-Ken Schaltenbrand[6]; 6. 9Y-Levi Yetter[3]; 7. 01-Matt Glanden[8]; 8. 10L-Gary Lyle[7]; 9. 10-Ryan Christoff[9] Lucas Oil Products Heat Race #6 Finish (8 Laps, Top 3 Transfer): 1. 157-Mike Marlar[1]; 2. 93-Carson Ferguson[2]; 3. 10M-Jared Miley[4]; 4. 77-Tyler Dietz[6]; 5. 93L-Cory Lawler[3]; 6. J4-John Garvin Jr[7]; 7. 22-Daniel Hilsabeck[9]; 8. 2T-Rich Wicker[8]; 9. 55-Chris Schneider[5] Fast Shafts B-Main Race #1 Finish (10 Laps, Top 2 Transfer): 1. 18D-Daulton Wilson[2]; 2. 6-Clay Harris[3]; 3. 1Z-Logan Zarin[5]; 4. 15K-Wil Herrington[6]; 5. 1C-Alex Ferree[12]; 6. 7-Ross Robinson[1]; 7. 14-Dan Angelicchio[9]; 8. 66-Justin Kann[7]; 9. 2-Dan Stone[4]; 10. EZ1-Ron Fink[8]; 11. 22T-Ethan Thompson[11]; 12. (DNS) 555-Brock Pinkerous UNOH B-Main Race #2 Finish (10 Laps, Top 2 Transfer): 1. 19M-Spencer Hughes[1]; 2. 4-Gary Stuhler[5]; 3. 12-Ryan Montgomery[4]; 4. 57-Charlie Sandercock[6]; 5. 9-Breyton Santee[2]; 6. B22-Bump Hedman[8]; 7. 11-Trevor Collins[7]; 8. 8-Matt Sponaugle[10]; 9. 4S-Danny Snyder[9]; 10. 6M-Matt Martin[11]; 11. (DNS) 27-Michael Lake MyRacePass B-Main Race #3 Finish (10 Laps, Top 2 Transfer): 1. 77-Tyler Dietz[2]; 2. 1*-Chub Frank[1]; 3. 29-Ken Schaltenbrand[3]; 4. 9Y-Levi Yetter[5]; 5. J4-John Garvin Jr[6]; 6. 22-Daniel Hilsabeck[8]; 7. 55-Chris Schneider[12]; 8. 93L-Cory Lawler[4]; 9. 2T-Rich Wicker[10]; 10. 10L-Gary Lyle[9]; 11. 01-Matt Glanden[7]; 12. 10-Ryan Christoff[11] 19th Annual Firecracker 100 presented by Experience Butler County Feature Finish(100 Laps): Pos – Start – Car # – Competitor – Hometown – Pay1 – 3 – 49 – Jonathan Davenport – Blairsville, GA – $51,2002 – 1 – 20RT – Ricky Thornton Jr – Chandler, AZ – $21,2003 – 8 – 111 – Max Blair – Centerville, PA – $10,0004 – 4 – 58 – Garrett Alberson – Las Cruces, NM – $8,7005 – 16 – 25Z – Mason Zeigler – Chalk Hill, PA – $7,0006 – 10 – 71 – Hudson O’Neal – Martinsville, IN – $6,8007 – 15 – 22G – Gregg Satterlee – Indiana, PA – $4,5008 – 24 – 1* – Chub Frank – Bear Lake, PA – $4,0009 – 12 – 93 – Carson Ferguson – Lincolnton, NC – $4,50010 – 14 – 79 – Donald McIntosh – Dawsonville, GA – $4,40011 – 2 – 99 – Devin Moran – Dresden, OH – $4,40012 – 7 – 76 – Brandon Overton – Evans, GA – $3,90013 – 25 – 22 – Daniel Hilsabeck – Earlham, IA – $3,70014 – 11 – 1 – Brandon Sheppard – New Berlin, IL – $3,20015 – 6 – 157 – Mike Marlar – Winfield, TN – $2,40016 – 22 – 6 – Clay Harris – Jupiter, FL – $3,00017 – 19 – 18D – Daulton Wilson – Fayetteville, NC – $2,90018 – 17 – 11R – Josh Rice – Crittenden, KY – $2,10019 – 13 – 60 – Dan Ebert – Lake Shore, MN – $2,70020 – 26 – 93L – Cory Lawler – Hanover, PA – $2,70021 – 27 – 29 – Ken Schaltenbrand – Sarver, PA – $2,00022 – 9 – 48 – Colton Flinner – Allison Park, PA – $2,00023 – 5 – 72 – Michael Norris – Sarver, PA – $2,00024 – 21 – 77 – Tyler Dietz – Saxonburg, PA – $2,00025 – 23 – 4 – Gary Stuhler – Greencastle, PA – $2,00026 – 18 – 10M – Jared Miley – Pittsburgh, PA – $2,00027 – 20 – 19M – Spencer Hughes – Meridian, MS – $2,700 Race Statistics Entrants: 53Victory Fuel Pole Sitter: Ricky Thornton Jr.MD3 Lap Leaders: Ricky Thornton, Jr. (Lap 1); Jonathan Davenport (Laps 2-84); Ricky Thornton, Jr. (Lap 85); Jonathan Davenport (Laps 86-100)Hellraizer Jacks Halfway Leader: Jonathan DavenportWieland Feature Winner: Jonathan DavenportMargin of Victory: 0.848 secondsColtman Farms Racing Cautions: Series Provisionals: Daniel Hilsabeck, Cory LawlerFast Time Provisional: n/aEmergency Provisional: n/aTrack Provisional: Ken SchaltenbrandBig River Steel Podium Top 3: Jonathan Davenport, Ricky Thornton, Jr., Max BlairPenske Shocks Top 5: Jonathan Davenport, Ricky Thornton, Jr., Max Blair, Garrett Alberson, Mason ZeiglerPEM 4th Place Feature: Garrett AlbersonDMI Rearends 5th Place Feature: Mason ZeiglerWilwood Brakes Lucky 7th Place Feature: Gregg SatterleeWehrs Machine 11th Place Feature: Devin MoranDeatherage Opticians Lucky 13th Place Feature: Daniel HilsabeckMD3 24th Place Feature: Tyler DietzHoker Trucking Hard Charger of the Race: Chub Frank (Advanced 16 Positions)MD3 Most Laps Led: Jonathan Davenport (98 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: Donald McIntoshPro Fabrication Headers Fastest Lap of the Race: Jonathan Davenport | Lap 3 | 17.279 secondsSlicker Graphics Slickest Move of the Race: Ricky Thornton Jr.Fresh Roof Hard Luck Award: Spencer HughesOuterwears Crew Chief of the Race: Cory FostvedtARP Engine Builder of the Race: Clements Racing EnginesMiller Welders Chassis Builder of the Race: Longhorn ChassisDirt Draft Fastest in Hot Laps: WEl errington (15.598 seconds)Time of Race: 52 minutes 13 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 – 4475 – $256,4502 – 49 – Jonathan Davenport – Blairsville, GA – 4470 – $236,3003 – 99 – Devin Moran – Dresden, OH – 4265 – $178,9494 – 71 – Hudson O’Neal – Martinsville, IN – 4075 – $107,0755 – 58 – Garrett Alberson – Las Cruces, NM – 3935 – $81,6506 – 76 – Brandon Overton – Evans, GA – 3820 – $85,3007 – 1 – Brandon Sheppard – New Berlin, IL – 3800 – $85,0008 – 18D – Daulton Wilson – Fayetteville, NC – 3520 – $66,3259 – 93 – Carson Ferguson – Lincolnton, NC – 3435 – $57,42510 – 79 – Donald McIntosh – Dawsonville, GA – 3225 – $42,10011 – 22 – Daniel Hilsabeck – Earlham, IA – 3175 – $40,02512 – 19M – Spencer Hughes – Meridian, MS – 2955 – $39,82513 – 60 – Dan Ebert – Lake Shore, MN – 2880 – $31,80014 – 6 – Clay Harris – Jupiter, FL – 2745 – $31,75015 – 1T – Tyler Erb – New Waverly, TX – 2595 – $34,00016 – 93L – Cory Lawler – Hanover, PA – 2525 – $23,025 |
“Hell, yeah! We won Dirt Cup! Let’s go!”
(6/21/25 – Andrew Kunas) Burlington, WA …
Trey Starks had over 100,000 reasons to smile and celebrate Saturday night at Skagit Speedway, as he scored by far the biggest win of his racing career, fighting off a determined Tanner Holmes and taking the checkered flag at the 53rd Annual Jim Raper Memorial Super Dirt Cup.
Starks’ third career NARC 410 sprint car victory earned him a staggering $100,026 payday, plus another $11,600 in lap money, for a total of $111,626 in winnings.
Starting on the pole after emerging victorious in the eight-car pole shuffle earlier in the evening, Starks jumped out to the lead ahead of fellow front row starter James McFadden. McFadden ran in second until Holmes raced his way by him on Lap 7. As the leaders entered traffic, Starks’ pace began to slow some and Holmes was able to catch up to him. As the completed Lap 13, Holmes had a run off of Turn 4 and then threw a slider entering Turn 1, taking the lead from Starks. Holmes led the next three laps before a yellow flag and then a red flag stopped action.
During the open red flag, Starks’ crew made fuel adjustments to his car and it paid off. After the restart, Starks was able to keep pace with Holmes on the open track and then passed him for the lead on Lap 18. Starks again took off from there. During the long green flag run, Holmes closed in as Starks again battled traffic but could not make a pass like he did earlier.
Starks maintained a several car length lead over Holmes in the closing laps and held on for the big win aboard the T&C Concepts-sponsored Starks Racing No. 55 Fisher-powered J&J. After clearing the scales post race, Starks’ car was rolled in front of the grandstands and with his helmet still on he climbed atop his car to celebrate as the Skagit Speedway crowd roared in approval of one of their own winning the Dirt Cup. He was then greeted by his family and his team along with track owner Kevin Rudeen.
“It’s on the top, absolutely!” Starks said of where this win placed on his resume. “I knew I had one chance. I knew if I didn’t wheelie over backwards on the restart I could get him. I couldn’t let (Holmes) him have an inch because he was obviously fast. And then when I got to traffic, motor or not, I had to be really, really aggressive. I was going until I saw the checkered flag two times in a row.”
“The air must’ve changed a bunch (before the race), because our motor just would not run. It was flat on the top. We changed any fuel settings we could. If I could get the temperature up it was great but if it cooled down too much it was iffy,” Starks said about how his car ran early on and then the changes his team made to the car during the open red flag.
Just six nights earlier, Starks felt the sting of losing the NARC Timber Cup feature at Grays Harbor Raceway on a last lap pass. The biggest win of his life Saturday probably made him forget all about it. Starks ran his first sprint car race, a 410 race, at Skagit Speedway, in 2010. Fifteen years later, his hard work paid off. Starks praised his family and team for their support over the years.
Holmes, after leading four laps, turned in his best Dirt Cup finish, taking second aboard the Legacy Builder Supply-sponsored Holmes Racing No. 18t Rider-powered Triple X. Holmes was disappointed as he wanted that one more spot in the finishing order, but he still earned $40,000, plus more than $7,000 in lap money for running in the Top 3 the entire race.
James McFadden ran in the Top 3 the entire race and finished third aboard the American Rock & Rent-sponsored Tarlton Motorsports No. 21t Kistler-powered Maxim, earning $20,000 for the position and more than $4,000 in lap money for also running Top 3 throughout.
Shane Golobic ran in the Top 5 throughout and finished fourth aboard the NOS Energy-sponsored Matt Wood Racing No. 17w Kistler-powered KPC. Justin Sanders started fifth and finished there aboard the Yuba Sutter Aviation-sponsored Mittry Motorsports No. 2x Fisher-powered KPC. Colton Heath, Scott Bogucki, Joel Meyers Jr, D.J. Netto and Brent Marks rounded out the Top 10.
Sean Becker earned the Williams Roofing Hard Charger nod, coming out of the Winters Performance Last Chance Qualifier, advancing nine positions from 23rd to 14th.
Max Mittry won the Beacon Wealth Strategies B-Feature, taking Justin Peck, Becker, Caeden Steele, Landon Brooks and Cory Eliason with him to the Dirt Cup main event.
Four qualifiers were run earlier in the evening, lined up by accumulated points from Thursday’s and Friday’s preliminaries, with the winners joining the top four drivers in points already locked in the “King of the Hill” pole shuffle, and second through fourth locking into the Dirt Cup main event also. Those were won by Scott Bogucki, Colton Heath, James McFadden and Jason Solwold.
McFadden defeated Solwold in the first match race of the pole shuffle, and nearly ran the table, losing in the final round to Starks but still starting alongside him on the front row.
Hoosier Racing Tires Feature (40 laps): 1. 55 Trey Starks (1), 2. 18t Tanner Holmes (3), 3. 21t James McFadden (2), 4. 17w Shane Golobic (4), 5. 2x Justin Sanders (5), 6. 1c Colton Heath (7), 7. 78 Scott Bogucki (6), 8. 4 Joel Meyers Jr (9), 9. 88n D.J. Netto (12), 10. 19b Brent Marks (10), 11. 18 Jason Solwold (8), 12. 95 Justin Youngquist (13), 13. 41 Dominic Scelzi (16), 14. 7b Sean Becker (23), 15. 24D Danny Sams III ( 14), 16. 2xm Max Mittry (21), 17. 2k Gauge Garcia (17), 18. 77 Levi Klatt (18), 19. 21L Landon Brooks (25), 20. 45 Cory Eliason (26), 21. 10 Dominic Gorden (20), 22. 121 Caeden Steele (24), 23. 42 Sye Lynch (11), 24. 21p Robbie Price (19), 25. 26 Justin Peck (22), 26. 21 Jesse Schlotfeldt (15).
METTEC Titanium Lap Leaders: Trey Starks 1-13 & 18-40, Tanner Holmes 14-17
Williams Roofing Hard Charger: 7b Sean Becker, 23rd to 14th (+9)
Brown & Miller Racing Solutions Qualifier 1 (8 laps): 1. 78 Scott Bogucki, 2. 4 Joel Meyers Jr, 3. 95 Justin Youngquist, 4. 2k Gage Garcia, 5. 26f Eric Fisher, 6. 91 Chase Goetz, 7. 17 Cam Smith, 8. 9 Greg Otis, 9. 95r Dan Reynold, 10. 15 Nick Parker.
Kimo’s Tropical Carwash Qualifier 2 (8 laps): 1. 1c Colton Heath, 2. 19b Brent Marks, 3. 24d Danny Sams III, 4. 77 Levi Klatt, 5. 2xm Max Mittry, 6. 35km Tyler Thompson, 7. 45 Cory Eliason, 8. 1m Mike Brown, 9. 0 Ashleigh Johnson, DNS – 27c Camden Robustelli.
WEDG High Performance Karts Qualifier 3 (8 laps): 1. 21t James McFadden, 2. 42 Sye Lynch, 3. 21 Jesse Schlotfeldt, 4. 21p Robbie Price, 5. 121 Caeden Steele, 6. 7b Sean Becker, 7. 21L Landon Brooks, 8. 29k Levi Kuntz, 9. 51 Dustin Gehring.
Winters Performance Qualifier 4 (8 laps): 1. 18 Jason Solwold, 2. 88n D.J. Netto, 3. 41 Dominic Scelzi, 4. 10 Dominic Gorden, 5. 26 Justin Peck, 6. 94TH Braden Chiaramonte, 7. 9a Luke Didiuk, 8. 17c Chris Bullock, DNS – 14 Mariah Ede.
Beacon Wealth Strategies Last Chance Qualifier (20 laps): 1. 2xm Max Mittry, 2. 26 Justin Peck, 3. 7b Sean Becker, 4. 121 Caeden Steele, 5. 21L Landon Brooks, 6. 45 Cory Eliason, 7. 26f Eric Fisher, 8. 35km Tyler Thompson, 9. 91 Chase Goetz, 10. 1m Mike Brown, 11. 29k Levi Kuntz, 12. 0 Ashleigh Johnson, 13. 51 Dustin Gehring, 14. 17c Chris Bullock, 15. 95r Dan Reynold, 16. 9 Greg Otis, 17. 17 Cam Smith, 18. 9a Luke Didiuk, 19. 27c Camden Robustelli, DNS – 14 Mariah Ede, 15 Nick Parker, 94TH Braden Chiaramonte. First six finishers transfer to A-Feature.
Chevy Racing–NHRA–SATURDAY RECAP – Richmond Race 9 of 20
SATURDAY RECAP – Richmond Race 9 of 20 |
 |  |
| Photography: John Force Racing / Auto Imagery / Gary Nastase |
| BRITTANY, BECKMAN QUALIFY NO. 1 AT RICHMONDPoint Leader, Series Champ Prock Starts from No. 2 in Cornwell Chevy |
| RICHMOND, Va. (June 21, 2025) – Beset by memories of Virginia Motorsports Park, the track on which her dad was seriously injured last year after crashing his Funny Car at 300 miles per hour, two-time Top Fuel World Champion Brittany Force had something more positive on which to focus Saturday after driving her Chevrolet Accessories dragster to the No. 1 qualifying position for Sunday’s 15th NHRA Virginia Nationals. The 18-time pro tour winner shared center stage with John Force Racing teammate “Fast Jack” Beckman who, driving the latest version of Force’s PEAK Antifreeze and Coolant Chevrolet SS, raced to the top of the order in Funny Car as the only driver able to break four seconds. He’ll start Sunday one position ahead of teammate, reigning series champ and point leader Austin Prock. It’s the 18th time JFR Funny Car and Top Fuel drivers have qualified No. 1 at the same NHRA event, the second time they’ve done so this season (after Force and Prock were No. 1 at the Lucas Oil Winternationals in Pomona, Calif.) A winner two races ago at Epping, N.H., Brittany opened Saturday with a solid 3.893 before dipping to 3.839 at 327.98 miles per hour, a performance that secured the 54th No. 1 of her career. She’ll roll to the starting line Sunday against point leader Tony Stewart knowing that the only other time she qualified No. 1 at this event, she finished in the same position. “To be running in the heat as well as we have and to go No. 1 with this Chevrolet Accessories team, we’re really excited,” said the 2013 Rookie-of-the-Year. “(Crew chief) Dave Grubnic has this car really tuned up; he figured it out. We’re in a good position right now and I can’t wait for race day.” Nevertheless, the only woman to have won as many as 300 rounds in the sport’s signature class acknowledged the obvious. “It’s definitely tough coming back (to Richmond) with the memories I have,” she said. “We won here in 2022 and won here last season (in the Mission Foods 2Fast/2Tasty Challenge) and it’s all kind of forgotten (because) the only thing I really remember is Sunday last year when my dad wrecked and everything that came with that. I’m glad he’s out here with me but, everywhere I look, I see something that reminds me of that day.” After touting his car’s talent for negotiating hot racetracks, Beckman provided some serious substantiation Saturday with runs of 3.988 and 4.016 that enabled him to gobble up six more qualifying bonus points. The U.S. Air Force veteran will start from No. 1 for the 31st time in his Funny Car career and for the third time this year, facing Jim Campbell in opening stanza. “It’s funny when get used to low 3.80s, 3.98 doesn’t feel that fast,” said the 2012 Funny Car World Champion. “It’s hot, it’s humid, it’s nasty and our PEAK Chevy is nastier. I’m ready to put it in the winners’ circle. We’ve got Task Force Rahal on board, and we’ve got the boss here. We’re in Richmond where his wreck was last year (and we) really would like some closure at the end of the weekend.” As for Prock, he had a solid, if not typically spectacular qualifying performance. “We ended up No. 2 right behind Beckman,” said the driver of the Cornwell Tools Chevy SS, “so we’re on opposite sides of the ladder, which is good. We made two nice clean runs in Q1 and Q3 and Q2 was really close. We had just a taste too much on the top end. “I definitely think we have a little more left in the tank and I’m looking forward to tomorrow,” said the man who has won 10 times since first climbing into the Cornwell Chevy in relief of three-time World Champion Robert Hight. “We race Cruz Pedregon in the first round. We raced him last year in the first round and ended up leaving with the Wally, so maybe that’s a good omen.” |
TORRENCE WINS FIRST MISSION FOODS #2FAST2TASTY CHALLENGE IN RICHMOND
Leads Toyota Top Fuel Dragsters for Virginia Nationals Qualifying
NORTH DINWIDDIE, V.A. (June 21, 2025) – In Saturday’s qualifying for the NHRA Virginia Nationals at Virginia Motorsports Park, Steve Torrence led the Toyota Top Fuel Dragster contingent by earning the No. 3 seed for tomorrow’s eliminations. Torrence looks to follow-up his triumph in Bristol from two weeks ago with another Wally Trophy tomorrow, which would be the 57th win of his historic career.
Torrence also captured victory in Saturday’s Top Fuel Mission Foods #2Fast2Tasty Challenge, his first of the season, as well as Toyota’s seventh challenge win in eight events so far this season. Toyota now has wins in either nitro category in all challenge events this season.
In Funny Car, J.R. Todd was the lead Toyota GR Supra Funny Car on Saturday, claiming the No. 3 seed for tomorrow. Ron Capps will begin tomorrow as the fifth seed and made the finals of the #2Fast2Tasty Challenge in Funny Car this afternoon.
The NHRA Virginia Nationals eliminations begin tomorrow at 11 a.m. EST with live TV coverage beginning at 4 p.m. EST on FOX.
Toyota Post-Qualifying Recap
NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series
Virginia Motorsports Park
NHRA Virginia Nationals
Race 9 of 20
TOYOTA TOP FUEL QUALIFYING POSITIONS
| Name | Car | Qualifying Position | First Round Opponent |
| Brittany Force* | Chevrolet Top Fuel Dragster | 1st | T. Stewart |
| Steve Torrence | CAPCO Contractors Toyota Top Fuel Dragster | 3rd | J. Hart |
| Shawn Langdon | Kalitta Air Careers Toyota Top Fuel Dragster | 5th | C. Ferre |
| Doug Kalitta | Mac Tools Toyota Top Fuel Dragster | 7th | A. Brown |
| Antron Brown | Matco Tools Toyota Top Fuel Dragster | 8th | D. Kalitta |
| Justin Ashley | SCAG Power Equipment Toyota Top Fuel Dragster | 9th | D. Foley |
*non-Toyota driver
TOYOTA FUNNY CAR QUALIFYING POSITIONS
| Name | Car | Qualifying Position | First Round Opponent |
| Jack Beckman* | Peak Chevrolet Funny Car | 1st* | J. Campbell |
| J.R. Todd | DHL Toyota GR Supra Funny Car | 3rd | B. Hull |
| Ron Capps | NAPA Auto Care Toyota GR Supra Funny Car | 5th | C. Green |
*non-Toyota driver
TOYOTA QUOTES
STEVE TORRENCE, CAPCO Contractors Toyota Top Fuel Dragster, Torrence Racing
TF Qualifying Result: 3rd
With all the recent success, would you say you and the team are back?
“I’m not going to say we’re back and put my foot in my mouth and speak too soon. Richard Hogan (crew chief) and Bobby (Lagana Jr., assistant crew chief) have been working really hard. All the CAPCO boys have made this car go round-after-round. We’re working on consistency; that’s what it’s going to take to win races and championships. We’ve been there before but have to get it back. To get a Mission (Foods #2Fast2Tasty) challenge win is icing on the cake. Let’s see if we can carry some momentum into tomorrow.”
XPEL Grand Prix at Road America Presented by AMRRoad America Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin Qualifying Report June 21, 2025
| CHEVROLET IN THE NTT INDYCAR SERIES Scott McLaughlin Leads Team Chevy in Qualifying at Road AmericaExcessive heat creates tire strategy calls during qualifying Scott McLaughlin will start his No.3 XPEL Team Penske Chevrolet on the outside of the second row in the fourth positionIt is the Kiwi driver’s fifth appearance in the Firestone Fast Six this season “Pretty good day. Fastest Chevy, in the end. We didn’t run another set of reds. I think we could have got pole there, but we’re thinking long game. I think that’s about as good as a pole. We saved a set of tires and we’re in a good spot for tomorrow. So, I’m excited.” Christian Lundgaard, No. 7 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet, will roll off fifth after making the Fast Six for the fourth time this seasonDavid Malukas, No. 4 Clarience Technology AJ Foyt Racing Chevrolet, scored his fourth consecutive race he has qualified seventh or better – he will roll off seventh on SundayCallum Ilott scored his best qualifying result of the season putting his No. 90 PREMA Racing Chevrolet in the ninth starting positionWill Power will roll the No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet from eighth on the gridGiving Chevrolet six of the top-10 in the starting order is Josef Newgarden, No. 2 PPG Team Penske Chevrolet in10th positionChristian Lundgaard, in the No. 7 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet, led the 45-minute warm and windy Saturday morning practice session with a lap at 105.3412 seconds, which was an impressive quarter-second clear of the second-quickest driver. |
| TUNE IN ALERT Sunday NTT INDYCAR SERIES Warm Up – 10am (ET)/9am (CT)/8am (MT)/7am (PT) – FS1/INDYCAR Radio Network/SIRIUSXM 218XPEL Grand Prix at Road America Presented by AMR (55 laps) – 1:30pm (ET)/12:30pm (CT)/11:30am (MT)/10:30am (PT) – FOX/INDYCAR Radio Network/SIRIUSXM 218 NTT INDYCAR SERIES QUALIFYING RESULTS FROM THE XPEL Grand Prix at Road America Presented by AMR |
 |
| WHAT THEY’RE SAYING (Quotes): Scott McLaughlin, No. 3 DEX Imaging Team Penske Chevrolet qualified 4th: “Pretty good day. Fastest Chevy, in the end. We didn’t run another set of reds. I think we could have got pole there, but we’re thinking long game. I think that’s about as good as a pole. We saved a set of tires and we’re in a good spot for tomorrow. So, I’m excited.” Christian Lundgaard, No. 7 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet qualified 5th:“Good Qualifying. It’s nice to bounce back from last weekend at World Wide Technology Raceway. We didn’t quite have it. Pace is close. We obviously saw in the Fast Six how close the qualifying times are. There are a couple guys we’re fighting in the championship, the 27 and the 10 used a third set of alternates, so me and the 3 car are in a better position for the race, and I think that was really our goal: don’t sacrifice the race and make sure we think about the long game. I think we did, and at the end of the day we can fight from fifth. I’m happy, hot, sweaty, and conditions will be even worse tomorrow.” David Malukas, No. 4 Clarience Technologies/A.J. Foyt Racing Chevrolet qualified 7th:“I think we’re really happy. I mean, we’re almost just trying to, like, make it to the Fast 6 and commit to a sixth-place finish because we really want to save these red tires. Just save all tires, to be fair. I think we did a good job there. P seven is kind of, I think, right where we want it to be. It’s a good starting spot and just have some good stops and try to make these tires last. Will Power, No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet qualified 8th:“The Verizon Chevy was really good in the second round (of qualifying). It was just unbelievably tight there, which is always the case in the INDYCAR SERIES. We only missed by a fraction. It was a hot afternoon, and it will be tomorrow, so we have to be ready for that. Plenty of speed in the car and we’ll go to work tonight on the strategy to be ready.” Callum Ilott, No, 90 PREMA Racing Chevrolet qualified 9th:“The car was good; we improved a lot since FP2. It was great to be third in our group. The first run in the Top 12 was not so good, the tyres were quite used and just didn’t have a good feeling or rhythm. On the second run we put the new tyres on, it felt really good on the first lap but unfortunately everyone else backed up in front and so I didn’t get to complete it. I think it would have been a Fast Six lap. On the last lap the tyres are gone a little bit, so we’re P9 which is the first top 10 start for the #90 car and everything feels pretty good for tomorrow.” Josef Newgarden, No. 2 PPG Team Penske Chevrolet qualified 10th: “With a track this big you don’t think you’ll have an issue with traffic, but we absolutely did in that second round. A top-10 starting spot isn’t the worst here with the amount of passing zones you have but we definitely had enough speed in the PPG Chevy that we should have been fighting for a pole position.” Pato O’Ward, No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet qualified 11th:“I was happy with the balance of the Arrow McLaren Chevrolet today, and I think all the changes we made were definitely helping us improve. We had a very strong Round 1 and just lost half a second of engine performance on the straight line in Round 2. That put us at a bigger deficit to transfer into the Firestone Fast 6. It’s frustrating because I thought we had something to fight for pole with.” Nolan Siegel, No. 6 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet qualified 13th: I think we’re in a good spot. It’s, I think, like, a tenth and a half would have moved us to, like, second in our group or something ridiculous. So, it’s very, very tight, and I think we have a good race car, I missed it a little bit in that session. It’s frustrating. I think we had potential for sure to be in the fast-12. But, I think there are probably a lot of people saying that and a lot of good cars that didn’t transfer. So, we’re in a good spot for tomorrow. We’re you know, I don’t know if it really matters if we were two spots up the grid from where we are, we’ll do what we can. And, it’s a place where we can pass too, so I’m really excited to race here again, and it always produces such a fun race.” Robert Shwartzman, No. 83 PREMA Racing Chevrolet qualified 17th:“Overall, I’m having mixed feelings. On one side I am happy that we managed to improve the car balance, on the other hand we had an issue where I just lost straight-line power on my second run. When I compare to Callum, it was like around four tenths on the straights so it should have been enough to put me in the top six of our group. That said, I was quite happy with my run, I managed to improve and generally get a bit more confidence and feel with the car so overall it’s good. We’re going to be starting 17th tomorrow so we’ll do our best in the race to get some positions and move forwards.” Santino Ferrucci, No. 14 Bommarito Automotive Group/A.J. Foyt Racing Chevrolet qualified 18th:“Obviously, we’re really happy with the base on the black tires or prime tires. I think we understand what happened, which is a bummer, but also a good thing. So, we’ll make the changes for tomorrow. Three sets of sticker alternates. Drive it forward. Man, I feel like you can pass on this track, and I’m not afraid to race. So, I’ll get it up there. I think we just kind of missed something in the mid corner rotation. Like I said, I’m not afraid to brake late, and get on it. So, I guess I’m just at this point padding my passing stats for the season, unfortunately.” Christian Rasmussen, No. 21 ECR Splenda Chevrolet qualified 20th:“We’ve been struggling for pace all weekend long, through practice one, through practice two, and, same here in qualifying. It seems like no matter what we do to the car, it just doesn’t really respond to our our changes. So, yeah, I think I think we could have qualified a little bit better. My problem in qualifying was just getting the the tires up to Tim quick enough for for that second run compared to my first run, I was, like, three tenths down coming out of 14, but still ended out improving my lap time. So had we had that three-tenths, we would have transferred. So for us, it was just we couldn’t get the tires switched on quick enough. But, yeah, we still we have some work to do to for the race car tomorrow for sure. It’s, not where we wanna start. We started far down last weekend, and that obviously went alright. So, hopefully, we can do something tomorrow.” “We’ve had some good weekends in a row. You know? The 500 was good for us. I think overall, Detroit was really good for us. Just didn’t get the result because of an mechanical failure, as well as getting my first podium last weekend. So it’s it’s we’ve been on a good steam. This has definitely been the weekend where we’ve struggled the most for pace, I think, for in a in a while. We’ll just have to keep working at it, try to improve the car for tomorrow, and then see what we get. Conor Daly, No. 76 Juncos Holliger Racing Chevrolet qualified 21st:“We’ve had a bit of a struggle overall on any road or street course. The hybrid weight that’s been added has been a bit of a challenge for us for sure on these circuits. We made a great improvement. We were only a tenth and a half from transferring, so I’d say that’s pretty good, from where we were. Much more in the game now. Again, we’re about a session behind all the time, so we need a little bit more work. Hopefully, tomorrow we can race our way forward.” |
| Chevrolet at Road America WINS Chevrolet Wins: 11 2024 – Will Power – Team Penske (photo above)2022 – Josef Newgarden – Team Penske2018 – Josef Newgarden – Team Penske2016 – Will Power – Team Penske1993 – Paul Tracy – Team Penske1992 – Emerson Fittipaldi – Team Penske1991 – Michael Andretti – Newman Haas Racing1990 – Michael Andretti – Newman Haas Racing1989 – Danny Sullivan – Team Penske1988 – Emerson Fittipaldi – Patrick Racing1987 – Mario Andretti – Newman Haas Racing POLES Chevrolet Poles: 13 2021 – Josef Newgarden – Team Penske2020 Race #2 – Pato O’Ward – Arrow McLaren2020 Race #1 – Josef Newgarden – Team Penske2018 – Josef Newgarden – Team Penske2017 – Helio Castroneves – Team Penske2016 – Will Power -Team Penske1993 – Paul Tracy – Team Penske1992 – Paul Tracy – Team Penske1991 – Bob Rahal – Galles Racing1990 – Danny Sullivan – Team Penske1989 – Danny Sullivan – Team Penske1988 – Danny Sullivan – Team Penske1987 – Mario Andretti – Newman Haas Racing PODIUMS Chevrolet Podiums: 32 Chevrolet podiums at Road America by driver: Josef Newgarden (6), Will Power (5), Mario Andretti (3), Emerson Fittipaldi (3), Michael Andretti (2), Rick Mears (2), Pato O’Ward (2) Bob Rahal (2), Al Unser Jr. (2), Helio Castroneves (1), Tony Kanaan (1), Scott McLaughlin (1), Danny Sullivan (1), and Paul Tracy (1)Chevrolet podiums at Road America by team: Team Penske (19), Newman Haas Racing (5), Arrow McLaren (2), Galles Racing (2), Rahal Hogan Racing (2), Chip Ganassi Racing (1) and Patrick Racing (1) LAPS LED Chevrolet Laps Led: 688Chevrolet laps led at Road America by driver: Josef Newgarden (159), Will Power (81), Michael Andretti (79), Emerson Fittipaldi (76), Danny Sullivan (62), Paul Tracy (55), Mario Andretti (50), Pato O’Ward (43), Al Unser Jr. (24), Scott McLaughlin (18), Helio Castroneves (17), Max Chilton (7), Felix Rosenqvist (7), Kevin Magnussen (6), Oliver Askew (2), and Simon Pagenaud (2)Chevrolet laps led at Road America by team: Team Penske (435), Newman Haas Racing (129), Arrow McLaren (56), Patrick Racing (35) Galles Racing (24), Carlin (7), and Ed Carpenter Racing (2) |
| HISTORICAL INFORMATION Manufacturer history at Road America Wins – 35 11 — Chevrolet (2024, 2022, 2018, 2016, 1993, 1992, 1991, 1990, 1989, 1988, 1987)9 — Honda (2023, 2021, 2020 R2, 2020 R1, 2019, 2017, 2000, 1998, 1997)7 — Ford (2006, 2004, 2003, 1999, 1996, 1995, 1994)6 — Cosworth (2007, 1986, 1985, 1984, 1983, 1982)2 — Toyota (2002, 2001) Earned Poles – 35 13 — Chevrolet (2021, 2020 R2, 2020 R1, 2018, 2017, 2016, 1993, 1992, 1991, 1990, 1989, 1988, 1987)7 — Ford (2006, 2004, 2003, 2001, 1999, 1998, 1995)6 — Cosworth (2007, 1986, 1985, 1984, 1983, 1982)6 — Honda (2024, 2023, 2022, 2019, 2000, 1996)1 – Ilmor (1994)1 — Mercedes (1997)1 — Toyota (2002) INDYCAR SERIES Manufacturer Championships (since 1979) 21 – General Motors (Chevrolet and Oldsmobile combined)16 – Chevrolet (6 Championship Auto Racing Teams & 10 INDYCAR)10 – Honda (4 Championship Auto Racing Teams & 6 INDYCAR)9 – Cosworth (9 Championship Auto Racing Teams)5 – Oldsmobile (5 INDYCAR)2 – Ford (2 Championship Auto Racing Teams)2 – Toyota (1 Championship Auto Racing Teams & 1 INDYCAR)1 – Ilmor (1 Championship Auto Racing Teams)1 – Mercedes Benz (1 Championship Auto Racing Teams) |
Cadillac at The Glen: All 3 qualify in top 5
| Cadillac V-Series.R follow front-row start at Le Mans with another for IMSA raceWATKINS GLEN, N.Y. (June 21, 2025) – For the second consecutive endurance race weekend — on two continents, under different sanctioning body rulesets and on divergent road courses — Cadillac Racing has secured a front-row starting position. Jack Aitken, driving the No. 31 Whelen Cadillac V-Series.R, qualified second in the 13-car Grand Touring Prototype (GTP) field for Sunday’s Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen with a lap of 1 minute, 31.845 seconds on the 3.4-mile, 11-turn Watkins Glen International course in the 15-minute IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship session. |
 Nine days earlier, the No. 12 Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA V-Series.R earned the pole for the 93rd edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans – the first for an American automaker since 1967 – and Aitken’s Cadillac Whelen teammate, Earl Bamber, qualified second in the No. 38 Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA V-Series.R for a Cadillac lockout of the front row.Aitken, who set the Hypercar qualifying track record June 12 at Circuit de la Sarthe and topped the time sheet in both pre-qualifying practice sessions at The Glen, will also share driving duties with Frederik Vesti in the third of five IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup races. Cadillac Racing placed all three of its GTP entries in the top five. The No. 10 Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing V-Series.R, with Ricky Taylor in the seat, qualified fourth with a lap of 1:32.444. Louis Deletraz qualified fifth in the No. 40 Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing V-Series.R with a lap of 1:32.566. Ricky Taylor and Filipe Albuquerque, a three-time winner at The Glen, are coming off a runner-up finish in the 100-minute IMSA race on the streets of Detroit. Deletraz and Jordan Taylor started from the pole in 2024 and finished fourth at The Glen with another manufacturer. The front-row start is the highest for Cadillac Racing in IMSA GTP competition this season, and all three entries on the first three rows is also a season best. Former Cadillac Racing driver Renger van der Zande earned the pole with a lap of 1:31.558 (0.287 of a second quicker than Aitken’s lap). |
| Media resources: Cadillac Racing photos for editorial use | Cadillac results at Watkins Glen Cadillac Racing has earned podium spots the past three years at The Glen and swept the top two places in the 2-hour, 40-minute race in 2021. The race completes a busy period of competition for Cadillac Racing, which earned a runner-up finish May 31 in the Chevrolet Detroit Sports Car Classic in addition to two weekends of running in France. NBC will telecast the first half of the race starting at noon ET Sunday, with Peacock (U.S. customers) streaming the final three hours. IMSA Radio will broadcast the race at IMSA.com along with XM 206 and SiriusXM Online 996. |
| What they’re saying |
 No. 10 Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing V-Series.RRicky Taylor: “I think if we put everything together we had a little bit more today, but not for P1. The car for the race is a comfortable car and don’t think it was a qualifying car, so maybe for the race we have something to fight with everyone for six hours. I think these are the closest track conditions we have for the race, so maybe this is the best read of what our racecar will be like.”No. 31 Whelen Cadillac V-Series.R Jack Aitken: “With the forecast being a bit hotter tomorrow, it actually will play into the 31 car. It’s much more our strength, especially when you get later in the race and you have to take care of your tires more. Front row is good. Solid performance It’s shame we missed out on pole. Still hunting for the first one of the year for us. I felt like the lap was good, the car was decent and we made some good steps from practice, but not quite enough to beat the other car to pole. We’re right in the mix, so we’ll race for the victory tomorrow.”  No. 40 Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing V-Series.RLouis Deletraz: “It’s our best quali of the year, so that’s positive. The car felt good today and we have a good racecar. Conditions will be very hot, so that’s what we have to work towards. It’s a good starting position and we can race from there, so I’m looking forward to the race.” |
CORVETTE RACING AT WATKINS GLEN: Front-Row Run for DXDT
| Udell to start second in GTD, Catsburg third in GTD PRO qualifying ahead of Six Hours WATKINS GLEN, NY (June 21, 2025) – Corvette Z06 GT3.Rs will start on the first and second row of the GTD and GTD PRO grids after qualifying for the Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen on Saturday at Watkins Glen International. Alec Udell was the quickest Corvette driver in the 15-minute qualifying sessions Saturday for DXDT Racing. For the second GTD race in a row, he will start on the outside of the front row after a lap of 144.999 (116.572 mph) in the No. 36 Chevrolet Corvette that he will share with factory driver Charlie Eastwood and Salih Yoluc. |
| Udell also was second in GTD qualifying in the last race for the class in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca. He also was second-quickest in Friday’s opening practice session and fastest in GTD following Saturday morning’s final practice session. In GTD PRO, Nicky Catsburg led the attack for Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports. He qualified third in the No. 4 Corvette that he’ll drive with Tommy Milner after a lap of 1:45.296 (116.243 mph). He was less than two-tenths of a second and three positions ahead of teammate Alexander Sims in the No. 3 Z06 GT3.R – a year after he and Antonio Garcia finished the Sahlen’s Six Hours third in class. Watkins Glen also serves as the third of five rounds in the IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup with the Corvette program already having a victory this year courtesy of GTD team AWA, which will start 19th in class Sunday. At Watkins Glen, points will be awarded at the three-hour mark as well as the race’s end. In addition to more IMEC points, the Corvette Racing program will go for a third – and perhaps fourth – class victory in the Sahlen’s Six Hours. The Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen is scheduled for 12:10 p.m. ET on Sunday, June 22. The race will air live on NBC from noon to 3 p.m. with full streaming coverage on Peacock. IMSA Radio will stream audio coverage at IMSA.com along XM 206, SiriusXM Online 996. |
| OREY FIDANI, NO. 13 CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R – 19TH IN GTD: “Not exactly where we hoped to be on the grid, but the Sahlen’s Six Hours is a long race and anything can happen. We’ve got a solid car, a strong lineup, and a team that knows how to fight. We’ll keep our heads down, stay clean, and push forward tomorrow.” |
Diffuser Issue In Practice Puts Berry Starting 35th At Pocono
| Josh Berry and the No. 21 eero Mustang Dark Horse will have to start Sunday’s Great American Getaway 400 at Pocono Raceway from the rear of the pack after having an issue with the rear diffuser during practice on Saturday.Berry ran just five laps before the issue arose, and the eero crew, led by crew chief Miles Stanley, immediately went to work repairing the No. 21 Mustang.Berry told reporters that he had full confidence that the eero crew will have him a fast Ford when the green flag flies on Sunday.“The guys have done a great job all year giving me fast cars,” he said. “Unfortunately, we had an issue today…“We will be coming from the back [on Sunday] so that should make it interesting.” The 160-lap Great American Getaway 400 on the 2.5-mile “Tricky Triangle” is scheduled to get the green flag just after 2 p.m. Sunday with Stage breaks planned for Laps 30 and 95. |
NASCAR CUP SERIES POCONO RACEWAY TEAM CHEVY DRIVER QUOTES JUNE 21, 2025
| Shane van Gisbergen, driver of the No. 88 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet, met with the media in advance of the NASCAR Cup Series practice and qualifying session at Pocono Raceway. | MEDIA RESOURCES: Photo Gallery | Race AdvancesChevrolet Newsroom |
| Media Availability Quotes: Two years ago, you burst onto the scene with the Chicago win. A few weeks later here at Pocono, I talked to many drivers, and a lot of them have the sentiment of, yeah, it’s cool that you won at a road course, but try the ovals. And now, two years later, you’re fully invested in NASCAR in a full-time capacity. You have another historic win, ironically, on a road course. But now, here we are. Even though your success on ovals has still been limited, and you’re still learning, what do you say to all the drivers that were like, just do it? How do you respond, I guess?“I don’t know where to start with that one… but yeah, firstly, good morning, everyone. Yeah, it’s been an amazing two years, that’s for sure. And it’s been great to tick off another win at a historical event for the sport again, Pretty cool to win another race like that. And it’s been an amazing week — amazing for the team and celebrating our achievement. It’s a pretty cool thing to do. But yeah, I feel like we really are getting better every week on the ovals. It was nice to have a break last week and turn right, which is good, but ready to keep trying to progress. This track will be a tough one. I struggled here, actually, last year, but also our cars weren’t that good either. I was racing my teammates near the back, so it was a tough one. But yeah, just looking forward to keep improving every week, keep learning something. And yeah, it’s not long now until we go to tracks for the second time and looking forward to getting better at them.” With the win, how does the mindset shift for the rest of the regular season?“Good question. I don’t think it really has. It was always our goal to win. There’s probably less pressure on road courses now. We can play with our strategy if we want to try and get playoff points now and stuff like that. But yeah, probably less pressure. We can enjoy the road courses a bit more. But yeah, the ovals, we just need to keep doing what we’ve been doing; keep our head down, keep improving every week, and try and keep getting good results. We’ve been frustrated with top-20s the last couple of weeks, which is a huge improvement for us for how we started. Our potential is getting a lot better, and hopefully we keep getting close to that back-end of the top-10. That would be good.” You got the opportunity last weekend with celebrating your victory with the first loser and second loser, I guess, is what some people would call it. What was it like to share a podium, since that’s not traditionally done here? I know you’ve done it both ways. Would you prefer having the focus more on the winner as opposed to sharing the second and third?“Yeah, I guess that’s the way that I’ve grown up doing it, and the way the rest of the world does it. But I love the focus on ‘win or nothing’ here, as well. There’s so much spectacle just behind the winner, and you get all that spotlight. But it’s damn hard to get second and third in these races, too, so I think it’s good to celebrate that, as well. I can see both sides of it, but I do love the way the winner’s circle or victory lane is here. It’s a really cool privilege to be in that, I think. I’m on the fence, really. I don’t know what’s better, but I like both ways. I like champagne, too, that’s always fun (laughs).” I know that you’ve talked about just the boarding and the progression that you’ve had to make, and I’m sure it’s as much week by week, but to be in the stretch where there are so many road courses and there are so many really, really good opportunities for you, what does it mean to be at the stretch? Is it something that you were looking forward to, or was it something that was hard to look ahead because there was so much work to be done on everything else?“I knew it was going to be a real grind from April to now. We really struggled at the start. But as I keep saying, I think we’ve gotten a lot better, and we’re really in the mix now. We’re qualifying in the mix. It’s been fun battling with these guys, and it’s been fun seeing the improvements every week. The metric here, once you’re stuck in that tail end, that’s hard to get out. You go out first in qualifying, and you’re stuck at the back. Once you break that routine, you get some momentum going, and it’s cool to see the metric come out every week and know you’re going to be in a good qualifying spot. It’s been a huge uplift, and the meetings have been a lot of fun. You really feel a lot more confidence, which is really cool.” I want to ask you first about the Chicago Street Race. Obviously, it’s a special place for you. You got your first win there a couple of years ago. I want to go a little bit deeper into that and ask you, what is it like as an event, overall, racing in the middle of a downtown city as a street course? What’s your thoughts on that as a concept as a whole in NASCAR, and what excites you about going back in a couple of weeks? “I think it’s really good. I think NASCAR people maybe should go to Gold Coast, as wel,l and get some ideas about that event. Gold Coast Street Race in Australia, it’s not as good as it was, but that atmosphere and party style is really, really cool. It’s sort of similar… the track’s by the water. It’s got all the buildings. It could still be better from an atmosphere, race, party kind of view. But I think for their first crack at it, it’s been really good. A little unlucky with the weather both years, but I’ve really enjoyed that race. I think for a street race, it’s got a lot of passing zones, which is very rare for a street circuit. The race has provided, the last couple of years, it’s been an exciting race and seems like a race most people look forward to watching.” Road courses are undoubtedly a driving strength of yours, but Pocono isn’t your typical oval. It’s the Tricky Triangle for a reason. Do you feel your road racing skills can translate here, and what are the biggest challenges for you here?“It’s just time. I figured this year, all the tracks I’ve done in Xfinity and everything I’ve learned, I’ve had to throw in the bin basically. The cars are so much different and the way you attack the track, so I’m starting from scratch almost at all these new places. This is tough with the gear changing. I’m not really that good yet at changing down gears with my left foot, which I’ll do here today. I need to keep improving with that. This track is going to be very difficult for me, but hopefully by the time the race starts, we’re progressing forward again.” Shane, that win obviously last weekend locked you into the postseason. Have you given any thought at all? Have you looked at the first round of the playoffs and looked at that schedule to try to sit down with your team and figure out maybe what’s our game plan for that first round? “Yeah, I had a look at what tracks it was, and it’s pretty daunting. Bristol’s a tough track. Gateway, I’ve never been there, but there’s two left-handers by the looks. What’s the other track? Darlington, which I’m okay at, but certainly it’s going to be a really, really tough first round. By then, hopefully, we’ve got 10 weeks to keep getting better and building it up. Looking forward to getting there; having a crack and trying to get through it.” You mentioned 10 weeks left, wo of those races are road courses going to Chicago and then going to Sonoma the very next week. There probably would have been an emphasis on those for you anyway, even in a must-win situation for the playoffs. But now that you’re locked in, those are excellent chances for you to build playoff points. Is that going to be something you’re looking at maybe going for the win as opposed to a stage win, or a stage win as opposed to a 15th-place finish? Does that change your strategy at all, your postseason outlook?“Yeah, that’s what happened last year in the Xfinity. We started sacrificing a little bit of track position to try and accumulate points because they’re pretty important in that first round. It may change it, but also winning races is pretty cool, too, so we’ll probably just try and keep putting ourselves in the best position to win those ones.” Cam Waters is going to get another shot in the Truck Series. Have you talked to him since about the opportunity, and how cool is it seeing some more of your fellow Supercars drivers get more shots in NASCAR?“Yeah, I haven’t spoke to him about the truck race, but he was trying to do Chicago in the Cup Series. Unfortunately, that didn’t work out. He’s probably the favorite to win next week now, so it’ll be really cool to see how he goes and how that race is. I guess it’s a new track. But I wish he was doing the Chicago race, too. It would have been cool to have him in there. I think he’s one of the best talents in V8, so hopefully he can get over here. Let’s go to the left side over here.” Obviously track position is important, but typically everybody tends to undercut. But now that you guys were able to get that win, do you think that we’re going to start seeing more teams maybe staying out at the end of Stage Two, trying to get to stage points and still being in the track position?“Yeah, it’s something that we talk about often, as well… that kind of strategy with one less pit stop. But I think at that stage (in Mexico City), the weather was quite threatening, so we were trying to get to the window for that rather than extending the stage. But yeah, it kind of was a surprise on me. I burnt my stuff up trying to get to Ty and get past him. And when I was told we were staying out, I was a bit worried at the time because I didn’t have much tire left, but thankfully, they re-fired okay. It would have been really interesting to see, if that race went green, where Ty would have come out and if he could have caught us. So yeah, it would have been fun to see, but unfortunately we didn’t get to find out.” Looking at your short time here, at least in the Cup Series, just from the road course perspective, how much has the game changed in terms of maybe strategy or your approach going into each race from when you started at Xfinity to now in the Cup Series?“I think when I first started, there was no stage breaks, so that’s kind of changed. I think in 2023, there weren’t stages, which was actually better I thought. But yeah, it kind of locks you in on your strategy and everyone kind of just does the same thing now. So yeah, I prefer no stage breaks in the road courses, but it is what it is. But yeah, the racing is the same. I feel like it’s definitely tougher on the tracks that you go to like Watkins Glen and Sonoma, where everyone’s been going to them for years. I’m a bit of a catch up there, but obviously on the fresh tracks when everyone’s green to it, that’s where I can do a bit better. So yeah, but with more experience, I’m going to get better and better at these road courses.” |
NASCAR CUP SERIES POCONO RACEWAY TEAM CHEVY DRIVER QUOTES Carson Hocevar JUNE 21, 2025
| Carson Hocevar, driver of the No. 77 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet, met with the media in advance of the NASCAR Cup Series practice and qualifying session at Pocono Raceway. | MEDIA RESOURCES: Photo Gallery | Race AdvancesChevrolet Newsroom |
| Media Availability Quotes: This is now the seventh time you guys have seen this left-rear tire package. You guys made some growth at Texas, starting up in front and had the great run, as well, at Nashville. Has there been any difficulty for you kind of adapting to it? And also this week as well, a different right side than you guys saw at Indy last year. So how different do you expect this race to be as compared to your first or last year?“Yeah, I’m not really sure how different it’s going to be. But, you know, we’ve had our, I don’t know, best races on this left-side tire. So, you know, Texas and Charlotte, I think has it… Nashville, Michigan, kind of all those places. Yeah, we’ve been really fast, so hopefully they don’t change it anytime soon so that we can keep taking advantage of it. I thought this race was pretty good last year or puts on a decent show, so hopefully it’s not too different. But if it’s going to be, you know, it’s for the positive side of it.” Any conversations with Ricky Stenhouse Jr. this week or this weekend?“No, unfortunately. I’m not sure what I could what I would say, right? You know, there’s nothing that really would change it, right? We’ve already had that conversation. I feel like we have a good relationship or, you know, had one. I was just running behind him, just kind of logging laps and, you know, just locked up in a very dumb spot. And it was just so dumb, really. Just a mistake that didn’t need to happen and didn’t want it to happen. But there’s nothing that I could do or say. You know, I can’t buy him a Hallmark card and, you know, really make things better. So, it sucks. It sucks for me because he’s the only NASCAR driver that owns a sprint car team, and I love sprint cars. So it sucks because I want to go talk to him about sprint cars. So, yeah, hopefully everything can be set, but I know that the scorecard has me ahead right now, unfortunately.” There’s been a lot of conversation about you, about stuff outside the racetrack, whether it’s the incidents that happened on the racetrack that you carried off or your comments that you made on Twitch. From your perspective, is it getting to a point where it feels like those around you are kind of getting frustrated a little bit, like — hey, let’s just try to focus on what we’re doing instead of the extracurricular stuff?“Well, I mean, there’s two ways to look at it. Number one, you know, I think everybody in my inner circle wants the best for me and our group. Number two, I feel like I put myself out there a lot more, right? The issue wasn’t for the team having their kind of frustrations that I’m giving my opinion and putting it out there. It’s just the fact that, you know, my opinion wasn’t my opinion. It was just based off everything else, you know, that I’ve heard or seen, right? I didn’t go do my own homework and voice my own opinion. You know, I didn’t give it a shot. I didn’t give it a chance. I didn’t go walk around. I didn’t go see it. When I did, you know, then hindsight’s 20/20, then I have my own opinion. But I’ve already put it out there. So I think that was the biggest thing was like — I wasn’t doing what I pride myself of doing. I was just having my own opinion, putting it out there and being me. You know, I just didn’t give it a fair shot, so I think that’s where it all stems from.” Your name’s been out there for a couple of weeks in a row now… some good, like Michigan, despite the result, then obviously the Nashville and Mexico City stuff now. How do you put that behind you and keep your perspective and focus on the job at hand when you have to get behind the wheel?“Yeah, I mean, number one, we’re here at a race track, so we just go racing, right? So, you know, I mean, the scorecard has it that I I’m getting something from the 47 at some point, right? And I think my team and everybody kind of knows that. But at the same time, it’s ideally just the 47, right? It’s not an open hunting season on the 77 because of these incidents. You know, it’s kind of oscillated to, you know, when the 47 has a moment that he wants to take at us or take a shot. It’s just like — OK, you know, that’s probably fair. But with everybody else, my team has reassured me that this isn’t open hunting season. We are going to race like we’ve raced, let’s just not create more enemies that we start getting shots back at us. But, you know, we’re still just going to go race, be aggressive and defend ourselves when we need to. But this is kind of, unfortunately, now a ‘two to nothing’ scorecard. I’ve been a fan of the sport for a long time. You know the game; you’ve seen it and everything. But we just go race.” When you talk about the scorecard with the No. 47, does that mean if he does something in a race, that’s part of it and that’s, I don’t know if the word is ‘acceptable’ in this situation… “Well, I’m hoping — I mean, we’re really fast here, so I’m hoping he’s artistic about it that I don’t hit anything. But yeah, I mean, just ultimately — like it could be tomorrow or it could be six months from now, right? It would be very hypocritical for me to then lose my mind and be frustrated. I’ve been a fan for a very long time. You’ve seen these stories before. It’s not, by no means, the first time. So, hopefully, for my sake, it doesn’t happen and we can race, and if I need to, you know, we can point it by whatever. But I know how frustrated I was that I brought this back up because I thought we were good. And I let him go because I was a lap down or whatever, and I was just riding behind him and then I locked up. You live in the world you make for yourself, and this is the world I’ve made.” You reference that just you live in the world that you make. In the last year, you’ve had some great finishes and performances, but you’ve also drew $100,000 in fines for separate incidents, upset some drivers, which, you know, in some cases, that’s not always a bad thing… I understand that. How do you look at what you need to do moving forward to be, whether it’s a better you or a better driver, or if you feel like, hey, I’m doing the right things and I’m just kind of being misunderstood in some situations?“Well, I mean, I think there’s a bigger thing or maybe the perception that, you know, you make these mistakes, and for me, like that I don’t care… like, I’m just like, oh, cool. You know, whatever. You know, what’s a fine or what’s this or what’s this? You know, I’ll never get anything back. It’s good. But I’m very hard on myself. When I qualified second, I’m just cussing myself out, basically. So when I do something really dumb or hit somebody, right, like, people just don’t see that because you just go to your hotel room and bang your head against the wall, basically. But, you know, just because I do something in the heat of the moment or maybe, you know, you do it two or three times, doesn’t mean I’m not hard on myself for those mistakes because they are mistakes. You know, it’s just trying not to make that a pattern. But when you’re constantly making aggressive moves like we’re doing, it’s balancing that fine line of, you know, you make a thousand moves a day. Just unfortunately, what people remember isn’t always the good ones. You always remember the negative ones. So that’s just trying to limit the negative ones a lot more.” Do you feel like you’ve created a pattern for the garage or (inaudible)… “I already have that image, right? Like it’ll never go away. I could go three years from now and it’s just like – oh, I’m back, per se. I think I’ve already made that image before I got in this garage, and I think it’s just trying to balance one thing of owning it and trying to change the narrative while still being like, yeah, I get it. Like I’m aware of this and knowing that.” I hate to bring up another sore subject, but have you taken a look at the replay from the restart in yesterday’s truck race? What were your initial reactions, and what are your reactions now?“Yeah… I mean, I looked at it, for sure. We all did. I know my team was on it. We were all on it. You know, obviously, I think we all — this instance kind of came up at the brickyard, right? We were in the race and studied it, so we instantly knew the No. 34 is the control car. I’m not sure he knew that or their team knew that, so it started slowing the field down a lot. I wish I just at least waited to the second line. But with me starting to get pushed and having Michigan truck restarts in my head, I just decided to go and see what they would have called considering the pace was a lot slower, and they called us. So, you know, I felt like I did the best to try to at least give ourselves a fighting shot, where if I kept backing the field down because he was kind of waiting on me to go, that we probably would have gotten spun anyways and the race is over. So, you know, I tried, what I thought in the moment, was try to keep our truck rolling and fight for another lap, and we just never got a yellow.” Is there something that can be done to fix that confusion as to who the control truck is in the future?“I mean, I’m sure. I thought NASCAR did a pretty good job, honestly, with it all. I mean, things just happen so fast. So, yeah, everything can always be better and avoided. And, you know, the circumstances are very unique. So now that it’s happened, you know, the second time around, everybody’s going to have it kind of figured out.” And then you mentioned you’ve seen these scenarios play out before just as a fan. With everything going on for you on the track with good finishes, but also some off-track stuff making some guys in the garage maybe a little unhappy, do you see it as an example of a young driver kind of taking your legs as you try to grow and mature?“Yeah, maybe so. I think the biggest thing for me, you know, I’ve just been a fan forever, right? And you always saw the rookie get pushed around and, you know, just kind of have to pay their dues. And I was just like — man, if I’m ever in that spot, I’m never going to get pushed around. That’s how you lose opportunities of races. You never know how long you’re going to be in the garage, for one. None of us have a shot clock waiting on us.You never know. So for me, I want to take advantage of every opportunity I have out there and have no regrets of the effort I’ve put in. And maybe at times, instead of just not letting myself get pushed over, I’m trying to push other people over, and that was the wrong mindset or wrong decision at times. But the biggest thing for me was just I didn’t want to leave anything on the racetrack that, you know, looking back long after, I could have won here, or I could have ran really good here. Maybe my career would have been differently if I, you know, came out of the gate as good as we did because I lost the opportunity. And, you know, who knows. But as long as I was just putting 100%, I wouldn’t have any regrets on how anything turned out. Just sometimes when you’re going 110%, that’s sometimes where you’re like — oh, I didn’t really need to do that part.” You sit 60 points below the playoff cut line, and we’ve had three new winners in the last four races. Are you feeling more stressed to win a race and lock yourself in or do you think you can still point your way in?“Yeah, I mean, I think by the third DNF, I think our mulligan was over for pointing in. We had already kind of been pointed in. That’s kind of why, you know, when we ran second at Nashville, we were frustrated. Even Atlanta, I was disappointed to run second because our stage points, I think were seventh or eighth highest stage points, but we were like 32nd in finish points. There’s just been a lot of, you know, freak issues or certain circumstances that took us out of races that we’d be in a lot better spot. But you’re just giving up points nonstop. We could find those 60 points really easily between like two or three races, unfortunately, But yeah, it’s not shell shock that we’re sitting here in a must-win kind of situation.” |