FRIDAY RECAP – Las Vegas 1Race 4 of 20

Photography: John Force Racing / Auto Imagery / Gary Nastase

PROCK NO. 4, BECKMAN NO. 5 IN PROVISIONAL QUALIFYINGTrack Record Holder Brittany Force Struggles on First Day of 4-Wide Nationals

LAS VEGAS, Nevada (April 11, 2025) – A 90-degree day and a 130-degree racetrack proved challenging for both drivers and crews Friday at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway where, on Day 1 of qualifying for the seventh NHRA 4-Wide Nationals, reigning Funny Car World Champion Austin Prock was the provisional No. 4 qualifier and point leader “Fast Jack” Beckman No. 5. Two-time Top Fuel World Champion Brittany Force, the LVMS track record holder for both elapsed time and speed and a winner on the same track last fall, lost traction early on both Friday attempts and will go into Saturday’s final two sessions qualified only 13th in her Graham Rahal Performance dragster. “Out of the box we made a pretty respectable run,” Prock said of his opening 3.972 in the Cornwell Tools Chevrolet SS. “The track was really tricky today. It was above 90 degrees ambient temperature, and the track was up in the 130-degree range. So, in difficult conditions, I was proud of that first run. “Second run, it left out of control fast and just got away from me,” said the national record holder for speed at 341.28 miles per hour. “So, we’ve got some homework to do. We’ll come back tomorrow, and we should make two nice runs.” Meanwhile, because he was only fifth quickest in the first session, Beckman failed to earn a qualifying bonus point for the first time all year. He had posted a top three time in 10 straight sessions before Friday.  “We were still a top five car,” Beckman said. “We started in lane four and opened up with a nice, straight run down the drag strip (at 3.988 seconds). And even though conditions were hotter and there was not as much traction in the second session, the PEAK squad had enough data, we turned the knobs up and went to 3.972, second quickest run of the session. That was good for two more bonus points, and we’re sitting where we need to be right now.” Beckman had high praise for NHRA’s Safety Safari crew which is responsible for track preparation and maintenance. “The fact of the matter is that the four-wide is a little different animal,” he said.” With two-wide, the track crew gets a ton of time to prep two lanes. Well, they’ve got the same amount of time to prep four lanes, and they did a magnificent job. “A track that hot, you can only get it so good,” explained the man who earned John Force Racing’s 300th Funny car victory when he won last month at Pomona, Calif. “But I don’t know that lane four (the lane in which he began the qualifying ritual) is going to be our lane of choice. “But I am so proud of our team and what we were able to run in that lane,” said the man whose PEAK Chevy is flying the Graham Rahal Performance colors this weekend, as is Brittany’s dragster. “Black cars look awesome,” Beckman said. “And this car looks awesome. I’d like to park it in the winners’ circle Sunday but, between now and then, we have a lot of running to do. We have to gather some data, and we have the Mission Foods 2Fast/2Tasty Challenge tomorrow, but for PEAK and Chevy, I’m smiling.” “I’m very excited to be teamed up with Graham Rahal Performance this weekend as a primary sponsor here in Las Vegas and as an associate for the remainder of the season,” Brittany said of the GRP partnership. “We all want to do well for Graham Rahal and everyone involved at GRP,” said the four-time winner at LVMS. “We struggled today (on two shut-off runs), so we’ll have to get after it tomorrow. We need to get ready for race day so we can get two GRP cars in the winner’s circle on Sunday.” Like Beckman, Brittany also will be racing Saturday in the 2Fast/2Tasty Challenge, hoping to reverse the order of finish against Clay Millican, to whom she lost in the semifinals at Pomona.

No. 10 Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing V-Series.R paces three-car roster in seventh

LONG BEACH, Calif. (April 11, 2025) – Cadillac Racing will aim for its seventh victory in the Grand Prix of Long Beach on Saturday from the seventh, ninth and 11th starting positions on the Grand Touring Prototype (GTP) grid. The No. 10 Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing V-Series.R paced the three-car lineup in the 15-minute qualifying session with two-time Long Beach winner Filipe Albuquerque recording a best lap of 1 minute, 12.964 seconds on the 1.97-mile, 11-turn temporary street circuit to place seventh.

The sister No. 40 Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing V-Series.R, driven by Louis Deletraz, posted a best lap of 1:13.015 for ninth of the 11 cars. The No. 31 Whelen Cadillac V-Series.R, runner-up in the 2024 race in a 1-2 Cadillac Racing sweep, incurred a penalty for working on the car during qualifying that carried a loss of its qualifying times. Jack Aitken and Earl Bamber will start from the rear of the field for the second consecutive race, though at Sebring International Raceway last month Action Express Racing drove through the field to lead 155 laps and finish fourth. The No. 24 BMW M Team RLL earned the pole for the 100-minute race with a lap of 1:11.539. Long Beach and Detroit on June 1 are the only 100-minute and street course races on the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship schedule. Last April, Cadillac secured a 1-2 finish to add to its Long Beach victory total since joining IMSA prototype competition in 2017 (2022, 2021, 2019, 2018 and 2017). There was no race in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The green flag flies at 2:05 p.m. PST (5:05 p.m. EST) with live coverage on USA Network, Peacock and IMSA’s YouTube channel for international viewers. Media resources: Photos for editorial use | Cadillac Racing event guide | Cadillac Racing all-time stats

Overall Cadillac Racing prototype victories at Long Beach2024 — No. 01 Cadillac V-Series.R; start third – Sebastien Bourdais, Renger van der Zande2022 — No. 01 V-Performance Academy Cadillac DPi-V.R; start first – Renger van der Zande, Sebastien Bourdais2021 — No. 31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac DPi-V.R; start first – Pipo Derani, Felipe Nasr2019 — No. 5 Mustang Sampling Cadillac DPi-V.R; start fourth – Filipe Albuquerque, Joao Barbosa2018 — No. 5 Mustang Sampling Racing Cadillac DPi-V.R; start fifth — Filipe Albuquerque, Joao Barbosa2017 — No. 10 Konica Minolta Cadillac DPi-V.R; start first – Jordan Taylor, Ricky Taylor1-2 finishes2024, 2022, 2021Poles2024, 2022, 2021, 2017 What they’re saying No. 10 Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing V-Series.RFilipe Albuquerque: “I think we went to qualifying still sorting out the car. It’s been pretty hard for us; we’re still fighting our way to better to understand the Cadillac. Qualifying maybe was not our forte, maybe in the race will be. The race is open, it’s always chaotic and we’ll do a nice strategy for that.”No. 31 Whelen Cadillac V-Series.R Jack Aitken: “It was a mixed day for us because in practice the BMWs look very strong here, like they were last year but I think of the rest of the manufacturers we were looking very good. It was very tight and then we came into quali and unfortunately I think others made a bit of a step forward and we just didn’t, so it was a tough session. We tried to keep chipping away at it, but I didn’t really put everything together. I think we’re unfortunately a little bit behind at the moment, so we’ll do what we can tomorrow. There are still some options on strategy. There is always attrition on these streets circuits and I’m sure it will try to be on the right side of that.” No. 40 Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing V-Series.R Louis Delétraz: “Obviously, not the result we wanted and a tough qualification for Cadillac overall. We did try some things, and we definitely did learn some things as well. The race tomorrow will not be easy starting from the back, but we’ll fight hard. There is a lot of strategy on street tracks. We’re learning every lap we are doing and I’m positive we will be in the race tomorrow and fighting for some good things.”

Contact limits Wickens’ progress in GTD session; AWA’s Fidani quickest Bronze driver

LONG BEACH, Calif. (April 11, 2025) – DXDT Racing’s Robert Wickens and the No. 36 Corvette Z06 GT3.R will start from the fourth row in class following GT Daytona (GTD) qualifying Friday for the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship’s Grand Prix of Long Beach. Wickens, driving the No. 36 Corvette equipped with Bosch’s new-generation electronic braking system alongside Tommy Milner, set a lap of 1:18.411 (90.354 mph) in the 15-minute session ahead of Saturday’s 100-minute race. That lap was 0.3 seconds slower than his fastest lap in qualifying, but that time was disallowed after the No. 36 brought out a red flag in practice earlier in the day. Wickens’ Corvette also suffered contact from a slower car in qualifying that resulted in suspension damage that limited the performance of the Z06 GT3.R. It halted the positive momentum from the day’s final practice where Wickens and Milner had the fastest and third-fastest time in GTD, respectively. Reigning Rolex 24 At Daytona GTD class winner AWA will start 11th in class Saturday after Orey Fidani’s qualifying run in the No. 13 Corvette. Fidani was the quickest Bronze-rated driver in the session at 1:19.387 (89.243 mph) – nearly seven-tenths of a second quicker than his qualifying lap from 2024.

He and Matt Bell finished sixth in class a year at Long Beach. It launched the team into a strong debut season with the Corvette program, which culminated in the Bob Akin Award for Fidani as the highest points-scoring Bronze driver in GTD. The award landed AWA an invitation to this year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans. The Long Beach weekend is Wickens’ first race in a Corvette Z06 GT3.R and the first running alongside the rest of the GTD field. He and Milner combined for 74 laps and 145.63 miles of valuable data – alongside AWA’s 67 total laps – for Corvette Racing engineers to analyze for Saturday’s 100-minute race. In addition to the IMSA race, two Corvette Z06 GT3.Rs will contest a pair of 40-minute sprint races in SRO Motorsports’ GT America series. Ross Chouest qualified ninth in the No. 50 Corvette for Chouest Povoledo Racing, and Blake McDonald was 11th in the No. 11 Corvette for DXDT Racing. Chevrolet and the Corvette brand have been a fixture at Long Beach since the Corvette Racing program first visited Long Beach in 2007. In 17 visits, Corvette GT cars have captured eight victories with two additional in the Corvette Daytona Prototype era. Combined with results from the NTT INDYCAR SERIES, Chevrolet boasts a total of 22 victories in the Grand Prix’s two premier events. The Grand Prix of Long Beach for the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship is scheduled for 2:05 p.m. PT on Saturday, April 12. The race will air live on USA Network starting at 5 p.m. ET with full streaming coverage on Peacock. IMSA Radio also will air the live call of the race at IMSA.com along with XM 206 and SiriusXM Online 996.

CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R POST-QUALIFYING DRIVER QUOTESROBERT WICKENS, NO. 36 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R – QUALIFIED EIGHTH IN GTD: “Not great. Obviously, I’m learning the series, the drivers to be around, the drivers not to be around. I don’t know. I was on my first push lap, there was a yellow Ferrari in front of me, he aborted his lap in the exit of Turn Nine and went full driver’s right before Turn 10. I took my racing line on my push lap and he just drove into the side of my car, bent the right rear suspension, then I had to do the whole qualy with a damaged car. It sucks. Obviously on the first push lap, you need to get a strong banker lap in with these qualys. You don’t know if there is going to be a red flag or a yellow or anything. The lap was going to be pretty strong and the car felt great, and then unfortunately after the damage the balance kind of wasn’t there. We put an okay time in, then it gets taken away from a mistake that I made in practice. It sucks. We deserve better. I feel bad for Tommy, for everyone at DXDT Racing. I wanted to have a good, smooth qualifying session. I was just baffled with what happened with that Ferrari and honestly, I wasn’t expecting it. I was fully convinced he was letting me pass because he was in the marbles on the right-hand side. And I guess, he wasn’t. He turned in and drove into my right rear.”

OREY FIDANI, NO. 13 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R – QUALIFIED 11TH IN GTD: “I’m very happy with qualifying. It just seems the more I get in this car, the better I seem to be doing, so I’m just going to build on the good results from today and push in the race and see where we get. So far everyone has been behaving pretty well with the traffic. This is a tough place to race at. It’s very narrow and when you are on cold tires you have to worry about the car stepping out and hitting the walls. So the plan is to take it easy the first couple of laps, get some heat in the tires and then send it!”

Friday press conference transcript following first IMSA practice sessionCorvette Z06 GT3.R drivers Robert Wickens and Tommy Milner met with members of the media Friday morning after the first practice for the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship’s Grand Prix of Long Beach. The two recapped the one-hour session in DXDT Racing’s No. 36 Corvette Z06 GT3.R, the preparations ahead of the race and the continued progress of the Corvette with Bosch’s state-of-the-art hand-control braking system.

ROBERT WICKENS, NO. 36 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.RRob, take us through the first session on-track for you.“The first session was definitely not the session I had envisioned or dreamed. It was honestly a pretty shaky start. We had some issues on my installation check at the start of the session, which we got resolved, but we missed probably the first 20 minutes or so of FP1. And when you only have 60 minutes of the first practice, you want to try to utilize everything you can. So I think a lot of it was probably just myself, but I just felt like I was rushed kind of the whole time. I had a hard time kind of just settling down and finding a rhythm. But Tommy drove the car, put in a great lap. And then when I got in at the end of the session, I had a great reference lap on the dash to kind of understand how to extract lap time from this Corvette Z06 GT3.R around Long Beach. And it’s kind of the exact reason why I was so happy to have a teammate like Tommy here this weekend. I know after this practice when we’re done here we can look at some data and we can calm down and come up with a strong approach to try to find time and improve. It’s my first time here in a GT3 car, it’s only technically my third day and in the Corvette, so I feel like I’m still a little rusty. The last time I did a race was Road Atlanta last year, so a lot of my competitors here have already done the 24 Hours of Daytona and the 12 Hours of Sebring; they already have 36 hours of racing experience under the belt and I’m just still getting through rough stuff a little bit but we’re going to keep pushing and keep working hard. I’m excited for the second practice this afternoon.” Robbie, can you just talk a little bit, if you could, about how the systems are coming together for you with the Bosch system?“This track is kind of the ultimate challenge for hand controls given how tight some of the corners are. The fountain and obviously the Hairpin, so something I’ve never experienced with racing with hand controls is kind of having to deal with so much like steering angles around these tight corners. I was relatively prepared to know what to expect into the Hairpin, but when you experience it in real life… I’ve done iRacing sessions and other stuff where you understand there’s a lot of steering involved to get through the Hairpin, and I drove it in an IndyCar, so you also understand. But once you live it with hand controls going through the Hairpin, when you turn so much and you realize that you can’t reach the brake paddle that I was initially using and I need to switch hands to continue to slow down the car, it’s going to take some time to continue to get lap time. I think that’s honestly probably one of my biggest time losses to Tommy that I could see inside the car in that session. But the Bosch electronic braking system is working flawlessly. It’s giving me confidence. It’s definitely not the reason why I was struggling for pace in that session. I think it’s just going to take some time to get up to speed and hopefully get a good look at data, look at some on-board videos and do some self-coaching and with the help of Tommy beside me, we’re going to find some more speed for second practice.”

Robbie, obviously you’ve had test sessions in the Corvette with the hand control system, but this was your first day on track, not in a testing capacity with others on track. How was that for you? Did that change your approach at all?“It did. It was hectic. It’s kind of like what I touched on. I felt like I was just kind of flustered the whole session. When I did my two days in Sebring, there were only maybe three other cars on track the whole two days, so we pretty much had the entire track to ourselves. This was my first time obviously experiencing the speed difference of a GTP versus a GTD car. Then with our issues that we had at the start of the session, when I finally went out for my installation lap I felt like everyone else already had hot tires and I was just like a nuisance on the track so that was an adjustment. Then once Tommy got in and set a good baseline time for the car and everything, I think we all settled down a little bit. It’s a busy track out there when all of us are out there.” Now that you’ve had some seat time in testing capacity and practice capacity, can you talk a little bit about the feel of the system? Obviously it’s going to be wildly different compared to what it was in the TC car because it’s a different beast, but you said you were happy so far.“From the feeling of it, I know exactly where I feel like the threshold is on the brake and I feel like I understand how much I need to brake for each corner. I just need to try and figure out how to extract performance from the Corvette, and I think that’s kind of the beauty of this Bosch EBS – it’s just integrated into this car so well that I don’t even really… there’s no quirkiness or I feel like I’m not driving around any issues. It’s just I hit the brakes and the car slows down, which is pretty much exactly what you want it to do.” Can you maybe take us through the rest of today, what the schedule is, you know, the next practice session, maybe assume that you’re going to get back to the bulk of the time?“The rest of the day we’re going to finish up here, get back to the truck, look at some data and some video, and harass my teammate Tommy on how to drive one of these cars quicker. Honestly, the car balance felt like it was going to be in a really good spot. With it being a temporary circuit with no room for error, I’ll set up to err on the side of caution. I just need to figure out how much more I can push, if I need to brake later, harder, more entry speed, kind of stuff like that. Then, hopefully a bit of lunch. We get an hour and a half in FP2 instead of an hour, like we had this morning. So I’ll focus a little more on getting settled into the car and then keep working away on driving the Corvette.” Can you give us a walkthrough of a lap at the Long Beach Grand Prix from your own perspective?“First off, it’s great just to be back. I’ve had the privilege of racing here in IndyCar in 2018 and then being here every other year that IndyCar’s been here with the coaching roles that I do with Andretti Global and IndyCar. So I feel like I’ve experienced this culture for so many years, but to be putting on a fire suit and sitting in the car again, I feel like I’m home where I belong. It’s just such an amazing event, the track obviously has so much history, the 50th anniversary this year… I think everyone wants to win to kind of be a part of that milestone. Regardless of the category, whether it’s been Formula 1 races, CART races, IndyCar races, Champ Car races, IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship races, I think every driver wants to win here because just being on the podium, it’s just an historic place. The track is amazing. It’s raw, it’s unforgiving and you have to commit to put the lap in. For me, I think that’s the next step, I felt like I got to a point in that first session, where without risking the car, I needed to kind of see a lap of data to understand how to go quicker. So I’m just really excited for Practice Two here coming up in a little bit and try to make it a big step forward.”

TOMMY MILNER, NO. 36 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.RNow over to Tommy, a four time winner here at the Grand Prix. How much did that help you in this session?“Certainly having been a racer helps me in situations when things are a little bit rushed, just to get settled in quickly. I’m very fortunate to have spent so much time with Corvette Racing over the years and spent a lot of time in the Z06 GT3.R. I know the last two or three years now I’ve missed this race but didn’t feel like it hopping this Corvette and then getting comfortable again.” Milner on Wickens’ first session…“For somebody who’s in his third day in this GT3 car, I know his standards for himself are super high, but to come here for the first time to Long Beach in a long time, driving basically a car new to himself and be a second off the pace in about 10 minutes of practice is quite impressive. He’s talking from the position of who he is. He wants to be the fastest. And that’s why, for me, I’m excited to be here this weekend with him and his journey. But also just having a teammate as competitive as Robbie is awesome, rewarding and exciting for me. It’s been easy talking to him about driving this Corvette because it’s like talking to any other teammate that I’ve ever had in my career. So he sounds a little bit down right now. But I can tell you for 10 minutes in the car here at Long Beach, that’s a good place to start from, for sure.” Robbie, so much of being a race driver is second-nature, instinctive feel. How long does it take for a lot of these things you need to do in the car to become instinctive?“From a hand-control perspective, it’s definitely instinctive now. I guess it is like using your feet… understand that, you know, your right foot applies the throttle and sometimes with race drivers your left foot applies the brakes. So I’m still trying to get up to speed with understanding the ABS system and if the car likes it a lot or less or whatever the case is. So I’m still trying to figure out a bit of that muscle memory of how hard do I have to squeeze my brake to kind of achieve that happy threshold for braking performance. I think definitely it’s driving with my hands that has been second nature now for quite a while, but I’ve said it every time – I feel like every time I’m driving a race car, I’m continuing to learn something and continuing to perfect my driving ability with my hands. Obviously I’m jumping into a different car with a slightly different control system. There’s going to be a level of adjustment but for the most part, I feel like I’m in a pretty good starting spot. I think that’s down to a lot of the design work. It was such an evolution from what I used in my TCR car, and we needed to learn in TCR to be where we are now, 100 percent. The first time I drove the Corvette at Sebring, I was all blown away by how comfortable I was with the brake system straight away and how much feeling I had. Even here, I’m not worried of figuring out how to apply the brake or apply the throttle. I know all that, and it all feels great. It’s just trying to extract pace from the car now.” Can you give us a walkthrough of a lap at the Long Beach Grand Prix from your own perspective?“It’s such a high-commitment racetrack. Obviously, any mistake here typically ends in a concrete wall. So it’s a place that requires a lot of comfort and confidence in the car. It’s one of the best street tracks that I’ve ever raced in my life. Just got a good flow and rhythm to it. It ends up being pretty good for multi-class racing with some passing opportunities to let the faster GTP cars go by. The first section has lots of character and has a lot of nuance to it to find lap time. It has the pretty unique corner there with the fountain in turns Two and Three. Then you go to two of the more difficult corners on the racetrack in turns Four and Five where there are curbs here at the apex in some places. For us it’s quite difficult to use all of those. So for me, it’s just a lot of fun. You know, it’s a place where when the car gives you the confidence, you can really hustle around here, and I think that’s what makes the Long Beach Grand Prix circuit so much fun for us as drivers. And then you add all that with just the atmosphere of the fans being on top of you and being close here on Shoreline Drive… the whole event itself is one of the races that I’ve missed the last couple of years. Now that I’m back, it reminds me of how special this place is.” In your experience, how much does the track change and evolve from what was this morning’s session? What do you want to just see here when you go back out?“Yeah, certainly it’s a big part of this weekend. Typically we’re one of the first series on the racetrack. So parts that are dusty and doesn’t have a whole lot of rubber laid down… after our next session, once the IndyCar guys come on track a little bit as well, it just adds grip to the racetrack and makes the first session or two for us a little bit tricky because you start finding lap time as time goes on. It’s always not entirely clear if that’s you making gains with your driving or with car setup or it’s just the track itself getting faster. So this weekend is challenging. It’s a compressed schedule, and playing catch-up with the racetrack and continuing to improve yourself in the car while the track is improving is just always a moving target. So that’s another aspect of this weekend and this race that makes it challenging but also rewarding when you have success.” Do you learn anything from the way Robert approaches this racetrack? I realize you might have some differences in the car, but what about the way he looks at data? Are you able to pick up any things that will help do his driving?“Certainly. I’ve been very lucky throughout my career with Corvette Racing to have very talented teammates, and with every single one of them, you learn something about their driving style, about their preparation, how they look at data, things like that. And this will be the most important thing for me. The first thing I’m going to do is I’m going to be the first one to take a look at data with Robbie. But already from the experience that I’ve had with him, we rode together after the first test that I did with this hand-control car in between the Daytona Roar and the Rolex 24. Just talking to him, understanding how his brain works a little bit, there’s always things to learn and pick up, and someone with the talent that he has, I’m always keeping my mind and my ears open to understand what makes him as good as he is. So I’ll be stealing as many secrets as I possibly can this weekend.”

CHEVROLET IN NTT INDYCAR SERIES ACURA GRAND PRIX OF LONG BEACH STREETS OF LONG BEACH LONG BEACH, CALIFORNIA TEAM CHEVY PRACTICE REPORT APRIL 11, 2025 WILL POWER LEADS NTT INDYCAR SERIES FIRST PRACTICE IN LONG BEACH WITH TEAM CHEVY Will Power, driver of the No. 12 Team Penske Chevrolet, led first practice on the Streets of Long Beach, with his lap from the Group 2 setting pace overall at 1:07.3227 seconds on the 1.968-mile street course.Team Chevy was additionally represented in the top-five of Group 2 by Team Penske teammate Josef Newgarden (third). Newgarden additionally finished third in the first 45-minute session with his fastest lap of 1.07.7858, followed by Arrow McLaren’s Nolan Siegel in fourth (1:07.8607) and Newgarden’s Team Penske teammate Scott McLaughlin in fifth (1:07.9007).Pato O’Ward, driver of the No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet, finished fifth in Group 1, with his lap of 1:07.9477.Saturday’s action on the Streets of Long Beach sees Team Chevy open with a second practice at 11:30 a.m. ET on FS1 followed by qualifying and the Firestone Fast Six at 2:30 p.m. ET on FS2. Additional coverage throughout the weekend can be found via INDYCAR Radio and SiriusXM Channel 218. First Practice Top-10 Results (Combined):1st      Will Power (1:07.3227) First Practice Top-10 Results (45-minute session):3rd     Josef Newgarden (1:07.7858)4th     Nolan Siegel (1:07.8607)5th     Scott McLaughlin (1:07:9007)

WHAT THEY’RE SAYING  Conor Daly, No. 76 Juncos Hollinger Racing Chevrolet:“Honestly, it was just nice to be back at Long Beach. I think this is place is awesome, and the crowd today here on a Friday is like nothing I’ve seen in my life. Shoutout to the crowd for being here and supporting us. We got through a lot of changes, and definitely need a few more, but we’re learning so much as a group on the fly. I think every day is a good learning experience for us. We had some decent pace for us in our group, so we’ll see what we can do tomorrow.” Sting Ray Robb, No. 78 Juncos Hollinger Racing Chevrolet:“I think that we were okay on the black (primary) tires. The green (alternate) tires were shocking compared to what we had at St. Pete. I don’t know what to expect with them yet for the race but definitely have some learning to do. I think we’ll be making a lot of changes overnight. We have a lot of tools at our disposal that I we’ll get better with. I think we’ll get in the right direction, so that’s good. It’s nice to look at the groups and know that we’re okay already and still have a lot of room to go. I’m excited about tomorrow. I think we’ll roll off much better in the morning and figure out what we can do from there.” Scott McLaughlin, No. 3 Team Penske Chevrolet:“It was pretty good. We went early just so that we could make sure we got a decent run because we wanted to see what the tire did. Unfortunately, just caught a little bit of traffic. I felt like what I felt was good. The DEX Imaging Chevy felt good. I love this place. I love Long Beach, it just hasn’t been as kind to me in the past. We’re all good.”

Josef Newgarden, driver of the No. 2 Team Penske Chevrolet, met with members of the media after the first practice session. Transcript: Q. Josef, going back to Thermal, obviously not the pace that all three of you guys from Team Penske wanted. Did that ring some alarm bells coming into this weekend or does it feel like back to business as usual and that was sort of an anomaly?JOSEF NEWGARDEN: I think anomaly is a good way to put it. Yeah, feels like business as usual here. THE MODERATOR: Obviously we’re joined by Josef Newgarden, sixth quick overall, third in that very first session, the 45-minute session, driver of the No. 2 Astemo Team Penske Chevrolet, finished fourth here last year. Former champion here, as well. Your thoughts on a nice start to the weekend for you. JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Very good. I think our car was pretty solid rolling off just like St. Pete. Kind of speaks to our global positioning from a street course standpoint. Obviously we track this stuff. We’re trying to create good race cars across the board, which you have to have in this series. You sort of have a base position on a street course style, road course style and then ovals alike. I think our street course car has been in a really good window, felt really solid today, and happy about where we’re at and coming into the weekend. I think we can really put something good together if we stay on it. Q. What was the differences of the feel between last year and this year with the hybrid system?JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Good question. Not a lot, to be quite honest, as far as from a general standpoint. It still feels like Long Beach. I think a lot of the driving technique that you’re doing is quite similar. You’re just adding in the hybrid utilization that we’ve kind of used for half the season last year. So you’re using it a lot. You’re regenning under braking, but this hybrid system is extremely friendly within regen, so it’s comfortable under braking. There’s nothing evil about it. It’s pretty easy to drive. You’re just trying to make sure that you’re optimizing how much charge you’re allowed to use per lap. We have an allocated amount of energy, and you just want to optimize that for lap time and make sure that you’re using all of it. So that’s the big difference. But as far as driving here, it feels like Long Beach of the last 10 years in a good way. Flows a lot the same that it did last year, too. Q. With it being the 50th race here at Long Beach, how much does it mean to you to be a part of this field and just to be part of the celebration of this race?JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Yeah, it’s incredible. I love being an INDYCAR driver, and one of the great things about being an INDYCAR driver is you get to race at Long Beach. It’s certainly good for our community, and I think it’s great for this community. You see great excitement when you’re here and people ask you how does this event feel different to others, and you certainly notice the energy difference at this race than you get at other places. It’s quite a joy to be a part of it. I think the entire team has kept it alive and made it flourish for so many years, certainly with Jim and their entire group, they’ve done such a great job. Very, very proud to be a part of it as an INDYCAR driver, and hopefully we have another 50 years up the road. That would be really great. THE MODERATOR: I thought there was a buzz today. JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Man, we say that every year, and I think in a lot of ways the last three years they’ve just increased the capacity and size. It was no different this time around. It just felt bigger than last year. I don’t know how we can keep saying that year after year. It looked like race day today. It was super cool. I think that’s the great thing about motorsports, though, right now. There’s an excitement. There’s a cool factor to it. If you just want to talk about trends, I think motorsports is a trend right now, especially with young people, and it’s really fun to see that. You’re just seeing this resurgence. I’ve been talking about this in a couple different interviews. I don’t want to say it’s bizarre, but it has been unique to see over the last two years the amount of kids that I see at the racetrack that are bringing their parents. It’s not the other way around. I meet parents that are my age and they’re going, I know nothing about this, but my six-year-old loves it and loves you and loves INDYCAR. It used to be the other way around. It was, hey, whatever, I used to love INDYCAR back in the ’80s and now I’m here and I’m trying to bring my kids. But it’s the other way; the kids are bringing the parents. It’s very, very cool to be a part of. I think we can continue that and grow it and we’re in a really good position to do it, so it’s just a fun time to be a part of motorsports. Q. Team Penske has had a lot of success here at this track. What would you say they do differently than other teams to give you the edge?JOSEF NEWGARDEN: I think it’s our execution. When you look at Team Penske, it’s really about not beating yourself in a lot of ways. This is a complex sport, and all the details matter. We always talk about details. I describe racing in INDYCAR like solving a puzzle each weekend. The puzzle is different every track and every weekend we go to, and it’s just a matter of who figures it out first. So you’ve got to get a lot of details right to win the race and do that. But you can also forget the simple things and you can beat yourself on race weekends, and I think at Team Penske we do try and do — we try and keep it at the forefront of our minds that we need to get the basics right. It sounds silly, but it’s like, is the car fully fueled; are our pit stops kind of just where they need to be; do we know what we’re doing strategy-wise; is everything tight. It’s just the little things that people take for granted. I think we try and not beat ourselves, and so that execution quality is where Team Penske over the years, 50 plus years, has set themselves apart. We try and excel in other areas, too, but I think keeping the basics as a priority has served our company very well. Q. You’ve had a couple of weeks since the Thermal Club and you weren’t able to advance out of the first round, and Team Penske struggled out there in qualifying. What has been done to prevent that from really happening again? Obviously the goal is to make it into the Fast Six, but how much has that been a motivator the last couple of weeks?JOSEF NEWGARDEN: There’s no doubt, Thermal was a disaster as far as Team Penske. We had a tough weekend. The good thing is we’re just getting going, though. A lot of people have been asking about how is the year, and we’re two races in. We had an excellent St. Pete. Our cars were in a good window. Team did a great job. Then Thermal was the complete opposite. We were just sort of nowhere. I think we sort of found our way towards the end, back half of the way. We diverged between the race cars and I think we found a direction. So that would be the answer to — going back in the future, I think we have a direction to come back with. So yeah, we can’t erase what happened. We can’t go back. It was a tough weekend. Just did not go very well. But I don’t think it’s an indicator of the rest of the year in a lot of ways. Q. Can you tell us a little bit about what you learned this session with your beautiful primary tires and your alternates?JOSEF NEWGARDEN: It may be a four-stop race. Marcus was answering the question, I’m like, three-stop? Three-stop would be good, if you could do it. Yeah, we’re going to see. I think in a lot of ways the complexion will be similar to St. Pete, and the consensus coming out of St. Pete I think will carry over to here and you’ll see the same sort of commitment or execution at this race. The primary tire is very robust and certainly feels like a really solid tire. I was super happy with the car right out of the box and very comfortable and pretty easygoing across multiple stints and then I think the alternate has some good speed that you can extract but it’s got a very tight window and doesn’t have a lot of durability. So I think anyone that can figure out how to add durability to that is going to be doing something magical. I don’t know that anyone is going to find a combination that makes it work necessarily, but that’s what adds the excitement. You’re going to pick and choose now, and you’re going to see what people do in the race. It’s early in the weekend. If the track just continues to grip up, which is historical Long Beach, every single session this place just gets faster. It’s just a little easier on the tires. It’s hard for me to predict the future today. Maybe we get to the race and someone can make the alternate work and run a strategy where you run the alternate late in the race. I don’t think that’s going to be preferred at this moment, but you just never know. Q. Are you liking how much of a factor that race strategy, specifically tire strategy, has been playing this season? Would you rather it just be left up to the animals on track to go maximum attack the whole time?JOSEF NEWGARDEN: I like the variedness. We kind of get that in a lot of different ways in INDYCAR. The tires is just another component of that. It goes up and down. Sometimes we have a very consistent tire. Sometimes we have an alternate like we have this weekend where they’re quite fast for a lap but they degrade heavily. It never bugs me. It comes back to my analogy that racing in INDYCAR is like solving a puzzle, and that puzzle is never the same. Year over year even, same track, the puzzle changes. I don’t mind it. I think there’s certainly a uniqueness to this current puzzle with the tires, and it’s added some excitement. Certainly when you look at Thermal, there was a lot of ways you could approach it. You’re learning on the fly. At Thermal we kind of went into Saturday feeling one way about the tires and then even Sunday morning we felt the same way about them as we did Saturday, and then we got out of the warmup in Thermal and we thought, oh, no, we might have just made a mistake just from what we learned with the tires and then we put ourselves in a bad position going into the race. It just keeps you on your toes. I think it’s certainly exciting for us. It makes us do our jobs really well, and I think it can add excitement to the track, so I love it.

Fri.18-Sun.20 April 2025 Of 312 drivers and riders entered for Santa Pod Raceway’s Easter weekend Festival of Power, 55 are women and girls. Drag racing’s gender-equality profile distinguishes it from other forms of motorsport which struggle to field female participants, and the profile applies to all classes on the track, from Junior Dragster and Dragbike competitors right up to the stars of Top Fuel. The Top Fuel Dragster match race heading the Festival of Power programme is a prime example – female versus male, head-to-head in ground-shaking, 300mph racing machines. Sweden’s Susanne Callin and Britain’s Liam Jones will limber up for the FIA European Championship which starts in May in a tussle for early-season primacy. Callin was once Europe’s first 300mph teenager, then spent 14 years away pursuing family life before returning to the track in 2019. Her daughters step up from the Junior Dragster ranks this season. All compete under Santa Pod’s Slick Tricks Racing banner. Jones, Britain’s foremost Top Fuel racer of the past decade, returns to action after a break piloting a car sporting the livery of Bro Joe, a new coffee brand. The Yorkshireman and his Norwegian partner, Maja Udtian, are a unique couple: both are 3-second, 300mph Top Fuel stars, and former rivals on the track. Indeed, Maja’s career-best figures, 3.806sec/316.55mph, are marginally quicker and faster than her partner’s, a gap he’ll no doubt want to close early on. By contrast, the opening round of the Funny Car Cup is an all-male affair. ‘Funny Car’ is a misnomer: there is nothing amusing about these machines. They share the same nitro-burning, 10,000-horsepower engines as their Top Fuel counterparts, but crammed into a short wheelbase beneath a lightweight, replica body. They are notoriously hard to handle. A pair of Texans take on a British duo, one a seasoned Funny Car handler, the other an accomplished dragbike racer making his four-wheeled debut. Last year, Texan Terry Haddock tuned a Swedish driver to Europe’s first 300mph Funny Car speed achieved over today’s 1,000-foot racing distance. Now the Swedish car has a new British owner, and Haddock will drive as well as tune it, as he does at home in America’s NHRA series. Fellow Texan John Hale drives a colourful machine dubbed One Bad Texan (they love their car names, not numbers, in drag racing). Steve Ashdown flies the flag for Britain in The Undertaker, having won the Funny Car Cup in 2022. The Funny Car novice, Dale Leeks, is a British dragbiker with an American championship under his belt, earned last year in the Xtreme Dragbike Association’s Pro Xtreme division. Keeping up the decibels, though of a different timbre, the Jet Car Challenge is a smoke-flame-thunder annual favourite at the Festival of Power, while uproarious Pro Mods launch 2025’s Motorsport UK British Drag Racing Championship. Supporting the programme are full UK national championship rounds for cars and motorcycles. Paddock access is free and open – a close-up view of the pitside action is all part of the show. The Festival of Power is an event for all the family – championship drag racing on the track and all manner of entertainments alongside. The Festival takes place over Easter weekend, from Friday 18^th to Sunday 20^th April (not Easter Monday). Tickets are bookable only online or by phone – visit https://santapodtickets.com/ or telephone the Box Office at 01234 782828. Full event information can be found at https://santapod.co.uk/festival-of-power.php.

OCALA, FL (March 8, 2025) — Josh Hart has never relied on luck throughout his racing or business career. The fifth year professional Top Fuel driver of the R+L Carriers dragster has been meticulous in his planning and building of his team going back to his rookie season in 2021. The owner of Burnyzz Speed Shop in Ocala, Florida, has used the same mindset that grew that company into a horsepower powerhouse to build his Top Fuel team heading into the Las Vegas Four-Wide Nationals, April 11-13 at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. “You can’t rely on luck getting you win lights,” said Hart, a multi-time Top Fuel national event winner. “You have to work hard and put in the time to get results. Sometimes things will go your way, but out here you have to be at your best, every run. We have been making strides this season that I feel will pay off during this four-wide race.” Josh Hart and the R+L Carriers Top Fuel team are eager to take on Las Vegas Four-Wide Nationals, photo credit Krista Zivcic PhotographyOver the off-season Hart added Jason McCulloch and Joe Barlam to his crew chief line-up alongside veteran tuner Ron Douglas. The trio of crew chiefs that Hart refers to as his “Three Musketeers” set about building a sustainable tune-up that could carry the R+L Carriers Top Fuel team to the NHRA Mission Foods world championship. Two weeks ago, at the historic NHRA Winternationals Hart posted some of his quickest elapsed times in over a year and raced to the quarterfinals. At the conclusion of the race Hart could see progress and was looking forward to the first four-wide nationals of the season. “We showed that we have a tune-up now that can run low numbers and that is great to see,” said Hart. “I think we will be able to step it up even more in Las Vegas and really get some momentum going. This team has been working very hard, and we are seeing the results. I never lost faith in any of my guys. We are one team, and we will be ready to go this weekend.” Hart will be competing in the Mission #2Fast2Tasty Challenge thanks to his quarterfinal efforts at the Winternationals. During the first qualifying session on Saturday, he will be running against fellow quarterfinalists Shawn Langdon, Tony Stewart and Doug Kalitta. With additional cash and championship points on the line Hart will be looking to start turning on win lights on Saturday. Hart has had success in the four-wide racing format, racing to the final quad at the Las Vegas Four-Wide Nationals in 2023 and advancing to the second quad last season. The flurry of activity does not bother the calm and collected Hart. “I just do my usual routine when we are racing four-wide,” said Hart. “The key is to be patient and just not worry about what other drivers are doing. It will be a lot of fun and the fans in Las Vegas are great.” Hart and the R+L Carriers team will be in action for two qualifying runs on Friday and two on Saturday. Final eliminations for the 16 quickest Top Fuel dragsters will begin at noon PST on Sunday, April 13. The race will be broadcast nationally on FS1 and fans can get more information on the race and tickets at www.nhra.com.

FARMER CITY, IL (April 8, 2025) – The kickoff to racing season in Illinois is finally here, and Farmer City Raceway is set to play host to the World of Outlaws Late Models once again for this weekend’s Illini 100.

The first 1/4-mile bullring on the 2025 schedule has earned a reputation of side-by-side, door-banging racing and unforgettable finishes, and this year’s edition of the springtime tradition is set to provide even more thrills.

The weekend gets underway with a practice night on Thursday, April 10, before a pair of full programs on Friday and Saturday, April 11-12. Friday’s show wraps up with a 40-lap, $12,000-to-win, Feature before the 60-lap, $20,000-to-win, finale on Saturday night.

Joining The Most Powerful Late Models on the Planet on the program will be the season-opening races for both the Xtreme Outlaw Midget Series presented by Toyota and the MARS Modified Championship powered by Summit Racing Equipment.

Here are the top storylines entering the weekend:

WELCOME HOME: The “Land of Lincoln” is home to several members of this season’s full-time roster, and they’re all looking forward to their first chance of the year at a strong showing in front of their home crowd. Given recent history at Farmer City, they have good reason to be excited.

The last time a driver from somewhere other than Illinois won a World of Outlaws race at Farmer City was nine years ago, when Josh Richards got the job done in 2016. Since then, the list of drivers who have gone to Victory Lane at one of their home tracks includes Brandon Sheppard, Brian Shirley, Mike Spatola, Bobby Pierce and Nick Hoffman – who lived in Belleville, IL prior to moving south to Mooresville, NC.

For Pierce, a weekend on home soil could provide the perfect opportunity to build on his 30-point advantage on top of the standings. His three World of Outlaws wins in the last four seasons are merely the tip of his Farmer City iceberg. In his last 10 Feature starts at the track between World of Outlaws, DIRTcar Summer Nationals and MARS competition, Pierce has finished outside of the top five once and has a 3.1 average finish over that span.

While Hoffman’s first Late Model start at Farmer City came two years ago, his track record since then is nearly flawless. “The Thrill From Mooresville” has never finished worse than second in three World of Outlaws nights. That mirrors his numbers with the DIRTcar Summit Racing Equipment Modified Nationals, as he has also never finished off the podium in four Hell Tour starts at Farmer City.

However, neither of them have been turning laps around the bullring for as long as Brian Shirley, who made his first Summer Nationals appearance at the track in 2003 and debuted with the World of Outlaws a few years later in 2006. “Squirrel” won on Illini 100 weekend for the first time in 2017 before backing it up in 2019, and he’s added two wins each with the Hell Tour and MARS in the years since.

JOINING THE CLUB: One name missing on the list of Illinoisans with a World of Outlaws win at Farmer City is Carpentersville, IL’s Dennis Erb Jr.

The 2022 Series champion has partaken in 15 World of Outlaws races at the track since 2006. His fifth-place run that year was his first of four top fives, with the other three coming since 2019. While Erb has yet to add the Illini 100 trophy to his collection, he still knows how to win at Farmer City, as evidenced by Summer Nationals wins in 2009 and 2015 as well as a pair of Northern Allstars triumphs in 2004.

While Erb’s 2025 campaign may have gotten off to a slow start, a season-best sixth-place effort in the Saturday program at Swainsboro Raceway showed that things could be headed in the right direction for the No. 28 team. Erb finds himself in a logjam in the middle of the points table, with 42 points separating six drivers between seventh and 12th, so a solid weekend in familiar territory could vault him up several spots in the championship chase.

KEEPING PACE: The rest of the field has their sights set on breaking the Illinois stranglehold on Farmer City, and one of the leading candidates to do it is Ryan Gustin.

Gustin may be entering the Illini 100 without a Farmer City win, but that hasn’t fazed him yet this year – his wins at Volusia Speedway Park and Swainsboro were the first World of Outlaws victories of his career at both tracks. Gustin will need to keep the No. 19R at the front to avoid losing ground to Pierce and Hoffman at a track they both excel at, but “The Reaper” has done that in the past at Farmer City. His first trip to the track resulted in a podium effort with MARS in 2020, and he has a World of Outlaws top five to his credit from 2023.

What Gustin isn’t looking for, though, is a repeat of last year, when he finished 16th and 21st in two nights of action.

FRESHMAN PHENOMS: This season’s MD3 Rookie of the Year Award battle is shaping up to be a season-long tussle between some of the brightest young stars in the sport, and the next chapter is set to be written this weekend.

Drake Troutman’s Swainsboro podium has him atop the rookie standings for the first time this season. The Hyndman, PA driver made his Farmer City debut in 2021 in a DIRTcar UMP Modified on the Hell Tour and came home fifth. Troutman’s first Late Model start at the track came in last year’s Illini 100, highlighted by a top-15 run on Friday night.

Ethan Dotson also made his first Farmer City Late Model starts at this event one year ago, making the Feature on both nights with Chris Bragg Racing a month before joining ASD Motorsports. And like Troutman, he’s also shown plenty of prowess in a Modified, winning in his only Farmer City start with the MARS Modifieds in 2023.

Peru, IL’s Daniel Adam sees this weekend as a chance to make his presence known in the rookie battle, as he relocated from North Carolina a year ago to position himself in the middle of the Illinois Late Model hotbed. In addition to a Summer Nationals top 10 last June, Adam was a frequent visitor to Farmer City on Friday nights last summer.

Hailing from the opposite side of the Mississippi River in Urbana, MO, Dillon McCowan has also been fast in his limited appearances at Farmer City. He finished second in a local show in 2023 in his first trip before bringing the No. 8 car home sixth with the Summer Nationals in 2024.

Rounding out the rookie class are Jake Timm and Austin Smith, both of whom are making their Farmer City debut this weekend.

DEFENDING THE FARM: Anytime the World of Outlaws full-timers roll into Illinois, they know they’ll have to wrestle the trophy away from some of the toughest regional competition in the country.

Reigning Series champion Sheppard has been racing at Farmer City since the dawn of his Late Model career at age 14, and it’s been one of his favorite places to wheel a race car ever since.

The New Berlin, IL native has three World of Outlaws wins at the track to his credit, although it’s been a while – the last one came in 2019. He’ll look to end that drought this weekend and grow his margin as the winningest driver in Series history.

Three-time and defending DIRTcar UMP Late Model national champion Jason Feger won 16 times across the region in 2024 on his way to the title, including one at Farmer City on May 31. The Bloomington, IL gasser finished top 10 on both nights of the Illini 100 last year and has his sights set on finally picking up a win in one of the state’s biggest races.

No one has won more races at Farmer City as of late than Fairbury, IL’s McKay Wenger. The No. 99 team won six times in 10 starts at the bullring last season and is on the hunt for his best World of Outlaws run since a seventh in the 2021 Prairie Dirt Classic.

Other staples of the Illinois scene expected to be in contention include Spatola, Shannon Babb, Frank Heckenast Jr., Ryan Unzicker and many more.

WHEN AND WHERE:
Thursday-Saturday, April 10-12 at Farmer City Raceway in Farmer City, IL

CURRENT POINT STANDINGS:
1. Bobby Pierce (1164 points)
2. Ryan Gustin (-30)
3. Nick Hoffman (-30)
4. Drake Troutman (-70)
5. Max Blair (-94)
6. Ethan Dotson (-98)
7. Cody Overton (-108)
8. Tim McCreadie (-110)
9. Tanner English (-120)
10. Dennis Erb Jr. (-140)

FEATURE WINNERS (5):
Garrett Alberson – Las Cruces, NM – 2
Ryan Gustin – Marshalltown, IA – 2
Bobby Pierce – Oakwood, IL – 2
Devin Moran – Dresden, OH – 1
Jonathan Davenport – Blairsville, GA – 1

HEAT RACE WINNERS (18):
Bobby Pierce – Oakwood, IL – 6
Ryan Gustin – Marshalltown, IA – 5
Nick Hoffman – Mooresville, NC – 5
Jonathan Davenport – Blairsville, GA – 3
Garrett Alberson – Las Cruces, NM – 3
Ricky Thornton Jr. – Chandler, AZ – 3
Jimmy Owens – Newport, TN – 3
Ethan Dotson – Bakersfield, CA – 2
Devin Moran – Dresden, OH – 2
Drake Troutman – Hyndman, PA – 2
Brandon Overton – Evans, GA – 1
Cody Overton – Thomson, GA – 1
Tyler Erb – New Waverly, TX – 1
Brandon Sheppard – New Berlin, IL – 1
Mike Marlar – Winfield, TN – 1
Chris Madden – Gray Court, SC – 1
Garrett Smith – Madison, GA – 1
Ashton Winger – Hampton, GA – 1

LANDA PRESSURE WASHERS LAST CHANCE SHOWDOWN WINNERS (17):
Tyler Bruening – Decorah, IA – 3
Michael Leach – Sun River, MT – 2
Brandon Overton – Evans, GA – 2
Mike Marlar – Winfield, TN – 1
Dustin Sorensen – Rochester, MN – 1
Cody Overton – Thomson, GA – 1
Nick Hoffman – Mooresville, NC – 1
Brian Shirley – Chatham, IL – 1
Tyler Erb – New Waverly, TX – 1
Max Blair – Centerville, PA – 1
Brandon Sheppard – New Berlin, IL – 1
Kyle Bronson – Brandon, FL – 1
Ryan Gustin – Marshalltown, IA – 1
Ashton Winger – Hampton, GA – 1
Jackson Hise – Ocala, FL – 1
Trey Mills – St. Augustine, FL – 1
Austin Smith – Cedartown, GA – 1

PODIUM FINISHERS (11):
Jonathan Davenport – Blairsville, GA – 5
Bobby Pierce – Oakwood, IL – 4
Ryan Gustin – Marshalltown, IA – 3
Garrett Alberson – Las Cruces, NM – 2
Devin Moran – Dresden, OH – 2
Nick Hoffman – Mooresville, NC – 2
Drake Troutman – Hyndman, PA – 2
Cody Overton – Thomson, GA – 1
Max Blair – Centerville, PA – 1
Ricky Thornton Jr. – Chandler, AZ – 1
Ashton Winger – Hampton, GA – 1

FOX FACTORY HARD CHARGERS (8):
Cody Overton – Thomson, GA – 1
Hudson O’Neal – Martinsville, IN – 1
Drake Troutman – Hyndman, PA – 1
Dennis Erb Jr. – Carpentersville, IL – 1
Jonathan Davenport – Blairsville, GA – 1
Brandon Sheppard – New Berlin, IL – 1
Ethan Dotson – Bakersfield, CA – 1
Dustin Sorensen – Rochester, MN – 1

SIMPSON RACING PRODUCTS QUICK TIMES (5):
Nick Hoffman – Mooresville, NC – 3
Ricky Thornton Jr. – Chandler, AZ – 2
Ryan Gustin – Marshalltown, IA – 1
Chris Madden – Gray Court, SC – 1
Tanner English – Benton, KY – 1

BILSTEIN POLE AWARD (5):
Garrett Alberson – Las Cruces, NM – 2
Nick Hoffman – Mooresville, NC – 2
Drake Troutman – Hyndman, PA – 2
Jimmy Owens – Newport, TN – 1
Bobby Pierce – Oakwood, IL – 1

FEATURE LAP LEADERS (9):
Bobby Pierce – Oakwood, IL – 70
Ryan Gustin – Marshalltown, IA – 66
Garrett Alberson – Las Cruces, NM – 44
Jimmy Owens – Newport, TN – 41
Drake Troutman – Hyndman, PA – 41
Ricky Thornton Jr. – Chandler, AZ – 18
Devin Moran – Dresden, OH – 17
Nick Hoffman – Mooresville, NC – 16
Jonathan Davenport – Blairsville, GA – 11
Ashton Winger – Hampton, GA, – 1

2025 WORLD OF OUTLAWS LATE MODELS SCHEDULE & WINNERS
Friday, Jan. 24 / Volusia Speedway Park / Barberville, FL / Ryan Gustin (1)
Saturday, Jan. 25 / Volusia Speedway Park / Barberville, FL / Garrett Alberson (1)
Thursday, Feb. 13 / Volusia Speedway Park / Barberville, FL / Garrett Alberson (2)
Friday, Feb. 14 / Volusia Speedway Park / Barberville, FL / Devin Moran (1)
Saturday, Feb. 15 / Volusia Speedway Park / Barberville, FL / Jonathan Davenport (1)
Friday, Mar. 14 / Smoky Mountain Speedway / Maryville, TN / Bobby Pierce (1)
Friday, Mar. 21 / Swainsboro Raceway / Swainsboro, GA / Bobby Pierce (2)
Saturday, Mar. 22 / Swainsboro Raceway / Swainsboro, GA / Ryan Gustin (2)
Thursday, Apr. 10 / Farmer City Raceway / Farmer City, IL (Practice)
Friday, Apr. 11 / Farmer City Raceway / Farmer City, IL
Saturday, Apr. 12 / Farmer City Raceway / Farmer City, IL
Friday, Apr. 25 / Talladega Short Track / Eastaboga, AL
Saturday, Apr. 26 / Talladega Short Track / Eastaboga, AL
Thursday, May 1 / Mississippi Thunder Speedway / Fountain City, WI
Friday, May 2 / Mississippi Thunder Speedway / Fountain City, WI
Saturday, May 3 / Mississippi Thunder Speedway / Fountain City, WI
Thursday, May 15 / Raceway 7 / Conneaut, OH
Friday, May 16 / Marion Center Raceway / Marion Center, PA
Saturday, May 17 / Marion Center Raceway / Marion Center, PA
Sunday, May 18 / Bedford Speedway / Bedford, PA
Friday, June 20 / I-55 Federated Auto Parts Raceway Park / Pevely, MO
Saturday, June 21 / I-55 Federated Auto Parts Raceway Park / Pevely, MO
Monday, June 23 / Independence Motor Speedway / Independence, IA
Thursday, June 26 / I-94 EMR Speedway / Fergus Falls, MN
Friday, June 27 / River Cities Speedway / Grand Forks, ND
Saturday, June 28 / Norman County Raceway / Ada, MN
Sunday, June 29 / Nodak Speedway / Minot, ND
Thursday, July 3 / Deer Creek Speedway / Spring Valley, MN
Friday, July 4 / Deer Creek Speedway / Spring Valley, MN
Saturday, July 5 / Deer Creek Speedway / Spring Valley, MN
Friday, July 11 / Sharon Speedway / Hartford, OH
Saturday, July 12 / Sharon Speedway / Hartford, OH
Friday, July 25 / Fairbury Speedway / Fairbury, IL
Saturday, July 26 / Fairbury Speedway / Fairbury, IL
Monday, July 28 / Wilmot Raceway / Wilmot, WI
Thursday, July 31 / Cedar Lake Speedway / New Richmond, WI
Friday, Aug. 1 / Cedar Lake Speedway / New Richmond, WI
Saturday, Aug. 2 / Cedar Lake Speedway / New Richmond, WI
Wednesday, Aug. 13 / Highland Speedway / Highland, IL
Thursday, Aug. 14 / Spoon River Speedway / Lewistown, IL
Friday, Aug. 15 / Maquoketa Speedway / Maquoketa, IA
Saturday, Aug. 16 / Maquoketa Speedway / Maquoketa, IA
Friday, Aug. 22 / Arrowhead Speedway / Colcord, OK
Saturday, Aug. 23 / Arrowhead Speedway / Colcord, OK
Friday, Sept. 12 / Needmore Speedway / Norman Park, GA
Saturday, Sept. 13 / Senoia Raceway / Senoia, GA
Friday, Sept. 26 / Tri-City Speedway / Granite City, IL
Saturday, Sept. 27 / Tri-City Speedway / Granite City, IL
Friday, Oct. 3 / Humboldt Speedway / Humboldt, KS
Saturday, Oct. 4 / 81 Speedway / Wichita, KS
Friday, Oct. 10 / Boothill Speedway / Greenwood, LA
Saturday, Oct. 11 / Boothill Speedway / Greenwood, LA
Wednesday, Nov. 5 / The Dirt Track at Charlotte / Concord, NC
Thursday, Nov. 6 / The Dirt Track at Charlotte / Concord, NC
Friday, Nov. 7 / The Dirt Track at Charlotte / Concord, NC
Saturday, Nov. 8 / The Dirt Track at Charlotte / Concord, NC

ARTICLE: https://worldofoutlaws.com/latemodels/what-to-watch-for-illinois-invasion-up-next-for-world-of-outlaws-at-illini-100/

EVENT INFO: https://worldofoutlaws.com/latemodels/schedule/event-info/?event=4547659
TRACK INFO: https://www.farmercityracing.com/

April 8, 2025

Long Beach, CA
1:30 PM PT / 4:30 PM ET Sunday, April 13, 2025
Live on Fox

What to Watch for at the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach

• Two-in-a-row Palou: Chip Ganassi Racing’s Alex Palou has had a banner start to the 2025 NTT INDYCAR SERIES season—scoring back-to-back wins at the season-opening Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg and last month at the Thermal Club. The three-time and reigning series champion is looking for his first win on the Streets of Long Beach to go three-for-three to open the season—just like his Honda-powered teammate Scott Dixon did in 2020 en route to the championship win that season.
• Cleaning up: Honda scored back-to-back podium sweeps at Long Beach in 2023 and 2024. Kyle Kirkwood led a Honda 1-5 sweep in 2023, scoring his own first win in the process, while Scott Dixon—2025 Long Beach Grand Prix walk of fame inductee—scored his second victory at the beach as part of a Honda podium sweep in 2024. Honda teams and drivers will be looking to continue that trend in this year’s golden anniversary 50th running of the race.
• Hybrid heroes: The drivers of the NTT INDYCAR SERIES will race with hybrid power on the streets of Long Beach for the very first time. Introduced last season at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, the AGPLB will mark the third street circuit race with the new system. Honda has won the two prior outings on street circuits since the introduction of the hybrid with Alex Palou led a Chip Ganassi Racing 1-2 on the streets of St. Petersburg to start the season and Colton Herta heading an impressive Honda 1-7 sweep in Toronto last July.
• Honda at Home: The Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach is the home race for both American Honda Motor Co.—based in Torrance—as well as Honda’s performance arm, Honda Racing Corporation USA—based in Santa Clarita. All of the Honda-powered IndyCar drivers will visit Honda’s Torrance headquarters for a special event in the lead up to the race weekend.

Honda at at the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach

• Honda has scored 17 victories on the streets of Long Beach—starting with Jimmy Vasser in 1996 and most recently with Scott Dixon just last year.
• Other Honda-powered winners at Long Beach include Alex Zanardi (1997-98), Juan Pablo Montoya (1999), Paul Tracy (2000), Helio Castroneves (2001), Michael Andretti (2002), Dario Franchitti (2009), Ryan Hunter-Reay (2010), Mike Conway (2011), Takuma Sato (2013), James Hinchcliffe (2017), and Alexander Rossi (2018-19), Colton Herta (2021) and Kyle Kirkwood (2023).

2025 NTT INDYCAR SERIES Honda Lineup

Andretti Global	#26 Colton Herta (W) #27 Kyle Kirkwood (W) #28 Marcus Ericsson (I) (W)
Chip Ganassi Racing	# 8 Kyffin Simpson # 9 Scott Dixon (C) (I) (W) #10 Alex Palou (C) (W)
Dale Coyne Racing	#18 Rinus VeeKay (W) #51 Jacob Abel (R)
Meyer Shank Racing	#60 Felix Rosenqvist (W) #66 Marcus Armstrong
Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	#15 Graham Rahal (W) #30 Devlin DeFrancesco #45 Louis Foster (R)

C—Series Champion I—Indianapolis 500 winner W—Race Winner R—Series Rookie

Where to Watch

• Television coverage of Sunday’s Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach starts at 1:30 PM PT / 4:30 PM ET on Fox. Complete, flag-to-flag race coverage also will be available on the INDYCAR Radio Network, and SiriusXM INDYCAR Nation (Channel 160).
• Practice for this weekend’s race will air on FS1 while Saturday’s qualifying will air on FS2.

DALLAS, TX (March 8, 2025) — The first season of Talkin’ Funny Cars with Buddy Hull, the first television offering produced by Werner G+E LLC, has been shortlisted for the People’s Telly Award. The highly entertaining interview style show hosted by Funny Car driver Buddy Hull was one of the most popular programs on the NHRA’s FAST channel last year with nine shows airing beginning with the debut episode July 31, featuring Ron Capps. The Telly Awards honor excellence in video and television across all screens. Public voting for the People’s Telly Award is open starting today through April 18. Fans can vote here and rank the show one a five star scale.

“This is an amazing honor and opportunity for Talkin’ Funny Cars,” said Hull. “I had a blast talking with so many interesting Funny Car drivers last season. I learned a lot and I think all the people that tuned in got some great insight and stories from our guests. I would love to win the People’s Telly Award and we are hoping to get a lot of five star ratings. We will be filming season two starting in July and we hope even more people tune in.”

Buddy Hull (left) and J.R. Todd talk racing and Funny Cars during Talkin’ Funny Cars with Buddy Hull episode

The Telly Awards were founded in 1979 to honor local, regional and cable television commercials. With non-broadcast video and television programming added soon after, the award has evolved with the rise of digital video to include branded content, documentary, social media, immersive and more. The Telly Awards today celebrates the best work in the video medium in an exciting new era of the moving image on and offline.

“When Buddy and I started talking about doing the show we just wanted to have fun and highlight the interesting personalities that drive NHRA Funny Cars,” said Elon Werner, president of Werner G+E, LLC. “The response from fans who watched the show was very gratifying. To get shortlisted for the People’s Telly Award is a big honor and we also submitted shows for other possible awards. I have to thank all the drivers who participated, Warren Evans who helped produce and edit the shows and the NHRA for broadcasting the show on their FAST channel.”

The Telly Awards annually showcases the best work created within television and across video, for all screens. Receiving over 13,000 entries globally from 6 continents and all 50 states, Telly Award winners represent work from some of the most respected advertising agencies, television stations, production companies and publishers from around the world. 

Fans who missed watching Talkin’ Funny Cars with Buddy Hull on the NHRA FAST Channel can watch all episodes on the show’s YouTube channel.
 

DALLAS (April 7, 2025) — As NHRA drag racing fans eagerly approach the first four-wide race of the 2025 Mission Foods Drag Racing Series season, Drag Race Bracket Bonanza (DRBB), has announced that they are bringing back their Four-Wide Cup series, beginning with the NHRA Four-Wide Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, April 11-13. 

To separate the long 20-race season into more sizeable chunks for its players, DRBB introduced the Four-Wide Cup last year. It’s a two-race series encompassing the back-to-back Las Vegas NHRA Four-Wide Nationals and Charlotte NHRA Four-Wide Nationals in the spring. DRBB, the first dynamic bracket competition for drag racing fans, allows its players to fill out two-wide brackets for 17 races a year and four-wide brackets the other three. And because it is a free game, fans of all ages can play for fun and the chance at winning cool prizes. 


“The four-wide races are one of the most unique aspects of our sport, and fans have strong feelings about them,” said DRBB founder Elon Werner. “Last year we had a lot of questions on if it was possible for our free bracket game to accommodate four-wide racing, and I think we answered that question with a resounding yes. Not only is it possible but playing Drag Race Bracket Bonanza makes the four-wide races even more high stakes for our fans.”

On top of the usual signed event plaques that DRBB gives out to the Overall winner, Top Fuel winner, Funny Car winner, Pro Stock winner and Pro Stock Motorcycle winner for every race, after the conclusion of the 2025 Four-Wide Cup, the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th place finishers in the series will win custom trophies and $50 Summit Racing Equipment gift certificates. The 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 14th, 24th, 34th and 44th place finishers will also receive personalized certificates marking their Four-Wide Cup achievements.

“One of the opportunities that we like to lean into with Four-Wide Cup is not just recognizing the top three winners, but playing into the fours as well,” said Werner. “And Summit stepping up once again to provide gift certificates to our players is a huge deal. We are grateful for the support they have given us all season long, to make our free game even more exciting for our players.”

For fans curious how filling out a four-wide bracket works, here are the simple steps:

1.    Create a free DRBB account and log in at DragRaceBracketBonanza.com. 
2.    When brackets open after qualifying ends, click on the Fill Out Bracket button on the homepage.
3.    For each matchup, click on who you think will get first, second, third and fourth. Do this for all three rounds of racing for all of the pro classes.
4.    For the tiebreaker, fill out what you think will be the fastest speeds on race day for all of the pro classes.

“The important step that we want fans to remember while they fill out their brackets is that they have to mark all of the drivers in the matchup as first, second, third and fourth place,” said Werner. “That is how players will get the most points. We also have a lot of players who play in leagues with their friends, who are used to using our Copy Bracket button to duplicate their bracket over into their leagues, so they don’t have to fill out multiple different brackets. That Copy Bracket button won’t be visible to them until they rank all the matchups first through fourth place.” 

Even with the NHRA transitioning the Carolina Nationals into a four-wide race in the fall, that race will not be a part of the Four-Wide Cup series. That is because that race is already part of Drag Race Bracket Bonanza’s Countdown series. 

“We wanted to keep our various series separate, so we don’t confuse fans,” said Werner. “Also, with these two four-wide races taking place in the first quarter of the season, it gives this early stage of the year some extra gravitas and excitement. We are thrilled to have fans playing during the four-wide races that are coming up over the next few weeks, and as always if they run into any issues, they can message us on social media or through our tech support email address. Our team prides itself on our level of customer service in helping players quickly resolve questions.”

Drag Race Bracket Bonanza will have many announcements over the course of the 2025 season. Fans can follow DRBB on social media for cool stats, prize updates, and info on Twitter/X at @dragracebb or @DragRaceBracketBonanza on Instagram, Facebook and YouTube. 

DRBB players will have the chance to fill out their first four-wide bracket for the Las Vegas Four-Wide Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway when qualifying ends on Saturday, March 12. They will then have until the first round of eliminations begins on Sunday, March 13 at 12 p.m. PST to submit their picks. Fans can watch the NHRA broadcast on FS1.

About Drag Race Bracket Bonanza
Drag Race Bracket Bonanza is the first dynamic bracket competition for drag racing fans. Launched during the 2023 U.S. Nationals and improved for the 2024 season, fans could fill out brackets for all four professional categories at the conclusion of professional qualifying. The free game includes league play, text notifications and a robust stats package to make playing even easier for fans. Developed and owned by Werner G+E, Drag Race Bracket Bonanza is the first fan-centric offering from the Dallas-based production company.

DXDT set to debut EBS-equipped Corvette; AWA looking for season’s second win DETROIT (April 8, 2025) – Corvette Racing has full weekend coming up with two high-profile entries for the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach – the third round of this year’s IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. As part of the showcase with IMSA’s GTP and GTD classes, two Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.Rs are set for Saturday’s 100-minute street race on the famous 11-turn, 1.968-mile street circuit in southern California. Both have their own unique storylines:

No. 13 AWA Corvette: Matt Bell/Orey FidaniReigning Rolex 24 At Daytona GTD class winner AWA and its drivers made their first appearance at Long Beach a year ago and finished an impressive sixth in class. The result served as a springboard for the rest of the season, which culminated in the Bob Akin Award for Fidani as the highest points-scoring Bronze driver in GTD. The award landed AWA an invitation to this year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans, and the momentum carried over to the Rolex 24 victory in January No. 36 DXDT Racing Corvette: Robert Wickens/Tommy MilnerOne of the most followed and most unique entries in this year’s race, DXDT Racing’s Corvette is equipped with a Bosch hand-control electronic braking system for Wickens – who lost the use of his lower body in a racing crash in 2018 – and Corvette factory driver Tommy Milner, who did the initial shakedown and testing of the hand-control system. The No. 36 Corvette is a collaboration between Bosch, Chevrolet, Pratt Miller and DXDT Racing.

CORVETTE RACING MEDIA INFO Corvette Racing media information is updated and available ahead of this weekend’s Grand Prix of Long Beach. Materials include Corvette Racing event documents and quotes, Corvette Racing stats and figures, Corvette Z06 GT3.R racecar comparisons, Corvette Racing Fast Facts, factory driver biographies and Corvette Racing photography, among other items.

Long Beach will mark Wickens’ first race in a Corvette Z06 GT3.R. His impressive resume pairs well with the Corvette Racing program, whose history of success includes 140 race victories around the world – 117 of them in IMSA competition – along with 14 Manufacturers championships for Chevrolet. General Motors and Chevrolet have long been committed to accessibility for customers and employees. Upon hearing of Wickens’ interest in GTD, Chevrolet helped to bring Bosch, Pratt Miller and DXDT together to bring him into the Corvette family.  “Everyone within Chevrolet and Corvette Racing is excited to be part of this project,” said Mark Stielow, director, Chevrolet Motorsports Competition Programs. “Chevrolet’s commitment to accessibility and innovation in motorsports drove investment in this project. We all support Robert’s drive to compete at the highest levels of motorsport and are proud to partner with groups like Bosch, Pratt Miller and DXDT Racing to realize part of that dream.” In addition to the 100-minute IMSA race, two Corvette Z06 GT3.Rs will contest a pair of 40-minute sprint races in SRO Motorsports’ GT America series – Blake McDonald in the No. 11 Corvette for DXDT Racing and Ross Chouest in the No. 50 Corvette for Chouest Povoledo Racing. Chevrolet and the Corvette brand have been a fixture at Long Beach since the Corvette Racing program first visited Long Beach in 2007. In 17 visits, Corvette GT cars have captured eight victories with two additional in the Corvette Daytona Prototype era. Combined with results from the NTT INDYCAR SERIES, Chevrolet boasts a total of 22 victories in the Grand Prix’s two premier events. The Grand Prix of Long Beach for the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship is scheduled for 2:05 p.m. PT on Saturday, April 12. The race will air live on USA Network starting at 5 p.m. ET with full streaming coverage on Peacock, which also will stream Friday’s 8 p.m. ET qualifying session. IMSA Radio also will air Friday’s qualifying and the race at IMSA.com along with XM 206 and SiriusXM Online 996.

CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R DRIVER PRE-EVENT DRIVER QUOTESMATT BELL, NO. 13 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R: “I’m looking forward to getting back to Long Beach. It was my first time there last season and it was the surprise of the year for me. I loved the circuit and the event as a whole; it was a great experience. We had great pace too, as we have so far this year, so I’m hopeful and confident that we’ll be able to put together another competitive showing.”

OREY FIDANI, NO. 13 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R: “Long Beach is a very challenging but also really exciting track. It’s so narrow and unforgiving, and with so little room for error, you know you have to be precise and make the right decisions. It’s a change of pace from Daytona and Sebring, but we’ve shown our consistency and I’m looking forward to proving our competitiveness in the sprint races as well.”

TOMMY MILNER, NO. 36 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R: “I’m excited to go back to Long Beach for a number of reasons. First off, it’s a really unique event with all kinds of history behind it – great drivers, great cars and fantastic races. I’ve been fortunate to win there four times… a couple under some pretty crazy circumstances! Second, it’s obviously a real privilege to be asked to team with Rob in this race. It’s such a big moment for him, for DXDT Racing, for Corvette, all of the partners and racing in general. We all have high hopes going into the weekend. The Corvette and the hand-control system have been solid in testing. Both Rob and I know the track very well. So we’re all optimistic of being able to race and challenge for a podium and hopefully the win.”

ROBERT WICKENS, NO. 36 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R: “After finally getting my first taste of the Corvette Z06 GT3.R in Sebring a few weeks ago, I have been counting down the days until Long Beach. My first race with DXDT and finally my first race of 2025. It is going to be a very steep learning curve, but I am thankful I have a strong team behind me and a great teammate in Tommy Milner to help get me up to speed. Hopefully when we look back on this event on Saturday night we can be proud of what we accomplished together.”

2025 WeatherTech SportsCar Championship PointsGTD Drivers Standings1. Indy Dontje/Philip Ellis/Russell Ward – 6902. Casper Stevenson/Tom Gamble/Zacharie Robichon – 6493. Adam Adelson/Elliott Skeer/Tom Sargent – 6334. Lars Kern/Matthew Bell/Orey Fidani – 5905. Jake Walker/Patrick Gallagher/Robby Foley – 54915. Alec Udell/Charlie Eastwood/Salih Yoluc – 382 GTD Teams Standings1. No. 57 Windward Racing – 6902. No. 27 Heart of Racing Team – 6493. No. 120 Wright Motorsports – 6334. No. 13 AWA – 5905. No. 96 Turner Motorsport – 54915. No. 36 DXDT Racing – 382 GTD Manufacturers Standings1. Mercedes-AMG – 6942. Aston Martin – 6543. Porsche – 6394. Chevrolet – 6365. Lexus – 608 CORVETTE RACING AT LONG BEACH: By the Numbers• 1: As in one manufacturer and one model of car for the 18th year at Long Beach: Chevrolet and the Corvette• 2: Number of wins for the Corvette Z06 GT3.R already in 2025 – the Rolex 24 At Daytona in the GTD class for AWA and the FIA WEC’s 1812 Km of Qatar for TF Sport in LM GT3• 4: Corvette Z06 GT3.Rs in competition at Long Beach this weekend – No. 13 of AWA and No. 36 of DXDT Racing in IMSA and the No. 11 of DXDT Racing and No. 50 from Chouest Povoledo Racing in GT America• 4: Long Beach IMSA race wins for Tommy Milner – the most among drivers entered in this year’s Grand Prix of Long Beach• 7: Number of Corvettes competing this weekend around the world – the four at Long Beach, one Corvette for Steller Motorsport in GT World Challenge Europe and two from Johor Motorsports Racing in GT World Challenge Asia• 8: Number of Long Beach victories in 16 appearances for the Corvette Racing program• 10: Number of Long Beach sports car victories for Chevrolet. Throw in 12 IndyCar wins, and Chevrolet has claimed 22victories in the event’s two premier races• 14: Manufacturer Championships for Chevrolet and Corvette Racing since 2001• 28: Tracks at which Corvette Racing has won races – Baltimore, Charlotte Motor Speedway, COTA, Canadian Tire Motorsport Park/Mosport, Daytona, Detroit, Houston, Laguna Seca, Le Mans, Lime Rock, Long Beach, Lusail International Circuit (Qatar), Miami, Mid-Ohio, Monza, Portimão, Portland, Road America, Road Atlanta, Sebring, Sonoma, St. Petersburg, Texas, Trois Rivieres, Utah, VIR, Washington DC and Watkins Glen• 62: Number of drivers in Corvette Racing entries since 1999. Chouest Povoledo Racing’s Ross Chouest and Aaron Povoledo joined the list at the SRO America weekend at Sonoma• 72: Years since Corvette was introduced to the world on Jan. 17, 1953 in New York City. A total of 300 cars were produced that year• 140: Victories worldwide for Corvette Racing – 117 in IMSA, nine at Le Mans, four in the FIA WEC and 10 in GT World Challenge America• 313: Event starts by Corvette Racing entries since 1999, starting with that year’s Rolex 24 At Daytona. No. 300 came in early August 2024 at Road America in IMSA• 4,353.19: Number of racing miles completed by Corvette Racing in its 16 previous trips to Long Beach. That represents 2,212 laps around the 1.968-mile street circuit.• 418,207.46: Total number of racing miles completed by Corvette Racing entries since 1999. To put that in perspective, Corvette Racing is more than halfway to the distance traveled by Apollo 13 – the longest manned spaceflight in history: 622,268 miles Corvette Racing at Long Beach (wins in bold)2007No. 3 Corvette C6.R: Jan Magnussen/Johnny O’Connell – 2nd in GT1 (Magnussen fastest race lap)No. 4 Corvette C6.R: Olivier Beretta/Oliver Gavin – 1st in GT1 (Gavin pole) 2008No. 3 Corvette C6.R: Johnny O’Connell/Jan Magnussen – 1st in GT1 (Magnussen pole)No. 4 Corvette C6.R: Olivier Beretta/Oliver Gavin – 1st in GT1 (Gavin fastest race lap) 2009No. 3 Corvette C6.R: Jan Magnussen/Johnny O’Connell – 2nd in GT1No. 4 Corvette C6.R: Olivier Beretta/Oliver Gavin – 1st in GT1 (Beretta pole, fastest race lap) 2010No. 3 Corvette C6.R: Jan Magnussen/Johnny O’Connell – 2nd in GT2No. 4 Corvette C6.R: Oliver Gavin/Jan Magnussen – 9th in GT2 (Gavin fastest race lap) 2011No. 3 Corvette C6.R: Olivier Beretta/Tommy Milner – 5th in GTNo. 4 Corvette C6.R: Oliver Gavin/Jan Magnussen – 2nd in GT (Magnussen fastest race lap) 2012No. 3 Corvette C6.R: Jan Magnussen/Antonio Garcia – 4th in GTNo. 4 Corvette C6.R: Oliver Gavin/Tommy Milner – 1st in GT (Gavin fastest race lap) 2013No. 3 Corvette C6.R: Jan Magnussen/Antonio Garcia – 5th in GTNo. 4 Corvette C6.R: Oliver Gavin/Tommy Milner – 4th in GT (Gavin fastest race lap) 2014No. 3 Corvette C7.R: Jan Magnussen/Antonio Garcia – 1st in GTLM (Magnussen pole)No. 4 Corvette C7.R: Oliver Gavin/Tommy Milner – 3rd in GTLM (Milner fastest race lap) 2015No. 3 Corvette C7.R: Jan Magnussen/Antonio Garcia – 3rd in GTLMNo. 4 Corvette C7.R: Oliver Gavin/Tommy Milner – 7th in GTLM 2016No. 3 Corvette C7.R: Jan Magnussen/Antonio Garcia – 9th in GTLMNo. 4 Corvette C7.R: Oliver Gavin/Tommy Milner – 2nd in GTLM 2017No. 3 Corvette C7.R: Jan Magnussen/Antonio Garcia – 5th in GTLM (Magnussen pole)No. 4 Corvette C7.R: Oliver Gavin/Tommy Milner – 1st in GTLM 2018No. 3 Corvette C7.R: Jan Magnussen/Antonio Garcia – 4th in GTLMNo. 4 Corvette C7.R: Oliver Gavin/Tommy Milner – 1st in GTLM 2019No. 3 Corvette C7.R: Jan Magnussen/Antonio Garcia – 2nd in GTLMNo. 4 Corvette C7.R: Oliver Gavin/Tommy Milner – 3rd in GTLM 2021No. 3 Corvette C8.R: Antonio Garcia/Jordan Taylor – 2nd in GTLMNo. 4 Corvette C8.R: Tommy Milner/Nick Tandy – 1st in GTLM 2022No. 3 Corvette C8.R: Antonio Garcia/Jordan Taylor – 3rd in GTD PRO (Taylor pole) 2023No. 3 Corvette C8.R: Antonio Garcia/Jordan Taylor – 2nd in GTD PRO 2024No. 13 Corvette Z06 GT3.R: Orey Fidani/Matt Bell – 6th in GTD

Inside Line Promotions – FRESNO, Calif. (April 7, 2025) – Dominic Scelzi is tackling the Mini Gold Cup doubleheader this weekend at Silver Dollar Speedway.

The dirt oval in Chico, Calif., features a local show on Friday followed by a $10,000-to-win NARC 410 Sprint Car Series race on Saturday.

“I’m excited to get back to Chico this weekend,” Scelzi said. “We only made one trip there last year and it wasn’t a shining moment for us. I feel we’re on a really good trajectory right now.”

Scelzi has started the season on a strong note as he’s posted four top fives in his first five races. He is coming off a season-best second-place finish.

“Chico is one of my favorite tracks and we’ve enjoyed a lot of success there,” he said. “Hopefully that will continue this weekend.”

Scelzi’s career-best World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series result of third place occurred at the track in September 2023. He’s been victorious at the track multiple times, winning two races in 2022 as well as one in 2016 and in 2021. 

SEASON STATS –

5 races, 0 wins, 1 top five, 4 top 10s, 5 top 15s, 5 top 20s

UP NEXT –

Friday and Saturday at Silver Dollar Speedway in Chico, Calif., for the Mini Gold Cup with the NARC 410 Sprint Car Series

(4/7/25 – Andrew Kunas) Chico, CA … The first big money race of the season has arrived for the NARC 410 sprint cars, with the prestigious Mini Gold Cup happening this Saturday, April 12th at Silver Dollar Speedway.

Saturday’s winner will score NARC’s first five-figure payday of 2025, taking home $10,000 for their efforts.

First run in 1987, the Mini Gold Cup was a longtime staple on the Northern California sprint car schedule, bringing fans and competitors to the challenging ¼-mile clay oval in Chico. Several editions over the years saw the event on the World of Outlaws schedule, but it has otherwise been a NARC event. After a hiatus of a few years that started with the COVID-19 plagued 2020 season, the SLC Promotions team brought the beloved event back a couple of years ago. Regardless of sanction, the Mini Gold Cup has long been a premier season event sprint car fans on the West Coast.

Cole Macedo won last year’s Mini Gold Cup after leader Ryan Robinson crashed on the final lap. It was Macedo’s second Mini Gold Cup win, that one coming aboard the Tarlton Motorsports No. 21. With Macedo now on the World of Outlaws tour, the Tarlton team has been going with Jacksonville, Oregon standout Tanner Holmes. The pairing has already found success, winning an earlier race at Silver Dollar Speedway and then turning into multiple Top 5 finishes with High Limit Racing during their March swing through California. That has many fans pointing at Holmes as one of the favorites on Saturday.

Hanford’s D.J. Netto, with his win in last month’s NARC season opener at the Stockton Dirt Track, has the points lead aboard the Netto Ag No. 88n going into the weekend with a four-point advantage over Fremont’s Shane Golobic. Netto, a former NARC champion, will be one to watch, as he won twice in other 410 sprint car competition at Silver Dollar Speedway last year, including the Friday night Mini Gold Cup Tune-Up.

Golobic also already is a winner in Chico this season in non-NARC competition, winning the night before Holmes did. Golobic and the Matt Wood Racing No. 17w are also hoping that translates to NARC success at the Mini Gold Cup on Saturday.

In the Mini Gold Cup record books, National Sprint Car Hall of Famer Brent Kaeding leads everyone with four total Mini Gold Cup triumphs, taking checkered flags in 1991, 1993, 1996 and 2001. A pair of World of Outlaws champions, Jason Meyers, and Donny Schatz each have three wins in the prestigious race.

WHO TO WATCH

One other driver who will be watched is reigning NARC champion Justin Sanders of Aromas. The 2024 “King of the West” won the David Tarter Memorial last June when the NARC 410 sprint cars last tackled Silver Dollar Speedway, one of his seven NARC wins en route to the series championship. Sanders and the Mittry Motorsports No. 2x are looking at the Mini Gold Cup as the perfect opportunity to bounce back after a disappointing month of March.

Never one to be counted out at Silver Dollar Speedway, San Jose’s Tim Kaeding is always one to keep an eye on aboard the Williams Motorsports No. 0. A two-time “King of the West” and one of NARC’s all-time winningest drivers with 74 victories, Kaeding has won several big races in Chico over the years, and that includes two Mini Gold Cups, those wins coming in 2005 and 2007.

Templeton driver Kaleb Montgomery gave a strong performance at the Salute to Leroy Van Conett at Stockton on March 8th, driving from 15th to finish 4th in the NARC season opener. He later turned more heads by making the dash and finishing fifth in a High Limit Racing main event at Perris Auto Speedway. After this prior weekend’s cancelations, fans remain eager to see what the young driver has ahead of him as he pursues his first NARC victory aboard the Montgomery Racing No. 3.

A full field of sprint car teams are expected to fill the pit area. Other drivers expected to compete on Friday night include Roseville’s Sean Becker, Oakley’s Dylan Bloomfield, Tanner Carrick of Lincoln, Clovis drivers Dominic Gorden and Mariah Ede, Bud Kaeding of Campbell, Arizona driver Ashton Torgerson, Landon Brooks from Rio Oso, Tyler Thompson from Oregon, Lemoore’s Caeden Steele, Gauge Garcia of Fresno, Benicia’s Billy Aton and many more.

FAN INFO

Front gates open at 4:00 pm, with hot laps at 5:30 pm and qualifying to follow at 6:00 pm. Racing is scheduled to start at 6:45 pm. BCRA lightning sprints are also scheduled to compete.

As a bonus for fans, Silver Dollar Speedway is also racing on Friday night, April 11th, with 410 sprint cars in action as a tune-up for Saturday’s $10,000 to win Mini Gold Cup.

Fans who cannot make it in person can watch live on www.floracing.com. FloRacing livestreams all NARC shows.

Josh Berry and the No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Mustang Dark Horse had just finished fifth in Stage Two of Sunday’s Goodyear 400 at Darlington Raceway when a collision with Tyler Reddick ended their race and left them with a 36th-place finish. Berry was driving a throwback-themed Mustang based on the Lotus Ford that Jim Clark, with pit work by the Wood Brothers, drove to victory in the 1965 Indianapolis 500.Prior to the green flag, the audience at Darlington and those following on TV got a Wood Brothers history lesson when broadcasters Kevin Harvick and Clint Bowyer circled the track in the actual Wood Brothers cars that David Pearson and Neil Bonnett drove to victory at Darlington back in the day. And the Woods served as Grand Marshals for the event with the family giving drivers the command to start their engines. Once the green flag flew, Berry steadily moved forward from his 24th-place starting spot, finishing the first 90-lap Stage in 17th place. In the second Stage, the team decided to run longer than most of their competitors during a round of green-flag pit stops. The strategy paid off as Berry had cycled up to third place when the caution flew at Lap 138 for debris on the track.Berry made his pit stop under the caution flag and restarted in fifth place. He raced in the top five for the remainder of the Stage, ending that segment in fifth place and earning six bonus points. As the third and final segment of the race got under way, Berry was in the top five when the contact with Reddick sent the Motorcraft/Quick Lane Mustang slamming into the inside wall.“It always gets tight off of [Turn] Two here at Darlington,” Berry told reporters at the track. “It looked like just me and the 45 got together. It’s hard to say one way or the other if he came up a little or I was a little too low. Obviously you’re trying to keep it out of the fence and clear that bump and everything, so I don’t know. It’s a racing deal, I guess.”Berry went on to say that he had a fast Mustang.“I feel like we steadily worked our way forward throughout the whole race and caught a break on that green-flag sequence to get up front,” he said. “But I thought our car held on well, and I think we had a shot at a really solid finish.”Berry and the Wood Brothers team now turn their focus to next Sunday’s Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway.

Sprint race on street circuit marks departure from early season endurances tests

DETROIT (April 7, 2025) – Cadillac Racing celebrates the golden anniversary of the Grand Prix of Long Beach and will seek to add to its own success on the 1.97-mile, 11-turn street circuit this weekend with its three-car Grand Touring Prototype (GTP) lineup. The 100-minute sprint – the third race of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season – is a physical and mental departure for drivers from the endurance races totaling 36 hours to start the nine-race campaign. “Every lap will matter for car setup, but also for driver confidence. It’s such a special feeling to drive between the walls with those cars,” said Louis Deletraz, co-driver with Jordan Taylor of the No. 40 Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing V-Series.R.

Last April, Cadillac Racing finished 1-2, with the No. 01 Cadillac V-Series.R edging the pole-sitting No. 31 Whelen Cadillac V-Series.R by 0.564 of a second. Opting not to change Michelin tires during the lone service stop and mandatory driver change, the No. 01 Cadillac V-Series.R drove to the front of the field and led the final 34 laps. The 1-2 finish was the third for Cadillac Racing’s prototype program at Long Beach, which also includes victories in 2022, 2021, 2019, 2018 and 2017. There was no race in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. In total, Cadillac Racing has nine victories at Long Beach.

Media resources* Cadillac Racing event guide* Cadillac LB results 2024-2017* Cadillac all-time statistics* 2025 IMSA statistics

Featuring Formula 5000 in its inaugural event as the prelude to Formula One races from 1976 through 1983, CART/Champ Car, which became IndyCar in 2009, has been the headliner in the intervening years. After a two-year run as part of the Grand Prix, sports car racing returned to the oceanside community in 2006 with Ron Fellows driving the No. 16 Cadillac CTS-V to the victory in the Speed World Challenge GT race. The next day, current Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA driver Sebastien Bourdais won the Champ Car race from the pole – among five victories at Long Beach that includes 2024 and 2022 with Cadillac Racing for the 2019 Long Beach Motorsports Walk of Fame inductee. Also at Long Beach, Andy Pilgrim won the 2012 Pirelli World Challenge GT race in the No. 8 Cadillac CTS-V Coupe that led to the series’ manufacturer title and 1-2 in the driver championship (Johnny O’Connell and Pilgrim) for the brand. O’Connell drove the No. 3 Cadillac CTS-V to victory in the 2014 GT race on the way to earning his third consecutive drivers’ title and the third successive manufacturer title for Cadillac. Brothers Jordan and Ricky Taylor won the 2017 IMSA race from the pole – one in the streak of five consecutive victories to start the season that culminated in the manufacturer and drivers’ championships — in Cadillac Racing’s first year of prototype competition. Current teammate Filipe Albuquerque co-drove to victory in the 2018 and 2019 races in the Cadillac DPi-V.R. Overall Cadillac Racing prototype victories2024 — No. 01 Cadillac V-Series.R; start third – Sebastien Bourdais, Renger van der Zande2022 — No. 01 V-Performance Academy Cadillac DPi-V.R; start first – Renger van der Zande, Sebastien Bourdais2021 — No. 31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac DPi-V.R; start first – Pipo Derani, Felipe Nasr2019 — No. 5 Mustang Sampling Cadillac DPi-V.R; start fourth – Filipe Albuquerque, Joao Barbosa2018 — No. 5 Mustang Sampling Racing Cadillac DPi-V.R; start fifth — Filipe Albuquerque, Joao Barbosa2017 — No. 10 Konica Minolta Cadillac DPi-V.R; start first – Jordan Taylor, Ricky Taylor1-2 finishes2024, 2022, 2021Poles2024, 2022, 2021, 2017 What they’re saying No. 10 Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing V-Series.RRicky Taylor: “It is always exciting to get into the sprint race part of the season where we can really get back into the rhythm of IMSA racing. It’s always a bit of a shock to the system to transition to every lap really counting, but I think all of our drivers really enjoy that. We really have to be on our game and make every session count. We have been learning a lot about this car, and this will be the first race weekend we’ve gone into without any prior testing, so we will be working hard to make the little track time we get count. Relying on the sister car will be so important, with the short time to get the race cars where we want them for qualifying, we must trust each other’s feedback and work to create two strong cars for the race.” Filipe Albuquerque: “Long Beach, it’s always nice to go to California. Cadillac had an amazing race there last year; they qualified on pole and drove really well. The motivation is high. We are still learning about the car, but we are closing down to what we need to know. Let’s hope we can get our first podium with the Cadillac in Long Beach. There’s no better place to start with sprint races and street courses are always nice, so let’s bring it on and I can’t wait to go for it.”No. 31 Whelen Cadillac V-Series.R Jack Aitken: “Missing out on a podium at Sebring is tough to take but taking the positives of coming from the back of the field to lead all those laps and be in contention for the win. Now we go to a totally different place. I’m looking forward to it. You know, we’ve had two of the longest races of the year. Long Beach has always a cool place to go to. We had a 1-2 finish there last year, started from the front, so it’s got good memories and it’s a happy hunting ground.” Earl Bamber: “(At Sebring) we showed great pace through the whole race, led a ton of laps. The car was good. Sort of bittersweet that we didn’t get a podium. But we just have to roll into Long Beach. I think the car really suits there, which it showed last year. I’m looking forward to returning to Long Beach and going for the win.” No. 40 Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing V-Series.R Jordan Taylor: “I think we’re all very ready to get to Long Beach after a rough start to our year. Our championship run is pretty hard to imagine at this point, so our goal from here on out is basically to race for wins. There is no reason to be settling for anything less. It will be our first street course and first sprint race with our Cadillac V-Series.R. Last year they were very strong, so we’re hoping to pick up where they left off. We have done a lot of prep heading into the event, and with the limited time on track, I feel like we’re as prepared as we can be to hit the ground running.” Louis Delétraz: “Long Beach is always a fun event. We’ve had a rough start of the year on No. 40, so we’re really motivated to have a good weekend. It’s the first sprint race of the year, and the Cadillac V-Series.R GTP is always fast on street courses. The track evolution is huge between FP1 and the race. Every lap will matter for car setup, but also for driver confidence. It’s such a special feeling to drive between the walls with those cars.”

NASCAR CUP SERIES DARLINGTON RACEWAY TEAM CHEVY POST-RACE REPORT APRIL 6, 2025

TEAM CHEVY UNOFFICIAL TOP-10 RESULTS: POS.     DRIVER2nd – William Byron7th – Ross Chastain8th – Chase Elliott10th – Kyle Busch

MEDIA RESOURCES: Photo Gallery | Race AdvancesChevrolet Newsroom

·       After enduring late-race pit strategy and an overtime finish, William Byron and the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet team came just short of a near dominate race – taking the checkered flag with a runner-up finish at Darlington Raceway.  ·       Leading the 38-car NASCAR Cup Series field to the green flag for the second time this season, the 27-year-old Charlotte, North Carolina, native took his Hendrick Motorsports-prepared Chevrolet to the lead on the opening lap. Taking early control of the race, Byron went on to lead every lap of both Stage One and Two for the stage win sweep. Varying pit strategies during the final green flag pit cycle shook up the top of the leaderboard, with Byron finding himself in the fourth position when the final caution flew. With yet another stellar stop on pit road, the No. 24 pit crew gained Byron one position in the race off pit road to give Byron the opportunity to lineup on the outside of the second row for the overtime finish. The restart position gave Byron one last shot at making a pass for the lead, ultimately ending yet another strong day with a runner-up finish.  ·       For the seventh consecutive week, Byron and the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet will end the weekend atop the NASCAR Cup Series points standings – heading to Bristol Motor Speedway with a 49-point lead over today’s race winner, Denny Hamlin.  ·       Three different Chevrolet organizations were represented in the top-10 of the final running order at Darlington Raceway, with Byron leading Trackhouse Racing’s Ross Chastain in seventh; his Hendrick Motorsports teammate, Chase Elliott, in the eighth position; and Richard Childress Racing’s Kyle Busch rounding out the top-10.

Chevrolet’s all-time NASCAR Cup Series statistics at Darlington Raceway:  Wins: 44Poles: 23Top-Fives: 208Top-10s: 435Chevrolet’s season statistics with eight NASCAR Cup Series races complete:  Wins: 2Poles: 4Top-Fives: 16Top 10s: 36Stage Wins: 5

UP NEXT: The 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season continues at Bristol Motor Speedway with the Food City 500 on Sunday, April 13, at 3 P.M. ET. Live coverage can be found on FS1, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.

Post-Race Driver Quotes:William Byron, No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet Finished: 2nd“This No. 24 Axalta Chevrolet team did a great job. We had a great Chevy all race long. We just needed control of the race there under green and we lost that with the pit sequence. The No. 45 (Tyler Reddick) went really short. We lost a few spots under the green flag sequence, and that was the difference. We had a decent run that time. The No. 20 (Christopher Bell) did a good job kind of air blocking and just keeping us behind him. It took me a long time to get by him. We had a great pit stop there at the end and was able to line up on the second row. We just needed the front row to have a shot to win here.  It stings to be this close, but at the same time, I’m really proud of that effort by the whole team. It shows what we’re really made of, and hopefully there’s a lot more of that to come.” What were you thinking about when you led all the laps in Stage One and Two? “Just try not to screw it up, right? Just try to explain what my balance was in clean air, and it just changed a little bit. I felt like we were in position to have a perfect race there. That would have been pretty damn impressive. It sucks, but nobody is at fault. Those guys could be aggressive on the other side of us and it was turning into a big strategy play. We just couldn’t keep control.” Ross Chastain, No. 1 Trackhouse Racing ChevroletFinished: 7th “It was a warm one today at Darlington in our Busch Light Fishing Chevy. We worked our way up to the top-15 early in the race with adjustments. We got caught by that one caution in the middle of the race just after we pitted under green. So we had to take the wave around and work our way back up through the field. Phil and the guys made good adjustments and we were able to get up in the top 10 and we finished 7th. Darlington is one of my favorite tracks and I am looking forward to Bristol next weekend.” Daniel Suarez, No. 99 Trackhouse Racing ChevroletFinished: 15th“The No. 99 Quaker State Chevy was still tight. The strategy just didn’t go our way a couple of times. We were just average.. we weren’t great. We’ll go back to work and get ready for Bristol next weekend.” Ty Dillon, No. 10 Kaulig Racing ChevroletFinished: 16th“I’m just proud of our effort. We started in the back, started in a hole, and then got ourself halfway to the front and had an issue on pit road. We were able to rebound again. I just appreciate the team’s resilience and mental fortitude to keep me calm. I feel like I was on the edge of losing my mind a couple of times, but everybody just believed in each other that we could rebound and we did. We made the most of the day, we got some stage points and had some really good speed. We just need to keep this moment rolling.” AJ Allmendinger, No. 16 Kaulig Racing ChevroletFinished: 18th “Frustrating second half of the race; we really good in the first half. Finished 10th in the first stage; I thought we were even better than that, honestly. Then the track changed, and we just completely lost the balance, cautions hurt us at the wrong time. When we started of the race, I thought we were gonna be okay for sure. At the end of the day, just have to keep working on it and I have to be better too. We made an okay result out of it, but definitely I thought we could have been better.” Shane van Gisbergen, No. 88 Trackhouse Racing ChevroletFinished: 20th “The day started quite good for the No. 88 WeatherTech Chevrolet team. We were moving forward. We learned a lot and it was quite fun. And then in the middle of the race, we really lost the handling on the car. We struggled to get that back and get it to my liking, which was a shame. It’s been a trend we’ve been having the last few weeks, so I need to understand what I’m doing and we also need to understand on the car side what we can do better. At the end, I felt like the long runs were really good. I found myself being able to manage the tires well. To get a top-20 after the runs we’ve been having is a great starting point, and now we just need to try and build some momentum.” Michael McDowell, No. 71 Spire Motorsports ChevroletFinished: 29th “It was a rough day for the No. 71 Delaware Life Chevrolet team. We started off the race in the top-10, but very early on, we felt like we missed the balance. Our team fought hard all day, but we just never had speed in the car. Some days you just miss it and today was one of those days that we just missed it as a group. It’s unfortunate because we had high hopes after yesterday. The long run speed and short run speed, we just weren’t there today. We’ll have to go back to the drawing board and see where we went wrong and where we missed it. We got off sequence there, strategy-wise, trying to make something happen and that definitely hurt us more. But at that point, we were fighting to really just salvage the day and get a top-20 finish. It’s not what we want to be fighting for, so yeah we’ve got work to do.”

Josh Berry and the No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Mustang Dark Horse are set to start Sunday’s Goodyear 400 at Darlington Raceway from 24th place. Berry earned that spot with a lap at 168.037 miles per hour around the 1.366-mile Lady In Black on Saturday afternoon.In practice earlier in the day, Berry was outstanding. He was second fastest on the speed chart with a best lap at 167.180 mph. It came on the first of the 32 laps he ran in the session. He was top among drivers who ran 10 consecutive green flag laps, averaging 163.520 mph on his first 10 laps.The throwback weekend at Darlington is particularly meaningful to the Wood Brothers team as they are running a paint scheme reminiscent of the Lotus Ford that Jim Clark, with pit crew services performed by the Wood Brothers, drove to victory in the 1965 Indianapolis 500. Also, as part of the celebration of the team’s 75 years in the sport, the Wood family has been chosen as the Grand Marshals for the Goodyear 400.The Woods enter Sunday’s race with eight Darlington victories – six by David Pearson and one each by Cale Yarborough and Neil Bonnett.Sunday’s 293-lap race is set to get the green flag just after 3 p.m., with TV coverage on FS1. Stage breaks are planned for Laps 90 and 185.

NASCAR CUP SERIES DARLINGTON RACEWAY TEAM CHEVY POST-QUALIFYING REPORT APRIL 5, 2025

TEAM CHEVY UNOFFICIAL TOP-10 STARTING LINEUP:POS.     DRIVER1st – William Byron8th – Kyle Busch10th – Michael McDowell

MEDIA RESOURCES: Photo Gallery | Race AdvancesChevrolet Newsroom

·       Hendrick Motorsports’ William Byron drove Chevrolet to its now series-leading fourth NASCAR Cup Series pole win of the 2025 season at Darlington Raceway. The 27-year-old Charlotte, North Carolina, native clocked-in a best lap of 28.774 seconds, at 170.904 mph, in his No. 24 Axalta Chevrolet to earn the pole position for tomorrow’s Goodyear 400.  ·       The pole – Byron’s second at Darlington Raceway and 15th all-time in NASCAR’s top division – makes Byron the first repeat pole winner of the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season. ·       Three Chevrolet organizations will be represented in the top-10 starting lineup for tomorrow’s 400-mile race, with Hendrick Motorsports’ Byron leading Richard Childress Racing’s Kyle Busch with an eighth-place qualifying effort and Spire Motorsports’ Michael McDowell rounding out the top-10. 

Chevrolet’s all-time NASCAR Cup Series statistics at Darlington Raceway:  Wins: 44Poles: 23Top-Fives: 207Top-10s: 431Chevrolet’s season statistics heading into the eighth race of the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series Season Wins: 2Poles: 4Top-Fives: 15Top 10s: 32Stage Wins: 3

William Byron, No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet – Pole Win Press Conference Quotes  William, this is your second poll at the track. Too tough to tame. You’ve won at this event before. What did you like out of your car in those laps and how do you feel about your chance to support them all?“Yeah, I felt good about it today. You know, I felt like we had a good plan going into practice. I feel like we’re always strong here. It’s a really good track for our team and myself. We were just trying to find a decent balance there to start. We were a little bit tighter than we wanted to be, so we pitted and worked on it; got it a lot better and finished practice pretty strong, I felt like. So I had some confidence going into qualifying that we’d have a decent lap, at least. I was just was nervous about going early. I just felt like having a little bit of an earlier draw was not ideal, but it seemed like the track temp was starting to go up as well, so it probably wasn’t the worst thing. Just really hit (turns) one and two well. I felt like I got through the entry to one and up the hill well, and then entry to three was also good. I just felt like I gave up maybe half to three quarters of a tenth off of four. Luckily it was enough. Just proud of our team. We had a really good week of prep. A couple tough weeks for results, but we’re still running strong.” You won this event back in 2023. How comfortable do you feel at this racetrack? Just again, sitting on the pole now here. Is this a comfortable track for you to race on, just your confidence going forward?“Yeah, I think this is maybe my best track. I feel like this is just a place I love coming to. I think that ever since I’ve been here as a driver, I just enjoy coming down here. It’s a tough challenge. It really tests you mentally and physically. Off the track, I had a lot of nostalgia coming here as a kid. It was just the place that I loved seeing on the way to Myrtle Beach as a kid and just dreamed about racing here. I feel like for every driver, that kind of makes it important to you. It doesn’t mean you’re always going to be good here, but it’s always been an important track. I think that history and then parlaying that into having good runs here, it has had a special place in my heart.” I wanted to ask you how important getting a pole and starting up front really is here at Darlington. Is this a place where that matters a lot?“It probably matters maybe a fraction more than some other places. Still, it’s a long race, but you don’t want to qualify here in the 20s. It’s a tough place to pass. It can be tricky strategy-wise and you can get stuck back there. This is a place we always try to qualify in the top five or six because having that clean air is a big deal. So yeah, maybe a fraction more than other places, but you can still win from anywhere. We’ve never had the benefit of really having pit stall one here, which is super nice to have. I’m excited for that and I feel like that will help our pit crew. It’s just a nice advantage.” The rest of your team did not fare quite as well as you today. Are you surprised by that?“These cars are really finicky, so hitting the lap the way you want it to be can be difficult. I’m not surprised because there’s a lot of parity in the Next Gen era, especially in qualifying. You can be that little bit off. I feel like our team made good notes from last year here qualifying. I think that really helped us.”  You talked about a little bit of a connection to it coming down here. Seeing it from the perspective of not being a driver or not having a family and racing, what does this place mean to you?“This place is just very special. I feel like it’s always had a lot of meaning. I guess my first race here, I ran Ricky Hendrick’s throwback scheme in Xfinity. That was just really special. We had a good day. I think it’s just kind of continued. I’ve had a lot of great throwback schemes, honestly. That’s always made it fun here in the spring or the fall. I think it’s just that kind of nostalgia that I enjoy.”  When and where is the most difficult part of this racetrack? We spent years talking about how easy it is to get caught up in it. You like this track. What moment, where, what part of the track and what kind of movements make it scattered for you here?“It’s just a tricky place. It’s changing every year, just that little bit. I feel like when they put the patch down in turn two, that was a big difference maker. Definitely had something new to adjust for. Every time, this is one of those places where when they roll out for practice in Xfinity and I turn on the TV or I look at the racetrack when I come in the tunnel, I’m always looking for little things that are different because it seems to just age like that. It’s a unique place. It seems like there’s some differences this year. I’m intrigued to watch Xfinity and figure out what those differences are.” Tell the fans what it’s like to lead the field to green here at this particular racetrack. You certainly know you may get a strike, but you don’t want to get the first one…“Yeah, clean air is nice here, for sure. It doesn’t usually last very long because you catch the back of the field. Somebody is always in traffic here. But getting that clean air is huge here and hopefully we can just keep that control of the race.” We saw a few weeks ago at Homestead, Kyle Larson was on the wall and sheared the right side of his car off pretty bad. Now we’re at another track where you’re on the wall. Do you see that trend kind of continue where we’re getting more and more bouncing off the wall and really tearing the right sides off? Was that kind of by play from Larson and something that maybe you and him or Hendrick has discussed getting on the wall even more?“No.. I mean, definitely not discussed it. I feel like this place is way different running the wall than Homestead, although it looks the same, you know, from visually, like you’re touching it sometimes here. It’s very different, like the way the wall is shaped here and just the effect or lack of here. So it’s a different technique. I mean, you know, Kyle’s been able to run it well both places, but I don’t think there are anything like really.” It’s been three and a half years since they repaved the exit of turn two. Is there still a grip strip there, or has it lost its usefulness at this point?“Yeah, it’s still more grip, but, yeah, it’s not like you can just run wide open through there anymore. And there’s some bump content on the exit, which for these cars, is pretty bad.. you know, the way the stops hit in the back. So yeah, there’s still more grip there than the rest of the track, but it’s not as much and I think you’ll just see it. It’s always going to have an advantage, though, because the age of it’s going to just be offset to, you know, the rest of the track. So, yeah, it’s interesting, but I think it’s continuing to get some character. Hopefully those bumps don’t get any worse.” Were you happy that it’s unusually hot here for April because it seems like it’s just like it is in May and September? “I wouldn’t say happy, but I’m okay with it. It’s definitely going to be warm. You know, I think tomorrow is going to be a test mentally, physically. You know, it’s a tough place, and I feel like this weather here just exaggerates. It really just exaggerates the track grip, and I think that we’ve been fortunate a couple times here to run in the spring when it’s like cloudy out, and that really adds a lot of grip to the racetrack. So, yeah, I think it’s just going to be good notes for the fall because it’s going to be a lot more similar weather to what the fall will be like.” And so on that how much do you view wanting to win, or do you try anything to learn for the fall?“Yeah, I don’t think — like right now, there’s nothing set in stone to try, but I think if you have a good notebook from this race, it’ll carry over really well for the Southern 500. So that’s what I’ve seen with Darlington. It doesn’t change that much from spring to fall in terms of set-up stuff. So it’s a really important race tomorrow just to get a good notebook for the fall.”

NASCAR CUP SERIES DARLINGTON RACEWAY TEAM CHEVY DRIVER QUOTES APRIL 5, 2025

Chase Elliott, driver of the No. 9 UniFirst Chevrolet and the No. 17 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports, met with the media in advance of running double duty in the NASCAR Cup and Xfinity Series at Darlington Raceway.

MEDIA RESOURCES: Photo Gallery | Race AdvancesChevrolet Newsroom

Media Availability Quotes:  We’ve heard different drivers kind of speak throughout the week on the Xfinity Series race last week. I’m just curious your perspective on what you saw.“Yeah, it was terrible. It was really bad. I don’t know what all has been said already, so I don’t want to add to the negativity of the week. But yeah, it wasn’t impressive at all, for sure. It was kind of embarrassing, you know, I think more than anything. We’re better than that and those guys are better than that. You just want to try to set a better example, I guess, on Sunday’s and hope that that gets taken to heart somewhere in there — that not doing things like that is a better route. It wasn’t just like the last lap thing. It was just the whole race. The whole race was just chaos. They were running over each other with 75 laps to go, it seemed like. But anyways, I’m good on it. I think enough has probably been said.” At what point in the year, or maybe now, is it when you start assessing who’s strong and who’s kind of legit championship contenders and teams, that kind of thing? Is it this now or is it later in the year?“I think it’s all year, for sure. It’s still very early. It definitely is early in the season. It’s going to be the same crowd. It’s the same crowd every year.. we don’t have to beat around the bush. It’s going to be the same people that are going to be good in the last 15 weeks of the year. The people that are good right now are just going to get better. That’s just how it is. It will be the same crowd, as always, when we get down to it.”  You’ve been solid here in Cup but not necessarily spectacular compared to some other tracks. Is there something about Darlington perhaps that you’ve struggled to crack the code with here? “Yeah, for sure. I love Darlington. I just haven’t gotten it to love me back. Maybe this week.. maybe I can talk it into liking me this week.” What is it about this racetrack that we see even veterans struggle to master that high lane here more than anywhere else? We see the skill of Homestead and other places, but what is it about this track specifically that makes running against the wall so challenging?“It’s very similar to Homestead in a lot of ways. I think what makes it different here is that Homestead has a very gradual entry. If you enter on the wall, it has this nice radius to the corner. And this place, the wall is kind of choppy and makes it hard to get against it just right at the perfect time. You’ve got the safer barrier that juts out there in (turn) three. All those things kind of play a role. Obviously, the tire wear throughout a run here is extreme, just like it is at Homestead, too. It’s always a challenge, but I think probably just the radius of the corners makes it a little different.”  Looking back last weekend at Martinsville, I was just curious — some people said it was still kind of hard to pass, even with the tires that were wearing more. What’s your thoughts on the state of short track racing after quite a few now?“I thought it was better. It seemed like it’s better. You definitely have to be really mindful of how you either take care of your tire or don’t at the beginning of the run. But I think we’re in a better place than we were in the past. When I look at it, I think the tire is a big piece of that. I think I told you all that last week — it seems like it matters quite a lot. It makes sense that that’s what touches the ground, and that’s a big deal. The car plays a role, for sure, and I think it has had improvements. But yeah, I don’t know that it’s where it exactly needs to be, but I’m just not exactly sure how much better we’re going to get it. We can only piece together so much. But look, motorsports is an aerodynamic game, and I think we just all need to understand that that’s just part of it now. We’re not going to run those tails at these places all the time. I don’t care if you’re going 70 mph in the center of the corner or 170 –- like it matters a lot, and clean air is going to be king. You just hope that there’s enough difference and enough challenge behind the wheel that you can do something different early in a run to make a difference in your car late, and I think as long as we achieve that, then we’re doing all we can do. I thought we did more of that in Martinsville. I think we could still have a step more of that. I personally thought the tire felt really good. I thought the tire was in a pretty good place. We’d just love some more power. I think if you give some more power, you give guys an opportunity to make more mistakes and be harder on the tire. We have a bunch of gears to choose from, so you can downshift or not downshift, and I just think that gives you an opportunity to really screw up bigger, which I think would be good. If you can add to that and just make it to where guys who really are mindful of every aspect of the run would excel or fail.” Obviously, a few years into this new car, there will be discussions about what’s next for the series. I was curious, now that we are in this spec car box, do you envision that probably being just the standard moving forward into the future generations?“It seems that way. I don’t have a crystal ball by any means, but I think that we’re pretty deep down the road of the spec parts and the policing of things that way. Yeah, I think that’s the way NASCAR wants to go with it. I think they’ve made that very loud and clear, that this is the direction. I think everybody’s understanding of that. What’s next? I don’t know. I think it’s in an OK place right now, but whatever changes come down the road, I don’t think it’s going to be much different than what we have now. So with that being said, everyone is just going to continuously get closer and closer and closer every year. You’ll certainly still have your standouts, don’t get me wrong. There will always be a way to have a small advantage, but that advantage will become even more minute than it is today. We’re going to see more of that as time goes because there are no secrets in that garage. I don’t know if you all know this, but you have guys that leave one team and go to another team the next year.. like there are no secrets in there. Everyone knows everything about everybody all the time — what you’ve got going on with your car, who ran what setup last fall at all these places.. that’s just what it is. That’s just the world we live in. Charlotte is a small area, and the garage is even a smaller group of people. That’s just part of it. It just makes it more difficult to find little advantages here and there. You have to make sure that you’re perfect. You’ve got to be perfect. You’ve got to be really good on Saturday; have a good pit box on Sunday, not lose any spots on pit road. You’re just going to see more and more of that, in my opinion.”  I don’t remember the exact number, but I think it’s around 19 cars this weekend that are not running a throwback paint scheme. I’m sure you’ve seen the talk on social media on that the throwback weekend has lost its luster. I’m curious on where you stand on that. Do you feel like this weekend has lost luster over time?“I thought I lost it about four or five years ago, so I was way too early to that conversation, I think. Not to be a downer — I joked about this years ago, but if we kept going down the road, we’re going to be throwing it back to me in 2018. At some point, I think we’ve got to chill on it a little bit. I think we’ve rode the horse to death, and we tend to do that a little bit too much.” Chase, growing up with your dad around the sport, seeing how drivers race back then, where did the sport go wrong with that? Is it the points format today? Is it the cars being too safe? The guys being so far removed these days from anything happening? Where do you think the sport went wrong with what we’re seeing out there?“In what way?” Just what we saw last Saturday in the Xfinity Series, especially with the younger drivers..“I don’t know how to answer that in a professional manner, so I’m just probably not going to. There’s a lot of reasons and parts and pieces to that, and why I think it has come to that. You’ve got to sit back and kind of look at it from a 1,000 feet view and understand why things are the way they are.. the points, who’s driving and the paths. It’s a little bit of everything, so I don’t think we have time to go into all of it. For me, at the end of the day, we can sit here and talk about how embarrassing it was last week, or we can sit here and try to encourage guys to do better. So let’s just encourage people to do better and try to set a better example on Sunday’s. I really feel like throughout the entirety of this year, the Sunday races have been really good from that perspective. I thought that race at COTA – man, you couldn’t have a better example of how to race. And not just 20-year veterans, but those guys that were racing for the win, you had William (Byron) and Christopher (Bell), guys who were on the younger side of life in the series, that set an incredible example, I thought, for everyone else. I think we just need to watch that stuff and appreciate that more. We don’t have to have side-by-side crashes to the line to have a good race. We can have a good race and it go green to the end, or whatever. I think we need to celebrate some of those other things a little more than we celebrate the chaos, and I think that’s part of the reason why we went wrong.”  60 percent of your finishes at Bristol have been in the top-10. What do you attribute to that consistency? “ Well I like Bristol.. I think that’s number one. I enjoy going up there. I think Alan (Gustafson) had a really good grasp on that track, really before I got there to work with him. And I think just over time, we have developed a solid base of the feel that I want, and the feel that he knows that I need and want in the car. So I would say a combination of all those things together. I thought we had a really solid race there last fall. I thought we were right in the hunt with Kyle (Larson) and had a shot at it there. I thought that was fun. I hope we can do more of that. I look forward to getting up there and trying to piece together a good day.”  Do you have anything exciting planned for the off-week?“No, nothing exciting. No races or anything scheduled. I’m going to try to enjoy it. It’s a long road after that all the way to the end this year. I really try to reset; get the batteries recharged and ready to go to the final stretch.” Chase, do you use the cool shirt? If you do, is there a race in particular that comes to mind where you’re really thankful to have it?“I’m kind of one of the guys that goes back and forth. Some weeks I use it, some weeks I don’t. Certainly, as we get to these summer months, you’re going to want it, for sure. I’m trying to think of a good example. This race, honestly. I mean, I feel like this race is always the first hot one of the year, it seems like. Certainly, the 500 mile race in the fall here.. it’s still pretty hot when we get back here. There are a bunch of races that you’re thankful to have that. Some weeks, not necessarily at all. You can kind of get through it. And other weeks, I do think it certainly helps your fatigue level when you get to the end of these things.” The second thing I wanted to ask was — going back to what you said about trying to get Darlington to love you back, how much of it is circumstance of trying to get a finish the team deserves, or is there something you’re chasing here, balance or feel, that you just haven’t hit on?“I was just joking, it’s totally me. It’s not the track. It’s me, not you, right? (laugh). It is definitely totally on me. I think just the feel that I need in the car. It’s been a hunt to try and find that and find what I want. I thought we had a nice week of prep this week; have a good game plan, I hope, and just kind of start practice on a high note. This Xfinity race – it’s been a year since I’ve driven one of those things. Jumping back and forth, I always find it to be a little bit of a challenge. Looking forward to getting going over there. Hopefully those laps will help me just get kind of comfortable with the racetrack; visualize things how I think they need to be. And then when we get out there and in Cup practice, try to get going and get going quick.” It’s certainly not uncharted waters for you guys at Hendrick to be atop the standings early in the season. All four of you guys are solidly top-10 in points. What do you attribute most to your ability consistently to get off to strong starts this season?“The company as a whole has done a great job over the winter to build really, really fast race cars. I think there’s some areas that we can be better. I really don’t think we’re at our best, really any of us, honestly. So it’s encouraging to see that. We can pretty confidently say that – hey, these are flaws. These are areas that can certainly have improvement. That’s an exciting place to be, in my opinion, because there’s so much more racing left this year and opportunities to get where we want to be, and I think we can do that. The company’s in a good spot. Everybody’s pulling in the same direction, and we’ve got to keep that up.”  You mentioned how there’s a lot of movement in the garage these days, but your driver lineup, you guys have stayed intact now for half a decade. As the veteran driver in that stable, how would you say building that chemistry year-to-year with your teammates has benefited you guys to get to this point? “I just think we have a really good working relationship. None of us are best friends off the racetrack. You know, we don’t hang out.. not because we don’t like each other, we just kind of run in different circles. But we have a really good working relationship when we show up and we have our meetings. I think everybody’s open and honest and willing to help one another. We show each other a lot of respect on the racetrack, just kind of how it should be. Those guys give me respect. I’m going to give it back at least that much and probably then some.. that’s just how I am. I enjoy being around guys like that who are hungry and want to get the job done for their team, but also kind of have the bigger picture.. the big picture of just the company in mind and are willing to help us all get better together and be stronger as a four-car stable.”