Josh Berry and the No. 21 DEX Imaging Mustang Dark Horse battled back from an incident on pit road to finish 17th in Sunday’s Straight Talk Wireless 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway.Berry started Sunday’s 400 miler from the outside pole and raced in the top five and the top 10 throughout the first 80-lap Stage, finishing that segment of the race in eighth place and earning three Stage points. The pit stop during the Stage break saw Berry collide with other cars on pit road and wind up facing in the wrong direction. After repairs to the DEX Imaging Mustang Dark Horse he returned to the race in 33rd place, but was able to steadily move forward, breaking back into the top 20 at Lap 110.  The team’s strategy of running long almost paid off, but a spin on pit road by Daniel Suarez did not bring out the caution flag that the No. 21 team needed. Berry cycled into the lead at Lap 127 then made his green-flag pit stop.Back on the track in 28th place he worked his way to 15th by the time the second Stage ended at Lap 165. The DEX Imaging team was unable to significantly advance its position in the third and final segment of the race, and Berry took the checkered flag in 17th place.“Obviously, the incident on pit road kind of set us back, but our car was pretty decent,” Berry told reporters after the race. “It just wasn’t quite the same after that, but I thought we did a good job of making the most of it. It could have been a lot worse, but obviously we would have liked to have been a little bit better.”Berry’s finish allowed him to move up one spot in the driver points standings to 12th place heading into next week’s Cook Out 400 at the Wood Brothers’ home track, Martinsville Speedway.

CHEVROLET IN NTT INDYCAR SERIES

THE THERMAL CLUB INDYCAR GRAND PRIX

THE THERMAL CLUB

THERMAL, CALIFORNIA

TEAM CHEVY POST RACE RECAP

MARCH 23, 2025

Arrow McLaren Duo Continued Successful Weekend with Second and Third Place Finishes

·  Pole sitter Pato O’Ward driving his No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet, led 51 of 65 laps in today’s The Thermal Club Grand Prix for the NTT INDYCAR Series

o  With an ambient high temperature of 94 degrees and track temperature in excess of 120 degrees, tire wear for both red and black tires was the determining factor for how the race played out in the final 10 laps of the race with the race winner saving a new set of reds for final stint

o  O’Ward sits second in the standings after two races, 39 points behind race winner and points leader Alex Palou

·       Arrow McLaren teammate Christian Lundgaard behind the wheel of the No. 7 Chevrolet, who started alongside O’Ward finished third to give the team and Chevrolet a double podium in the second race of the season

o  Lundgaard now sits fourth in the standings, 42 behind the leader

·       Chevrolet scored four of the top-nine

·       Two-time series champion and Indianapolis 500 winner Will Power, No. 12 Team Penske Chevrolet, was the biggest mover in today’s caution-free race driving through the field from 21^st starting position to finish sixth

o  Power gained 15 positions with performance behind the wheel and the fastest pit crew on pit lane

·       Alexander Rossi, No. 20 Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet, posted a solid top-10 finish in only his second race with the team 

·       Next on the NTT INDYCAR SERIES for Team Chevy is the Streets of Long Beach on April 11-13, 2025.

WHAT THEY’RE SAYING:

David Malukas, No. 4 AJ Foyt Racing Chevrolet, Finished 18^th:

 “It was a toTwo-ugh race. We knew it was going to be tough going into it, and it was almost a little bit of a curse, making it to Q2 and using up our reds because to everybody’s [surprise], I guess, we didn’t expect it, but the Reds [alternate tires] ended up being the better tire by quite a big margin. And we only had one new Red set when everybody else had two, and everybody kind of filtered out from there on. So made it to P8 on the new Reds, and from there, it was just survival, holding on. We came out with a P18 in the end. So really rough race. We knew it was going to be tough. Definitely a weekend to forget and move on to Long Beach.” 

Santino Ferrucci, No. 14 AJ Foyt Racing Chevrolet, Finished 14^th:

 “It was honestly a really good race on our red tire runs. It was a bit of a bummer to lose the hybrid due to heat soak. But I don’t think we were the only one struggling with something like that. Just our prime tire run, we didn’t account for the balance being as badly shifted as it was, and we kind of missed the strategy just a little bit, but overall, it wasn’t a terrible day. Could have been worse.”

Pato O’Ward, No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet, Finished 2^nd:

“We took a gamble and it didn’t work out for us. We had used our new reds in the start because we didn’t really quite know what the deg was going to be like, the deg profile. The blacks really kind of took a turn in the negative towards the end of the race and that was it. We didn’t really stand a fighting chance. But thanks for all of the fans hanging in there with us. Thanks to you guys for tuning in and hopefully it was somewhat of an entertainment. Long Beach is what’s coming up and hopefully we can have a repeat weekend, maybe even go one better. We have fought for the championship every single year, and that’s where I expect to be. The weekends like this is where every point does count. Every win does count for so much more and we just missed it by that, you definitely feel like you’ve left some points on the table where if we would’ve gone tomorrow, we maybe would’ve done something different. But, yeah, happy with the points day and we’re going to keep pushing. It’s a long, long, long season ahead and the ovals are a different beast as well. We need to be strong everywhere.”

Nolan Siegel, No. 6 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet, Finished 19^th:

“That was extremely frustrating. I think we had good race pace, but we ended up on the wrong strategy. We did one more stop than everyone else and couldn’t make up that time again. I’m frustrated and disappointed, and I don’t think that’s what this group deserves. I feel like I’ve said that every weekend now and we need to do something to stop feeling that way. Hopefully, we have a better one in Long Beach.”

Christian Lundgaard, No. 7 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet, Finished 3^rd:

“I think the No. 7 VELO Arrow McLaren Chevrolet has done a very good job. The entire team has done a very good job all weekend. We just didn’t have it there. We gave it a shot and came up short, but having two cars on the podium is as well of a day we could’ve wished for coming into Thermal. It’s tough seeing this guy beat us every single event. We’ve got to find a way to stop him. Gotta thank the fans too for sticking in there. It’s a long race, it’s tough.”

Alexander Rossi, No. 20 Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet, Finished 9^th:

“Ultimately a strong weekend for the ECR Java House team, but still a bit disappointed with P9. We looked like we were on for a Top 5 but some things didn’t quite go our way. Despite that, super proud of all the effort this weekend and we will continue pushing forward in Long Beach.”

Christian Rasmussen, No. 21 Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet, Finished 12^th:

“We finished P12 from starting P19. It was a good race for us even though we struggled this weekend finding the balance on the primary tire. The No. 21 Splenda Chevrolet crew did an amazing job getting the car in the window which allowed us move forward a bit. We’ll keep building on these results and there is more to come in the future.”

Conor Daly, No. 76 Juncos Hollinger Racing Chevrolet, Finished 16^th: 

“At the start, we kind of just got boxed in and shoved off track there and we just kinda had to work forward from there on though. But honestly, we had a couple of good passes on track, a couple of good battles and worked our way forwards. We were really fast on reds and had good pits stops, which felt really good, but we just weren’t able to do anything crazy. I would say overall, happy with our pace on reds. We just keep stacking away points and keep getting better one race at a time.”

Sting Ray, No. 77 Juncos Hollinger Racing Chevrolet, Finished 23^rd:

“Not a super exciting day for us. Being in the race was very fun. Lots of chaos, which welcome to INDYCAR racing. But really surprised the way the tires worked out. I think that having a it be red tire race kind of hurt us quite a bit. Not our cleanest day. Made up a spot on track, so write it up to a good experience. Thanks to the Goodheart Freedom Service Dogs car and all the crew that worked hard this weekend. We made some improvements and learned a lot.”

Robert Shwartzman, No. 83 PREMA Chevrolet, Finished 22^nd:

“In the morning, the car felt pretty decent despite very few laps with it. Then, in the race, the first stint was mega. I came from the back towards the mid-pack and was battling with Scott Dixon. Honestly, at that stage, it felt really good and felt like we could challenge for the top 10. Then, again from that moment on, everything just started to fall apart. We came to pit, and we had a really slow pitstop. From then on, on Prime tires, I had zero grip. I don’t understand what was going on. And then at the end, to top it off, I had a hybrid issue. Overall, this is definitely a weekend to forget.”

Callum Ilott, No. 90 PREMA Chevrolet, Finished 26^th:

“It was a shame about the contact on lap one. It was just a bit of a concertina, and way, way more damage than it should have been. It was quite costly. Unfortunately we had a bit of an issue in the pitstop with the with the fuel, which didn’t help. We had to do an extra pitstop to recoup that. But the positive was the pace and the car felt good. It’s a shame to have all those issues early on. We’ve got to work through these, there are some lessons for me and some lessons for the team, but the positive was that we had a top 10 pace-car and a lot of work has been going on behind the scenes and there’s been a lot of improvement.”

Josef Newgarden, No. 2 Team Penske Chevrolet, Finished 13^th: 

“Just a tough day for us on the No. 2 car. I had more potential, but I probably missed out on the tire game today, not utilizing the reds enough. That’s still a really strong effort from the team to try and make the most of it which I think we did with the 13th place. We can take those points and move forward. It’s a long season, so we had a tough weekend here, and we’ll try and get things turned around in Long Beach and get back towards the front.”

Scott McLaughlin, No. 3 Team Penske Chevrolet, Finished 27^th:

“Not the day we wanted for the XPEL Chevy. Tough weekend all around, really, but I was very confident going into today that we would have good race pace. I’m confident that we could have moved up through the field like Will (Power) and Josef (Newgarden) were able to do. Unfortunately, the issue we had with our MGU (motor generator unit) caused it to go into critical mode and we had to sit on pit lane for several laps while draining the battery and resetting everything. Very thankful that we got a solid finish to start the year at St. Pete. We’ll just go about climbing back out of this points hole.”

Will Power, No. 12 Team Penske Chevrolet, Finished 6^th: 

“Yeah, that’s a big day considering it was full green. They didn’t get any lucky yellows or anything. That was pure pace there. The guys had a great strategy and we had great speed. I was really patient and methodical getting through the field. I think we’re all pretty disappointed with qualifying. I thought we certainly should’ve been in at least the top 10. That’s racing. That’s a good day. You look on those days and that’s the sort of thing that will help you win a championship there. We had an extra set of reds there. It helped, yes. Big time. It was kind of cool because at St. Pete, you didn’t have that luxury because the green was so soft, you couldn’t event use it in the race. But in this race, the (alternate) was the preferred tire. It was just, man, you had one lap to do it. Made a mistake starting the lap. The tire wasn’t quite in and I was disappointed with that because I’d been very fast in practice, running in the top six most of the time. But, you know, this is INDYCAR, anything can happen. Keep your head on and keep rolling.”

NTT INDYCAR SERIES News Conference

Sunday, March 23, 2025

Pato O’Ward

Christian Lundgaard

Press Conference Transcript

THE MODERATOR: Good afternoon, as we wrap-up Thermal Club INDYCAR Grand Prix here at beautiful Thermal Club.

Joined now by Pato O’Ward, who led a race-high 51 laps today, his first runner-up finish since Nashville last year. 27th career podium finish. And his teammate Christian Lundgaard, his fourth career podium.

Pato, we’ll begin with you. Your thoughts on a podium and a second-place finish, although I’m sure you are a little disappointed not being on the top step today.

PATO O’WARD: No, it’s all very good points day for the team today. Obviously we were the car that had everything to lose because we were starting on pole. I think we led like 50-something laps.

THE MODERATOR: 51.

PATO O’WARD: 51 laps. It kind of sucks to lose it there in the end.

Yeah, we need to keep pushing. We obviously weren’t perfect. There is obviously something that we could have done better in order to give it more of a proper fight to the 10 car.

Yeah, great weekend all around. Great recovery. Looking forward to Long Beach.

THE MODERATOR: Christian, congratulations on the podium. First one since last May at the IMS road course. You share Pato’s thoughts on a good weekend for Arrow McLaren?

CHRISTIAN LUNDGAARD: Yeah, I think where we were in St. Pete to where we are now, I think it’s a clear step. The 7 car, we had a good weekend. We scored some points in St. Pete coming here. I think overall looking across the three cars, we’re more competitive. Leaving with two podiums, a first and second, qualifying, I think we can be very happy with the weekend.

He keeps beating us every time, so we need to stop that (smiling).

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. Pato, on the radio quite a few times you were told that you were not able or not supposed to use hybrid. Can you explain why and if that had an impact on your race?

PATO O’WARD: Yeah, for 50% of the race I couldn’t use the thing. Just overheats (smiling), so…

Obviously here it’s probably one of the most helpful areas where the hybrid is of good use because of those very stop-and-go corners and long straightaways.

In race trim, like, if you’re asking me if I would have won that race if I didn’t have those issues, the answer is still no (laughter.

Q. Christian, did you have the same issues with yours?

CHRISTIAN LUNDGAARD: Yes.

Q. Lap traffic an issue either at any point?

CHRISTIAN LUNDGAARD: Yes.

PATO O’WARD: I mean, I hate to whine about it, but it sucks to be the leader. All of our Chevy affiliate teams are worthless with helping when a Chevy leader is coming up on them. Honda seem to work as a team very, very well because Foster was doing everything in his power to keep me behind. Palou gets right behind him, and he just lets him cruise by.

I still think Palou would have gotten us sooner or later. Obviously that just makes it a bit more of an annoyance rather than a joy.

Q. When F1 teams go 1-2, is that any extra motivation, or are you aware of it? Does it change your mindset?

PATO O’WARD: Oh, we’re aware, man. We want to be doing what F1 is currently doing.

I think the fight here in INDYCAR is different, definitely different. I think McLaren right now are leading the way in their situation, and we’re still chasing. We’re still chasing to be the best, so…

We’ll get there.

Q. As far as how much further you have to go to catch, how much further do you feel like you are along now compared to a year ago?

PATO O’WARD: Definitely better. Definitely. I mean, to be fair, this probably was one of the tracks where I personally felt like we really didn’t have a fighting chance. We put two cars on the front row, and we got some hard work today.

Yeah, like Christian said, it just seems like every time someone is winning, it’s always Palou in the 10. He’s obviously figured it out. He’s got a great team behind him. We just need to keep pushing. There’s really not another way.

Q. Christian, probably one of the most exciting portions of the race was when you and Alex were battling for second place. How intense was that from your point of view?

CHRISTIAN LUNDGAARD: Yeah, I mean, I knew I lost that fight. He was out on the sticker set of alternates at the end of the race. I was on a sticker set of primes. I knew he was going to have the advantage.

I knew Pato was five seconds up the road, so I tried to make him lose as much time fairly as possible. We had some fun, but it didn’t really seem to bother him.

Q. When you race a guy like Alex Palou, do you have a lot of trust that he’s going to race you hard, but it’s going to be clean?

CHRISTIAN LUNDGAARD: I mean, yeah, it is clean. Don’t get me wrong, there is going to be a point when you’re racing someone that you think is clean isn’t.

But at this point it was, so that was good.

Q. Under these very hot circumstances, the conditions, how difficult was it totally for you? Any dehydration problems? Once Alex Palou passed you both, when he passed you, could you see or recognize some little secrets in the car, why he’s so dominant?

PATO O’WARD: Sticker set of red tires. That was the answer for losing the lead.

And I would say that I have forgotten what you asked first.

Oh, the heat. No, honestly the pace was super slow, the whole pace of the race. We were just kind of out there controlling it really because you’re just taking care of the tires. Physically for me really wasn’t an issue.

CHRISTIAN LUNDGAARD: I agree. I agree, so… Simple.

Q. Did you feel like you did everything you could do today and just got beat by the strategy and what they were able to do?

PATO O’WARD: Yeah. I think the team did a phenomenal job in the pits. I mean, the car has been a joy to drive all weekend. In the race, as well.

We ran a red, black, black, black race. I think it should have been a red, red, black, black or any sort of combination with two reds and two blacks. I think we missed it on the 5 car. We can only see why we chose that, try not to make that mistake again.

CHRISTIAN LUNDGAARD: Yeah, I mean, I think the car that I had yesterday was potentially a little more preferred for me than today. I think we made some changes going into warm-up that felt nice in warm-up, but it was 40 degrees cooler. We carried those into the race. To me that didn’t really seem to be the preferred.

But I think in terms of strategy, I think we did what we could. I’m still a little doubtful why we went new stickers on the second stint instead of trying to do a little bit like Alex did, but it’s always easy to be smart after the fact.

I think we need to sit down and look at the facts and all the information that we have and come back in Long Beach and learn from those mistakes.

THE MODERATOR: We’ll let you go, Christian and Pato. Thank you.

NASCAR CUP SERIES HOMESTEAD-MIAMI SPEEDWAY TEAM CHEVY POST-RACE REPORT MARCH 23, 2025

TEAM CHEVY UNOFFICIAL TOP-10 RESULTS: POS.     DRIVER1st – Kyle Larson2nd – Alex Bowman7th – AJ Allmendinger10th – Justin Haley

MEDIA RESOURCES: Photo Gallery | Race AdvancesChevrolet Newsroom

·       For the first time this season and 30th time in his career, Kyle Larson earned a trip to victory lane in NASCAR’s premier series – driving his No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet to the win in the Straight Talk Wireless 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Taking the green flag for the series’ sixth points-paying race of the season, Larson drove his Hendrick Motorsports-prepared Chevrolet to a pair of top-10 stage finishes, going on to lead 19 laps en route to the triumph and an early ticket into the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series playoffs.  ·       Chevrolet is the first manufacturer to capture a tripleheader sweep this season, with Larson also capturing the win in Friday’s NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race, and fellow Team Chevy driver, Justin Allgaier, and the No. 7 JR Motorsports Chevrolet team earning back-to-back trips to victory lane in the NASCAR Xfinity Series.  ·       The victory – Chevrolet’s second of the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season – is the Bowtie brand’s eighth victory in the division at Homestead-Miami Speedway to make it a three-way tie on the all-time wins leaderboard among its manufacturer competitors. Among those triumphs includes now two wins in four races in the Next Gen era at the 1.5-mile Florida oval, each earned by Larson and the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet team.  ·       In six points-paying races, Larson is the second different Chevrolet driver to collect a victory and an early ticket into the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series playoffs – joining reigning DAYTONA 500 champion and Hendrick Motorsports teammate William Byron.  ·       Runner-up finisher, Alex Bowman, and the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet team put on a stout Saturday performance with the 31-year-old Tucson, Arizona, native becoming the third different driver to earn Chevrolet a pole position in NASCAR’s top division this season. The qualifying effort extended Chevrolet’s pole-winning feats to three-straight, with the Bowtie brand now leading its manufacturer competitors in pole triumphs with six points-paying races complete.  ·       The No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet team showed early speed, with Larson climbing his way up to a fourth-place finish in Stage One. Pitting during the stage break for the team’s second scheduled stop of the race, calamity ensued in the race off pit road between Josh Berry and Joey Logano, ultimately puncturing a hole in the left-side rocker of the No. 5 Chevrolet. Despite the damage, Larson remained a contender throughout much of the remainder of the race before taking the checkered flag for the first time this season.  ·       Among the five drivers who collected points in both stages of the 400-mile race included a trio of Hendrick Motorsports drivers: Kyle Larson (4th; 2nd), Williams Byron (6th; 4th) and Alex Bowman (2nd; 6th). Despite facing a pit road speeding penalty with under 60 laps to go, Byron will maintain the points lead for the fifth consecutive week as the series heads to the seventh points-paying race of the season at Martinsville Speedway.  ·       AJ Allmendinger continued his mile-and-a-half momentum by piloting his No. 16 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet to back-to-back top-10 finishes – taking the checkered flag in the seventh position. Completing the Team Chevy top-10 included Spire Motorsports’ Justin Haley, who collected the No. 7 Chevrolet team’s first top-10 finish of the season. 

Chevrolet’s all-time NASCAR Cup Series statistics at Homestead-Miami Speedway:  Wins: 8Poles: 7Top-Fives: 54Top-10s: 112Chevrolet’s season statistics with six NASCAR Cup Series races complete:  Wins: 2Poles: 3Top-Fives: 13Top-10s: 29

UP NEXT: The 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season continues at Martinsville Speedway with the Cook Out 400 on Sunday, March 30, at 3 P.M. ET. Live coverage can be found on FS1, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.

Post-Race Driver Quotes:Kyle Larson, No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports ChevroletFinished: 1stHOW WERE YOU ABLE TO PUT IT ON THE BOARDS AND MAKE IT SO PERFECT THAT LAST RUN?“It was far from perfect. I gave up a spot and a half, almost two spots, by hitting the wall too many times. I knew I wasn’t going to get the best restart there, and I knew I wasn’t good on the short runs. I just thought if I could hold off the 11 and the 45 behind me, I could get to running the top. And the 19 too, but then I got in the wall, and I let him by. I just had to keep plugging away with what I know and what’s good for me.  Just proud of myself, proud of the team. Just a lot of gritty, hard work by the team today. Damage on pit road, qualifying bad, bad restarts, all that stuff. So just super pumped and one of the coolest wins in my Cup career because of all the heartbreak I have had here, the heartbreak yesterday, and to just keep my head down and keep digging feels really good.” AS YOU GET THE LEAD THERE WITH ABOUT 10 TO GO, WHAT ARE YOU THINKING? NO CAUTION RIGHT NOW?“Oh yeah, that is what I am thinking every time I am in the lead, especially here at Homestead. So yeah, just crazy. I knew with me coming toward those guys, they were going to start moving around and making mistakes. I felt like if I could just keep pressure on Alex (Bowman), that he would make a mistake. He caught the wall there and I got by him easier than I expected to. Still had to work hard though. My balance, once I got in clean air, was really loose, ust like those guys were.  Hats off to the whole team — HendrickCars.com, Chevrolet, Prime, Valvoline, the whole Hendrick Engine Shop and everybody at the Hendrick Automotive Group.”  AJ Allmendinger, No. 16 Kaulig Racing ChevroletFinished: 7th“I can figure out enough lines to make speed and do different things where certain guys just rip the fence to keep the momentum up. We just didn’t quite have enough there in the longer run. In general, I was really happy there. We fought hard, lost a little bit in the second stage but Trent Owens and the team worked hard to get it back and be very competitive.”  Alex Bowman, No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports ChevroletFinished: 2ndYou possibly hit the wall off of turn four, but that final stretch, where do you feel like Kyle Larson (race winner) was a little bit better?“The No. 5 (Kyle Larson) was way better than us on the long runs all day and he showed up there at the end. I just tried to push a little too hard and kind of hung it in the fence there, so that’s on me. I just didn’t do a good enough job, but congratulations to Kyle Larson and the No. 5 team on getting the win.” How would you assess the performance, overall, of this No. 48 team? “Yeah, it was a good day for the No. 48 Ally Unrivaled League Chevy team. We have some work to do, for sure. But overall, it was a really good weekend for us at a racetrack that hasn’t been very good to us in the past.”   Michael McDowell, No. 71 Spire Motorsports ChevroletFinished: 20th It was an up-and-down day for the No. 71 Delaware Life Chevy team. We made a lot of adjustments throughout the race. We got our Chevy good at one point, and then on that last run, it just got really tight again. It was unfortunate, but we’re figuring it out. We’re making little gains at a time. We had a couple good runs that we felt like we were moving forward and doing the right things, and then a couple where we didn’t. We have to go back and look at it all; keep making the gains. I’m proud of the No. 7 team. Justin Haley and Rodney Childers did a great job and got a top-10 finish there, so that’s awesome. Good notes to look at and we’ll keep plugging away.”

RON CAPPS, NAPA Auto Care Toyota GR Supra Funny Car, Ron Capps Motorsports

Take us through what happened there in that incident.

“We saw (Austin) Prock in front of us go 3.93 and Guido (Dean Antonelli, Capps’ crew chief) set us up to go 3.92, 3.93 and, (I) hit the gas, didn’t see Blake (Alexander), was running great like yesterday in the final round (of qualifying) and just happened so fast. To me in the car, it just smoked the tires a little bit and then, kaboom. Was much like Seattle last year in the sense that when the fire first happened, it was a convertible but there was a lot of fire in my face, and I was just trying to settle it down. Kind of bouncing around and then it wanted to go left. I was seeing John Force’s accident. We were the car behind him last year, we had a great view of it unfortunately, but it was weird, I didn’t have much steering, (it) was a hard left. I knew I was still traveling fast, so in my head, I knew it was not going to be good and I’m just picturing Force’s accident as I’m heading to the wall and just braced. I didn’t expect to be awake after hitting the wall and just braced the best you can. I hit the wall and then, I was still awake and there was still some fire, but I was like, ‘wow!’ Knew it hit, but got on the brakes and the shoots were already out. First off, NHRA safety did its job. Just watched the replay and the shoots were out like they should be. They said it pushed the wall back and they needed to repair it before the next cars went, and that’s a tribute to PBRC chassis, first off, but Guido (pause), one of the reasons I love Guido is he is over the top, not just with the car, but is safety-conscious with the car. So in this sense, we just had me fitted for a new seat and they put new head pads in. I wanted to get out of the car and thank John Force because unfortunately, Eric Medlen started this when we lost Eric, but John’s life was spared with (the safety improvements since) Eric’s accident. And then you fast forward, John’s life was probably spared a second time because of a previous accident and I for sure walked away from mine because of Force’s. Thankfully, we and NHRA have learned from the bad stuff that has happened. I’m interested to find out the G-Forces and speed I hit at, but thankfully, everyone’s been on top of safety. We’ll figure it out. Last year, we broke the brand-new car when it crashed and we went to the backup which almost won the race and a previous championship but now, we have a backup car that’s just as good as the first. Thankful we have such great partners with NAPA and Toyota and the guys will be ready for Pomona.”

SWAINSBORO, GA (March 22, 2025) – Last year, the story of Ryan Gustin’s season was how he struggled to find his rhythm until the second half of the campaign.

He wasn’t going to let that be the narrative again in 2025.

With eight World of Outlaws Late Models races in the books, “The Reaper” became a two-time winner this season with a victory in the Battle of the Crossroads finale Saturday night at Swainsboro Raceway.

“Confidence is extremely high. I feel like we’ve got the best team in the country right now,” Gustin said. “These guys work their butts off day in and day out, car owner gives us everything we need. Definitely can’t thank these guys enough for everything they do for us.”

Gustin started the race from the outside of Row 2 behind Bilstein Pole Award winner Drake Troutman and Garrett Smith, two drivers who were both in search of their first Outlaw win. Troutman won the drag race to Turn 1, while third-starting Ashton Winger got to his inside exiting Turn 2.

After racing side-by-side for more than a lap, Troutman broke away to the early lead until a caution three laps in reset the field. Gustin got around Winger on the outside entering Turn 1 on the restart before switching to the inside lane to go to work on Troutman. One lap later, Gustin cleared the No. 22* exiting Turn 2 to take over the top spot.

Gustin’s gap to the field quickly grew to two seconds 10 laps in, but then closed back to within a second once the No. 19R caught slower traffic. Gustin’s advantage evaporated entirely when Trey Mills slowed in Turns 3 and 4 to pause the race 18 laps in, but Gustin took full advantage of the clean air after the restart in rebuilding a gap.

One more yellow flag flew with six to go to give the field one last chance at Gustin, but the Marshalltown, IA driver would not be denied, as he powered away once again on the way to his 12th win with The Most Powerful Late Models on the Planet.

Despite this weekend being Gustin’s debut at Swainsboro, the Midwesterner instantly clicked with the Georgia facility and walked away with a pair of podium finishes. After entering the weekend fourth in the standings, Gustin is now tied with Nick Hoffman for second, 30 points behind Bobby Pierce.

“As far as keeping the race car in the racetrack, steering and all of the above, that’s what you’ve got to have at these southern racetracks,” Gustin said. “You’ve got to be able to keep the right-rear under you and still steer it through somewhat of a push, and we were able to do that all weekend.”

While he was unable to run down Gustin in the late stages, Winger was able to hold onto second to obliterate his previous season-best of 17th from Friday night and turn his season around after a dismal start.

“From the beginning of the year, I wasn’t even fast enough to get an emergency provisional,” Winger said. “I could make a little time down [in Turns 1 and 2] when I would hit it right or he would get it wrong. It got kind of tight over there leaving 2, the way the wall comes at you here, it goes from three lanes to one and a half. Figured I needed a good run, tried to use my head.”

Behind them, Pierce charged up from 10th to third for his third-straight World of Outlaws podium. All three of those runs came at southern racetracks outside of Pierce’s comfort zone, which gives the 2023 Series champion a wave of confidence heading back into familiar territory.

“I’m super happy with a first, first and third on this swing,” Pierce said. “If I could have ran some top fives, I would have been like ‘alright, that’s pretty good, I’ll take it.’ Definitely pretty excited to get back to racing around home and some tracks that we know.”

Troutman came home fourth at the end of 50 laps, while Hoffman rounded out the top five.

RACE NOTES:

Ryan Gustin set the Dirt King Simulators Fastest Hot Lap.

Tanner English won the Simpson Quick Time Award.

Drake Troutman won Heat 1.

Garrett Smith won STAKT Products Heat 2.

Ryan Gustin won Keyser Manufacturing Heat 3.

Ashton Winger won Jarrett Rifles Heat 4.

Trey Mills and Austin Smith won the Landa Pressure Washers Last Chance Showdowns.

Drake Troutman won the Bilstein Pole Award.

Dustin Sorensen drove from 24th to eighth for the FOX Factory Hard Charger Award.

Drake Troutman was the MD3 Rookie of the Race.

Ashton Winger won the WELD Racing Second-Place Finisher Award.

Drake Troutman was the ARP Fourth-Place Finisher.

Nick Hoffman was the MSD Fifth-Place Finisher.

Dennis Erb Jr. was the Swift Springs Sixth-Place Finisher.

Dustin Sorensen was the VP Racing Fuels Eighth-Place Finisher.

Dalton Cook was the Lifeline USA Ninth-Place Finisher.

Jimmy Owens was the COMP Cams 10th-Place Finisher.

Tanner English was the Cometic Gaskets 12th-Place Finisher.

UP NEXT: The World of Outlaws Late Models head north to Ohio’s Atomic Speedway for the two-night Fireball 50 on Friday and Saturday, Apr. 4-5. To get your tickets in advance, click here.

Feature (50 Laps): 1. 19R-Ryan Gustin[4]; 2. 12-Ashton Winger[3]; 3. 32-Bobby Pierce[10]; 4. 22*-Drake Troutman[1]; 5. 9-Nick Hoffman[8]; 6. 28-Dennis Erb Jr[5]; 7. 9M-Tim McCreadie[12]; 8. 19-Dustin Sorensen[24]; 9. 44D-Dalton Cook[9]; 10. 20-Jimmy Owens[15]; 11. 18X-Michael Page[22]; 12. 96-Tanner English[7]; 13. 16S-Sam Seawright[14]; 14. 14JR-Trey Mills[17]; 15. 74X-Ethan Dotson[20]; 16. 75-Daniel Adam[13]; 17. 49-Jake Timm[19]; 18. 111-Max Blair[23]; 19. 20TC-Tristan Chamberlain[25]; 20. 3S-Brian Shirley[6]; 21. B1-Brent Larson[26]; 22. 40B-Kyle Bronson[21]; 23. 2-Cody Overton[11]; 24. 23V-Cory Hedgecock[16]; 25. 10-Garrett Smith[2]; 26. 11-Austin Smith[18]

BROWNSTOWN, IN (March 22, 2025) – Devin Moran spent several years striving to win a Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series race at Brownstown Speedway. He checked that off his bucket list when he claimed the Indiana Icebreaker in 2024, and then 12 months later, he secured back-to-back victories by winning this year’s edition, which was worth an event-record $25,000, on Saturday night, leading all 50 laps. Moran beat Ricky Thornton Jr. to the checkered flag by 1.118 seconds for the victory. Jonathan Davenport managed to repass Mike Marlar on the last lap, finishing in third place. Marlar took fourth. Josh Rice also executed a pass, getting by Daulton Wilson on the final lap to secure his second consecutive top-five finish in the series. In Lucas Oil Victory Lane for the fourth time this season, Moran expressed his affection for Brownstown Speedway as he and Thornton left Brownstown tied for the points lead. “Baby, I love Brownstown,” said the Dresden, Ohio native who claimed his 19th career series win. “I love coming here. It was a hard-fought race the entire time. At the initial start, Garrett (Alberson) and JD were running the bottom, and I just made hay around the top in three and four. I had a really good race car, but I felt like they were on me the whole race this place is so hard to get separated from people. The lapped cars were all over the place, and there at the end, it started to get a little bottom dominate.” “it’s not going to be easy to win the championship this year. It’s going to be a dogfight. The 20RT is obviously really, really good. The 49 I feel like is the best car in the country right now. To be 1,2,3, I think that is what a lot of people are going to see all year long, and it’s going to be some great racing.” Thornton, the defending Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series National Champion, was coming off of a win at Atomic on Friday. He briefly grabbed the lead on a lap 33 restart from Moran with a big slider in turn four, but Moran turned down the track to maintain his lead. “I just got a good restart and I I knew I wasn’t going to pass Devin there. I was more going to slide Devin so that way JD couldn’t get by me. It was more defense for second than trying to win it. So, I felt our car was pretty good there finally once it went slick towards the end, and I could move around a little bit.” Davenport rounded out the Big River Steel Podium in third after a hard-fought battle with Mike Marlar in the closing laps. “No doubt we had a good race (with Marlar). He come up through there pretty good. We were probably a little soft on tires. I thought we would be better at the beginning of the race than Devin was, but he fired really well, he’s been really good here at Brownstown. We got good there during that long run which was kind of odd for our tire choice. But thereafter that caution, there was a lot of grit out in the middle of three and four so that’s why I picked the top on the restart.”  The winner’s Double Down Motorsports Longhorn Chassis is powered by a Clements Racing Engine and sponsored by Big River Steel, Lazydays RV, C&W Trucking, Bomag, Millwood Plumbing, Anthony’s Pizza, Refuel Wellness, Red Oak Pub, Pee Wee’s Wrecker Service, Eibach Springs, Smoky Mountain Speedway, Haulin’ Haskell’s CarSourceAuto, McHugh Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, and Ram, and Phillps CPA. Completing the top ten were Daulton Wilson, Tyler Bruening, Brandon Overton, Tyler Erb, and Ross Robinson. Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series Race Summary Indiana IcebreakerSaturday, March 22, 2025Brownstown Speedway – Brownstown, IN Allstar Performance Time TrialsFast Time Group A: Jonathan Davenport | 13.738 seconds (overall)Fast Time Group B: Devin Moran | 13.746 seconds  Penske Shocks Heat Race #1 Finish (8 Laps, Top 4 Transfer): 1. 49-Jonathan Davenport[1]; 2. 11-Josh Rice[5]; 3. 57M-Camaron Marlar[3]; 4. 16-Tyler Bruening[4]; 5. 6-Clay Harris[7]; 6. 60-Dan Ebert[2]; 7. 93L-Cory Lawler[6]; 8. 24-Jared Bailey[8]; 9. 11X-Ryan Lanphierd[9] Summit Racing Products Heat Race #2 Finish (8 Laps, Top 4 Transfer): 1. 58-Garrett Alberson[1]; 2. 76-Brandon Overton[4]; 3. S21-Seth Daniels[2]; 4. 93-Carson Ferguson[3]; 5. 1G-Devin Gilpin[7]; 6. 19M-Spencer Hughes[5]; 7. D48-Derek Groomer[8]; 8. 9Y-Levi Yetter[6] Cool-It Thermo-Tec Heat Race #3 Finish (8 Laps, Top 4 Transfer): 1. 99-Devin Moran[1]; 2. 20RT-Ricky Thornton Jr[2]; 3. 157-Mike Marlar[5]; 4. 18D-Daulton Wilson[6]; 5. 1T-Tyler Erb[4]; 6. 79-Donald McIntosh[3]; 7. 12-Jason Jameson[7]; 8. 7-Ross Robinson[8]; 9. 65S-Dustin Shoulders[9] Simpson Race Products Heat Race #4 Finish (8 Laps, Top 4 Transfer): 1. 71-Hudson O’Neal[1]; 2. 22-Daniel Hilsabeck[5]; 3. 29-Christian Hanger[4]; 4. 6C-Michael Chilton[6]; 5. 17SS-Brenden Smith[7]; 6. 4-Tripp Gerrald[3]; 7. 1-Brandon Sheppard[2]; 8. 18-Jacob Stuhr[8] Fast Shafts B-Main Race #1 Finish (10 Laps, Top 3 Transfer): 1. 1G-Devin Gilpin[2]; 2. 93L-Cory Lawler[5]; 3. 6-Clay Harris[1]; 4. 60-Dan Ebert[3]; 5. 19M-Spencer Hughes[4]; 6. 9Y-Levi Yetter[8]; 7. D48-Derek Groomer[6]; 8. 11X-Ryan Lanphierd[9]; 9. 24-Jared Bailey[7] UNOH B-Main Race #2 Finish (10 Laps, Top 3 Transfer): 1. 1G-Devin Gilpin[2]; 2. 93L-Cory Lawler[5]; 3. 6-Clay Harris[1]; 4. 60-Dan Ebert[3]; 5. 19M-Spencer Hughes[4]; 6. 9Y-Levi Yetter[8]; 7. D48-Derek Groomer[6]; 8. 11X-Ryan Lanphierd[9]; 9. 24-Jared Bailey[7] Indiana Icebreaker Feature Finish (50 Laps): Pos – Start – Car # – Competitor – Hometown – Earnings1 – 2 – 99 – Devin Moran – Dresden, OH – $26,1002 – 6 – 20RT – Ricky Thornton Jr – Chandler, AZ – $11,1003 – 1 – 49 – Jonathan Davenport – Blairsville, GA – $7,0004 – 10 – 157 – Mike Marlar – Winfield, TN – $4,0005 – 5 – 11 – Josh Rice – Crittenden, KY – $3,5006 – 14 – 18D – Daulton Wilson – Fayetteville, NC – $3,4007 – 13 – 16 – Tyler Bruening – Decorah, IA – $3,2008 – 7 – 76 – Brandon Overton – Evans, GA – $3,0009 – 18 – 1T – Tyler Erb – New Waverly, TX – $2,20010 – 26 – 7 – Ross Robinson – Georgetown, DE – $1,40011 – 27 – 60 – Dan Ebert – Lake Shore, MN – $60012 – 8 – 22 – Daniel Hilsabeck – Earlham, IA – $2,60013 – 20 – 4 – Tripp Gerrald – Versailles, KY – $1,80014 – 3 – 58 – Garrett Alberson – Las Cruces, NM – $2,40015 – 16 – 6C – Michael Chilton – Salvisa, KY – $1,60016 – 24 – 19M – Spencer Hughes – Meridian, MS – $2,20017 – 22 – 12 – Jason Jameson – Lawrenceburg, IN – $1,50018 – 23 – 1 – Brandon Sheppard – New Berlin, IL – $2,20019 – 15 – 93 – Carson Ferguson – Lincolnton, NC – $2,20020 – 12 – 29 – Christian Hanger – Winchester, TN – $1,50021 – 28 – 17SS – Brenden Smith – Dade City, FL – $10022 – 25 – 79 – Donald McIntosh – Dawsonville, GA – $80023 – 19 – 93L – Cory Lawler – Hanover, PA – $1,50024 – 11 – S21 – Seth Daniels – Jackson, OH – $1,50025 – 4 – 71 – Hudson O’Neal – Martinsville, IN – $2,30026 – 9 – 57M – Camaron Marlar – Winfield, TN – $1,50027 – 17 – 1G – Devin Gilpin – Columbus, IN – $1,50028 – 21 – 6 – Clay Harris – Jupiter, FL – $2,20029 – 29 – 24 – Jared Bailey – Bedford, IN – $1,500 Race Statistics  Entrants: 34Victory Fuel Pole Sitter: Jonathan DavenportMD3 Lap Leaders: Devin Moran (Laps 1-50)Hellraizer Jacks Halfway Leader: Devin MoranWieland Feature Winner: Devin MoranMargin of Victory: 1.118 secondsColtman Farms Racing Cautions: Cory Lawler, Jason Jameson (Lap 2); Garrett Alberson (Lap 26); Hudson O’Neal (Lap 31)Series Provisionals: Brandon Sheppard; Spencer HughesFast Time Provisional: n/aEmergency Provisionals: Donald McIntosh; Ross Robinson; Dan Ebert; Brenden SmithTrack Provisional: Jared BaileyBig River Steel Podium Top 3: Devin Moran, Ricky Thornton, Jr., Jonathan DavenportPenske Shocks Top 5: Devin Moran, Ricky Thornton, Jr., Jonathan Davenport, Mike Marlar, Josh RicePEM 4th Place Feature: Mike MarlarDMI Rearends 5th Place Feature: Josh RiceWilwood Brakes Lucky 7th Place Feature: Ross RobinsonWehrs Machine 11th Place Feature: Dan EbertDeatherage Opticians Lucky 13th Place Feature: Tripp GerraldMD3 24th Place Feature: Seth DanielsHoker Trucking Hard Charger of the Race: Ross Robinson (Advanced 16 Positions) MD3 Most Laps Led: Devin Moran (50 Laps)Sunoco Race for Gas Highest Finisher: Ricky Thornton, Jr. Midwest Sheet Metal Spoiler Challenge Point Leader: Ricky Thornton, Jr. Pro Fabrication Headers Fastest Lap of the Race: Hudson O’Neal (Lap 4 | 14.318 seconds)Slicker Graphics Slickest Move of the Race: Ricky Thornton, Jr.Hard Luck Award: Hudson O’NealOuterwears Crew Chief of the Race: Chuck KimbleARP Engine Builder of the Race: Clements Racing EnginesMiller Welders Chassis Builder of the Race: Longhorn ChassisDirt Draft Fastest in Hot Laps: Daniel Hilsabeck (13.6113 seconds)Time of Race: 24 minutes 06 seconds Big River Steel Chase for the Championship Presented by ARP Point Standings:Pos – Car # – Competitor – Hometown – Points – Earnings1 – 99 – Devin Moran – Dresden, OH – 1640 – $96,6002 – 20RT – Ricky Thornton Jr – Chandler, AZ – 1640 – $75,5003 – 49 – Jonathan Davenport – Blairsville, GA – 1585 – $61,7004 – 76 – Brandon Overton – Evans, GA – 1440 – $30,4505 – 18D – Daulton Wilson – Fayetteville, NC – 1375 – $27,9756 – 58 – Garrett Alberson – Las Cruces, NM – 1340 – $24,0507 – 1T – Tyler Erb – New Waverly, TX – 1320 – $21,7008 – 71 – Hudson O’Neal – Martinsville, IN – 1295 – $27,3259 – 1 – Brandon Sheppard – New Berlin, IL – 1280 – $21,60010 – 16 – Tyler Bruening – Decorah, IA – 1230 – $25,00011 – 19M – Spencer Hughes – Meridian, MS – 1150 – $13,70012 – 93 – Carson Ferguson – Lincolnton, NC – 1130 – $17,57513 – 7 – Ross Robinson – Georgetown, DE – 1115 – $15,00014 – 22 – Daniel Hilsabeck – Earlham, IA – 1110 – $10,80015 – 79 – Donald McIntosh – Dawsonville, GA – 1095 – $10,10016 – 6 – Clay Harris – Jupiter, FL – 1000 – $11,82517 – 60 – Dan Ebert – Lake Shore, MN – 985 – $6,65018 – 111 – Max Blair – Centerville, PA – 965 – $20,95019 – 40B – Kyle Bronson – Brandon, FL – 900 – $12,00020 – 93L – Cory Lawler – Hanover, PA – 885 – $5,57521 – 17SS – Brenden Smith – Dade City, FL – 865 – $6,700

The point leader puts together a perfect night to sweep the weekend in Texas

PAIGE, TX (March 22, 2025) – David Gravel and Big Game Motorsports came about as close to perfection as possible this weekend in the “Lone Star State.”

It began with Friday’s victorious night at Cotton Bowl Speedway. The defending World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car champion started the night with Simpson Quick Time and topped the opening Heat Race. Gravel then finished fourth in the Toyota Dash, and it would be the first and only time he wasn’t atop the leaderboard the entire weekend.

After claiming Friday’s Feature, Saturday started with another Quick Time and a new track record as the cherry on top. Gravel won his Heat and the Dash and put the thunderous punctuation on a dominant weekend by leading all 30 laps of the finale. The brooms were brought out. Gravel swept the Federated Auto Parts Texas Two-Step.

“You just go out and have fun, and you believe in your race car every time you hit the track,” Gravel said of his recent success. “I’ve been pushing the limits of the car in Qualifying and then a couple of times going into Turn 1. Luckily there was grip up there, or I could’ve blew through the cushion. Cody (Jacobs) is giving me a lot of confidence and trying to bring the car to its full potential and everybody is doing a great job. We’re just having fun, and there’s no pressure. We just go out there and race and don’t think about it too much and listen to our instincts.”

The win was Gravel’s fifth in the last eight races with The Greatest Show on Dirt. He’s now up to 108 career World of Outlaws victories. It marked 114 Series wins for Tod Quiring’s Big Game Motorsports, moving them within one of equaling Roth Motorsports for fifth all-time. The weekend sweep coupled with Gravel’s 2018 Cotton Bowl checkered flag made him the first to own a trio of triumphs at the Paige, TX track.

And while Gravel might’ve been the one celebrating, Michael “Buddy” Kofoid didn’t make it easy on him. The Penngrove, CA native snagged the runner-up spot on Lap 20 and went to work on chasing down the No. 2. Kofoid narrowed the gap in the closing laps but just couldn’t find a way around Gravel despite taking a couple swipes at the top spot.

“Those last five laps I was just hanging on,” Gravel admitted. “I kept getting looser and looser, and I didn’t want to grab too much more wing because I needed to get through (Turns) 1 and 2 well. I saw he was getting close to me there on the jumbotron, but man what a run we’re on right now. I felt like we had a pretty good race car there. It just seems like sometimes when there’s a lot of cautions or reds the tires don’t fire off the best, and I feel like I lost a little bit of grip there, but I can’t complain with sweeping the night. Cody, Zach (Patterson), and Pete (Stephens) are just performing every night giving me great race cars and giving me the platform to show my talent.”

Kofoid settled for second for the second night in a row in the Roth Motorsports No. 83. The reigning Kevin Gobrecht Rookie of the Year was a little disappointed in not being able to get to Victory Lane, but the momentum continues to build as Kofoid collected his third consecutive top two finish.

“Yeah, that’s where I let my team down,” Kofoid said of a late attempt at taking the lead. “I knew the laps were winding down and just got too eager because I struggled really bad in (Turns) 3 and 4. I think it was more myself. Dylan, Nate, and John carried me here this weekend. This is a place that’s been weird for me to get ahold of, especially in (Turns) 3 and 4, and then I found a ton of speed through there. I just took my chance too early.”

The final spot on the podium went to “Lone Star State” local Sam Hafertepe Jr. The Sunnyvale, TX native slipped back as far as seventh early on but rallied for his second trip to the top three during the World of Outlaws Texas trip in the Hills Racing Team No. 15H.

“We just didn’t have the grip off of (Turn) 4 like those guys had,” Hafertepe Jr. explained. “So, we just started kind of blowing across there and getting up right next to the wall and getting the forward drive off. He (Logan Schuchart) went down low there on the restart and actually let me get a lot of momentum on the outside and got to third there.”

Logan Schuchart and Sheldon Haudenschild completed the top five.

A 17th to eighth march earned Garet Williamson the KSE Racing Hard Charger in the Fischer Motorsports No. 23.

Gravel set a new Cotton Bowl Speedway track record in Honest Abe Roofing Qualifying to claim his third consecutive Simpson Quick Time and his seventh of 2025.

NOS Energy Drink Heats One and Two belonged to David Gravel and Donny Schatz. WIX Filters Heat Three went to Sheldon Haudenschild.

Gravel topped the Toyota Dash after getting the SPA Technique #1 Redraw.

Conner Morrell won the Micro-Lite Last Chance Showdown.

The Smith Titanium Brake Systems Break of the Race went to Jace Park

UP NEXT: The World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Cars make their way toward the Midwest with a weekend at Oklahoma’s Lawton Speedway on Friday, March 28 and 81 Speedway in Wichita, KS on Saturday, March 29.

SATURDAY RECAP – PhoenixRace 2 of 20

Photography: John Force Racing / Auto Imagery / Gary Nastase

Prock, Beckman and Brittany All Top Three at Arizona Nationals

PHOENIX, Ariz. (March 22, 2025) – Jack Beckman kept his 2025 qualifying record perfect Saturday, and all three John Force Racing Chevrolets locked up advantageous starting positions for Sunday’s 40th NHRA Arizona Nationals at Firebird Motorsports Park. Reigning Mission Foods Series and Arizona Nationals champion Austin Prock regained some of the swagger lost in a disappointing opening race at Gainesville, Fla., and will start his 341.68 mile per hour Cornwell Tools Chevrolet SS Funny Car from the No. 2 position Sunday on the strength of a Friday run of 3.883 seconds.  Beckman will launch his bid for a fourth desert victory from a No. 3 start in a PEAK Antifreeze and Coolant Chevy SS that was quickest in both sessions Saturday even though it didn’t improve on Friday’s 3.895. Two-time World Champion Brittany Force will pursue her first Phoenix title from the No. 2 starting position in her national-and-track-record-holding Monster Energy dragster after failing to improve on Friday’s 3.705. In fact, there were few position changes at all on the final day of preliminaries, especially at the top where Bob Tasca III retained the No. 1 spot in Funny Car and Doug Kalitta did the same in Top Fuel.   Nevertheless, Beckman turned heads with times of 3.925 and 3.930 seconds that enabled him to extend to six, the number of consecutive sessions in which he has earned at least one qualifying bonus point. That’s every round of qualifying this year. “I was actually really surprised when the time slip said 3.92 because it spun (the tires) at the top end, put a hole out (dropped a cylinder) and moved over,” said the 35-time Funny Car winner. “I really didn’t expect it was going to be that quick. If we do this tomorrow, we’re going to leave with the trophy. “I could not be more confident, satisfied and enthusiastic with the way our PEAK Chevy team has looked,” said the 2012 Funny Car World Champion. “We were second quickest, third quickest, quickest and quickest. And perhaps most important, the two sessions that we were the quickest Funny Car out there were the conditions that are most likely going to be replicated on race day.  “I love the fact that, as quick as our PEAK Chevy is on great, cool racetracks, it might even be better, relative to the field, when things get hot and nasty out there,” he said. “Can’t wait to suit up and sweat on Sunday.”  Since last August when he took over the seat of the PEAK Chevy from an injured John Force, “Fast Jack” has been top three in 24 of 35 qualifying sessions and quickest overall in 10.   The only Funny Car driver to have earned more bonus points over that 10-race span is Prock, who, on the way to the 2024 championship, was the No. 1 qualifier at 15 of the 20 races. Prock’s best on Saturday was 3.951. “Proud of our John Force Racing team this weekend,” said the driver of drag racing’s quickest and fastest fuel Funny Car. “We haven’t had this strong of a weekend as a whole in a while. Conditions are going to be pretty similar tomorrow and all three of our race cars ran phenomenal, so I’m looking forward to standing on the gas in this Cornwell Tools / Hendrickcars.com Chevrolet SS and trying to turn on four win-lights.” Beckman will start Sunday against No. 14 qualifier Dave Richards; Prock against No. 15 starter Buddy Hull. With only 14 Top Fuel cars participating, Brittany will open her bid against No. 13 qualifier Steve Chrisman. “Good start to the weekend for this Monster Energy team,” Brittany said. “We had three solid passes. We’re running pretty good, especially in the heat and we’re excited to be teamed up this weekend with Powers Affordable Housing. They’re based right here in Phoenix and they’re definitely someone you want to check out.” Sunday, she hopes to earn a breakthrough win in an event in which her dad prevailed a record eight times. If she does, he’ll be there to celebrate the moment. “Qualifying was fun for me today; getting out there on the starting line,” said the 16-time series champion. “I have no complaints. It was some real drag racing. Cars ran good today and had no breakage. We just have to get ready for tomorrow. Daniel Hood, Tim Fabrisi and Chris Cunningham, they did a good job on the PEAK Chevy. (David) Grubnic did a great job (on the dragster) and so did Jimmy Prock with his kid. Let’s see where it goes tomorrow.”

CHEVROLET IN NTT INDYCAR SERIES

THE THERMAL CLUB INDYCAR GRAND PRIX

THE THERMAL CLUB

THERMAL, CALIFORNIA

TEAM CHEVY RACE QUALIFYING RECAP

MARCH 22, 2025

PATO O’WARD WINS POLE WITH TEAMMATE CHRISTIAN LUNDGAARD ALONG SIDE

·   Pato O’Ward blasted to his first NTT INDYCAR SERIES pole since Mid-Ohio in 2022

o  It is O’Ward’s sixth career NTT Pole Award, all behind the wheel of an Arrow McLaren Chevy

·       It is the second consecutive pole for Chevrolet in 2025

o  Scott McLaughlin won the pole for the Streets of St. Petersburg

·       Today’s second place qualifying result for Christian Lundgaard is his fifth career front row start, and his first with Chevrolet power

·       Alexander Rossi in only his second race in the No. 20 Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet was the third member of Team Chevy in the Firestone Fast Six

o  Rossi will roll off sixth on Sunday

·       Santino Ferrucci, No. 14 AJ Foyt Racing Chevrolet, missed the Fast 12 by only two-thousandths of a second

·       Chevrolet has 137 earned poles since 2012. Chevrolet holds 141 pole awards in total, with five recorded based on points for weather.

 The Thermal Club INDYCAR Grand Prix Sunday race day opens with a warm-up session on FS1 at 11 a.m. ET. The 65-lap, 199.36-mile main event takes the green flag live with new NTT INDYCAR SERIES partner FOX on Sunday live at 3 p.m. ET. All practice and qualifying sessions broadcast with INDYCAR 

Radio and SiriusXM Channel 218.

WHAT THEY’RE SAYING:

Josef Newgarden, No. 2 Team Penske Chevrolet, Qualified 17^th: 

“We just weren’t quick. All of us didn’t look fantastic in our group. I mean I think if you’re saying you need three-, four-tenths, I think we could’ve put that together on the red tire. I had some traffic at the end of my run. I don’t know who it was, I think it was probably (Rinus) VeeKay. It was probably a tenth or two in that final sector. And then dropped a little time personally in turn nine. I think I could see getting a transfer spot out of that, just maybe losing sort of the major speed that we’re going to need. I felt really good going into qualifying. I thought our car was in a good window. Obviously, we’re going to have to find some speed for tomorrow now, but we can always make something happen. I always feel good with Team Penske. Always lookout for the PPG Chevy, we can go to the front.”

Scott McLaughlin, No. 3 Team Penske Chevrolet, Qualified, 25^th:

“Honestly, I felt like the car was okay. It was just hard to get a read without doing that first run. That’s pretty much on me. Obviously, the whole team is struggling a little bit. It’s surprising because we actually felt pretty good. We’ll fight any way we’ve got and the XPEL Chevy will be at the front tomorrow.” 

David Malukas, No. 4 AJ Foyt Racing Chevrolet, Qualified, 12^th:

“It was good run for us. I mean, we were struggling in the practice sessions to find the setup where we wanted to be but we did a really good job estimating on what it needed for the alternates. Obviously, we committed to just go alternates and use both of them in that first round because the pace didn’t really seem there. It all worked out because the second set, somebody dropped a wheel and ruined everybody’s lap, so we still got that first lap in. So, let’s just say it’s a good day from what has been a tough weekend for us trying to find the setup. The race is going to be a primary tire race, so we need to make sure that we can get the No. 4 Chevrolet where it needs to be for the primaries.” 

Pato O’Ward, No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet, Qualified POLE:

“Just seeing where we were here last year, the team has done a great job with bringing a car that’s more consistent, faster, and we’ve definitely brought some performance. So, super stoked to see it. We’ve locked our front row so great job to Christian (Lundgaard) as well. He’s been quick, so we’ll see what tomorrow holds. It’ll be a hectic race with the tires deg and I think we’re going to be thanking our strategy if we have a good race. We weren’t so happy with the overnight changes so we kind of fell back to where we started the weekend. The car is in the window for sure. Maybe not for Q1 so much, but we dialed it in and we got it done.”

Nolan Siegel, No. 6 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet, Qualified, 16th:

“Honestly, I feel like all weekend the execution has been alright on all of our laps and all of our runs. Just been lacking a bit, so I don’t really know. I felt like it was a pretty solid run and a solid lap, and it felt good enough that if you told me we were up at the top, I would believe you. So, a little confused, but I think our race pace will be better. We could be worse, we certainly hoped we’d be better but this is where we’re at.”

Christian Lundgaard, No. 7 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet, Qualified 2^nd:

“Throughout qualifying, I think I”m pretty happy. Obviously bummed to get second over first. I think we had a car to be on pole. I think we proved that as a team. Front row lockout, we’re just apparently copy and paste what the F1 team is doing.”

Will Power, No. 12 Team Penske Chevrolet, Qualified, 21^st:

“We had been quick in every single session until that red tire run then. Just didn’t start the first lap on them well so I aborted it. Then, you’ve used them a little bit and there’s only one lap you’ve got. I was, man, surprised. I mean, I gave up three-tenths on the first corner of the start of the lap, so that is on me there. It’s the not the seconds we’re looking for like (Alex) Palou did. It’s not even fathomable for us to get to that lap time, but the top-six maybe if we’re lucky.”

Santino Ferrucci, No. 14 AJ Foyt Racing Chevrolet, Qualified, 14^th: 

“It was a solid run. I think we did a really good job as a team. I just had a couple mistakes in the lap, which add up to a little bit, so we should have advanced but it was a good learning curve. Feel good about the Sexton Properties Chevrolet going into tomorrow. Good to pass some people and come home with a top five.” 

Alexander Rossi, No. 20 Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet, Qualified :

“It was a good session for the No. 20 Java House Chevrolet. It’s been a struggle throughout the weekend. We had delays with getting laps in because of some hybrid issues, but we finally had a smooth session and were able to qualify in the Fast 6. That’s the potential we have had, but there is still work to do as we switch into race mode. It’s a good start to what will hopefully be a strong Sunday for us tomorrow!”

Christian Rasmussen, No. 21 Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet, Qualified 19^th:

“That was not the qualifying we were hoping for. We are starting the weekends super well, but are struggling to level up as much as we need to session to session. We will see what happens, it’s a long race tomorrow and tire deg is going to be a huge thing. If we can manage that, we have a good chance for a decent result. I would just love to start farther up, especially after a couple of practice sessions where we had good pace. Just a little frustrated!”

Conor Daly, No. 76 Juncos Hollinger Racing Chevrolet, Qualified, 15^th :

“Really happy with the progress we made today. I think we had almost nailed the perfect lap, and the tires might’ve just fallen out of the window on the last corner and I made a small mistake which cost us the transfer. Tough. My bad on that one for sure, but the team gave me a great car to fight for the transfer spot. To start P15 here at a track I haven’t been at in a long time, it feels really good. It’s going to be a tough race, but thankful for the progress we made and we’ll see what happens tomorrow.”

Sting Ray, No. 77 Juncos Hollinger Racing Chevrolet, Qualified 24^th:

“Qualifying was fairly disappointing. I think we had a lot more ability than what we showed. Unfortunately didn’t put a lap together and just missed it. It’s a really tight field, so that means little mistakes take care of a lot of positions. Unfortunately we’ll start from the back. I think we’ve got a decent car on reds, We’ll race forward and I think that we will do well.”

Robert Shwartzman, No. 83 PREMA Chevrolet, Qualified 27^th:

“This weekend so far has been extremely bad as we did not complete any laps in Free Practice. The team did an incredible effort overnight to build a new car but with the very limited running it was very unbalanced as a result. For my first push lap, it felt okay until Turn Four but then, I just locked up and the tires were already gone. I thought with the second set I could try to improve something to try to change the car balance a bit, but then I had a drive-through, so I didn’t manage to put in a final lap. It is unbelievable how unlucky we have been so far this season.”

Callum Ilott, No. 90 PREMA Chevrolet, Qualified, 22^nd:

It was not the not the best session. We weren’t in the right balance when I was out on the Primaries and tried to make it better for the Alternates, but it wasn’t perfect and just couldn’t quite get it together. We still have a lot to learn from everything so far this weekend. It’s very hot and it doesn’t make it easy for us, but this race with the heat and tire degradation there’s probably quite a lot of room to move forwards. But we will have to work overnight and see on race day.”

NTT INDYCAR SERIES News Conference

Saturday, March 22, 2025

Pato O’Ward

Christian Lundgaard

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Once again, good afternoon, everyone.

Celebrating front row for tomorrow’s Thermal Club INDYCAR Grand Prix, we have an all McLaren front row. Christian Lundgaard, who will start 2nd, is on his way.

Joined now though by Pato O’Ward, driving the No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet. This first NTT P1 Award since Mid-Ohio in 2022, sixth career pole, also the first McLaren pole since Felix Rosenqvist did that in 2023 at Laguna Seca.

Congratulations. Big step towards what could be a very big weekend for you.

PATO O’WARD: Yeah, glad to be back here. Glad to be back here towards the front of the field. Great job by the guys and gals in our McLaren Team Chevy. Team Chevy lockout along with our McLaren lockout.

Super pumped. Really happy with how we turned things around. I would say we didn’t start the day amazing. Q1 was kind of getting there. We just made a bit of an adjustment, and it just brought the car alive in Q2. It felt good.

THE MODERATOR: How on edge are these cars on this track?

PATO O’WARD: Not a lot. You used to have them a lot on the edge without the hybrid, but with all this weight in the rear, they just plow like pigs really.

THE MODERATOR: Technical term.

PATO O’WARD: Yeah, it’s a bit of a shame because they feel like they can go a lot faster, but we can’t really get them there to that edge where maybe I have put it in the past.

Yeah, happy with today.

THE MODERATOR: Congratulations.

Obviously, Christian Lundgaard will complete the front row in tomorrow’s race, driving the No. 7 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet, first front row start since the NDGP last year at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course.

Your thoughts on an all front row, all McLaren front row for tomorrow, Christian?

CHRISTIAN LUNDGAARD: We’re just trying to copy what they do in Formula 1.

No, I think it’s great. We had the pace all weekend, and we didn’t quite get to show it in Practice 1. I certainly think we showed it earlier today.

It’s just important to be there when it counts, and we were today. Let’s keep that momentum going forward.

THE MODERATOR: Congratulations.

Q. Pato and Christian, I’m going to say what won you the pole was how close you were on used Reds, how fast you were on the new Reds. You were only a tenth difference, Pato, I think, on your used Reds between what you run on new Reds. Was that something you guys concentrated on, or did you do something different?

PATO O’WARD: We were exploring. It’s a very tough surface on the tire, a very sensitive to temperature. So you have to get it in the window. You can’t get too greedy with it.

I mean, I would say it’s not the first time that we — going out on that set of tires that I had, I had done one flier, and that was basically the one I went on in Q3. So wasn’t very different to what I did maybe in Q1, having two laps on the Reds. They held up a lot better than I thought really.

CHRISTIAN LUNDGAARD: Yeah, I thought the alternate tires are going to be better than I think we expected going into the weekend.

But I always find, when you go into the Firestone Fast Six, you expect a slight drop-off on the alternate, but I always feel like you’re able to either match or potentially go a little faster, and I think we saw that today. So I think that’s a sign for tomorrow too.

THE MODERATOR: Just confirming this is the first front row sweep for Arrow McLaren since during the Series ahead of the 2020 season. Previous best was a first and third place start at Texas in 2023.

Q. For both of you, how much tire wear are you seeing on the alternates? Do you think — I mean, could this be — would the alternates be the primaries tomorrow by any chance?

PATO O’WARD: No one’s run them long enough, like just there’s no data on continuous laps. There’s just kind of one flier here, one flier there.

I think warmup might be able to tell us a little bit more, but it’s also going to be like 40 degrees cooler. I think we’re just in for a show in the race.

CHRISTIAN LUNDGAARD: I think ultimately I agree with what Pato is saying. I think — personally, I don’t think it’s going to be as big of a drop-off as we expected going into the race weekend leaving St. Petersburg.

Again, we don’t have much data on it, so it’s going to be interesting. I think all options are open for tomorrow.

Q. For Pato, they looked at several — you know, seeing if people were impeding others. They looked at Alex and whether he impeded you. They said no issue. Alex said that he was going as fast as he could on the tires that he had. Is tomorrow going to be any different as far as just with drivers are on different tires, just how much you’re catching them and how you’re going to get past them?

PATO O’WARD: I don’t know why I feel like it’s going to be like an Old Iowa. I know Iowa is a short oval and this is a road course, but I think tomorrow is going to be very reminiscent of what Old Iowa was, just a lot of different strategies. You’re probably not going to know where you are. You might know what place you’re in at the moment, but there’s going to be like multiple, different strategies going.

I think we’re in for a treat tomorrow, yeah, and it’s going to deg. You can expect that.

Q. Question for both of you guys, Pato to start. Pato, I know over your — what, this is your sixth year at Arrow McLaren. There have been times where your teammates have been able to push you either in qualifying or races, but I know this is the big topic of conversation with signing Christian as the hope that he can really push you and challenge you and you guys can advance to the top of the grid together. In these two race weekends, what have you experienced with him as your teammate, and how do you feel like you guys are helping elevate each other?

PATO O’WARD: I think it’s been great, whether he believes me or not. I strive to be better, and I really hope that everybody on the team also is in that same attitude because, yeah, okay, it’s fine to be the lead car or whatever, but it’s always good to have that benchmark.

Whenever maybe you’re not the best, you can always kind of look over and be like, hey, the car can do this. So let’s go out and explore.

I’m happy to have strong teammates, and I’m happy to have people that are very fast, and that’s just going to make me better. It’s going to make the whole team better.

We need multiple cars — like we need team cars to be at the front. We can’t just have one that’s fighting up there. All three Penskes are always fighting at the front. All four Ganassis are always at the front. I know there’s only right now two Ganassis that are usually at the front, but the Shanks count.

It’s what we need in INDYCAR, like every weekend is stronger, and some guys can be a surprise. I think we’ve been a surprise this weekend. So I think we’re in good shape, and we’re pushing forward. We want to beat the big guys. We’re still the underdogs.

Q. Christian, I know when you talked a little bit last summer about this move from RLL to Arrow McLaren, part of your thought process you mentioned was your ability to more consistently be fighting at the front. These first two race weekends that you’ve had, you led the team in qualifying in the race at St. Pete and starting on the front row. What are you enjoying about these first couple weekends with this new team?

CHRISTIAN LUNDGAARD: Well, I’m 2 for 2 in the Fast Six, so that helps. I think ultimately the work leading into the weekend, I think, is a similar but more detailed process. I feel like I show up in a race weekend more prepared. I show up with a lot more hope in a sense.

I think as Pato mentioned, it drives me more as well knowing that we’ll be hopefully two cars fighting, and then we can push each other. Previously I think that’s only been on occasions, where I feel like that’s going to be more consistent now.

I think we’re just both going to be better at the end of the season. We’re going to evolve each other and develop each other.

Q. I know that wasn’t every single weekend, but more often than not in your couple years at RLL, you were the car out front in qualifying and race pace. What does having someone who’s either neck-and-neck with you or at times after sessions a little bit ahead of you, what does that do for you and how it drives you to maybe just execute and get a little bit more out of yourself on the pace?

CHRISTIAN LUNDGAARD: You basically just said it. You want to beat your teammates. It’s as simple as that. I want to beat Pato as much as he wants to beat me. It’s very simple. I think it drives you to work harder, physically, mentally on track, do more for it at the end of the day and go into deeper detail.

Obviously we’re studying each other’s data, which in the past I’ve studied my own data. I have a lot more information now than I’ve had previously.

Q. First, for Pato, can you talk a little bit about the challenge? I noticed some parts of the track you’re using the curbing quite a bit and others you’re staying off of it. Can you talk about how you work with your engineers? Obviously you’ve got a good setup to make it happen, but the compromise between your driving and what they want to do and what they want you to do and vice versa.

PATO O’WARD: Obviously the team is kind of just do what you want. These cars are tanks, like you can really get on the curb. Does it ride some of the curbs very well? Depends which one. Some of them horrible, some of them it’s very usable.

Like I think a perfect example is Turn 4, where some cars are using it more than others. For me I’ve liked using it. But I think it’s just — it all depends on car placement. Where are you having the car? Where is the car living in terms of is it nosy, is it not? So you can use it to your advantage a lot of the times. But some of the times you get it wrong, and you’re out to lunch.

I think you’ll see just very different lines, as you probably saw in qualifying. It really depends on comfort, I would say, driving-wise.

I mean, I wouldn’t say like Christian’s lap and my lap are identical in curb usage and everything, and it’s pretty much the same car. So it’s definitely more of a driver preference rather than what car you’re in, I would say.

Q. Then for Christian as a follow-up, this morning we talked about going through the Esses, and you said it’s a little bit sketchy in there. It may still be sketchy, but how does it feel now after qualifying? How did your car change for that?

CHRISTIAN LUNDGAARD: If I’m going to be honest, I think it’s just made the car — after the hybrid, it’s just made the car a lot harder to drive through there. It’s less pleasant, I would say. The weight just hurts it in that regard.

But as the rubber is being put down, the track gets better. We’re on lower fuel, softer tires, it all kind of comes together.

So at the end of the day when you’re going through there, you have the balance you have, and you’ve just got to hold on to it.

Q. It’s a big day for TK being in charge of the operations as the sporting director. How can you guys describe how important that is to the team and how important that is for him?

PATO O’WARD: You’re making him look so good (laughter).

CHRISTIAN LUNDGAARD: He needs to buy us dinner.

PATO O’WARD: Yes. No, I mean, I feel like I’ve answered this question 10 times, 20 times, 30 times, 50 times. He’s a great addition. We like having him around. He brings a racer mentality, and that’s what’s pushing the team forward along with us.

Q. Does that come with making you guys feel a little more relaxed than maybe you felt previously?

PATO O’WARD: No, I wouldn’t say so.

CHRISTIAN LUNDGAARD: The goal is the same.

PATO O’WARD: Yeah, the goal has always been the same.

Q. And for you, Christian, the fact that you’re over here, how much do you feel like you’re a thoroughbred getting ready to get set free?

PATO O’WARD: A what?

Q. A thoroughbred horse, thoroughbred, getting to run wild.

PATO O’WARD: Young hungry horse you are, huh?

CHRISTIAN LUNDGAARD: Apparently. I mean, I want to win, and that’s really it.

Q. Sorry, two questions again. Pato, first of all, congratulations. The first question is technical. You just mentioned adjustment for qualifying. Are there also plans for yourself to make adjustments for tomorrow’s race? Question number two is a business question. In case you will not know it, you have quite a big fan base in Ireland. Considering your name, the people think you are Irish. When I walked in today in the morning, I saw you have a big merchandising trailer. Is there any plan to sell your merchandise and stuff also in Europe, especially in Ireland?

PATO O’WARD: I will do the business one first, and then I’m going to ask you what you asked on the first one.

O’Ward is definitely Irish. I definitely have roots going back to Ireland, but it’s a long time ago. Pato shop is all in-house, like we need more manpower right now. We’re kind of maxed out with how well it’s been going, which is a good problem to have.

Yeah, I don’t have too big of an operation to kind of start having stuff in Europe and stuff. I would love to, but I think for now it’s going to be just shipments to Europe rather than having something over there, but I would love to in the future.

And to your first question, can you please repeat?

Q. Are you planning yourself, crew chief, mechanic, engineer, whoever, to make more adjustments to make the car quicker for tomorrow’s race?

PATO O’WARD: Warmup is going to be really cold compared to where the race is going to be. I think P1 was the best session to kind of show us what the race is going to be like. I think we’re expecting deg. Is it going to be a three stop? Is it going to be a four stop? I think there’s also a lot of learning we’re not going to be able to do in warmup just because of the temperatures.

I would assume we’re probably doing some adjustments, but I don’t think we have a very clear direction of knowing exactly where the car’s going to go because, if I’m not mistaken, I think we’ve only done like in practice we did like 10 laps in each. Like you did maybe 8 yesterday or 10?

CHRISTIAN LUNDGAARD: I think close to the entire weekend I’ve done 30 laps.

PATO O’WARD: I don’t think we’ve done more — we’ve done maybe a little bit more than a stint, like it’s not a lot of laps. I think it’s still a big question.

THE MODERATOR: Christian, we’ll let you go. Congratulations. See you in the front row tomorrow.

Pato, one more question before we cut you loose.

Q. Pato, let me read you a quote here from, I think Monday, from Pato O’Ward.

PATO O’WARD: Hot dog.

Q. Just qualifying has been a struggle for me, even last year, and I don’t know why. I can’t quite pinpoint why I’ve struggled so much. What the hell did you figure out in the last four or five days, my guy?

PATO O’WARD: Maybe I figured out how to drive quickly again, I don’t know.

It’s been a struggle because Mid-Ohio was the first race that we did with the hybrid, and it was great for me. But all the ones after that, you can’t take the car, or at least I can’t, where I used to have it, and it was — I mean, you guys can probably see it in the onboards. It was a car that was very on the edge. It was very just right there where it was almost too much, but I could make it work without a doubt in qualifying.

Even if it was just one lap, even if we didn’t quite have the pace, I knew I could take it there and extract the lap time that truly wasn’t available for it.

The problem now is with this hybrid is we’ve got so much more weight and the car is a lot lazier and it just can’t do that anymore. It’s been a bit of an adjustment because, when you’re — I’ve had to change my driving style, I would say, or the approach to how you extract lap time from the car is very different now because you can’t have it strong at the front. It’s a snowball effect.

I would say I just really focused this weekend, like why was I fast in Mid-Ohio and why was I slow in the majority of the other road courses? I didn’t feel like I was qualifying the car for some reason, just I didn’t feel in one with it.

We figured it out obviously this weekend, which has been great. I think this is a great base moving forward to kind of know what I need from the car. So I’m definitely very happy. Thank you.

THE MODERATOR: Congratulations. We’ll see you tomorrow. Pato O’Ward, the pole winner for tomorrow’s race.

March 22, 2025 — THERMAL, CA

• Alex Palou leads Honda drivers in NTT INDYCAR SERIES qualifying from The Thermal Club with third-place result
• Colton Herta qualifies P4, locking out the second row for Honda
• Eight Hondas qualify in the top 12

Race winner last time out and reigning NTT INDYCAR SERIES champion Alex Palou led the way for Honda in qualifying for the Thermal Club IndyCar Grand Prix, putting his #10 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda third on the grid for tomorrow’s race.

Palou’s third-place time was just 0.088 ahead of Colton Herta, who makes it an all-Honda second row on the grid. Herta’s Andretti Global teammate Marcus Ericsson rounds out the top five. 

Honda transferred eight cars into the Fast Twelve round of qualifying, with Marcus Armstrong (P7), Kyle Kirkwood (P8), Felix Rosenqvist (P9) and Scott Dixon (P11) all making it through to the second round. Also advancing was rookie Louis Foster in his second-ever NTT INDYCAR SERIES race. The 2024 INDY NXT champion will roll off an impressive 10th tomorrow for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing.

The Thermal Club IndyCar Grand Prix Honda Qualifying Results

•  3rd Alex Palou  
•  4th Colton Herta   
•  5th Marcus Ericsson  
•  7th Marcus Armstrong
•  8th Kyle Kirkwood
•  9th Felix Rosenqvist 
•  10th Louis Foster-R
•  11th Scott Dixon      
•  13th Rinus VeeKay   
•  18th Graham Rahal 
•  20th Kyffin Simpson 
•  23rd Jacob Abel-R  
•  26th Devlin DeFrancesco   

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

R – Rookie

Quotes

Alex Palou (#10 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda) qualified third: “Our #10 DHL Honda car has been amazing all weekend, honestly. We were super fast in the practices, Q1 and Q2—and even in the Firestone Fast Six. We just missed the front row by a little bit. Those McLaren cars were really fast on used alternate tires and that’s where we lacked a little bit. But, I’m super happy. It’s my first Fast Six of the season. I felt that we also had a fast car at St. Pete, we just didn’t capitalize on qualifying, but here we did. Good starting position and hopefully we can win from there.”

Colton Herta (#26 Andretti Global Honda) qualified fourth: “I’m really happy with today’s result, P4 is really good for us. Our Gainbridge Honda was really fast. It’s a spot where we can race from! We really want to get poles, but if you can’t do that, you really want to make it into the Fast Six and that’s what we did today. We have a long race tomorrow of tire saving and we’re going to try and see what we can do, but I’m confident.”

Marcus Ericsson (#28 Andretti Global Honda) qualified fifth: “It’s going to be an interesting day tomorrow, for sure, with the California sun out and really hot temperatures. It’s going to be a day of managing stint lengths and having good fuel mileage—I’m happy to be in a Honda because of that!  The #28 Bryant car has been really good all weekend, we’ve been fast every session, but it’s going to be an interesting race. We have only been here for testing and the exhibition race—but that was heat racing without any live pit stops or full stint lengths. So, tomorrow will be very interesting and I’m glad we’ve put ourselves in a good spot.”

Honda at The Thermal Club

• Last year’s $1 Million Challenge at Thermal was the first racing action held at Thermal by the NTT INDYCAR SERIES, following a pre-season test at the track in 2023.
• Honda driver Alex Palou won the race in his #10 Chip Ganassi Racing machine, taking home a check for $500,000 in the non-points event while Felix Rosenqvist finished third for Meyer Shank Racing.

Toyota wins Top Fuel and Funny Car Mission Foods #2Fast2Tasty challenges

CHANDLER, Ariz. (March 22, 2025) – Doug Kalitta claimed the top qualifying position for the NHRA Arizona Nationals at Firebird Motorsports Park. Kalitta ran a 3.688 elapsed time in Friday night’s qualifying session for the 59th No. 1 qualifier of his career, as he goes for career win number 56 tomorrow. His Toyota Top Fuel Dragster teammates Shawn Langdon (third), Antron Brown (fourth) and Justin Ashley (sixth) joined him inside the top half of the category for tomorrow’s eliminations.

Saturday was also the first Mission Foods #2Fast2Tasty challenge of the season where Langdon captured the win in Top Fuel, defeating Jasmine Salinas and Tony Stewart to earn bonus championship points and bonus prize money.

In Funny Car, Ron Capps led the GR Supra Funny Car contingent, claiming the No. 4 seed for tomorrow. Capps also won the Funny Car Mission Foods #2Fast2Tasty challenge in the final qualifying session, earning a Toyota sweep of the nitro challenges in Phoenix. His Toyota teammates Bobby Bode and J.R. Todd will be the seventh and ninth seeds tomorrow in the Funny Car ladder.

Tomorrow’s eliminations from Firebird Motorsports Park begin at 2 p.m. EST with live TV coverage beginning at 6:30 p.m. EST on FS1.

Toyota Post-Qualifying Recap

NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series

Firebird Motorsports Park

NHRA Arizona Nationals

Race 2 of 20

TOYOTA TOP FUEL QUALIFYING POSITIONS

Name	Car	Qualifying Position	First Round Opponent
Doug Kalitta	Sealmaster Toyota Top Fuel Dragster	1st	T. Shumake
Shawn Langdon	Kalitta Air Careers Toyota Top Fuel Dragster	3rd	S. Palmer
Antron Brown	Matco Tools Toyota Top Fuel Dragster	4th	J. Hart
Justin Ashley	SCAG Power Equipment Toyota Top Fuel Dragster	6th	I. Zetterstrom

TOYOTA FUNNY CAR QUALIFYING POSITIONS 

Name	Car	Qualifying Position	First Round Opponent
Bob Tasca III*	Ford Motorcraft Funny Car	1st*	J. Capps
Ron Capps	NAPA Auto Care Toyota GR Supra Funny Car	4th	B. Alexander
Bobby Bode	DC Motorsports Toyota GR Supra Funny Car	7th	M. Hagan
J.R. Todd	DHL Toyota GR Supra Funny Car	9th	D. Wilkerson

*non-Toyota driver

TOYOTA QUOTES

DOUG KALITTA, Sealmaster Toyota Top Fuel Dragster, Kalitta Motorsports

TF Qualifying Result: 1st

Does a run like this give you confidence for tomorrow?

“Yeah, definitely. The track’s holding up well. On that last run, we shot a couple spring plugs out, so ran a 3.82 and not sure what we would’ve run (without that), but (thinking) a little better than that. That’ll put us in the mix with everyone else. Shawn (Langdon) said they ran a 3.79 or close to that. Like all of these races, everyone is running close and you have to get up on the wheel and make it happen on Sunday. Looking forward to it.”

SHAWN LANGDON, Kalitta Air Careers Toyota Top Fuel Dragster, Kalitta Motorsports

TF Qualifying Result: 3rd

With the Mission Foods #2Fast2Tasty win today, how much do you love racing in Phoenix?

“Yeah, there’s some tracks that just work well with what you have and some that don’t seem to work well. Phoenix fortunately is one of those that work well. I remember I’ve always loved coming here as a kid, starting out racing junior dragsters and I was able to get some wins in a Super Comp car as well. Yeah, love coming here. Brian (Husen, crew chief) and the whole Kalitta Air group, they’ve done a great job with the car and setup. Last year, making good runs and we’re continuing that success this year. I didn’t do a good job in the final (as) I clicked it a little early, so truth to be told, was probably going 3.79 which shows how much stronger the car really is. Definitely gives us a lot of confidence going into Sunday.”

RON CAPPS, NAPA Auto Care Toyota GR Supra Funny Car, Ron Capps Motorsports

FC Qualifying Result: 4th

What does this Mission Foods #2Fast2Tasty win mean for your team?

“A win light is a win light, but this one is a special event. And let’s not forget, our NAPA Auto Care team won the inaugural one (Mission Foods #2Fast2Tasty challenge). We went to Indianapolis and won that. We’re so happy Mission Foods put this deal up as for the fans, it’s exciting. For us racers, it’s really exciting. Our NAPA guys, Toyota. A win’s a win. My gosh, this is so cool!”

The good times continue to roll for Josh Berry and the No. 21 DEX Imaging team as they are set to start on the front row for Sunday’s Straight Talk Wireless 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Berry took that spot with a lap at 168.460 miles per hour during qualifying Saturday afternoon. The strong qualifying performance comes on the heels of a win at Las Vegas and a top-five finish at Phoenix the week before.“I’m so happy with everyone on the 21 team,” Berry told reporters at Homestead. “They’re making me look good right now. We’ve got really good cars. The car’s been really solid. Thanks to everyone on the 21 team, everybody at Wood Brothers Racing, Team Penske, DEX Imaging for coming on board this week, all our partners at Motorcraft and eero. It’s been a fun start to the season. We’re just trying to keep it going, doing the same thing week in and week out, and being prepared.”As has been the case in recent weeks practice numbers at Homestead were not an indication of what came next. Berry was 31st on the speed chart with a best lap at 164.469 mph, which he posted on the second of 30 laps he ran in the session. Among drivers who ran 10 consecutive laps, he was 17th best, averaging 162.474 mph over his first 10 laps.Sunday’s 267-lap, 400.5-mile race is expected to get the green flag just after 3 p.m. with TV coverage on FOX Sports 1. Stage breaks are planned for Laps 80 and 165.

NASCAR CUP SERIES HOMESTEAD-MIAMI SPEEDWAY TEAM CHEVY QUALIFYING REPORT MARCH 22, 2025

TEAM CHEVY UNOFFICIAL TOP-10 STARTING LINEUP: POS.     DRIVER1st – Alex Bowman5th – William Byron10th – AJ Allmendinger

MEDIA RESOURCES: Photo Gallery | Race AdvancesChevrolet Newsroom

·       Hendrick Motorsports’ Alex Bowman extended Chevrolet’s 2025 pole-winning streak to three-straight at Homestead-Miami Speedway. One of the final three cars to lay down a qualifying lap, Bowman clocked-in a lap of 31.982 seconds, at 168.845 mph, in his No. 48 Ally Unrivaled League Chevrolet to earn the pole position for tomorrow’s Straight Talk Wireless 400.  ·       The feat – Bowman’s first pole at Homestead-Miami Speedway and his sixth all-time in NASCAR’s top division – is Chevrolet’s third pole win of the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season, each of which have been earned by a different driver.   ·       Three Chevrolet Camaro ZL1’s will line up in the top-10 starting positions for tomorrow’s 400-mile race. Among those includes Bowman’s Hendrick Motorsports teammate and former Homestead-Miami Speedway winner, William Byron, who drove his No. 24 Valvoline Chevrolet to a fifth-place qualifying effort. Coming off a top-10 result last weekend, Kaulig Racing’s AJ Allmendinger kept his mile-and-a-half momentum alive with a 10th-place qualifying result in his No. 10 Action Industries Chevrolet.

Chevrolet’s all-time NASCAR Cup Series statistics at Homestead-Miami Speedway:  Wins: 7Poles: 7Top-Fives: 52Top-10s: 108Chevrolet’s 2025 NASCAR Cup Series Statistics:  Wins: 1Poles: 3Top-Fives: 11Top-10s: 25

Alex Bowman, No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet – Pole Win Press Conference Quotes It was interesting, a lot of the drivers or cars that did very well in practice did not necessarily have that translate in qualifying. What would you attribute that to? You were fast in practice and in qualifying, but if you could just talk about kind of how that was different..“Yeah, I mean, I think this place is pretty weather sensitive, right? So I think we probably had a little bit of a cloud there, it seemed like. And then, yeah, some people’s cars here are not great on the short run and really fast on the long run. We were kind of the opposite of that in practice.. we were really fast on the short run and not great on the long run stuff. So I knew that qualifying was going to be really important because of that, and that we have some work to do for tomorrow. But for me, I had a pretty clear-cut plan for qualifying. I thought I was able to execute that pretty well, and my race car kind of gave me what I needed to be able to do that.”   A lot of people really love this racetrack. Do you have that same sort of relationship with it? “Yeah, when your race car is good, it’s really, really fun. But it just gives you options. It is still really hard to pass, for sure, just like anywhere else we go. But there’s so many different lines you can run, and running the wall can be so technical and a lot of fun.  It’s so high risk that there’s not many other things that we do that are that high risk, I don’t think.. aside from maybe making speed at the Chicago street course or some of those places. And maybe not so much with this car as it was with the steel body car, but it still makes it a lot of fun.  So yeah, I enjoy it. This hasn’t been one of my better racetracks, so a place that I’m working on a lot, and I’m glad to at least be on the good side of things on Saturday, so far.”   I spoke with Blake (Harris) this morning about just kind of what he had in mind for this weekend as kind of top priority. One thing he mentioned that helped you guys was a wet weather test last year, where you were kind of like not beholden to results or anything, and you were able to kind of just experiment a little bit more and find more comfort here. What did you take away from that experience?“Yeah, we were really fast running the wall that day, and then I couldn’t run the wall at all in practice. I felt terrible trying to run the wall. But yeah, I mean, just laps here, right? I think really of any of the standard NASCAR scheduled tracks, I probably have the least amount of races here that I do anywhere. I missed one when I was hurt. I never ran here in Xfinity until 2016, so just not a lot of reps here for me. And obviously only coming here once a year, it’s just never been a place that I’ve felt super confident at or had a lot of laps at.  So just laps in general, and that test I think was really good. And running 185 mph in the pouring rain was pretty sweet, too, so it was pretty cool.”  Can you speak more to that experience and I guess what that day entailed?“Yeah, I mean, I talked about it in some interviews right after that. I feel like my memory is probably not completely the sharpest on what went on, but yeah, the wet tires had a ton of grip. I think we were probably the same speed or faster on wets than we were on dries in the wet. But the water turned into like a water jet and just destroyed the race cars. With all the aggregate in the racetrack and how fast you’re going with that much water, it was just destroying the bottom of the car.. like punching holes in the floor. So yeah, that was pretty wild, but it was a really cool experience, and I think probably got Goodyear and NASCAR some really good data from it.”  What’s the compromise between having one good lap Saturday but then turning that into good long run speed over the course of Sunday’s race?“Yeah, I mean, we were pretty fast on the short run in practice and I was pretty bummed after practice, just with how our long run went. So we have a long way to go for that, but I think starting from pit stall one, starting in clean air, all those things make your job a lot easier. Our teammates were really fast, so we’ll be able to look at what they’ve got going on. And honestly, I probably beat my tires up quite a bit in dirty air there in the beginning of practice. I caught the same couple guys like two or three times, and I’d back up, I’d catch them again and just kind of saw the tires off it and that’s like dirty air situations. So hopefully not having to be behind anybody there at the start will benefit us.”   Your last name starts and the winners all this year have come from B. Do you look at that stuff? “Yeah, there’s something every week that means we’re winning. Last week, anytime somebody for the last couple years had won three-in-a-row, we were the guy that won after that and we didn’t do that last week. Although we probably had a car capable of doing it if our day would have just gone okay. But yeah, so at least we’re on the list. There’s some other guys that start with B’s too, but at least we’re the ones starting up front. And yeah, I think we’ll have a shot at it.  If there’s a conspiracy that’s getting me a win, I’ll take it, by the way. I’ll take them, as you guys know, any way I can get them (laughs).”  Normally, this race, you don’t come back here for a full year. It’s only been a few months. After having a top-10 and running the way you did last fall, how much can that be more of a carryover than a normal year, or is it a new year and everything changes, in a sense?“Yeah, I think it helps. I still feel like it’s been forever, especially with testing afterwards. I think I had this exact idea of what I wanted to come back with, and then we sat down this week and I’m like — I’ve got to reread all this stuff because I don’t remember anything. Yeah, it still feels probably longer than it has actually been. But yeah, probably being able to build off just a solid run last time was really good because it had been a while since we’ve been solid here. Yeah, I think that was good for us.”  How do you feel like things have gone the start of the year? I mean, top-five, top-six in points, so you’re right there.. “Yeah, we’ve had interesting days, right? We just haven’t had a day that went okay for us and everything. We executed all day and we ended up where we ended up. Like something’s kind of happened every race that we’ve had to overcome, so I would like to have some clean days because I feel like we can be further up front than we have been at the end of these things. But it certainly could be a lot worse too, right? There’s plenty of things that could have completely taken us out of races that we’ve overcame, and we’ve had some cautions fall our way to kind of save us from messes we’ve made too. So yeah, I think we’re in a good spot. I think our cars are fast, which is really something to feel good about. And yeah, if we can just execute, I think we’ll be pretty good.”

SWAINSBORO, GA (March 21, 2025) – For the second-straight World of Outlaws Late Models race, Bobby Pierce started his night as a first-timer at the venue.

And for the second-straight race, he ended the night in Victory Lane.

The Oakwood, IL native’s win Friday night in the Battle of the Crossroads at Swainsboro Raceway was the 33rd of his career with The Most Powerful Late Models on the Planet, further extending his lead atop the Series points table.

Pierce started the 35-lap affair at the front after drawing the Bilstein Pole Award, but only got to enjoy the clean air for one lap before a massive pileup behind him halted the action. Tristan Chamberlain made contact with Jimmy Owens before clipping an infield tractor tire and flipping, while a dozen more cars spun or made contact behind him.

Once the carnage was cleared and the race resumed, Pierce went to work on building a gap to the field while Team22 Motorsports teammates Drake Troutman and Chris Madden battled for second.

Troutman won that tussle and was briefly on Pierce’s tail for the lead, but the “Smooth Operator” was able to maintain the top spot. Behind them, Ryan Gustin was busy charging forward from 10th, as he spent several laps in third before getting around Troutman for second.

Gustin was briefly closing in on the leader, but was unable to get any closer than a half-second behind the No. 32. That was until a caution was thrown for debris with four circuits remaining, giving Gustin and the rest of the field one last chance at keeping Pierce out of Victory Lane.

“When they’re on you, I mean, you don’t know where to go,” Pierce said. “Sometimes its better to be second than first. You dipped when you should have dived, you know. Sometimes it’s the way the cards fall.”

The 2023 World of Outlaws champion would not be denied though, as Pierce nailed the restart and drove four perfect laps to take the win in his Swainsboro debut.

While the track was largely bottom-dominant in the Heat Races and Landa Pressure Washers Last Chance Showdowns, drivers had to navigate a vastly different surface in the Feature, as the high lane quickly became the preferred groove as the race progressed.

“I knew it could possibly get that way,” Pierce said. “I’ve seen some video of this track. Once they do some track prep, it can move to the top, so I’ve seen it happen. It’s strange because it is very flat up there and it’s a far way around, but once that bottom gets slick enough the top is a little quicker sometimes.”

Considering it was also Gustin’s first visit to Swainsboro and he was piloting a wounded race car for most of the Feature, “The Reaper” was more than satisfied with a runner-up result.

“I definitely felt like that caution wasn’t going to hurt us at all,” Gustin said. “Had a really good car there, I just got into that tire a couple times and bent the left-front bumper down and was just kind of sitting on the straightaway. When I kept my left-front light in an arc it was good, but then you miss the brown on exit. All in all it was a good night.”

Troutman brought the No. 22* home third to stand on the podium for the second time in the last three World of Outlaws races. That performance was enough to take the lead in the MD3 Rookie of the Year chase by six points over Ethan Dotson, who finished ninth.

“Honestly, this is the most comfortable I’ve felt in this car all year long,” Troutman said. “We’re making good gains on it. I’ve got a lot of great people behind me that are behind the scenes that don’t really get credit for it.”

A pair of rising stars in the southeast rounded out the top five, with Cory Hedgecock in fourth and Wil Herrington setting a new career-best with the Outlaws in fifth.

RACE NOTES:

Dennis Erb Jr. set the Dirt King Simulators Fastest Hot Lap.

Chris Madden won the Simpson Quick Time Award.

Chris Madden won Heat 1.

Jimmy Owens won STAKT Products Heat 2.

Bobby Pierce won Keyser Manufacturing Heat 3.

Nick Hoffman won Jarrett Rifles Heat 4.

Ashton Winger and Jackson Hise won the two Landa Pressure Washers Last Chance Showdowns.

Bobby Pierce won the Bilstein Pole Award.

Ethan Dotson drove from 23rd to ninth to pick up the FOX Factory Hard Charger Award.

Drake Troutman was the MD3 Rookie of the Race.

Ryan Gustin won the WELD Racing Second-Place Finisher Award.

Cory Hedgecock was the ARP fourth-Place Finisher.

Wil Herrington was the MSD Fifth-Place Finisher.

Chris Madden was the Swift Springs Sixth-Place Finisher.

Dalton Cook was the VP Racing Fuels Eighth-Place Finisher.

Ethan Dotson was the Lifeline USA Ninth-Place Finisher.

Cody Overton was the COMP Cams 10th-Place Finisher.

Dennis Erb Jr. was the Cometic Gaskets 12th-Place Finisher.

UP NEXT: The World of Outlaws Late Models wrap up the Battle at the Crossroads at Swainsboro Raceway on Saturday, March 22 with a $15,000-to-win main event. To get your tickets in advance, click here.

If you can’t make it to the trac, stream every lap live on DIRTVision.

Feature (35 Laps): 1. 32-Bobby Pierce[1]; 2. 19R-Ryan Gustin[10]; 3. 22*-Drake Troutman[5]; 4. 23V-Cory Hedgecock[6]; 5. 15K-Wil Herrington[12]; 6. 44-Chris Madden[2]; 7. 9-Nick Hoffman[3]; 8. 44D-Dalton Cook[7]; 9. 74X-Ethan Dotson[23]; 10. 2-Cody Overton[14]; 11. 111-Max Blair[19]; 12. 28-Dennis Erb Jr[25]; 13. 3S-Brian Shirley[24]; 14. 14JR-Trey Mills[8]; 15. 9M-Tim McCreadie[20]; 16. 96-Tanner English[15]; 17. 12-Ashton Winger[17]; 18. 20-Jimmy Owens[4]; 19. 49-Jake Timm[13]; 20. 19-Dustin Sorensen[16]; 21. 18X-Michael Page[21]; 22. 40B-Kyle Bronson[11]; 23. 388-Jackson Hise[18]; 24. 20TC-Tristan Chamberlain[9]; 25. 49M-Luke Morey[22]; 26. B1-Brent Larson[26]

The defending champion takes the lead from Kofoid on Lap 10 and holds off the Californian’s late charge for fourth win of 2025

PAIGE, TX (March 21, 2025) – Another day, another David Gravel win.

The defending World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car champion is at the top of his game. His title campaign in 2024 was plenty impressive, but he’s out for domination in 2025.

The latest testament to he and Big Game Motorsports’ excellence was an impressive drive on Friday night at Cotton Bowl Speedway. Gravel started fourth for the 30-lapper and methodically worked his way to the front by the 10th lap, but it wasn’t over yet. The Watertown, CT native had to hold off a fierce charge from Michael “Buddy” Kofoid. The Roth Motorsports driver got the top side of Turns 1 and 2 wound up and showed Gravel a nose entering Turn 3 multiple times.

But Gravel showed the poise of a champion as he sensed the need to move to the cushion in the first set of corners. That slowed Kofoid’s momentum, and that was all she wrote in the Federated Auto Parts Texas Two-Step opener. Gravel drove away through lapped traffic on the path to yet another victory with The Greatest Show on Dirt.

“I think just reacting from what he (Kofoid) was doing,” Gravel said on what led him to victory. “He was running the top, and I was kind of running low and then I had the bottom of (Turns) 1 and 2 all to myself. The 17 and 83 didn’t really try it much, and it was really good down there. When I got the lead, it started taking rubber through the middle not all the way to the bottom. I could hear him and knew he was getting a run on me in (Turns) 1 and 2, so I had to move up and moved up at the right time.”

The win was Gravel’s fourth in the last seven races in the Cody Jacobs-wrenched No. 2. He’s still yet to miss the top 5 through 11 nights in the 2025 campaign. His second Cotton Bowl checkered flag put him alongside Sheldon Haudenschild and Brad Sweet as multi-time winners at the Paige, TX track. The point lead for the 32-year-old grew to 70 markers in his quest for back-to-back titles.

“These guys continue to give me great race cars,” Gravel said. “We’re qualifying amazing and racing just as good. We were just patient there. We kind of figured they were all going to be pretty aggressive and kind of let the race come to us and it worked out.”

The runner-up position belonged to Buddy Kofoid as he came up one spot shy of two wins in a row aboard the Roth Motorsports No. 83. The Penngrove, CA native continues to build momentum with his third top five finish in the last four races after no top five appearances in the first seven.

“David and the Big Game guys have been really good obviously,” Kofoid said. “I think we were better than him for a while, and then when he found it we kind of got back even. Then you just kind of got to surrender and chase him into there, and then the top kind of gave out again down there and had to move down. Just a race where you’ve got to work both pedals and find the lines. I feel like everything changes here so fast.”

The final spot on the podium went to Carson Macedo. He and the Jason Johnson Racing crew have been in the top three in three of the last four, and Friday’s effort helped lift them back into the second spot in points.

“It was a bit of a marathon race,” Macedo said. “There was a lot of moving parts. I felt like throughout the race there was a lot of comers and goers. You kind of had to chase the track a little bit. I feel like early it started out the bottom was really good both ends, and then down in (Turns) 1 and 2 I found the top and was actually kind of creeping back a little bit. I found the top and drove back by a few guys and got to third.”

Sheldon Haudenschild and Donny Schatz completed the top five.

A 24th to 13th run gave Skylar Gee the KSE Racing Hard Charger.

David Gravel grabbed his sixth Simpson Quick Time in 11 tries this year during Honest Abe Roofing Qualifying.

NOS Energy Drink Heats One and Two belonged to David Gravel and Carson Macedo. WIX Filters Heat Three went to Buddy Kofoid.

Sheldon Haudenschild topped the Toyota Dash after also getting the SPA Technique #1 Redraw.

Christopher Thram won the Micro-Lite Last Chance Showdown.

The Smith Titanium Brake Systems Break of the Race went to Bill Balog.

UP NEXT: The World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Cars are back at Cotton Bowl Speedway for the Federated Auto Parts Texas Two-Step finale on Saturday, March 22. Reserved seating is sold out, but general admission tickets can be purchased by CLICKING HERE.

For the complete 2025 schedule, CLICK HERE.

If you can’t make it to the track, catch every lap live on DIRTVision.

FEATURE RESULTS:

NOS Energy Drink Feature (30 Laps): 1. 2-David Gravel[4]; 2. 83-Michael Kofoid[2]; 3. 41-Carson Macedo[6]; 4. 17-Sheldon Haudenschild[1]; 5. 15-Donny Schatz[10]; 6. 27-Emerson Axsom[9]; 7. 1S-Logan Schuchart[11]; 8. 18-Giovanni Scelzi[3]; 9. 2C-Cole Macedo[14]; 10. 7S-Chris Windom[16]; 11. 55-Hunter Schuerenberg[8]; 12. 24T-Christopher Thram[19]; 13. 99-Skylar Gee[24]; 14. 28M-Conner Morrell[20]; 15. 23-Garet Williamson[5]; 16. 2KS-Cory Eliason[12]; 17. 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr[17]; 18. 6-Zach Hampton[13]; 19. 17B-Bill Balog[7]; 20. 22M-Rees Moran[15]; 21. J2-John Carney II[21]; 22. 45X-Jace Park[18]; 23. 17GP-Landon Crawley[22]; 24. 73-Logan Julien[23]

For complete results, CLICK HERE.

CHILLICOTHE, OH (March 21, 2025) – Reigning Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series National Champion Ricky Thornton Jr. secured his first career victory at Atomic Speedway, taking home the $15,000 prize for winning the Buckeye Spring 50 on Friday night. Thornton successfully fended off a determined Josh Rice, marking his fourth Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series win of the season. Rice, who closed in on Thornton several times during the last 39 laps of the race, finished second by 0.541 seconds at the line. Devin Moran came in third, followed by Mike Marlar and Hudson O’Neal. Thornton jumped to the lead at the start of the race, with Jonathan Davenport running in second place. Davenport stayed close to Thornton until a lapped car came down on him, forcing Davenport to spin in turn two after ten laps as the caution was displayed for him, requiring a restart from the back of the field.  Rice then moved into second place as he and Garrett Alberson raced hard for that position, with Moran joining the battle after starting in ninth. Moran briefly took second, but Rice fought back to reclaim the position. In the closing laps, Rice managed to catch up to Thornton, but he couldn’t pull off a last-minute move on the final lap to try and steal the win from Thornton. In Lucas Oil Victory Lane for the 46th time in his career, Thornton has now assumed the championship points lead as he heads to Brownstown on Saturday. “I knew Josh (Rice) was going to be good, really, I thought he was a little better than I was there I was just able to get out in front of him. I’ve got a little right-side damage. I got behind a lapped car, and he kept kind of going low, and he turned back to the bottom finally, and I knew it was time I had to go, or I was going to get passed, so I and he hit a little bit, obviously I got some right-side damage. It’s part of it, so we will have it ready tomorrow at Brownstown.” “It was a hard-earned 50 laps for sure. With JD starting next to me this is one of his better race-tracks. I don’t know what happened to him. You don’t want to see a guy be the yellow, especially him; you want to beat guys like that straight up.” Rice, who came into the event with two career Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series victories at Florence Speedway, nearly stole the show at Atomic. “Really, I felt like I needed it to stay green. We were a little bit harder on tires than he was. It was a heck of a race. Ricky did everything he had to do to win that one. I am sure all of the fans loved it. Really, this is our first weekend out; last weekend wasn’t so good. We adjusted good on the car tonight. I feel like we did some stuff we don’t normally do, and it worked out from hot laps to qualifying. I had a totally different racecar with just a slight adjustment.” Moran, who maintained second in the points and heads to Brownstown tomorrow as the defending Indiana Icebreaker winner, rounded out the Big River Steel Podium in third. “I’ve got to start closer to the front. I feel like I have been starting all these races in the back and having to pass cars. Ricky and Josh were really good. I had a couple of chances to slide Josh, and I knew he was going to be on the gas, and I didn’t want to do that. All-in-all, they did an awesome job with the racetrack.” The winner’s Koehler Motorsports Longhorn Chassis is powered by a Clements Racing Engine and sponsored by Ultimate Towing and Recovery, Elite Ready Mix, Capital Waste, Hoker Trucking, Coltman Farms Racing, Sunoco Race Fuels, Bilstein Shocks, EMD Wraps, Certified Inspection Services, and Knight’s Companies. Completing the top ten were Garrett Alberson, Brandon Overton, Carson Ferguson, Donald McIntosh, and Jonathan Davenport. Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series Race Summary Buckeye Spring 50Friday, March 21, 2025Atomic Speedway – Waverly, OH Allstar Performance Time TrialsFast Time Group A: Ricky Thornton, Jr. | 13.220 seconds (overall)Fast Time Group B: Jonathan Davenport | 13.313 seconds  Penske Shocks Heat Race #1 Finish (8 Laps, Top 4 Transfer): 1. 20RT-Ricky Thornton Jr[1]; 2. 58-Garrett Alberson[2]; 3. 99-Devin Moran[3]; 4. 93-Carson Ferguson[4]; 5. S21-Seth Daniels[8]; 6. 7-Ross Robinson[6]; 7. 6-Clay Harris[7]; 8. 71R-Rod Conley[5]; 9. 90-Michael LeFevers[9] Summit Racing Products Heat Race #2 Finish (8 Laps, Top 4 Transfer): 1. 11-Josh Rice[1]; 2. 157-Mike Marlar[2]; 3. 71-Hudson O’Neal[3]; 4. 17SS-Brenden Smith[6]; 5. 29-Christian Hanger[4]; 6. 19M-Spencer Hughes[7]; 7. 9Y-Levi Yetter[5]; 8. 18-Jacob Stuhr[8] Cool-It Thermo-Tec Heat Race #3 Finish (8 Laps, Top 4 Transfer): 1. 49-Jonathan Davenport[1]; 2. 76-Brandon Overton[3]; 3. 16-Tyler Bruening[2]; 4. 18D-Daulton Wilson[5]; 5. 00-Justin Cooper[6]; 6. 1T-Tyler Erb[4]; 7. 24-Tyler Wyant[8]; 8. 22-Daniel Hilsabeck[7] Simpson Race Products Heat Race #4 Finish (8 Laps, Top 4 Transfer): 1. 71C-RJ Conley[1]; 2. 79-Donald McIntosh[2]; 3. 1-Brandon Sheppard[3]; 4. 28-Tyler Carpenter[4]; 5. 60-Dan Ebert[6]; 6. 21-Kirk Phillips[7]; 7. 93L-Cory Lawler[8]; 8. 4-Tripp Gerrald[5] Fast Shafts B-Main Race #1 Finish (10 Laps, Top 3 Transfer): 1. S21-Seth Daniels[1]; 2. 29-Christian Hanger[2]; 3. 7-Ross Robinson[3]; 4. 6-Clay Harris[5]; 5. 19M-Spencer Hughes[4]; 6. 71R-Rod Conley[7]; 7. 18-Jacob Stuhr[8]; 8. 9Y-Levi Yetter[6]; 9. (DNS) 90-Michael LeFevers UNOH B-Main Race #2 Finish (10 Laps, Top 3 Transfer): 1. 1T-Tyler Erb[3]; 2. 60-Dan Ebert[2]; 3. 24-Tyler Wyant[5]; 4. 4-Tripp Gerrald[8]; 5. 00-Justin Cooper[1]; 6. 93L-Cory Lawler[6]; 7. 21-Kirk Phillips[4]; 8. (DNS) 22-Daniel Hilsabeck Buckeye Spring 50 Feature Finish (50 Laps): Pos – Start – Car # – Competitor – Hometown – Earnings1 – 1 – 20RT – Ricky Thornton Jr – Chandler, AZ – $16,1002 – 3 – 11 – Josh Rice – Crittenden, KY – $7,0003 – 9 – 99 – Devin Moran – Dresden, OH – $6,0004 – 7 – 157 – Mike Marlar – Winfield, TN – $4,0005 – 11 – 71 – Hudson O’Neal – Martinsville, IN – $3,8006 – 5 – 58 – Garrett Alberson – Las Cruces, NM – $3,2007 – 6 – 76 – Brandon Overton – Evans, GA – $3,1008 – 12 – 93 – Carson Ferguson – Lincolnton, NC – $3,0009 – 8 – 79 – Donald McIntosh – Dawsonville, GA – $2,90010 – 2 – 49 – Jonathan Davenport – Blairsville, GA – $3,20011 – 26 – 1 – Brandon Sheppard – New Berlin, IL – $2,70012 – 20 – 7 – Ross Robinson – Georgetown, DE – $2,50013 – 17 – 1T – Tyler Erb – New Waverly, TX – $1,60014 – 23 – 22 – Daniel Hilsabeck – Earlham, IA – $1,50015 – 13 – 18D – Daulton Wilson – Fayetteville, NC – $2,10016 – 19 – 60 – Dan Ebert – Lake Shore, MN – $2,00017 – 15 – 28 – Tyler Carpenter – Parkersburg, WV – $1,20018 – 10 – 16 – Tyler Bruening – Decorah, IA – $1,80019 – 24 – 6 – Clay Harris – Jupiter, FL – $80020 – 4 – 71C – RJ Conley – Wheelersburg, OH – $1,00021 – 22 – 19M – Spencer Hughes – Meridian, MS – $1,70022 – 14 – 17SS – Brenden Smith – Dade City, FL – $1,00023 – 21 – 24 – Tyler Wyant – Oil City, PA – $1,00024 – 25 – 93L – Cory Lawler – Hanover, PA – $10025 – 18 – 29 – Christian Hanger – Winchester, TN – $1,00026 – 16 – S21 – Seth Daniels – Jackson, OH – $1,000 Race Statistics  Entrants: 33Victory Fuel Pole Sitter: Ricky Thornton, Jr.MD3 Lap Leaders: Ricky Thornton, Jr. (Laps 1-50)Hellraizer Jacks Halfway Leader: Ricky Thornton, Jr.Wieland Feature Winner: Ricky Thornton, Jr.Margin of Victory: 0.541 secondsColtman Farms Racing Cautions: Dan Ebert; Daniel Hilsabeck (Initial Start); Jonathan Davenport (Lap 10); Tyler Erb (Lap 19); Daulton Wilson (Lap 24); Tyler Bruening (Lap 40)Series Provisionals: Spencer Hughes; Daniel HilsabeckFast Time Provisional: n/aEmergency Provisionals: Clay Harris; Cory LawlerTrack Provisional: n/aBig River Steel Podium Top 3: Ricky Thornton, Jr., Josh Rice, Devin MoranPenske Shocks Top 5: Ricky Thornton, Jr., Josh Rice, Devin Moran, Mike Marlar, Hudson O’NealPEM 4th Place Feature: Mike MarlarDMI Rearends 5th Place Feature: Hudson O’NealWilwood Brakes Lucky 7th Place Feature: Brandon OvertonWehrs Machine 11th Place Feature: Brandon SheppardDeatherage Opticians Lucky 13th Place Feature: Tyler ErbMD3 24th Place Feature: Cory LawlerHoker Trucking Hard Charger of the Race: Brandon Sheppard (Advanced 15 Positions) MD3 Most Laps Led: Ricky Thornton, Jr. (50 Laps)Sunoco Race for Gas Highest Finisher: Ricky Thornton, Jr.Midwest Sheet Metal Spoiler Challenge Point Leader: Jonathan Davenport Pro Fabrication Headers Fastest Lap of the Race: Ricky Thornton, Jr. (Lap 2 | 14.336 seconds)Slicker Graphics Slickest Move of the Race: Josh RiceHard Luck Award: Jonathan DavenportOuterwears Crew Chief of the Race: Zach FrieldsARP Engine Builder of the Race: Clements Racing EnginesMiller Welders Chassis Builder of the Race: Longhorn ChassisDirt Draft Fastest in Hot Laps: Ricky Thornton, Jr. (13.344 seconds)Time of Race: 26 minutes 08 seconds Big River Steel Chase for the Championship Presented by ARP Point Standings:Pos – Car # – Competitor – Hometown – Points – Earnings1 – 20RT – Ricky Thornton Jr – Chandler, AZ – 1410 – $64,4002 – 99 – Devin Moran – Dresden, OH – 1380 – $70,5003 – 49 – Jonathan Davenport – Blairsville, GA – 1355 – $54,7004 – 76 – Brandon Overton – Evans, GA – 1250 – $27,4505 – 58 – Garrett Alberson – Las Cruces, NM – 1180 – $21,6506 – 18D – Daulton Wilson – Fayetteville, NC – 1175 – $24,5757 – 71 – Hudson O’Neal – Martinsville, IN – 1170 – $25,0258 – 1 – Brandon Sheppard – New Berlin, IL – 1140 – $19,4009 – 1T – Tyler Erb – New Waverly, TX – 1135 – $19,50010 – 16 – Tyler Bruening – Decorah, IA – 1035 – $21,80011 – 19M – Spencer Hughes – Meridian, MS – 1000 – $11,50012 – 93 – Carson Ferguson – Lincolnton, NC – 995 – $15,37513 – 79 – Donald McIntosh – Dawsonville, GA – 970 – $9,30014 – 111 – Max Blair – Centerville, PA – 965 – $20,95015 – 22 – Daniel Hilsabeck – Earlham, IA – 940 – $8,20016 – 7 – Ross Robinson – Georgetown, DE – 935 – $13,60017 – 40B – Kyle Bronson – Brandon, FL – 900 – $12,00018 – 6 – Clay Harris – Jupiter, FL – 875 – $9,62519 – 22* – Drake Troutman – Hyndman, PA – 850 – $16,75020 – 20 – Jimmy Owens – Newport, TN – 820 – $12,80021 – 60 – Dan Ebert – Lake Shore, MN – 810 – $6,05022 – 9 – Tim McCreadie – Watertown, NY – 800 – $16,15023 – 93L – Cory Lawler – Hanover, PA – 760 – $4,07524 – 17SS – Brenden Smith – Dade City, FL – 740 – $6,600

FRIDAY RECAP – PhoenixRace 2 of 20

Photography: John Force Racing / Auto Imagery / Gary Nastase

ALL THREE JFR DRIVERS EXCEL IN FIRST DAY QUALIFYINGProck and Beckman Go 2-3 in Funny Car; Brittany Second to Kalitta in Top Fuel

PHOENIX, Ariz. (March 21, 2025) – After an uncharacteristic performance in the season opener at Gainesville, Fla., reigning Funny Car World Champion Austin Prock looked more like his old dominant self Friday, coaxing his Cornwell Tools Chevrolet SS to one of the three quickest runs in each of the first two qualifying sessions in 40th NHRA Arizona Nationals at Firebird Motorsports Park  The 29-year-old finished Day 1 in the provisional No. 2 position at 3.883 seconds, just a tick behind Bob Tasca III (3.863) and a tick ahead of John Force Racing teammate Jack Beckman (3.895), who continued to rack up qualifying bonus points in his PEAK Antifreeze and Coolant Chevy. Racing without the “mud flaps” that usually are positioned just in front of the rear tires on modern era Top Fuel dragsters like her Monster Energy Chevrolet, two-time World Champion Brittany Force also finished Friday in the provisional No. 2 position. Quickest in the first session, she wound up second behind only Doug Kalitta after negotiating the course in 3.705 seconds at 331.69 mph. Two final qualifying sessions Saturday will set the lineup for Sunday eliminations. All three JFR entries are benefitting this week from the sponsor support of Phoenix-based Powers Affordable Housing and the moral support of John Powers III, one of Force’s former Funny Car rivals, who spent Friday in the JFR compound. “That’s NHRA Drag racing for you,” Prock said of Friday’s performance. “One day you’re in the dirt and next day you’re making a nice run down the racetrack. Great start to the weekend here in Phoenix. Sun’s out. Happy to be at a racetrack where it’s warm (and) really proud to have new sponsors on the side of this racecar. “Obviously, we were looking for a get healthy day after (qualifying only 15th and losing in the first round at) Gainesville,” said the man who last year qualified his Chevy No. 1 a record-setting 15 times in 20 events. “It’s got a lot more left in it. It kind of chattered the tire early both runs. We’re just getting it back dialed in.  “I know this ‘Prock Rocket’ is going to be flying by the end of the weekend, so I’m excited about that and excited to have some new partners on board with us. Powers Affordable Housing. They use all American made steel, and they have some really cool products for living in or if you have a hot rod you need a garage for. And it’s really cool to have Graham Rahal on the side of this thing as well. Graham and I are good buddies, and he has a hell of a facility out there in Zionsville (Indiana). So, excited about that and excited to get in tomorrow and see where we land on Sunday.” Second quickest on his first run, Beckman was third quickest in the Friday night session and, like his teammate, anxious to see what Saturday brings. “Another great qualifying day for the PEAK Chevy SS,” he said. “At Gainesville, we only got two qualifying runs, but we were No. 1 both sessions. And then we come out here and first session we’re No. 2 and second session we’re No. 3. That means we got bonus points every time this car has gone down the track this year in qualifying and that’s just a testament to the team and the crew guys on this car.  “They’re doing everything right,” said the three-time Phoenix winner. “The crew chiefs are making good calls and that just increases my confidence every time they fire it up.” As for Brittany, she was quickest in the first session at 3.768 seconds and was the first to take advantage of the NHRA’s four-race moratorium on “mud flaps.” “This is a really good start for our Monster Energy team,” she said. “There’s a lot of theories and speculation going around about removing the ‘mud flaps,’ but we didn’t have them on our car in Gainesville during testing when we went 302.69 mph to the 1/8th mile (fastest speed ever to that distance) and we didn’t have them on at all today. “We’re behind Doug after today, but we’re still very satisfied with the performance of the car,” said the 17-time tour winner. “We’re also excited to be teaming up with Powers Affordable Housing and with Graham Rahal Performance. That one is very special since Graham is my brother-in-law (married to former Funny Car driver Courtney Force). So, to tie together IndyCar and drag racing and have family on our car is very special.” Regarding the mud flaps, crew chief David Grubnic said flatly that “One run doesn’t prove anything. We’ve been given the opportunity to explore (this issue) but we’ve got to look at driveshafts; we’ve got to look at a lot of things. The car pretty much ran its number (Friday) so it doesn’t suggest the mud flaps did anything (but) it’s way too early.  Let’s just see what happens.”

CHEVROLET IN NTT INDYCAR SERIES THE THERMAL CLUB INDYCAR GRAND PRIX THE THERMAL CLUB THERMAL, CALIFORNIA TEAM CHEVY RACE PRACTICE ONE MARCH 21, 2025 CHEVROLET POWERED DRIVERS SHOW STRENGTH IN FIRST PRACTCE AT THE THERMAL CLUB·       Drivers representing all six of the Chevrolet INDYCAR teams took turns in the 80-minute (65 minutes of track time) practice session in preparation for Firestone Fast Six qualifying on Saturday·       Christian Rasmussen, No. 21 Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet, led the charge for Team Chevy with a fast lap of one minute, 40:8728 seconds around the 3.067-mile/17-turn natural road course·       Pato O’Ward, No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet, Scott McLaughlin, No 3 Team Penske Chevrolet, Will Power, No. 12 Team Penske Chevrolet and Santino Ferrucci, No. 14 AJ Foyt Chevrolet showed solid performance and speed during the session·       Robert Shwartman , No. 83 PREMA Chevrolet, suffered a fuel cell technical issue that caused a fire forcing the team to go to a back-up car·       The Thermal Club INDYCAR Grand Prix on Saturday sees Practice 2 at 1 p.m. ET, with qualifying and the Firestone Fast Six at 5 p.m. ET, both on FS1. Sunday’s race day opens then with a warm-up session on FS1 at 11 a.m. ET. The 65-lap, 199.36-mile main event takes the green flag live with new NTT INDYCAR SERIES partner FOX on Sunday live at 3 p.m. ET. All practice and qualifying sessions broadcast with INDYCAR Radio and SiriusXM Channel 218.

WHAT THEY’RE SAYING:Robert Shwartzman, No. 83 PREMA Chevrolet: “From my side, from the cockpit, I was driving and immediately lost power, then I had a fuel alarm pop up. I was like ‘Okay, something is wrong.’ Then all of a sudden the car restarted. It brought back the engine power, and I thought maybe everything was fine. I just started going slowly, taking it easy, then at some point I heard a hit, like a pop. Like a little hit on the back and then immediately I felt the seat heating up and I looked in the mirror and saw smoke and fire coming. So I knew I needed to immediately stop the car. I stopped the car and jumped out. From the outside, it didn’t look that bad, at least the fire was not massive. It was good the guys were quick to operate to save the car, so hopefully it’s not big damage and that we can rebuild the car for tomorrow. It’s not helpful, this situation, because it’s the second race weekend we have another problem that’s compromising our driving time, but it is what it is. It happens. What can I do about it? From tomorrow, it’s going to be my job to do the best job possible.” Santino Ferrucci, No. 14 AJ Foyt Racing Chevrolet: “I just love being out here at Thermal. It’s great to be here with Chevrolet, Sexton Properties, and the AJ Foyt team. Surrounded by all these beautiful homes, palm trees and sunny skies, man. I’m loving it. We’ve been struggling with understeer. It’s a common thread with this car just with the way we’re going with the weight and everything. You’ve got to learn how to adapt. That’s a part of being a racecar driver. You’ve got to adapt. So we upped the caster. Give it some more steering weight. Give it some more mid-corner, hopefully. I may be small, but I hit the gym. I feel really great about it. Like I said, the (tire) deg here is going be pretty awesome. I think Firestone has brought us a great tire to run. It’ll be a fun strategy race.”  Josef Newgarden, No. 2 Team Penske Chevrolet: “I think you’re going to get big degradation. This is like old school Laguna before the repave a couple of years ago, which is very fun. I know most drivers, including myself, really enjoyed that. I think the tires are acting differently here than they did in St. Pete. We’re back on a road course but this exhibits street course characteristics, if you will. What I mean by this is the red may be more preferred, so the alternate compared to St. Pete where we really liked the primary. I think that’s going to be question mark is what we’re going to use more often this weekend. But I think degradation is definitely going to be the topic. It’s how well does the car look after things, where do you start, what’s the undercut situation, in and out laps. That’s where you’re going to win or lose this race, just like where Laguna (Seca) used to be.” Conor Daly, No. 76 Juncos Hollinger Racing Chevrolet:“Well, I think it was really nice to get back out there and get some changes in. The track certainly is it’s a challenge, and I think it’s going to present everyone a couple of new battles with how the weight distribution is now. But I was really happy with how we progressed through the session and picked up a huge amount of time on the reds. Made a little mistake the last corner that cost us a couple of tenths, but good knowledge, good learning for us. Excited for tomorrow to keep going.” Sting Ray, No. 77 Juncos Hollinger Chevrolet:”First day here at Thermal, I think, went smoothly. Not a lot of track time with red flags and another car catching on fire, but I think that we rolled off with a decent package. There’s still some room to go. I think that we’re a bit closer on time sheets than I think we should be, but that’s a good problem to have. I’m optimistic for the qualifying tomorrow, and I’m excited to see what other options we can get going for the car going faster but it looks good and feels good.” Nolan Siegel, No. 6 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet: “Overall, I think it was a positive start and our pace on new Firestone Alternate tires was pretty strong. We know what we need to work on. We have a lot of understeer that we’ll need to sort out but it’s comfortable. It’s my first time racing in St. Pete in the NTT INDYCAR SERIES, and this is one of my favorite tracks and I’m very excited for the weekend. Off to a strong and positive start and I think we’ll get better from here and be in good shape for Qualifying.” Christian Lundgaard, No. 7 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet: “For our first go, I think we’re okay. We’re obviously building up to it. We don’t really know what the track condition is compared to last year since St. Pete was a bit under water last fall. I think we’ve identified a few things that we were concerned about leaving Sebring. Some of them translated, some of them didn’t. We still have some work to do, but overall it was a good first run. I’m looking forward to hearing what the others have to say in terms of where we are from an overall balance and overall performance perspective. It’s good to get running.” NTT INDYCAR SERIES News ConferenceFriday, March 21, 2025Scott McLaughlinPato O’WardPress Conference THE MODERATOR: Wrapping up P1 this weekend of the Thermal Club INDYCAR Grand Prix here at beautiful Thermal Club. Joining us is Scott McLaughlin, as is Pato O’Ward,  Q. What did you learn from that practice tire-wise, Scott? SCOTT MCLAUGHLIN: I just want to acknowledge that we’re watching NHRA in the INDYCAR press conference. At the end of the day it was, I haven’t been here for a while, nice to get out and have a feel for it. The track is in pretty good nick, I thought, compared year on year. And all the changes they’ve done to Thermal Club, honestly, you have to thank them because they’ve put a lot of work in, pit lane and all that stuff and on track. But yeah, felt good. Played around with some settings on the engine side, and I think we’re okay. Q. Pato, I was asking these guys about what they learned tire-wise from this opening practice. I know that’ll be a big determining factor for how this race goes on Sunday. What did you think you learned from the tire life you’ll get out of the primaries and how many stops we’ll see on Sunday? PATO O’WARD: Ooh, it’s still a cheese grater. We just need to look at the data, really. I think it was a bit different for each of our cars. But yeah, the common denominator is that the DEG is going to be big. I would see it like an Iowa — like an old Iowa kind of thing, I would say, but I can’t road course. Hard to pinpoint it. Q. Did the changes in Turn 17 to the curb, were those good? SCOTT MCLAUGHLIN: I think I’m still airborne. Are you? PATO O’WARD: Yeah, we’re still jumping. Yeah. I thought it felt a little bit better. SCOTT MCLAUGHLIN: Oh, for sure better. More raceable. PATO O’WARD: We’re still catching some air. SCOTT MCLAUGHLIN: That’s cool. PATO O’WARD: Yeah, we feel it. Q. For Scott, watching the practice, obviously, it looks quite difficult during the race in traffic for overtaking. What’s your opinion in traffic situations? Is there a safe place to overtake or do you have to stay patient? SCOTT MCLAUGHLIN: I’ve said it a lot during the week to my guys. I actually think it’s going to race a lot like the old Laguna Seca in some ways, quite a high deg track. We’ll probably play that patience game a little bit. Traditionally, last year was hard because we ran the same set of tires over two races almost, so you were kind of saving the tire for the first half and then making sure that you had enough if there was a late yellow. But this year, obviously, with pit stops and stuff, you want to make some — obviously, when there’s degradation in some spots, it’s as many as you probably thought there would be on a big, big track, but I think with the tire degradation it’ll create opportunities that you may not normally pass someone on the same speed. But yeah. Q. Pato and Scott, you guys obviously had Felipe test here for Penske and I think Enzo for Arrow McLaren. I know it wasn’t the same thing as being here, but does having that little bit of extra data help you this weekend? SCOTT MCLAUGHLIN: I guess you could see the track year on year how it’s looking, but yeah, it’s hard because when you have a test like that, there’s only probably three or four cars running around, so the track is probably not as right. But it gave us an idea of where it’s at, at least our team, and it was nice to have three-point do some laps here? PATO O’WARD: Yeah, it’s a track that’s very sensitive to temperature. So like Colton said, they were like 30 degrees cooler and the track temp was definitely a lot nicer then. I can’t remember what you guys were running, but it was definitely quicker than what we were with the old tire, stuff like that. It’s just very sensitive to those differences. Yeah, I’m curious to see what it’s going to do in P2 and then back into qualifying. I think there’s going to be such a shift from one to the other. Q. Pato, how are you finding TK as team principal? PATO O’WARD: How am I finding TK? Race car driver mentality. He still thinks he’s a racing driver. Q. Is that good or bad? PATO O’WARD: I think it’s good. I think it drives everybody forward. Obviously, always has a good spirit, lots of energy. But so far, I think it’s been good. Obviously, there’s been also additions to leadership, as well. So it’s obviously taken some time to kind of all mold together, but I think we’re headed in the right direction. Q. Lundgaard said that TK can be critical and that Lundgaard’s father was a race car driver and he never listened to anything his father told him. And so now he’s struggling to listen to what another former race car driver is criticizing him about. Do you have that problem with TK giving you feedback, whether it be good or bad? PATO O’WARD: I always like to hear, like, the negative feedback more, I would say, than the positive because I feel like the positive, it’s always very dependent on just results. But I feel like behind the results, there’s a lot of things that happen, and you always learn more from the things that you’re doing maybe not optimal. I always welcome it. Sometimes maybe it’s not what you want to hear, but I would say it’s the right approach to have an open mind to that to try and be better. Honestly, I welcome it from everyone. Yeah, we all want to be better. Q. Can you talk about the difference in the hybrid and how did that work out in the first practice session? What did you notice? SCOTT MCLAUGHLIN: Yeah, they’ve added the energy limit, adding to Colton there, so this weekend we can use more than we actually have in previous races. In some ways, the way that we’re using it, which is, obviously, we’re making improvements and getting more comfortable with this hybrid system, but there’s still kinks in it and whatnot, and we’re trying to iron that out. But at the same time, like from a kinks perspective of having to use it and learning to use it and where to use it, I really do enjoy the complexity about it. Q. Pato, in case you have a totally different opinion, of — when TK has an opinion about setup or whatever, a technical decision, you have a totally different decision, you will start a fight, you will be very emotional? What will happen? PATO O’WARD: I’m going to do as I please because I’m in the car. Q. Colton, first off, do you feel safe sitting next to Scott after seeing that FOX cartoon of him? PATO O’WARD: They did you so dirty, man, but they fixed it. SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: I heard. My wife texted me. PATO O’WARD: And I think it’s because of you. PATO O’WARD: They’re going to land a helicopter on it. SCOTT MCLAUGHLIN: I know. It was kind of accurate, though. I do have a big forehead. That’s why I wear a hat. PATO O’WARD: But not that big. Don’t do yourself so dirty. Q. Earlier today, we were saying they weren’t going cool suit on Sunday. After being in that practice session, where do you stand on cool suit — SCOTT MCLAUGHLIN: Same. SCOTT MCLAUGHLIN: This place is a difficult track after a long amount of time, big loads in corners. The heat is going to be close to 90 degrees on Sunday. Yeah, I’m wearing it. PATO O’WARD: I’ve used it once. But maybe I should reconsider. I used it once and it was in Nashville, and I was very thankful I used it because I think you didn’t and you looked wrecked after the race. I don’t know, maybe I’ll reconsider.

The team has gone from its first race a year ago to leading the World of Outlaws rookie points with Garet WilliamsonPAIGE, TX (March 20, 2025) – A year ago, a new Sprint Car team rolled into Cotton Bowl Speedway for its debut.These were no newbies just getting into the game, though. This was a professional organization right off the bat run by a family passionate for the sport. A pristine blue and white hauler. A simple yet sharp paint scheme on the car. The Fischer Motorsports No. 23 was unleashed and ready to be a part of the top level of Sprint Car racing.Longtime supporter of Sprint Cars, Curt Fischer, had always wanted to field a team, and the right opportunity arose in 2024. They put the pieces together, hired Garet Williamson to drive, and hit the road for a busy pick-and-choose season.“I’ll tell you we were excited to get going,” Fischer recalled. “Of course, there was no steering units and no rear ends available, or we would’ve been in Florida last year. So, we waited until the last minute, and of course the other teams had units left from the previous year, so they could still make Florida. That’s why we held off and started in Texas. It was a very interesting weekend, and it was a very interesting year for us.”“That (Cotton Bowl) was our first race last year,” Williamson said. “It was a long but quick off-season, if that makes sense. By the time we got parts and everything it was just thrash-season. Starting a team up from scratch is very hard, especially nowadays with just how hard it is to get parts and the quantity we were ordering to build a high-caliber team.”Fast forward a year, and they’ve risen to the pinnacle of the sport. Williamson returns to Cotton Bowl this weekend for the Federated Auto Parts Texas Two-Step with a new set of circumstances. Fischer sent his team out for a full-time run with the World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Cars in 2025.But they didn’t simply want to be a part of The Greatest Show on Dirt. They wanted to have an impact. Go toe-to-toe with the best Sprint Car drivers in the world and compete with them. So far, that’s exactly what they’ve done.Williamson heads back to the site of Fischer Motorsports’ debut atop the Kevin Gobrecht Rookie of the Year standings above a loaded class of seven contestants. Led by crew chief Chad Cypert, the team’s consistency as of late brought an 11.3 average finish in the last six races including a season-best seventh at Kennedale Speedway Park.For Williamson and Fischer, their early performance is a testament to racing as often as they could last year in many areas of the country and usually facing off with the toughest competition.“I think it shows a lot about how important it is to get as many laps as you can and shows why the guys that have been doing it so long are as good as they are,” Williamson said. “Being with the same guys and team is just as important as any stick-and-ball sport being with the same team. It just grows so much faster and better, and you just build a bond with your guys. Luckily, me and Chaddy (Chad Cypert) worked together in the past, so that kind of curve of learning each other and how we function is not too bad because we’ve also gotten along really well. I think that was huge.”“I couldn’t ask for a better Florida,” Fischer said. “I was very happy with our performance down there. It’s a tough time to be in Sprint Car racing because everybody is so close, and there’s so much money out there that you got to run at the top of your game. You don’t get a second chance like years in the past whenever I was with Jason Johnson and others. You could always rely on somebody slipping up, and you’d be fine, and now it’s like holy cow. You’ve got to hold on to everything you can get, and no you don’t want to go out there and make anybody mad especially being a rookie, but by the same token you’ve still got to race your car.”There’s a long way to go in 2025, but the season started on the right foot for Williamson. He’s not shy about his desire to claim the Kevin Gobrecht Rookie of the Year. You only get one chance as a driver. Fischer wants to see his team win the award, and all indications are they’ll be in the hunt. They’ve come a long way from first unloading at Cotton Bowl last spring.“Before the season started, Garet said, ‘I guarantee you we’re going to win the rookie points.’ Well, that was before six other guys jumped on board,” Fischer said with a laugh. “So, we’re really putting him to the test, him and the team, to get out there and win this thing. We’re really excited.”Williamson and the Fischer Motorsports team take on Paige, TX’s Cotton Bowl Speedway at this weekend’s Federated Auto Parts Texas Two-Step this weekend (March 21-22). For tickets, CLICK HERE.For the complete 2025 schedule, CLICK HERE.If you can’t make it to the track, catch every lap live on DIRTVision.ARTICLE: https://worldofoutlaws.com/sprintcars/a-year-later-from-texas-debut-to-world-of-outlaws-tour-for-fischer-motorsports/EVENT INFO: https://worldofoutlaws.com/sprintcars/schedule/event-info/?event=4547715 TRACK INFO: https://worldofoutlaws.com/sprintcars/tracks/?track=Cotton%2BBowl%2BSpeedwayFAN 101: https://about.worldofoutlaws.com/

Josh Berry to pilot throwback scheme celebrating the Wood Brothers’ pivotal role in Clark’s historic Indy 500 win

DEARBORN, Mich. (March 20, 2025) – Wood Brothers Racing and driver Josh Berry are set to honor a landmark moment in the team’s history with a special throwback paint scheme for the upcoming Goodyear 400 at Darlington Raceway, the Official Throwback Weekend of NASCAR. The No. 21 Motorcraft Ford Mustang will don a design inspired by Jim Clark’s iconic Ford-powered Lotus, which clinched victory at the 1965 Indianapolis 500—a win significantly bolstered by the Wood Brothers’ innovative pit stop strategies. The tribute livery was unveiled today with a commemorative event at The Henry Ford in Dearborn, Michigan, where Clark’s original race-winning car is exhibited. “This was a really fun project to work on with the team, from sorting all the details to making sure it properly reflected such an important moment in history,” said Jon Wood, president of Wood Brothers Racing. “It’s always special to run a throwback, but this one carries extra meaning because of the connection our family had to that Indy 500 win. Unveiling it at The Henry Ford, right next to the original car, made it even more special. Seeing the No. 21 in those colors is a great way to honor that history, and I think it’s something fans will really appreciate.” That connection dates back to an unexpected conversation at Darlington Raceway, the very track where this tribute will take center stage. During a NASCAR race in the mid-1960s, Ford Motor Company racing official John Cowley approached Glenn Wood with a proposition that took him by surprise—assisting with pit stops for Clark and Team Lotus in the 1965 Indianapolis 500.  “When we were asked by Ford Motor Company to pit Jim Clark’s car for the Indy 500, it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for our family,” said Leonard Wood. “We were just a group of guys from Stuart, Virginia, working on stock cars, and suddenly, we were part of something that would become a unique part of our history. To see that same scheme now on our No. 21 Ford Mustang for Throwback Weekend at Darlington is really special. It brings back a lot of memories, and it’s a great way to honor that moment.” Berry, in his first season driving for the Wood Brothers, has already added to the team’s storied legacy by recently capturing his first career NASCAR Cup Series victory at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, which also marked the Wood Brothers’ 101st win.  “The Wood Brothers have such a rich history in racing, and their role in the 1965 Indy 500 is one of those stories that really stands out,” said Berry. “Getting to drive a throwback that represents such a unique moment for the team is really special. The scheme looks amazing, and I can’t wait to hit the track at Darlington with it.” The 2025 NASCAR Throwback Weekend at Darlington Raceway takes place April 5-6, with the Goodyear 400 scheduled for Sunday, April 6, at 3 p.m. ET on FS1. ADDITIONAL PHOTOS: HEREAbout Motorcraft® Motorcraft offers a complete line of replacement parts that are recommended by Ford Motor Company. From routine maintenance to under hood repairs, Motorcraft parts offer value with high quality and the right fit at competitive prices. Motorcraft parts are available nationwide at Ford Dealers and Lincoln Retailers, independent distributors and automotive-parts retailers, and are backed by the Service Parts Limited Warranty* of Ford Motor Company. For more information, visit www.motorcraft.com. *See your dealer for limited-warranty details. About Quick Lane® Tire & Auto Center Quick Lane Tire & Auto Center offers extraordinary service for routine maintenance, serving all vehicle makes and models. Quick Lane provides a full menu of automotive services, including tires, oil change and maintenance, brakes, batteries, alternator and electrical system, air conditioning system, cooling system, transmission service, suspension and steering, wheel alignment, belts and hoses, lamps and bulbs and wiper blades plus a thorough vehicle checkup report. Service is performed by expert technicians while you wait at any of nearly 800 locations in the U.S., with evening and weekend hours available and no appointment necessary. For more information about Quick Lane, please visit www.quicklane.com. *See your dealer for limited-warranty details.” About Ford Motor Company Ford Motor Company (NYSE: F) is a global company based in Dearborn, Michigan, committed to helping build a better world, where every person is free to move and pursue their dreams. The company’s Ford+ plan for growth and value creation combines existing strengths, new capabilities and always-on relationships with customers to enrich experiences for customers and deepen their loyalty. Ford develops and delivers innovative, must-have Ford trucks, sport utility vehicles, commercial vans and cars and Lincoln luxury vehicles, along with connected services. The company does that through three customer-centered business segments: Ford Blue, engineering iconic gas-powered and hybrid vehicles; Ford Model e, inventing breakthrough EVs along with embedded software that defines exceptional digital experiences for all customers; and Ford Pro, helping commercial customers transform and expand their businesses with vehicles and services tailored to their needs. Additionally, Ford is pursuing mobility solutions through Ford Next, and provides financial services through Ford Motor Credit Company. Ford employs about 177,000 people worldwide. More information about the company and its products and services is available at corporate.ford.com.   About Ford Performance Ford Performance is based in Dearborn, Mich. It is responsible for Ford’s performance vehicle development and major racing operations globally, including NASCAR, IMSA, SRO British GT, FIA World Rally Championship, Supercars Championship, World of Outlaws, Ultra4, SCORE-International, FIA Rally-Raid, Formula Drift, NHRA, Rebelle Rally, Thailand Super Series and our latest commitment in Formula 1 with RedBull Ford Powertrains. Ford Performance also maintains a constantly evolving fleet of electric performance demonstrators to showcase the limits of electrification technology. In addition, the organization also oversees the development of Ford’s racing engines, as well as the outreach programs with all Ford Clubs and Ford enthusiasts. For more information regarding Ford racing’s activities, please visit Performance.Ford.com or follow @FordPerformance on Facebook, Instagram, X, Threads, TikTok and YouTube. About Wood Brothers Racing Founded in 1950 by Hall of Famer Glenn Wood in Stuart, Virginia, Wood Brothers Racing holds a special place in NASCAR history as the sport’s longest-running team. Over eight decades, the team has earned 100 victories in the NASCAR Cup Series, along with 120 poles, and remains proud of its longstanding relationship with Ford Motor Company, fielding only Ford products since its inception. Glenn’s brother, Leonard Wood, played a key role in shaping modern racing by developing the techniques behind today’s pit stops. With a rich legacy rooted in innovation and tradition, Wood Brothers Racing continues to honor its heritage while adapting for the future as it competes in NASCAR’s premier series with Josh Berry.