Toyota drivers qualify in prime positions for Monday’s eliminations

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

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

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

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

Toyota Post-Qualifying Recap

NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series

Indianapolis Raceway Park

U.S. Nationals

Race 14 of 20

TOYOTA TOP FUEL QUALIFYING POSITIONS

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

TOYOTA FUNNY CAR QUALIFYING POSITIONS

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

*non-Toyota driver

TOYOTA QUOTES

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

TF Qualifying Result: 4th

How are you feeling entering tomorrow’s eliminations?

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

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

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

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

FC Qualifying Result: 7th

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

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

Toyota drivers qualify in prime positions for Monday’s eliminations

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

Toyota Post-Qualifying Recap

NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series

Indianapolis Raceway Park

U.S. Nationals

Race 14 of 20

TOYOTA TOP FUEL QUALIFYING POSITIONS

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

TOYOTA FUNNY CAR QUALIFYING POSITIONS

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

*non-Toyota driver

TOYOTA QUOTES

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

TF Qualifying Result: 4th

How are you feeling entering tomorrow’s eliminations?

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

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

FC Qualifying Result: 7th

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

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

Uncategorized

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

September 3, 2025 ARP Trish

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

UP NEXT

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

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

ABBREVIATED RESULTS (view all results)

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

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

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

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

UP NEXT

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

ABBREVIATED RESULTS (view all results)

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

Uncategorized

Thornton Wins First Career Hillbilly Hundred

September 3, 2025 ARP Trish

Thornton Wins First Career Hillbilly Hundred

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

Uncategorized

Pierce Completes Sooner State Sweep, Extends Win Streak to Four

August 26, 2025 ARP Trish

COLCORD, OK (August 23, 2025) – If it was up to Bobby Pierce, the World of Outlaws Real American Beer Late Model Series presented by DIRTVision would race in Oklahoma a little more often.

The “Sooner State” became the 32nd different state Pierce has competed in with his first trip to Arrowhead Speedway. A runner-up with the COMP Cams Super Dirt Series on Thursday night got Pierce dialed in for the next two nights of World of Outlaws racing, and the “Smooth Operator” was the man to beat for the rest of the weekend.

“People were saying online, I saw they’re like, ‘oh yeah, this is a Late Model track,’ and I agree,” Pierce said. “It’s nice and wide, like tonight, we used the whole racetrack top to bottom. It was a lot of fun when it’s like that. That’s what I like, when we have a nice, wide track and there’s multiple grooves you can kind of pick from. Had a little bit of cushion up there, a little mud line on the bottom, and it was kind of slick in the middle, but it threw some crumb up there.”

Unlike Friday’s drive to the win from fifth, a Heat Race win and a fortuitous Redraw gave Pierce the Bilstein Pole for Saturday’s 50-lapper. It didn’t come easy for Pierce early though, as second-starting Tim McCreadie made good use of the top to lead the first three circuits until Dustin Sorensen slowed to bring out the first caution.

McCreadie tried the bottom on the restart, leaving the cushion wide open for Pierce to drop the hammer on the restart. The No. 32 built up a big run off Turn 4 and went inside of McCreadie down the frontstretch, drifting up in front of McCreadie in Turn 1 to move into the lead. That gave Pierce the ability to set the pace the rest of the way, something he didn’t take for granted given the tire wear concerns throughout the week and the longer distance of Saturday’s finale.

“T-Mac shot out there early, got the lead on me,” Pierce said. “I didn’t let him go, but that caution came out three laps in, and I was like, ‘well, I’ll go now, try to get the lead, that way I can set my own pace,’ and I got around him on the restart. I just felt like the car was good. I could roll the corners, keep the tires under me and not wheelspin as much as I was the other night. My tires look pretty good, I feel like I could have went 100.”

The same could not be said for Pierce’s closest competitor, as McCreadie popped his right-rear tire while running second with eight laps to go to set up a late-race dash to the finish. No one had anything for Pierce though, as he cruised under the checkered flag 1.6 seconds ahead of the field for his fourth-straight World of Outlaws win and his 11th of the season.

The final yellow played right into Nick Hoffman’s favor, as the No. 9 went from fourth to second to end up on the podium for the 12th time in 2025.

“[Pierce] I feel like was just a tick better,” Hoffman said. “He could kind of maneuver a little bit better than I could. He got the top rolling early, was able to get out front, and then I just screwed around with [Brian] Shirley for too long there.”

Tyler Erb picked up FOX Factory Hard Charger honors for his 10th-to-third drive, enough for his best Series result since his win at Mississippi Thunder Speedway in May.

“Having two days to tinker with it, obviously we’ve never been here,” Erb said. “Tonight the racetrack was really good, it had a huge cushion that was dangerous and hard to run, and then the bottom had enough grip to kind of keep up. And the [Turns 3 and 4] are just so weird. Figuring out how to drive this place first of all and then tinkering with the car a little bit.”

Shirley made it four-straight World of Outlaws top fives in fourth, while Drake Troutman finished fifth for the MD3 Rookie of the Race Award.

RACE NOTES:

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

Cade Dillard won the Simpson Quick Time Award.

Nick Hoffman won Real American Beer Heat 1.

Brian Shirley won STAKT Products Heat 2.

Bobby Pierce won Keyser Manufacturing Heat 3.

Tim McCreadie won Jarrett Rifles Heat 4.

Ryan Gustin and Eli Ross won the Landa Pressure Washers Last Chance Showdowns.

Bobby Pierce won the Bilstein Pole Award.

Tyler Erb won the FOX Factory Hard Charger Award.

Drake Troutman was the MD3 Rookie of the Race.

Nick Hoffman won the WELD Racing Second-Place Finisher Award.

Brian Shirley was the ARP Fourth-Place Finisher.

Drake Troutman was the MSD Fifth-Place Finisher.

Cade Dillard was the Swift Springs Sixth-Place Finisher.

Tim McCreadie 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.

Chase Junghans was the Cometic Gaskets 12th-Place Finisher.

UP NEXT: A return to the southeast lies ahead for the World of Outlaws Real American Beer Late Model Series presented by DIRTVision with stops at Needmore Speedway (Friday, Sept. 12) and Senoia Raceway (Saturday, Sept. 13). Tickets will be available at the gate.

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

Pierce Completes Sooner State Sweep, Extends Win Streak to Four

COLCORD, OK (August 23, 2025) – If it was up to Bobby Pierce, the World of Outlaws Real American Beer Late Model Series presented by DIRTVision would race in Oklahoma a little more often.

The final yellow played right into Nick Hoffman’s favor, as the No. 9 went from fourth to second to end up on the podium for the 12th time in 2025.

Tyler Erb picked up FOX Factory Hard Charger honors for his 10th-to-third drive, enough for his best Series result since his win at Mississippi Thunder Speedway in May.

Shirley made it four-straight World of Outlaws top fives in fourth, while Drake Troutman finished fifth for the MD3 Rookie of the Race Award.

RACE NOTES:

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

Cade Dillard won the Simpson Quick Time Award.

Nick Hoffman won Real American Beer Heat 1.

Brian Shirley won STAKT Products Heat 2.

Bobby Pierce won Keyser Manufacturing Heat 3.

Tim McCreadie won Jarrett Rifles Heat 4.

Ryan Gustin and Eli Ross won the Landa Pressure Washers Last Chance Showdowns.

Bobby Pierce won the Bilstein Pole Award.

Tyler Erb won the FOX Factory Hard Charger Award.

Drake Troutman was the MD3 Rookie of the Race.

Nick Hoffman won the WELD Racing Second-Place Finisher Award.

Brian Shirley was the ARP Fourth-Place Finisher.

Drake Troutman was the MSD Fifth-Place Finisher.

Cade Dillard was the Swift Springs Sixth-Place Finisher.

Tim McCreadie 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.

Chase Junghans was the Cometic Gaskets 12th-Place Finisher.

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

Feature (50 Laps): 1. 32-Bobby Pierce[1]; 2. 9-Nick Hoffman[4]; 3. 1-Tyler Erb[10]; 4. 3S-Brian Shirley[3]; 5. 22*-Drake Troutman[6]; 6. 97-Cade Dillard[8]; 7. 20TC-Tristan Chamberlain[9]; 8. 9M-Tim McCreadie[2]; 9. 74X-Ethan Dotson[16]; 10. 2-Cody Overton[12]; 11. 19R-Ryan Gustin[17]; 12. 18-Chase Junghans[11]; 13. 96-Tanner English[19]; 14. 28-Dennis Erb Jr[5]; 15. 66-Eli Ross[18]; 16. 1R-BJ Robinson[13]; 17. B1-Brent Larson[15]; 18. 21-Billy Moyer Sr[7]; 19. 49-Jake Timm[14]; 20. 5-Jon Mitchell[24]; 21. 15-Clay Stuckey[26]; 22. 1X-Aaron Marrant[21]; 23. 86-Kyle Beard[22]; 24. 2C-Charlie Cole[25]; 25. 14M-Morgan Bagley[20]; 26. 19-Dustin Sorensen[23]

Uncategorized

NASCAR CUP SERIES DAYTONA INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY TEAM CHEVY POST-RACE REPORT AUGUST 23, 2025

August 26, 2025 ARP Trish

Seven Team Chevy Drivers Set to Compete for 2025 NASCAR Cup Series Championship

MEDIA RESOURCES: Photo Gallery | Race Advances Chevrolet Newsroom

·        Team Chevy’s Daniel Suarez and Justin Haley turned in a valiant effort for one last chance at a playoff berth – ultimately taking the checkered flag of the Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona International Speedway in a four-wide photo finish in the second and third positions, respectively. ·        The 2025 NASCAR Cup Series 26-race regular season saw Chevrolet collect a manufacturer-leading 12 wins – recorded by six drivers from three different Chevrolet organizations. With Hendrick Motorsports’ Alex Bowman securing the 16th and final position in the series’ playoff field, the Bowtie brigade will pace its manufacturer competitors in both driver and organization representation heading into the championship title hunt.
·        Back where the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season began, Alex Bowman and the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet team started their fight for a playoff spot with a front-row starting position for the regular season finale at Daytona International Speedway. Playoff pressure produced aggressive racing from the drop of the green flag with the opening stage coming to a close with a multi-car pileup that collected a handful of drivers in a ‘must-win’ position that saw their title hopes come to a close including Team Chevy’s Kyle Busch and Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
·        Despite being sidelined in the Stage One melee, Alex Bowman and the No. 48 Chevrolet team capitalized on a 60-point cushion heading into the regular season finale to claim the 16th and final spot in the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series playoffs.
·        Already sealing their title run fate with a win, Hendrick Motorsports’ Kyle Larson and Trackhouse Racing’s Ross Chastain cashed in on stage points – driving their Chevrolet-powered machines to a sweep of the stage wins.

TEAM CHEVY UNOFFICIAL TOP-10 RESULTS: POS. DRIVER
2nd – Daniel Suarez3rd – Justin Haley6th – Kyle Larson10th – Chase Elliott

Chevrolet’s season statistics with 26 NASCAR Cup Series races complete:

Wins: 12Poles: 10Top-Fives: 52Top 10s: 111Stage Wins: 22

UP NEXT: The 2025 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs Round of 16 will get underway with the Cook Out Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway on Sunday, August 31, at 6 p.m. ET. Live coverage can be found on the USA Network, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.

Post-Race Driver Quotes: Ross Chastain, No. 1 Trackhouse Racing ChevroletFinished: 15th“We had a really good No. 1 SafetyCulture Chevrolet tonight. I didn’t ask for an adjustment all night, and I wouldn’t ask for anything different for another 400 miles. That’s really, really cool to do that. The speedway package is a tight box, and we’ve migrated to a really good spot on the No. 1 team. I think from across the board, listening to Shane (van Gisbergen), he had some issues that I’ve had year’s past, so hopefully we’ll get the No. 88 Chevrolet headed in our direction.” How important is it to have two Trackhouse Racing drivers in the playoffs? “It’s super important. I want three, though. I’m proud of the effort by Daniel (Suarez) and the No. 99 team. He kept his cool tonight. I tried to push him at times; it didn’t work out and he made it up there on his own there at the end and gave himself a shot. It would be better with three, but we’re definitely proud of the effort tonight. We still have three cars going to compete for wins.” Austin Dillon, No. 3 Richard Childress Racing ChevroletFinished: 24th “It was fun to head into a Daytona race locked into the NASCAR Playoffs and with a little bit less pressure on us. I hate that we couldn’t work with the No. 8 team more and help push Kyle Busch to a spot in the NASCAR Playoffs. We had a chance tonight, but the race didn’t play out to our favor. We had a tough decision when the caution flag came out with 11 laps to go. We could gamble and stay out, or pit and have plenty of fuel and fresh tires on the No. 3 BREZTRI AEROSPHERE® (budesonide, glycopyrrolate, and formoterol fumarate) Chevrolet if there were multiple restarts. We opted for the tires because traditionally there’s a good chance at a big wreck in the closing laps of these races. The wreck never came and we didn’t have enough laps to regain our position. We put ourselves in a bad spot, but we’ll clean that stuff up. We’ve got 10 weeks of NASCAR Playoff racing coming up.” Kyle Larson, No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports ChevroletFinished: 6th Describe what unfolded from your perspective. You were in the mix at the end at Daytona International Speedway… “Yeah, we’ve been in the mix a lot, I just haven’t gotten to finish a lot of them. It was a lot of fun tonight. We got a stage win. I made some mistakes there at the end of the second stage, but we had a shot there at the end. It just gets super intense. I’m glad the No. 48 (Alex Bowman) got locked-into the playoffs.” We have Darlington coming up. How do you get refocused now and start running for the championship?“Yeah, it’s good to get a couple good runs in the last couple of weeks and go to one of our better tracks (at Darlington Raceway) next weekend; keep the momentum going and get the playoffs started off right.” Justin Haley, No. 7 Spire Motorsports ChevroletFinished: 3rd“When the No. 5 (Kyle Larson) put the No. 60 (Ryan Preece) three-wide, the pack lost momentum, and I got too far out. By the time I realized it, I tried to check up, but then everyone came around me and I was just trying to find a lane. It was pretty tough, and obviously I don’t think the No. 5 wanted to push a new car to the win, so he was doing everything he could to win and that is respectable.” Kyle Busch, No. 8 Richard Childress Racing ChevroletFinished: 33rd “The No. 8 Cheddar’s Chevrolet was fast and we were confident in our Richard Childress Racing Machine. We got wrecked late in the first stage and ended up in the garage. The whole team gave it their all and got us back on track so we were able to finish the race. I’m proud of our team and the work they did to keep us running, and now we’ll focus on Darlington.” Chase Elliott, No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports ChevroletFinished: 10thHow did tonight go for you, and what are you looking forward to next weekend at Darlington Raceway to kickoff the playoffs? “Yeah, we got Alex (Bowman) in, so that’s good. I think Ryan (Blaney) jumped us in points and so did Kyle (Larson), so unfortunately, we lost a couple of playoff points there. But nonetheless, it was still good to get a handful and some change (of points). We’ll go to Darlington and try to build on the race we had there in the spring.” William Byron, No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports ChevroletFinished: 19th How was the communication with Rudy (Fugle, crew chief) back at home in Charlotte? “Thank you to everyone back at the shop. I thought Brandon (McSwain) did a really good job stepping in tonight. We’ve worked together for probably a decade, really, since the JR Motorsports days. He did a good job, and I’m sure all the work that Rudy (Fugle) was doing back at the shop helped Brandon, as well. Just really proud of the effort by this No. 24 Liberty University Chevrolet team. We had some gremlins there at the beginning of the race. We just had some weird stuff going on. Really nothing was wrong with the car, we just got in that early crash and thought we might have had some damage. But overall, our Chevy was good enough to compete for the win. I just wish I could take a couple decisions back in the final stage, and really, that caution hurt us because we were kind of mired in the back and it was hard to pass. I thought our weekend was smooth, all things considered. Just excited to get to Darlington. It’s one of our best racetracks, and I’m sure we’ll be fast there.” Austin Hill, No. 33 Richard Childress Racing ChevroletFinished: 30th “Bummed out for our United Rentals team. Getting caught up in a wreck that early in the race is very disappointing, but so much is out of your control during superspeedway racing. We were in the outside lane and just had nowhere to go. With qualifying being rained out, we started 36th but made moves as soon as the green flag waved. Driving to 14th in five laps showed the speed our Chevrolet had. Hate that we couldn’t compete because I felt really good about our chances to get a top-10. The No. 33 team kept digging all night, trying to make the most of it. We’ll try again in a few weeks at Bristol.” Ricky Stenhouse Jr., No. 47 Hyak Motorsports ChevroletSidelined by damage sustained in an accident in Stage One. Finished: 35th Stenhouse Jr. on the accident that ended the No. 47 Hyak Motorsports Chevrolet team’s race in Stage one: “I couldn’t really see anything. I got hit from about every direction after it happened. The No. 5 (Kyle Larson) got to the outside of the No. 22 (Joey Logano), which then in-turn, I think it put that row four-wide. I’m not sure what happened between the No. 22 and the No. 23 (Bubba Wallace). It was just really aggressive racing there. Our plan was to put our No. 47 Jack Link’s Duos Chevrolet towards the front and be at the front as much as possible. We got there, and I was in the position that I wanted to be in. I felt like we were going to get into turn one in probably fifth or sixth-place there and try to finish the stage out, but it didn’t happen.” Do you feel like you had a car that could win? “Our No. 47 Jack Link’s Duos felt really good. I was really stable. I felt like I had a little bit more speed, which was something I was excited about. I felt like I put my Chevy in a lot of good spots, and we went from the back to the front like we normally do.” Alex Bowman, No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports ChevroletSidelined by damage sustained in an accident in Stage One. Finished: 36th Is there anything you could have done to avoid that wreck? “Being in front of it is really about all I could do, unfortunately. From where we were, there just really wasn’t any way to get around it. All of the hits just sort of compounded too much to be able to fix it. I hate it for the No. 48 Ally Chevrolet team. We’ve done a lot of good things lately. Tonight is going to be stressful to watch, but we’ll see what happens. Hope for no new winners, but if somebody wins, they deserve it. It’s unfortunate that we haven’t won yet this year. We’ve been so strong, especially lately. I would say from Michigan on, it’s been something fun to be a part of. It was all very out of our control. I hate that we tanked so bad the first run. The bottom lane just fell apart behind us. We had to overcome that, but we had gotten back to the back side of the top-10. Unfortunately, it just didn’t work out.” Shane van Gisbergen, No. 88 Trackhouse Racing ChevroletFinished: 16th How much were you able to learn being able to complete the whole race tonight? “It was awesome. We set out and achieved what we wanted to do. I wasn’t quite a good enough pusher to help the No. 99 (Daniel Suarez). I would just get tight and bound up, and I couldn’t stay attached. But when we were out front, it was good. It was good to lead some laps and control some lanes. I learned a lot. We just have to keep building. It’s another solid result for this No. 88 Red Bull Chevrolet team.” Daniel Suarez, No. 99 Trackhouse Racing ChevroletFinished: 2ndYou had a fast Chevrolet here today. What else did you need there at the end? “We just needed one more spot. The No. 99 Coca-Cola Chevrolet team did a great job. We just probably needed to be in position a little bit earlier, but our Chevy was strong. We just lost a little bit of control in the final stage and that set us behind a little bit. The No. 12 (Ryan Blaney, race winner) was back there with us at one point. Overall, we had a good car all night, but it was just a little bit too late.”

NASCAR CUP SERIESDAYTONA INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAYTEAM CHEVY POST-RACE REPORTAUGUST 23, 2025

Seven Team Chevy Drivers Set to Compete for 2025 NASCAR Cup Series Championship

MEDIA RESOURCES: Photo Gallery | Race Advances Chevrolet Newsroom

TEAM CHEVY UNOFFICIAL TOP-10 RESULTS: POS. DRIVER
2nd – Daniel Suarez3rd – Justin Haley6th – Kyle Larson10th – Chase Elliott

Chevrolet’s season statistics with 26 NASCAR Cup Series races complete:

Wins: 12Poles: 10Top-Fives: 52Top 10s: 111Stage Wins: 22

Uncategorized

Thornton Secures Victory in Wild Rumble by the River at Port Royal

August 26, 2025 ARP Trish

Thornton Secures Victory in Wild Rumble by the River at Port Royal

PORT ROYAL, PA (August 23, 2025) – Ricky Thornton Jr. took the lead from Chris Madden on lap 46 and then pulled away in the final laps to win the Rumble by the River presented by UNOH on Saturday night at Port Royal Speedway. Thornton not only won $50,000 but also received a $7,500 bonus from UNOH for leading the championship points at the end of the night, now holding a 10-point lead over Jonathan Davenport, who finished fifth in the 50-lap race. Madden, who led the most laps during the race, finished in second, while Devin Moran rounded out the Big River Steel Podium in third. Brandon Sheppard took the fourth spot ahead of Davenport. Madden maintained a strong lead for the first 23 laps until Thornton, who started sixth, charged into the top spot on lap 24. Thornton then led until lap 37, when Madden executed a slider on turn two to reclaim the lead as Moran moved up to second place. Madden then led Moran and Thornton until a caution with 41 laps completed bunches the field for a single-file restart with nine laps to go. Thornton, who restarted in third, got by Moran on lap 45 and Madden on lap 46 to retake the lead for good, which he held to the finish line, winning by 1.7 seconds to complete a sweep of the weekend at Port Royal. Thornton won all three Lucas Oil races at Port Royal in 2025, as he also went to victory lane back in April at “The Speed Palace.” In Lucas Oil Victory Lane for the 12th time this year and for the 54th time in his career, Thornton had to earn his fourth career win at Port Royal. “I just hoped I got back to him (Madden). It almost sounded like he was firing a little bit before I was (on the restarts), so he would get a little bit of a run down the hill. The first time, he didn’t slide me, and you, I thought maybe he’s not going to slide me, so on the next restart, he slid me. It was either wreck or get wrecked there. I started driving pretty hard against the wall to get sideways and try to get by Devin, and at that point, it was really the right move. I knew Devin was going to run the wall for a couple of laps, but he wouldn’t really commit up there. He would get his right rear close to the fence, but you almost had to get the right front in the fence and just hold it on the floor and pray it doesn’t turn bad turns,” said the Chandler, Arizona native. “I got by Devin and slid past him there in three. He tried, I think, to drive it harder into the corner, and I believe that backfired on him instead of just slowing down to cross me like he did the time before. I reached second, and after that, I didn’t hit the throttle again until I got to turn one. I just wanted to make sure I caught up to Madden, and once I did, I aimed to position myself so he couldn’t cross me or beat me into one and slide me again. This time, he didn’t slide me, so I was ready for it—I entered in a way to ensure I could turn. He didn’t slide all the way across, so I stayed on the throttle around the wall. Once I was in front, I knew I had to drive as hard as I could and pray another yellow flag wouldn’t come out. Luckily, it worked out for us.” Madden, who finished second a week ago in the Topless 100, collected another $20,000 check for car owner Kale Green with his second-place run Saturday night at Port Royal. “We were racing for 50 grand and had a good restart. We drove into one there, and I had him cleared in the middle of the corner. He could have turned left or hit the brakes or whatever, but he slid into me in three and four, and I had to hit the brake. It is what it is. We had a great race at the end. Thornton got the job done, and we had a great race car tonight. Thanks to all the fans for coming out.” Moran, who moved into third place in the championship points ahead of Hudson O’Neal, completed the Big River Steel Podium in third. “Man, I’ve got a good car, so for some reason I can’t get that top run. I’ve tried and tried, but I just can’t make the speed up there like Ricky. However, I am starting to figure this place out a little more. I was good the first couple of times I came here, then I really struggled for probably two or three years. Now I feel like I’m in the top five, top three, top two. We just haven’t got that win, but we’ve got a good package, and I’m starting to get the hang of this place.” The winner’s Koehler Motorsports Longhorn Chassis is powered by a Cornett Racing Engine and sponsored by Hoker Trucking, Knight’s Companies, Coltman Farms Racing, Ultimate Towing and Recovery, Elite Ready Mix, Capital Waste, Bilstein Shocks, Sunoco Race Fuels, EMD Wraps, and Certified Inspection Services. Completing the top ten were Mike Marlar, Max Blair, Gregg Satterlee, Brandon Overton, and Hudson O’Neal. Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series Race Summary Rumble by the River presented by UNOH | Night 2Saturday, August 23, 2025Port Royal Speedway | Port Royal, PA Allstar Performance Time TrialsFast Time Group A: Carson Ferguson | 17.822 seconds (Overall)Fast Time Group B: Chris Madden | 17.934 seconds Penske Shocks Heat Race #1 Finish (8 Laps, Top 4 Transfer): 1. 93-Carson Ferguson[1]; 2. 49-Jonathan Davenport[3]; 3. 76-Brandon Overton[4]; 4. N1-Michael Norris[7]; 5. 22G-Gregg Satterlee[6]; 6. 25Z-Mason Zeigler[2]; 7. 66-Justin Kann[10]; 8. 1Z-Logan Zarin[8]; 9. 000-Dale Murphy[9]; 10. 06-Mike Lupfer[11]; 11. 9-Hayes Mattern[5]
Summit Racing Products Heat Race #2 Finish (8 Laps, Top 4 Transfer): 1. 71-Hudson O’Neal[1]; 2. 1-Brandon Sheppard[2]; 3. 157-Mike Marlar[3]; 4. 111-Max Blair[4]; 5. 09-Michael Leach[5]; 6. 6-Clay Harris[6]; 7. 2J-Justin Weaver[10]; 8. 22-Daniel Hilsabeck[8]; 9. 24Y-Dylan Yoder[9]; 10. 24-Rick Eckert[7]
Cool-It Thermo-Tec Heat Race #3 Finish (8 Laps, Top 4 Transfer): 1. 44-Chris Madden[1]; 2. 20RT-Ricky Thornton Jr[3]; 3. 58-Garrett Alberson[2]; 4. 79-Donald McIntosh[5]; 5. 15K-Wil Herrington[4]; 6. 60-Dan Ebert[11]; 7. 48-Colton Flinner[7]; 8. 2-Dan Stone[8]; 9. 0Y-Andrew Yoder[9]; 10. 21-Chad Myers[10]; 11. 4-Gary Stuhler[6]
Simpson Race Products Heat Race #4 Finish (8 Laps, Top 4 Transfer): 1. 99-Devin Moran[1]; 2. 66C-Matt Cosner[3]; 3. 22F-Chris Ferguson[4]; 4. 7-Ross Robinson[8]; 5. 27-Trever Feathers[6]; 6. D19-Dillan Stake[7]; 7. 4S-Danny Snyder[9]; 8. 93L-Cory Lawler[5]; 9. 80D-Greg Diehl[10]; 10. 18D-Daulton Wilson[2] Fast Shafts B-Main Race #1 Finish (10 Laps, Top 3 Transfer): 1. 22G-Gregg Satterlee[1]; 2. 25Z-Mason Zeigler[3]; 3. 6-Clay Harris[4]; 4. 09-Michael Leach[2]; 5. 1Z-Logan Zarin[7]; 6. 2J-Justin Weaver[6]; 7. 66-Justin Kann[5]; 8. 22-Daniel Hilsabeck[8]; 9. 24Y-Dylan Yoder[10]; 10. 000-Dale Murphy[9]; 11. 24-Rick Eckert[12]; 12. 9-Hayes Mattern[13]; 13. (DNS) 06-Mike Lupfer
UNOH B-Main Race #2 Finish (10 Laps, Top 3 Transfer): 1. 15K-Wil Herrington[1]; 2. 60-Dan Ebert[3]; 3. 48-Colton Flinner[5]; 4. 27-Trever Feathers[2]; 5. 4-Gary Stuhler[13]; 6. 2-Dan Stone[7]; 7. 4S-Danny Snyder[6]; 8. 93L-Cory Lawler[8]; 9. 21-Chad Myers[11]; 10. 80D-Greg Diehl[10]; 11. 0Y-Andrew Yoder[9]; 12. 18D-Daulton Wilson[12]; 13. D19-Dillan Stake[4] Rumble by the River | Night 1 Feature Finish (50 Laps): Pos – Start – Car # – Competitor – Hometown – Pay1 – 6 – 20RT – Ricky Thornton Jr – Chandler, AZ – $58,7002 – 2 – 44 – Chris Madden – Gray Court, SC – $20,0003 – 4 – 99 – Devin Moran – Dresden, OH – $12,5004 – 7 – 1 – Brandon Sheppard – New Berlin, IL – $10,2005 – 5 – 49 – Jonathan Davenport – Blairsville, GA – $9,7006 – 11 – 157 – Mike Marlar – Winfield, TN – $6,0007 – 15 – 111 – Max Blair – Centerville, PA – $4,5008 – 17 – 22G – Gregg Satterlee – Indiana, PA – $4,0009 – 9 – 76 – Brandon Overton – Evans, GA – $6,00010 – 3 – 71 – Hudson O’Neal – Martinsville, IN – $5,90011 – 14 – 79 – Donald McIntosh – Dawsonville, GA – $4,20012 – 1 – 93 – Carson Ferguson – Lincolnton, NC – $3,90013 – 10 – 58 – Garrett Alberson – Las Cruces, NM – $5,20014 – 8 – 66C – Matt Cosner – Ridgeley, WV – $2,50015 – 25 – 24 – Rick Eckert – York, PA – $2,40016 – 20 – 60 – Dan Ebert – Lake Shore, MN – $3,00017 – 23 – 18D – Daulton Wilson – Fayetteville, NC – $4,40018 – 21 – 6 – Clay Harris – Jupiter, FL – $2,80019 – 16 – 7 – Ross Robinson – Georgetown, DE – $2,00020 – 13 – N1 – Michael Norris – Sarver, PA – $2,00021 – 12 – 22F – Chris Ferguson – Mt. Holly, NC – $2,00022 – 24 – 22 – Daniel Hilsabeck – Earlham, IA – $2,70023 – 19 – 25Z – Mason Zeigler – Chalk Hill, PA – $2,00024 – 18 – 15K – Wil Herrington – Hawkinsville, GA – $2,00025 – 22 – 48 – Colton Flinner – Allison Park, PA – $2,000 Race Statistics Entrants: 42Victory Fuel Pole Sitter: Carson FergusonMD3 Lap Leaders: Chris Madden (Laps 1-23); Ricky Thornton, Jr. (Laps 24-37); Chris Madden (38-45); Ricky Thornton, Jr. (Laps 46-50)Hellraizer Jacks Halfway Leader: Ricky Thornton, Jr.Wieland Feature Winner: Ricky Thornton, Jr.Margin of Victory: 1.754 secondsColtman Farms Racing Cautions: Wil Herrington (Lap 9); Daulton Wilson (Lap 19); Wil Herrington (Lap 33); Daniel Hilsabeck (Lap 37); Chris Ferguson (Lap 41)Series Provisionals: Daulton Wilson; Daniel HilsabeckFast Time Provisional: n/aEmergency Provisional: n/aTrack Provisional: Rick EckertBig River Steel Podium Top 3: Ricky Thornton, Jr., Chris Madden, Devin Moran Penske Shocks Top 5: Ricky Thornton, Jr., Chris Madden, Devin Moran, Brandon Sheppard, Jonathan DavenportPEM 4th Place Feature: Brandon SheppardDMI Rearends 5th Place Feature: Jonathan DavenportWilwood Brakes Lucky 7th Place Feature: Max BlairWehrs Machine 11th Place Feature: Donald McIntoshDeatherage Opticians Lucky 13th Place Feature: Garrett AlbersonMD3 24th Place Feature: Wil HerringtonHoker Trucking Hard Charger of the Race: Rick Eckert (Advanced 10 positions) MD3 Most Laps Led: Chris Madden (31 Laps)Sunoco Race for Gas Highest Finisher: Ricky Thornton, Jr.Midwest Sheet Metal Spoiler Challenge Point Leader: Jonathan DavenportO’Reilly Auto Parts Rookie of the Race: Donald McIntoshPro Fabrication Headers Fastest Lap of the Race: Chris Madden | Lap 2| 20.200 secondsSlicker Graphics Slickest Move of the Race: Ricky Thornton, Jr.Fresh Roof Hard Luck Award: Daulton WilsonOuterwears Crew Chief of the Race: Zach FrieldsARP Engine Builder of the Race: Cornett Racing EnginesMiller Welders Chassis Builder of the Race: Longhorn ChassisDirt Draft Fastest in Hot Laps: Mike Marlar | 17.913 secondsTime of Race: 14 minutes 35 seconds Big River Steel Chase for the Championship Presented by ARP Point Standings:Pos – Car # – Competitor – Hometown – Points – Pay1 – 20RT – Ricky Thornton Jr – Chandler, AZ – 7270 – $421,9502 – 49 – Jonathan Davenport – Blairsville, GA – 7260 – $381,1003 – 99 – Devin Moran – Dresden, OH – 6830 – $261,7494 – 71 – Hudson O’Neal – Martinsville, IN – 6815 – $269,1755 – 1 – Brandon Sheppard – New Berlin, IL – 6590 – $226,9006 – 58 – Garrett Alberson – Las Cruces, NM – 6480 – $158,5507 – 76 – Brandon Overton – Evans, GA – 6260 – $139,7008 – 18D – Daulton Wilson – Fayetteville, NC – 5730 – $115,1259 – 93 – Carson Ferguson – Lincolnton, NC – 5460 – $94,02510 – 79 – Donald McIntosh – Dawsonville, GA – 5390 – $82,65011 – 22 – Daniel Hilsabeck – Earlham, IA – 5185 – $75,75012 – 60 – Dan Ebert – Lake Shore, MN – 4950 – $73,27513 – 6 – Clay Harris – Jupiter, FL – 4800 – $68,60014 – 19M – Spencer Hughes – Meridian, MS – 4335 – $59,70015 – 93L – Cory Lawler – Hanover, PA – 4185 – $44,100

Uncategorized

Chevy Racing–INDYCAR–Milwaukee, Wisconsin Qualifying Report August 23

August 26, 2025 ARP Trish

CHEVROLET IN THE NTT INDYCAR SERIES Snap-on Milwaukee Mile 2501.015-mile Milwaukee Mile short oval
A solid day of qualifying for Team Chevy at the Milwaukee Mile saw drivers wearing the Bowtie nail down seven of the top ten spots on the grid for Sunday’s Snap-on Milwaukee Mile 250. David Malukas in the No. 4 A.J. Foyt Racing Clarience Technologies Chevrolet just missed out on his first career pole, with Pato O’Ward in the No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet, Scott McLaughlin in the No. 3 Sonsio Vehicle Protection Team Penske Chevrolet, Will Power in the No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet, Josef Newgarden in the No. 2 Snap-On Team Penske Chevrolet, Conor Daly in the No. 76 Juncos Hollinger Chevrolet and Christian Rasmussen in the No. 21 Ed Carpenter Racing Splenda Stevia Chevrolet joining him in the top ten.
As the 18th of 27 drivers to attempt to qualify on the historic 1.015-mile Milwaukee Mile short oval, Malukas survived two lap efforts by eight drivers, including those who qualified 3rd, 5th, 6th, and 7th, before 2025 NTT INDYCAR SERIES champion Alex Palou, the last driver to qualify, grabbed his sixth pole of the season. Malukas, who is still looking for his first career pole, will start on the outside of the front row for the fourth time in his career, including the first race at the Milwaukee Mile in 2024. The 23-year-old from nearby Chicago, Illinois, has a huge family and friends contingent with him this weekend, including his middle school teacher. O’Ward, a winner at ‘The Mile’ last year, will start from the first two rows for the third race in a row and the sixth time this year. McLaughlin, the other 2024 winner in Milwaukee, will start beside O’Ward, which is also his sixth start in the first two rows this season. Newgarden, who will start seventh after Scott Dixon receives a grid penalty for changing an engine early, led the practice before the qualifying with a best lap of 161.066 mph. Four of the six fastest drivers were Chevrolet-powered. After just missing out on his first pole, Malukas was once again second quickest in final practice. His best lap speed was 154.871 mph and was one of five Bowtie-powered drivers in the top eight.
The Snap-on Milwaukee Mile 250 will air on FOX and the INDYCAR Radio Network/SIRIUSXM 218 at 2 pm (ET).
Snap-on Milwaukee Mile 250 qualifying results:

Snap-on Milwaukee Mile 250 Starting Lineup

What They’re Saying
David Malukas, No. 4 A.J. Foyt Racing Clarience Technologies Chevrolet qualified 2^ndThat was Woohoo! That was on the limit. I am not going to lie! We were right there on the edge of those walls on the exit. Really happy with performance of that. We were doing so much studying in practice trying to learn strategies. I think from a speed perspective, we are right there. That is pretty much as close as we are going to get to maximizing our car, so, we will see what other people are going to do, but I already know that is really a good qualifying run.”
Pato O’Ward, No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet qualified 3^rd:“I feel like I missed a little bit in Turn 1, but this is a great starting position and much better than where we started last year. We’re going to try and double up and fight for a win. I’m really excited to go for it tomorrow.”
Josef Newgarden, No. 2 Snap-On Team Penske Chevrolet qualified 8^th:“Probably not what we wanted there. I mean, we had a good first run-in practice and didn’t quite have the, probably, the balance we were projecting, on that run. So I I’m not sure how good that’s gonna be, but, you know, the race is a different story. I think we learned a little bit on that first practice on what we need to do for tomorrow. But, you know, the name of the game is keeping the tires underneath you. This this track’s hard on tires, and we gotta go forward. So, proud to have Snap on onboard, Great local company that is a big company in the world and and would like to bring them a good race.”
Conor Daly, No. 76 Juncos Holliger Racing Chevrolet qualified 9^th:“I had a missed shift out of four, and that is what killed us. I tried to go up to fifth gear, and it never went, so that is what killed us. It’s so bumpy, and it’s just so bumpy.  It has nothing to do with other than where I tried to select a gear.  That killed it, and that means you start the second lap bad when you end the first lap bad. So that is what it was.
“I’m 100 times more confident than I was after first practice last year.  We’ve already tried to move to the bottom and figure things out. The deg Is aggressive and that’s good.  You are going to see people hating life, and people, even at the front probably upset. It’s who is going to be least upset and I think that it is awesome. I think we are in for s good race.”
Christian Rasmussen, No. 21 Ed Carpenter Racing Splenda Stevia Chevrolet qualified 10^th:“Massive applause to the ECR Splenda Stevia crew here! That was a big turnaround from practice where we really struggled for speed. We found a lot here for qualifying! Really happy with that strong run.”
Alexander Rossi, No. 20 Ed Carpenter Racing Java House Chevrolet qualified 13^th: “We didn’t have the same balance we had this morning, so we’ll need to look into that. Fortunately, this is one of the only oval races of the year where qualifying doesn’t matter quite as much. It will be an important final practice session this afternoon.”
Christian Lundgaard, No. 7 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet qualified 17^th:“Honestly, the No. 7 VELO Arrow McLaren Chevrolet felt good during Qualifying, but it felt like it was under-driven. I think there’s much more pace in the car. I think it’s a good race car, most importantly, and we know you don’t score the big points on Saturdays.”
Nolan Siegel, No. 6 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet qualified 18^th:“I didn’t feel like we had the speed there.  I feel like when we have rolled off with that, the results have been there, this time it isn’t.  So, we kind of just rolled off slow.  It’s not a balance problem really, we just don’t have the grip to do what other cars are doing.  Not entirely sure why, but we will work on it.  We will see what happens in final practice.”
Sting Ray Robb, No. 77 Juncos Holliger Racing Chevrolet qualified 19^th:“Turn one was a little too comfortable. I think that I pushed a little bit too much on our warm-up lap, which, like, that’s kinda crazy to say, but, you know, I think that there’s still a good bit of time in there I think I have a great car underneath me. I’m okay with that session, but we are gonna have a good race.”
Robert Shwartzman, No. 83 PREMA Racing Chevrolet qualified 21^st:“We tried something different with the setup ahead of qualifying to try and find some speed, and unfortunately, it did not work out as hoped. This leaves us towards the back of the order for the race on Sunday. It is important that we make the most of the session after qualifying to find the best racecar for us to move forward.”
Santino Ferrucci, No. 14 A.J. Foyt Racing Phoenix Investors Chevrolet qualified 23rd“I think we kind of just missed the setup. I missed something with the gearing as well, just on my side; I think I should have been holding fifth gear instead of downshifting twice. I think there’s just a couple of small things. I don’t think we had, obviously the pace of our teammate, but we have better pace than where we qualified. So, we’re gonna make some changes, see if we can’t fix the balance for the race and pass some cars tomorrow.”Callum Ilott, No, 90 PREMA Racing Chevrolet qualified 25^th:“We tried something different with the setup ahead of qualifying to try and find some speed, and unfortunately, it did not work out as hoped. This leaves us towards the back of the order for the race on Sunday. It is important that we make the most of the session after qualifying to find the best racecar for us to move forward.”

NTT INDYCAR SERIES News ConferenceSaturday, August 23, 2025David MalukasPress Conference
THE MODERATOR: Wrapping up qualifying ahead of tomorrow’s Snap-on Milwaukee 250 here at the always challenging and fun Milwaukee Mile.
Currently joined by David Malukas, once again, in the No. 4 Clariance Technologies Chevrolet for AJ Foyt Enterprises with his second front row start of 2025, fourth time he’s started second in his career. Right before you sat down you thought that was a perfect lap you had, eh?
DAVID MALUKAS: They were two beautiful laps. I crossed that line, I wasn’t even looking at the time and I knew it was fast. Sometimes you just know it’s going to be good, and I crossed, and I was like, that was really beautiful. I really think that’s going to be the one.
I just had to wait until the end, and I saw him come out of 4, and I was like, oh, no, I was like put the ghost thing in there; I think he’s got it on this one. I saw the ghost, and I was like, yeah.
It’s still good. Going to be on the front row again here at Milwaukee. We have a good race car. We’ll see what we can do.
Q. I was going to ask about the race car. Obviously you feel good —
DAVID MALUKAS: Yeah, this afternoon is going to be kind of all the answers. It’s just all so unfortunate because I was behind Palou in practice and he was so fast on passing people. It was like, man, this is — I feel like this happened — where was it, Iowa? A race earlier this year where it was just me and Palou in the front and just battling him again. It’s going to be a little bit like that again to start, and then obviously the beautiful chaos of Milwaukee is going to unfold and we’ll see where we end up after all of that.
It’s going to be a good race. We have some questions to get answered for this practice this afternoon, and I’m pretty sure we’ll be able to answer them.
Q. Is there any secret or key to what’s important to make a good lap here? And your teammate, how identical are the setups?
DAVID MALUKAS: You know, when it comes to setups with every single driver, everybody has their own preferences and they vary drastically. It’s very different, and we’re very much on different wavelengths on where we want the car. It’s hard to say from our perspective. It’s a different story.
When it comes to being quick here, it’s a short time. You have one practice session and you’re going straight go qualifying, and it’s about carrying momentum and finding the best line that works for you. I think out of the qualifyings that you’ll see on ovals, this is the track that differs the most on what lines people do use. You’ll see some people going in on that lower line, some people going high and some people try and find something that works more in the middle, and it depends on what car is best on what line.
Q. The warmup lap you had the fastest, I think. Do you think you went a little faster?
DAVID MALUKAS: Yeah, (indiscernible) warmup 2 was (indiscernible) I was the fastest. It just goes into strategy on what we were thinking with tire deg. The tire deg is so bad, you can actually feel it within the few laps that we do in qualifying.
I think people were on different strategies in warmup and maybe trying to save some tires, but from our perspective we kind of wanted to go more full push from the beginning.
Q. Just talk about how chaotic this race is more than likely to be. Seems like 40 laps is the stint, tires are going to drop off. Walk us through what you expect coming up tomorrow.
DAVID MALUKAS: It’s going to be a tire deg race, and it’s going to be a lot of fun. From a viewing standpoint, the car when you put new tires on and you’re going out and doing some undercuts, it’s going to be fun. It’s going to be a fantastic race, and honestly, it’s one of those races that you don’t know where we’re going to be at until we get a yellow or until the race finishes, and we’re just going to go out there and try to be as fast as we can and try to pass as many people as we can.
Q. I know qualifying really seems to have been your big strength this year. What has clicked over one lap, and conversely, how do you start converting that into more race results?
DAVID MALUKAS: 100 percent. Going into the season, we’ve made gains from the start. We’ve learned so much. Like I said, it’s a younger crew, and I myself am 23. There’s a lot that I’m learning.
We’ve found a very good car when it comes to qualifying, and for road courses as well that one-lap pace and for qualifying here — we’ve had a lot of success in qualifying this season. It’s more just trying to focus on the road courses, on the races especially.
There’s a lot of answers that we still need to work on. We have a long off-season, so we’ll make sure to get those answers and figure it out, but from our side we’re very happy. If we look at where we were at the start of the season, it’s been a drastic change.
Q. What are some of the big things you feel you have learned across the year?
DAVID MALUKAS: Just a street course car (indiscernible) massive gains. We’ve been competitive in (indiscernible). That was the one thing we were struggling the most on, and we made drastic changes in qualifying.
The last thing is just trying to figure out our race pace. I think that’s the last puzzle to kind of complete everything, and then we can start fine tuning some things here and there and be competitive.
Q. The most important question, are Dorking in the Premier League yet?
DAVID MALUKAS: Still not. I’ve been trying so hard. I’m literally mid world championship trying to survive. I’m not going to lie, the championship is very difficult. I am struggling.
But I have really good players on there, but they’re just — one has a good season performance and then the next season I’m trying to talk with them and trying to praise them and lift them up a little bit.
Q. Last year Santino and James Schnabel turned into a really powerful combination. Santino had his best season in INDYCAR. I love seeing what you’re building this year. Speak to that a little bit; where will you go now? The two of you are producing at a pretty high rate.
DAVID MALUKAS: Yeah, I think off of that point, it goes a lot of kudos to James Schnabel. He’s transformed Ferrucci, transformed me. In a season it’s crazy what performances he’s been able to accomplish and what he’s been able to do.
We sat down, had a lot of talks and felt it out. We built that chemistry from a personality standpoint and getting to know each other and learning what I want from the car, and he’s done an incredible job understanding what I’m needing and giving that to me.
Like I said, if I look back at the start of the season St. Pete and just — the first three months, it’s crazy how different things were. We were struggling to even make the top 10 in qualifying, and now we’ve had some Fast Six performances and now we’re here again on the front row at Milwaukee. It’s kudos to James.

CHEVROLET IN THE NTT INDYCAR SERIESSnap-on Milwaukee Mile 2501.015-mile Milwaukee Mile short ovalMilwaukee, WisconsinQualifying ReportAugust 23
A solid day of qualifying for Team Chevy at the Milwaukee Mile saw drivers wearing the Bowtie nail down seven of the top ten spots on the grid for Sunday’s Snap-on Milwaukee Mile 250. David Malukas in the No. 4 A.J. Foyt Racing Clarience Technologies Chevrolet just missed out on his first career pole, with Pato O’Ward in the No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet, Scott McLaughlin in the No. 3 Sonsio Vehicle Protection Team Penske Chevrolet, Will Power in the No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet, Josef Newgarden in the No. 2 Snap-On Team Penske Chevrolet, Conor Daly in the No. 76 Juncos Hollinger Chevrolet and Christian Rasmussen in the No. 21 Ed Carpenter Racing Splenda Stevia Chevrolet joining him in the top ten.
As the 18th of 27 drivers to attempt to qualify on the historic 1.015-mile Milwaukee Mile short oval, Malukas survived two lap efforts by eight drivers, including those who qualified 3rd, 5th, 6th, and 7th, before 2025 NTT INDYCAR SERIES champion Alex Palou, the last driver to qualify, grabbed his sixth pole of the season. Malukas, who is still looking for his first career pole, will start on the outside of the front row for the fourth time in his career, including the first race at the Milwaukee Mile in 2024. The 23-year-old from nearby Chicago, Illinois, has a huge family and friends contingent with him this weekend, including his middle school teacher. O’Ward, a winner at ‘The Mile’ last year, will start from the first two rows for the third race in a row and the sixth time this year. McLaughlin, the other 2024 winner in Milwaukee, will start beside O’Ward, which is also his sixth start in the first two rows this season. Newgarden, who will start seventh after Scott Dixon receives a grid penalty for changing an engine early, led the practice before the qualifying with a best lap of 161.066 mph. Four of the six fastest drivers were Chevrolet-powered. After just missing out on his first pole, Malukas was once again second quickest in final practice. His best lap speed was 154.871 mph and was one of five Bowtie-powered drivers in the top eight.
The Snap-on Milwaukee Mile 250 will air on FOX and the INDYCAR Radio Network/SIRIUSXM 218 at 2 pm (ET).
Snap-on Milwaukee Mile 250 qualifying results:

Snap-on Milwaukee Mile 250 Starting Lineup

Uncategorized

CORVETTE RACING AT VIR: Hoping to Move on Up

August 26, 2025 ARP Trish

Corvette program looking for seventh IMSA victory in GT-only contest

ALTON, Virginia (August 23, 2025) – Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports will start fourth and fifth Sunday for the Michelin GT Challenge at VIR, looking for additional speed to contend for a long-awaited first victory this season. Antonio Garcia led the team’s qualifying efforts Saturday at Virginia International Raceway in the No. 3 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R that shares with Alexander Sims.

A four-time winner at VIR, Garcia’s best lap was a 1:44.886 (112.235 mph) effort to take the outside of the front row. It also was just 0.005 seconds clear of teammate Nicky Catsburg in the No. 4 Corvette that he will pilot with Tommy Milner.
Catsburg’s result was especially satisfying given a precautionary engine change following Saturday morning’s final practice. The team suspected a faulty thermostat but elected to remove all guesswork and make the swap with enough time between sessions. While both qualifying drivers were pleased with their respective Corvettes, both sides of the Pratt Miller garage were looking for ways to close a nearly half-second gap to the GTD PRO front row. In GTD, DXDT Racing’s No. 36 Corvette will start eighth in class after Alec Udell’s 1:45.453 (111.632 mph) best lap in qualifying. He and Robert Wickens will share the DXDT Corvette for the final time this year with two endurance races left in the season. AWA’s No. 13 Corvette of Orey Fidani and Matt Bell will start 13th in GTD in their push for another Akin Award victory in the team’s push for a second straight appearance at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The Michelin GT Challenge at VIR is scheduled for 2:10 p.m. ET on Sunday and will air live on USA Network starting at 2 p.m. Live streaming on Peacock in the United States and IMSA.com outside the U.S. from 2 to 5 p.m. ET IMSA Radio will provide the audio call at IMSA.com, XM 206 and SiriusXM Online 996.

CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R POST-QUALIFYING DRIVER QUOTESANTONIO GARICA, NO. 3 CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R: “The results are OK but the car was really good. There really wasn’t much more we could do than that. Maybe a tenth-and-a-half, if that. When you see you’re fourth-tenths off, you know you don’t have that. But the Corvette was good in this session and it felt good in practice. Let’s pray for that to be enough for tomorrow.”

NICKY CATSBURG, NO. 4 CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R: “The crew did an awesome job getting things ready in time. It’s never easy but the Corvette was excellent in qualifying, to be honest. We had super-nice balance. I don’t know what I would have changed on it. I felt like I nailed the lap but couldn’t really do much more than that. Four-tenths is too much to ask. But our car is really good so hats off to the guys. Let’s see what we can do tomorrow.”

OREY FIDANI, NO. 13 CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R: “The car feels good. I’m happy with my pace overall as that was the quickest lap time I’ve put in across all the sessions so far this weekend. I’ve been doing better and better as I turn more laps. VIR is a challenging track but the team has done a great job getting us ready for race day and I think we’ll be competitive come tomorrow.”

ALEC UDELL, NO. 36 CHEVROLET CORVETTE Z06 GT3.R: “Balance-wise, the car is good. I think we’re just fighting for a bit of grip; it’s probably the same for everyone. So it was just digging into a few options (Friday in practice). We made a bunch of setup changes so there was a lot of in-and-out in that session. I think we’ve got a good handle on where the car should be and just adapting to the conditions this weekend. That’s kind of where we are. It’s not where we thought we would be, I would say, unloading so we have got to dig into that a little bit more.”

CORVETTE RACING AT VIR: Hoping to Move on UpCorvette program looking for seventh IMSA victory in GT-only contest

Corvette Racing Media Resources Documents | Statistics | Photos | Factory Driver Bios | Chevrolet Newsroom

Uncategorized

Chevy Racing–Nascar–Daytona–Justin Marks & Connor Zilisch

August 26, 2025 ARP Trish

NASCAR CUP SERIES DAYTONA INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY TEAM CHEVY PRESS CONF. TRANSCRIPT AUGUST 23, 2025

Justin Marks, Founder and Owner of Trackhouse Racing; Connor Zilisch, driver for Trackhouse Racing; and Dr. Eric Warren, Vice President, Global Motorsports Competition for GM Motorsports; met with the media onsite at Daytona International Speedway to announce that Zilisch has signed a multiyear agreement to drive for Trackhouse Racing full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series in 2026.

MEDIA RESOURCES: Photo Gallery | Race Advances Chevrolet Newsroom

Press Conference Quotes:
Justin Marks: “We’re here to shock the world with an announcement that nobody saw coming. It’s a thrilling moment, humbling, an exciting moment for Trackhouse Entertainment Group to officially announce and welcome Connor Zilisch, who’ll be our third driver next year in a multi-year deal in the NASCAR Cup Series. He’ll join Ross Chastain and Shane van Gisbergen as his teammates. I don’t have to say how special he is and how humbled and excited that we are to have Connor join us at the Cup Series level. A number of years ago, when we started kind of thinking about the three-year, five-year and the long-term vision of this company, it became apparent as we got established in this series that we needed to start making investments in our future and start cultivating our future. And Connor really stood out. I watched him raise the Trackhouse Motorplex, watched him as he went to Late Models and then Trans Am, and then got an opportunity to be his teammate in the Trans Am race at VIR just to sort of see how he operates, and he won that race by about 45 seconds over the field. It was really kind of that moment that we felt like making an investment in Connor, giving him the tools and the opportunity to develop, was something that we really needed to do at Trackhouse. So, we’re really excited that Red Bull and WeatherTech are both going to anchor the program on his car next year, and we’re working very, very hard to give all three of our guys an opportunity to win, make our race cars fast, make our company competitive and a leader in the garage. I think if we do that, we’ve got a bunch of guys that that can win a lot of races, including Connor in his rookie year. So, Connor Zilisch, welcome, my friend.” Connor Zilisch: “Thank you. I’m honored to be joined by you two on the stage. You two believed in me before a lot of people did and gave me this opportunity to be sitting here today and have the opportunity to make that jump to the Cup Series. So, first of all, thank you to Eric and Justin. I was sitting in the Dick’s parking lot across the street earlier today and just kind of reflecting on the last 15 years of my life and what’s led to this moment and got me to this point. I never thought I would make it anywhere in racing. My parents have been behind me since day one, through every moment, the good, the bad. There were many times I questioned why I left school, left my friends, to make this commitment to go to the Cup Series and try and chase a dream of racing in motorsports. I never knew what was ahead of me. There were times, five years ago, where I thought I was just going to go to college and live the life of a normal kid and Kevin Harvick asked my dad, what’s your plan with this kid? And my dad was like, ‘Well, he’s going to race for another year two and then he’s going to go to college.’ And Kevin told my dad, ‘You can’t do that.’ So, thank you to Kevin. There are a lot of people that have been a part of this journey with me. I have way too many people to thank. Junior Motorsports, first of all, for giving me this opportunity this year to race with them. Dale, Kelley, you guys have given me a great home for the last six to 12 months and I’m very grateful for that. Pinnacle Racing Group, my ARCA team, they took a chance on me to put me into the national series in NASCAR and let me race in the ARCA Series with them. Silver Hare Racing before that in Trans Am gave me my first ride in a stock car. Back to even my karting days when I was with Gary Willis. We spent months in Europe together. He was basically my father for a good portion of my life. So, today is a really, really special day for me. I never thought this day would come, and that it certainly feels good.” Eric Warren: “I look at Connor now, he’s 19, I look at him like he was 14, the first day we talked to him. I specifically remember his father, Jim, and him sitting in with us, and it was just really inspiring to see his commitment, even at that point. And Josh Wise, I give him a ton of credit, Josh and his group with us have developed a lot of great young people and Connor from the very beginning, Josh was like, ‘This kid’s going to do something nobody else has ever done.’ And, so far, that’s been true. There’s been a lot of things that really inspired, not just us, but Connor is the one that’s done the work. If you look at what he’s done and everything he puts it. I see him every day at our Technic Center working out and couldn’t be more proud to be a part of it, honestly. He’s got a great head on his shoulders, but it’s honestly the work and the things that people don’t see. It’s not just a talent. He puts in the effort and really, really works at it. That’s really where his success comes from. So super happy for this day and look forward to what we’ll see in the future.” Connor Zilisch: “I do have to give a big shout out to Josh Wise. I joined the Chevy program in 2021 or 2022. And in the last three years, I’ve completely changed as a human in life, on the racetrack and off the racetrack. Josh has taught me so much, and I definitely owe a lot to him. So, yeah, very grateful that that. He took the chance to start that that program with Chevrolet and bring in those five young drivers and very fortunate that I was one of those five. That kind of kick-started and led to where I am today.” It’s rare for someone to start their full-time Cup career as young as 19 years old. What is it that sets Connor apart from other big racing prospects?Justin Marks: “I think it’s what everybody sees. It’s the level of maturity, the approach, the ability to deliver in big moments. When I get asked, which is sort of weird, but I get asked sometimes by young people, ‘What can I do to get noticed or to get an opportunity in racing?’ And I tell them it’s just you have to just win. You have to just have the ability to get it done when you got a fast racecar and when you have a winning opportunity you got to be able to close the deal. Connor’s done it. Just every car, he’s gotten in, he’s figured out a way to win. I think another one is the rate of adaptability. This sport won’t wait on somebody to figure things out. It’s such a fast-paced sport. You have to be able to get in a car, understand it right away, find its limits right away, and go deliver right away. And I think you saw that at Watkins Glen last year, first time in an Xfinity car and won the race. Earlier that year in the truck at COTA, first time in the truck, and put the thing on pole by a lot. Just to be able to get in and figure it out quickly. That’s really what it’s all about, because the Cup Series is a different sport than the Xfinity Series. Every week is such a challenge, and he’s going to be going to a lot of racetracks that he’s never seen in a Cup car before and with such a limited practice. He’s going to have to be able to figure out how to go fast really quickly. And he’s demonstrated the ability to do that so much in his career. And I think the other part of it, like I said, when I touched on is just maturity. Emotional maturity, approach, organization, and paying attention to the things that are important to success in his career. All of those things together, he’s demonstrated in a way that I’ve never seen a teenager be able to do it before. So, when you recognize that you’ve got that in a package, you know you have to run with it. And we’ve seen it. You know, Max Verstappen, and there’s been other drivers that that have gotten sort of thrown into the top level at a young age, and all those guys kind of demonstrate the same thing. So, we wouldn’t be doing this if we didn’t think that he was successful, if we didn’t think that he’d be able to win as a rookie. So, we’re thrilled to be able to have him.”
You’ve known this day was coming for a while, so I’m curious did you come in here trying not to cry or did this all of a sudden come up on you?Connor Zilisch “It’s cool. I knew the whole world knew already, but still to be able to say it and have my name next to the word Cup Series is really cool. So, I wasn’t going to try and hide from it, but it’s just a day that I’ve been dreaming of for a long time and I’m not going to let that kind of the idea that everybody already knows take away from the moment.” Are you lobbying for a number? Is there a number that you want?Justin Marks: “We’ve got some announcements that we’re going to make over the next couple of weeks. Obviously, there are questions around the program people, numbers, kind of all of that, and we’re going to have those moments when we can really celebrate them. But, right now, it’s about Red Bull, WeatherTech and Connor.”Connor Zilisch: “To add to that, Red Bull and WeatherTech this year has been a staple on my car and been such a big part of getting me to this point and making Justin signing me and putting me in the best equipment possible. So, yeah, to the entire WeatherTech family, it certainly means a lot to have their support. And I’ve been a Red Bull athlete for almost a year now, and probably the coolest sponsor. You watch videos of guys jumping from stratosphere and, you watch those YouTube videos as kids and you one day dream of being as cool as them and being a part of that legendary club, of being a Red Bull athlete. I’m really excited to have two of probably some of the coolest sponsors in our sport on my car next year.” Is there a point in your career when you realized you had made it or maybe to this moment come just right now sitting on this stage?Connor Zilisch: “I still haven’t made it to where I want to be, right? This is the start. I wanted to get to this point and give myself the opportunity to win championships at the highest level, but I wouldn’t say I’ve made it. But I’ve made it farther than a lot. So, that’s something to be proud of. And, yeah, it’s going to be grueling. The Cup Series is no joke, and that jump from Saturday to Sunday is bigger than probably any other sport in our country. So, yeah, I’m excited for the challenge and looking forward to just going out and learning and every Sunday giving my best effort and seeing where I stack up. I know it’s not going to be easy, but I’m just excited to be a part of the Cup Series. Have I made it? No, but I made it way farther than I thought I would.” The Cup Series, all the pressure, and all the commitments and all that stuff. How important is it to you to try to keep the person you are now?Connor Zilisch: “You get to Sunday and all of a sudden this becomes a job and you’re finishing position determines if you’re going to stay in the sport or not. And obviously that adds pressure and makes things more difficult, and it certainly adds to the fact that this is no longer all about having fun, but that’s what I’m going to try and do my best to keep every Sunday is to make sure that I’m enjoying it and enjoying the ride. This stuff, you can’t travel 38 weeks a year around the country and be miserable and expect to do well. So, yeah, you have to enjoy it. The good days are going to be special, and the bad days are you being a part of it. And that’s kind of just what you got to understand from the get-go. And, yeah, I’ll do my best. But there’s nothing that can really prepare you for this jump and only time will tell how it affects me. But I’m going to do my best to stand on my ground and stay true to who I am.” With Connor now and then SVG. Do you expect to win every road course race next year?Justin Marks: “Well, you can never expect to win. I mean, this series is very, very difficult. I would say that when we pull into the racetrack, everybody unloads feeling like they need to beat Trackhouse. I think the goal for us is to continue to invest in this sort of transition I’ve been talking about as a company. So that’s the case, all 38 weeks of the year. I mean, the goal for this business is to be a championship-winning organization, and we’re making a lot of moves internally right now to get ourselves there, because we’re competitors, we’re racers and we want to win every single week. I will say that the road courses are near and dear to my heart because it’s what I came out of, racing a bunch of years in IMSA and road racing. We’ve obviously got somebody that has demonstrated an incredible amount of skill at the road courses in SVG, but now we got two bullets in that gun, so I think it bodes well for us on the road courses. But we want to be able to do it every single week.” You’ve waited on this announcement. Were there any loose ends, or was it this just seemed like the right time for you to make this announcement?Justin Marks: “Well, obviously it takes time to get to get a deal done, right? So, we spent time in kind of getting to a place that we were both happy with. And as far as now, I don’t know if there was any real kind of rhyme or reason to it. It makes sense to do it at Daytona, just because it’s such an important part of the sport. Last year we sat right here in this room on this day and announced that Shane van Gisbergen was going to be joining the team. So, I came through the tunnel here when I was 19 years old for the 24 Hours of Daytona and Daytona’s been a huge part of my life ever since then. It’s been a huge part of, I think, everybody’s life that’s sitting in this room right now. So, it’s great to do it at the World Center of Racing and great to do it right in NASCAR’s backyard.” Do you view Connor as basically being a cornerstone of this team going forward?Justin Marks: “Yeah, I hope so. I think he represents a huge opportunity because of his maturity, because of his talent, and because of the fact that he’s got potential to be a champion in this sport, a multi-time champion in this sport. We have to do our job as a company. I mean, we have to put fast cars on the racetrack, we have to give him and his teammates an opportunity to go fast in the sport. So, I think as long as he stays focused and brings it every single week and we do our job building fast racecars and putting the right people around him, I think we’ll experience success together. I think we both would like for that to last a really, really long time. But it’s a very, very difficult sport. And, right now, Trackhouse is going through, like I said, this sort of transitional period where we’re looking at the company and envisioning kind of what the future looks like because it’s hard to beat Penske and Gibbs and Hendrick. But we want to be the team to do it. So, if we do our job and he does his job, I don’t see why we can’t have a lot of success together for a long time.” For somebody who’s still super young and still has such an early career, what’s some of the hardships and challenges that you’ve faced and overcome?Connor Zilisch: “It started probably 2020, 2021, when I was getting out of go karts and trying to make the jump into racing, full size cars, and my dad basically told me, ‘Look, I can get you to this point, but from here, you’re on your own.’ And it was tough to accept that. There were kids that I watched around me that had parents that could get them to the next level and I kind of had to go out and win races and find my way on my own. I always had their guidance and help, but at some point, you got to pay for this stuff somehow. I’m just very glad and fortunate that I had people around me who helped me. That’s why I say yes to every opportunity I get almost from the time I was 15 to 17. I never turned down an opportunity to get behind the wheel, whether it was racing on dirt, racing a Miata, racing Trans Am, Late Models. I always wanted to just be behind the wheel and get myself in front of more people because you never know who you’re going to meet, and that’s exactly how kind of things went with Justin and I. Someone came to me and asked me if I wanted to race a Trans Am car at VIR, and I said, yes, and you know, next thing I know I was teammates with Justin. That’s where things kind of started for us. So, it’s kind of been just who I am since I got out of a go kart, and I’m very glad that I had to work for it and I had to win races to get to the next level, because it makes sitting here today that much sweeter.”Justin Marks: “I think there’s a good lesson in that because one of the things that we talk about is taking advantage of the opportunity, delivering in the big moments. And when you’re in a position where you just you have to just let your talent speak for it, he delivered in that, and we looked at it and said, ‘You know, we’re going to make a commitment here, we’re going to make a financial commitment, we’re going to make an asset commitment.’ Eric Warren and Chevrolet did the same thing. They made a commitment because they just saw that there was something special here, because he just delivered so much. So, it’s great to be in this moment because the investment that we made, the investment that Chevrolet has made, we’ve seen that paid dividends with all the wins this year in Xfinity and we see the opportunity to do the same thing on Sundays.”

NASCAR CUP SERIESDAYTONA INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAYTEAM CHEVY PRESS CONF. TRANSCRIPTAUGUST 23, 2025

MEDIA RESOURCES: Photo Gallery | Race Advances Chevrolet Newsroom

Uncategorized

2025 IndyCar Champion Alex Palou scores sixth pole of the season

August 26, 2025 ARP Trish

August 23, 2025 — MILWAUKEE, WI

Honda driver Alex Palou follows up championship clinch with sixth Honda-powered pole on the year
Palou’s Chip Ganassi Racing teammate, Scott Dixon, sets the fifth fastest time
Andretti Global’s Kyle Kirkwood seventh quickest as all three Honda winners this year qualify in the top-10

Alex Palou may have wrapped up the championship the last time out, but there was no slowing him down as he scored his sixth pole position of the 2025 NTT INDYCAR SERIES season at the Snap-on Milwaukee Mile 250.

The Chip Ganassi Racing #10 driver has scored eight victories so far this season and has wrapped up his third consecutive drivers’ championship and fourth title in five years—and is chasing a record 10 wins in a single season.

Palou’s stellar year has also catapulted Honda to the manufacturers’ title, wrapping up that championship also with two races still to run. Honda teams and drivers have scored 12 wins in 15 races so far in 2025—including the Indianapolis 500.

Palou, along with Scott Dixon and Kyle Kirkwood have notched all 12 wins for Honda, and have also all notched top-10 qualifying speeds in today’s qualifying from the Milwaukee Mile. Honda is looking for their first win in Milwaukee since the series returned for a doubleheader last year.

Palou’s Chip Ganassi Racing teammate, Scott Dixon set the fifth fastest time in qualifying, but will roll off P14 following a penalty. While Andretti Global’s Kyle Kirkwood set the seventh fastest time, and will start P6 for tomorrow’s race.

Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing’s Graham Rahal qualified eleventh fastest, just ahead of Dale Coyne Racing’s #18 Honda of Rinus VeeKay.

Snap-on Milwaukee Mile 250 Honda Qualifying Results

1st Alex Palou
5th Scott Dixon
7th Kyle Kirkwood
11th Graham Rahal
12th Rinus VeeKay
14th Marcus Ericsson
15th Devlin DeFrancesco
16th Marcus Armstrong
20th Kyffin Simpson
22nd Louis Foster-R
24th Jacob Abel-R
26th Colton Herta
27th Felix Rosenqvist

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

R – Rookie

Quotes
Alex Palou (#10 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda) qualified first: “Number one! It’s good, good for Honda! I think it’s been our best qualifying—it means the most to me this year. Getting the pole here at a place that I’ve personally struggled, last year we didn’t have the speed we needed, but this year it’s been amazing. The car has been super good, the balance has been super good, the power we have from Honda has been amazing. I cannot wait to be leading the grid tomorrow heading into turn one with our #10 Honda car.”

Kyle Kirkwood (#27 Andretti Global Honda) qualified seventh: “I’m very happy with our performance today. Honda gave us great power and a really drivable package—which is something that we needed. Year-over-year we feel a lot better than we did last year and progression is Honda’s middle name. I’m glad to see it and I’m looking forward to tomorrow.”

Where to Watch

2025 IndyCar Champion Alex Palou scores sixth pole of the season

August 23, 2025 — MILWAUKEE, WI

Honda driver Alex Palou follows up championship clinch with sixth Honda-powered pole on the year
Palou’s Chip Ganassi Racing teammate, Scott Dixon, sets the fifth fastest time
Andretti Global’s Kyle Kirkwood seventh quickest as all three Honda winners this year qualify in the top-10

Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing’s Graham Rahal qualified eleventh fastest, just ahead of Dale Coyne Racing’s #18 Honda of Rinus VeeKay.

Snap-on Milwaukee Mile 250 Honda Qualifying Results

1st Alex Palou
5th Scott Dixon
7th Kyle Kirkwood
11th Graham Rahal
12th Rinus VeeKay
14th Marcus Ericsson
15th Devlin DeFrancesco
16th Marcus Armstrong
20th Kyffin Simpson
22nd Louis Foster-R
24th Jacob Abel-R
26th Colton Herta
27th Felix Rosenqvist

R – Rookie

Where to Watch

Sunday’s Snap-on Milwaukee Mile 250 from the Milwaukee Mile will air live on Fox at 1 PM CT / 2 PM ET.

Uncategorized

19-Year-Old Racing Phenom Connor Zilischto Drive Trackhouse Chevy in the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series

August 25, 2025 ARP Trish

“Cup racing has been the goal since joining with Chevrolet and Trackhouse, and while I didn’t know it would come this soon, I feel like I’m ready,” Zilisch said. “I know the challenge that awaits entering the Cup Series as a full-time driver, but I feel that with the support of Trackhouse and Chevrolet, this is the right situation for me. I won’t be making any predictions for success next year. All I promise is to put in 100 percent effort, learn all that I can, plus have a little bit of fun along the way!”Ten years of competitive kart racing, including a stint in Europe as an 11-year-old racer, gave the Mooresville, North Carolina, native the tools to adapt quickly when he moved to compete professionally in early 2021. Since then, Zilisch has enjoyed success in every series he’s entered. In the last two years, he won the 2024 Rolex 24 and the 12 Hours of Sebring as well as five ARCA races, two NASCAR Truck Series poles, plus a victory in a CARS Tour late model race. He swept the pole and won the race in his Xfinity Series debut at Watkins Glen (N.Y.) International in 2024, and his dominance driving the No. 88 Chevrolet for JR Motorsports in 2025 has been remarkable. He’s won six times in just 22 races and leads the driver points despite missing a race after an accident at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway. Since returning to the driver’s seat at Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway in May, Zilisch has reeled off 12 consecutive top-five finishes, including six victories: Pocono (Pa.) Raceway, Sonoma (Calif.) Raceway, Dover (Del.) Motor Speedway, Indianapolis (Ind.) Motor Speedway, Watkins Glen (N.Y.) International and Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway.

19-Year-Old Racing Phenom Connor Zilischto Drive Trackhouse Chevy in the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series

Warren, Vice President of Global Motorsports Competition for General Motors, predicts that Zilisch talent will lead to success in the most competitive racing series on the planet. “We are excited for Connor to get the opportunity to compete full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series in 2026,” said Warren. “What Connor has been able to accomplish in NASCAR over the last year has been remarkable. He has the drive and commitment to put in the work on and off the track, and we look forward to seeing his continued success in NASCAR’s top division.”Trackhouse has already raced Zilisch in the Cup Series three times in 2025. He recorded an 11th-place finish at Echo Park (Atlanta) Speedway in June and showed tremendous speed at Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas, in March and Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway in May. Marks expects the team to announce Zilisch’s car number, sponsorship, crew chief, and crew lineup in the coming weeks.The Trackhouse Racing story has been a meteoric rise in world motorsports. The Trackhouse team began competition in 2021 as a single-car race team with driver Daniel Suárez behind the wheel. The team achieved success on and off track in 2021, running competitively and reaching out to non-traditional NASCAR audiences. Its culturally diverse pit crews, new sponsors and fresh openness are pillars of the Trackhouse philosophy. The team has expanded to three full-time Cup Series entries and has logged 13 victories since 2021, including wins by Ross Chastain at Charlotte in May, Van Gisbergen in Mexico in June, as well as the Chicago Street Race and Sonoma in July, plus Watkins Glen in August. Trackhouse Racing joined the MotoGP grid in 2024, bringing an American team back to the pinnacle of motorcycle racing for the first time in over a decade. Trackhouse Racing MotoGP is determined to be a competitive force on and off track in partnership with Aprilia as its official factory-supported team.

Uncategorized

RIVER CITIES SWEEP: Kofoid Charges from Ninth for Another North Dakota Win

August 25, 2025 ARP Trish

The Californian gets his second straight victory at the 1/4 mile with the Roth Motorsports team

GRAND FORKS, ND (August 22, 2025) – River Cities Speedway delivered yet again.

The Grand Forks, ND bullring has thrilled fans countless times over the years, and Friday was no exception as the World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series made their second and final visit of 2025 for the Gerdau presents the 2nd Leg of the Northern Tour.

Michael “Buddy” Kofoid won May’s visit after lining up on the front row and leading every lap. And while the same face showed up in Victory Lane this time around, it was a much different path to arrival.

The Penngrove, CA native didn’t even make the eight-car Toyota Dash to put himself in a top eight starting spot. Instead, the Roth Motorsports No. 83 lined up ninth for the 40-lapper, and the result was a show for the packed grandstands. He gained only two spots in the first six circuits, but then the march began. The next lap he picked off two more to crack the top five. Five rotations later, and the 23-year-old was up to third.

While Kofoid was making his way forward, a war for the top spot was taking place up front as Emerson Axsom, David Gravel, and Sheldon Haudenschild all led laps. Kofoid’s moment came just before the halfway mark when he grabbed the lead on Lap 19 and never looked back. Gravel tried to challenge in traffic but didn’t have enough as Kofoid pulled away to sweep the year’s River Cities races.

“Honestly, I felt like it took me a while to kind of crack the top five,” Kofoid explained. “We had that first green run and passed a couple cars and was passing for sixth and wanted to restart on the outside after that red, but the way the scoring went back I had to go to the bottom. Then it actually worked out. I was content running the bottom and didn’t want to give up on it in (Turns) 1 and 2 yet. Some people were starting to get off of it before I gave up and was able to pick some guys off there. Then I moved up and felt really good when I moved up.

“It was a tough race. I always say you want to get the in the Dash to have a chance to win these Outlaws races, but I guess we didn’t need the Dash today. It makes it tough, but hopefully the crowd enjoyed it. River Cities is growing to be one of my favorite tracks for a reason because of how good it races. The car was extremely good, a night and day difference after the Heat Race. Dylan (Buswell), Nate (Knotts), and Gage (Tyra) did not give up on it. We were slinging all different bars in it and trying to change all this stuff and got it really good for me.”

Kofoid’s victory made him the ninth different multi-time River Cities with The Greatest Show on Dirt, and he’s only the third to top two in a row at the 1/4 mile, joining Donny Schatz and Craig Dollansky. He and the Roth team are up to nine World of Outlaws checkered flags in 2025, pushing Kofoid within one of his first double-digit win season.

The runner-up spot went to David Gravel after leading nine laps aboard the Big Game Motorsports No. 2. The defending champion has put together four podiums in the last five races and is on an 11-race top five streak. A restart opened the door for Gravel to potentially sneak back around Kofoid for the lead, but another yellow thwarted his chances at a 13th win of 2025.

“If that caution doesn’t come on that restart, I think I can get in front of him,” Gravel said. “The bottom, I think, was the fastest at the end. I was just so tight at the end. Just misjudged it a little bit. I felt like I couldn’t run the top like those guys in (Turns) 3 and 4. I was just trying to cheat it and get through there and get through the bumps. Track position was really big for us tonight. The guys gave me a great car all night long.”

Carson Macedo rounded out the top three with the Jason Johnson Racing team, upping their 2025 podium total to 20. Like Gravel, an ill-timed caution on a restart was costly toward Macedo’s chances at potentially posing a bigger threat to Kofoid.

“I just didn’t really feel like the restarts went my way,” Macedo said. “The one I got to third, and then the caution came out. I was a little bummed about that. I tried to run the top on the next single file (restart), and Buddy got by me. I think we were all a little on the tight side. The track actually came in a little bit. Surprisingly, I think it was heavier in the Feature than it was in the Dash. It seemed like the top was more ledged up, and on the bottom the grease finally came in and was really sticky down there. It was a hard fought third.”

Logan Schuchart and Emerson Axsom completed the top five.

Schuchart came from 14th to fourth to earn the KSE Racing Products Hard Charger.

Carson Macedo claimed his fourth Simpson Quick Time of 2025 and the 49th of his career in Honest Abe Roofing Qualifying.

Heat Races belonged to David Gravel (NOS Energy Drink Heat One), Kerry Madsen (Real American Beer Heat Two), Carson Macedo (WIX Filters Heat Three), and Sheldon Haudenschild (TheGreatestStoreonDirt.com Heat Four).

The SPA Technique #1 Redraw went to Emerson Axsom.

Axsom also topped the Toyota Dash.

Zach Hampton won the Micro-Lite Last Chance Showdown.

The Smith Titanium Brake Systems Break of the Race went to Sam Henderson.

UP NEXT: The World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Cars make their final North Dakota stop of 2025 on Saturday, Aug. 23 at West Fargo’s Red River Valley Speedway. For tickets, CLICK HERE.

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

FEATURE RESULTS:

RIVER CITIES SWEEP: Kofoid Charges from Ninth for Another North Dakota Win

The Californian gets his second straight victory at the 1/4 mile with the Roth Motorsports team

GRAND FORKS, ND (August 22, 2025) – River Cities Speedway delivered yet again.

Logan Schuchart and Emerson Axsom completed the top five.

Schuchart came from 14th to fourth to earn the KSE Racing Products Hard Charger.

Carson Macedo claimed his fourth Simpson Quick Time of 2025 and the 49th of his career in Honest Abe Roofing Qualifying.

The SPA Technique #1 Redraw went to Emerson Axsom.

Axsom also topped the Toyota Dash.

Zach Hampton won the Micro-Lite Last Chance Showdown.

The Smith Titanium Brake Systems Break of the Race went to Sam Henderson.

UP NEXT: The World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Cars make their final North Dakota stop of 2025 on Saturday, Aug. 23 at West Fargo’s Red River Valley Speedway. For tickets, CLICK HERE.

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

FEATURE RESULTS:

NOS Energy Drink Feature (40 Laps): 1. 83-Michael Kofoid[9]; 2. 2-David Gravel[3]; 3. 41-Carson Macedo[7]; 4. 1S-Logan Schuchart[14]; 5. 18-Emerson Axsom[1]; 6. 13-Mark Dobmeier[10]; 7. 7S-Chris Windom[2]; 8. 15-Donny Schatz[13]; 9. 23-Garet Williamson[18]; 10. 55-Hunter Schuerenberg[15]; 11. 2C-Cole Macedo[11]; 12. 15S-Kerry Madsen[5]; 13. 24T-Christopher Thram[22]; 14. 17B-Bill Balog[16]; 15. 64-Andy Pake[6]; 16. 99-Skylar Gee[23]; 17. 8H-Jade Hastings[20]; 18. 6-Zach Hampton[21]; 19. 83JR-Sam Henderson[8]; 20. 28M-Conner Morrell[12]; 21. 17-Sheldon Haudenschild[4]; 22. 11M-Brendan Mullen[24]; 23. 6K-Kaleb Johnson[17]; 24. G5-Gage Pulkrabek[19]

Uncategorized

Pierce Conquers Arrowhead Opener for Third-Straight World of Outlaws Victory

August 25, 2025 ARP Trish

COLCORD, OK (August 22, 2025) – For the second time in seven days, Bobby Pierce and Brian Shirley finished 1-2 with the World of Outlaws Real American Beer Late Model Series presented by DIRTVision.

But this time, the fans at Arrowhead Speedway didn’t need to check live timing to see who came out on top.

With seven laps to go, the “Smooth Operator” got by “Squirrel” and never looked back for his third-straight World of Outlaws victory and his 10th of the season in his debut weekend in Colcord.“It’s awesome to be here in Oklahoma and get the win, was really looking forward to this track, been looking forward to it for a long time now,” Pierce said. “Arrowhead Speedway, what an awesome facility. Can’t wait to come back again, can’t wait to race again tomorrow.”

Pierce started his march to the front from fifth, but struggled to gain ground early as he battled Nick Hoffman for a spot in the top five. A quarter of the way through the 40-lapper, Pierce took his first step forward by getting around the outside of Dennis Erb Jr. and into fourth, and followed it up by pulling the same move on Tim McCreadie two laps later to crack the top three.

Shirley led the way out front, but behind him, Tristan Chamberlain was having his best night of the season in second and never let the No. 3S get out of reach. But before he could find a way by, Chamberlain’s focus shifted from staying with Shirley to keeping Pierce behind him, and he did a formidable job of holding off the points leader for several laps. The 18-year-old stayed true to the top groove and forced Pierce to look elsewhere to get by him, but getting stuck behind the slower car of Jake Timm would mark the end of Chamberlain’s time in second.

The race turned into a replay of the Hawkeye 100 in the late stages with Pierce and Shirley battling it out up front for the trophy. With Shirley also ripping the cushion, Pierce had to go low once again to get the lead, and a slide job in Turns 1 and 2 was all it took to clear Shirley and take command.

One more wrinkle came into play with five laps remaining when Ryan Gustin slowed with a flat tire to bring out the caution. No one was able to capitalize on the restart though, and Pierce cruised away to the 28th overall victory of yet another history-making season.

While the 2023 Series champion was undoubtedly the man to beat come Feature time, Pierce believes there’s still room for improvement going into Saturday.

“We’ve got to get a little better in Qualifying,” Pierce said. “Both laps I tried something different, and if I would have pieced a lap together, one corner a certain spot and another corner another spot, probably would have had a good Qualifying lap. And just getting those Heat Race wins is sometimes tough, me and Dennis had a heck of a battle. Hopefully tomorrow, we can just be a little better in the Heat Race. Obviously in the Redraw, I drew a five, way better than drawing fourth row. We’ll just see what we’ve got tomorrow, really looking forward to it.”

Staying in front of Pierce has been a puzzle the whole dirt Late Model world has tried to solve in 2025, and after his third podium in as many races, Shirley looks to be closer than anyone to cracking the code.

“He’s just a little bit better,” Shirley said. “As the race goes on, we get freer, he gets a little tighter. I don’t know that he’s light years faster than everybody, he just doesn’t slow up like we do. We’ve got to go and do some things to figure out how to get better, but at least we’re there.”

McCreadie rounded out the podium for his best finish since his win at Cedar Lake Speedway three weeks ago, extending the gap to Erb to 40 points in the race for fourth in the standings. “T-Mac” picked up Hard Charger honors on Thursday night with the COMP Cams Super Dirt Series with a 17th-to-fourth run, but made the job a bit easier for himself on Friday by locking down a front-row starting spot.

“The racetrack’s a lot of fun when you don’t mess with them all night long with a water truck and a tiller,” McCreadie said. “They slow down, you can race all over them, you see guys start in the back and start passing. We’ve had three or four of these in a row where we’ve done it, and guys aren’t winning off the pole, they’re winning from midpack. More of that is better for everybody.”

Hoffman backed up his Thursday triumph with a fourth-place run in the opening night of World of Outlaws competition, while Chamberlain ended up fifth for his second top five with the Series and first of the season.

RACE NOTES:

Tim McCreadie set the Dirt King Simulators Fastest Hot Lap.

Drake Troutman won the Simpson Quick Time Award.

Tristan Chamberlain won Real American Beer Heat 1.

Brian Shirley won STAKT Products Heat 2.

Tim McCreadie won Keyser Manufacturing Heat 3.

Dennis Erb Jr. won Jarrett Rifles Heat 4.

Ryan Gustin and Cade Dillard won the Landa Pressure Washers Last Chance Showdowns.

Brian Shirley won the Bilstein Pole Award.

Dustin Sorensen won the FOX Factory Hard Charger Award.

Drake Troutman was the MD3 Rookie of the Race.

Brian Shirley won the WELD Racing Second-Place Finisher Award.

Nick Hoffman was the ARP Fourth-Place Finisher.

Tristan Chamberlain was the MSD Fifth-Place Finisher.

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

Cody Overton was the VP Racing Fuels Eighth-Place Finisher.

Tyler Erb was the Lifeline USA Ninth-Place Finisher.

Chase Junghans was the COMP Cams 10th-Place Finisher.

Clay Stuckey was the Cometic Gaskets 12th-Place Finisher.

UP NEXT: The World of Outlaws Real American Beer Late Model Series presented by DIRTVision wraps up the Sooner State Showdown with a 60-lap, $20,000-to-win program at Arrowhead Speedway on Saturday, Aug. 22. Tickets will be available at the gate.

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

Pierce Conquers Arrowhead Opener for Third-Straight World of Outlaws Victory

But this time, the fans at Arrowhead Speedway didn’t need to check live timing to see who came out on top.

While the 2023 Series champion was undoubtedly the man to beat come Feature time, Pierce believes there’s still room for improvement going into Saturday.

RACE NOTES:

Tim McCreadie set the Dirt King Simulators Fastest Hot Lap.

Drake Troutman won the Simpson Quick Time Award.

Tristan Chamberlain won Real American Beer Heat 1.

Brian Shirley won STAKT Products Heat 2.

Tim McCreadie won Keyser Manufacturing Heat 3.

Dennis Erb Jr. won Jarrett Rifles Heat 4.

Ryan Gustin and Cade Dillard won the Landa Pressure Washers Last Chance Showdowns.

Brian Shirley won the Bilstein Pole Award.

Dustin Sorensen won the FOX Factory Hard Charger Award.

Drake Troutman was the MD3 Rookie of the Race.

Brian Shirley won the WELD Racing Second-Place Finisher Award.

Nick Hoffman was the ARP Fourth-Place Finisher.

Tristan Chamberlain was the MSD Fifth-Place Finisher.

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

Cody Overton was the VP Racing Fuels Eighth-Place Finisher.

Tyler Erb was the Lifeline USA Ninth-Place Finisher.

Chase Junghans was the COMP Cams 10th-Place Finisher.

Clay Stuckey was the Cometic Gaskets 12th-Place Finisher.

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

Feature (40 Laps): 1. 32-Bobby Pierce[5]; 2. 3S-Brian Shirley[1]; 3. 9M-Tim McCreadie[2]; 4. 9-Nick Hoffman[8]; 5. 20TC-Tristan Chamberlain[3]; 6. 28-Dennis Erb Jr[4]; 7. 22*-Drake Troutman[7]; 8. 2-Cody Overton[9]; 9. 1-Tyler Erb[11]; 10. 18-Chase Junghans[13]; 11. 74X-Ethan Dotson[6]; 12. 15-Clay Stuckey[10]; 13. 19-Dustin Sorensen[21]; 14. B1-Brent Larson[14]; 15. 96-Tanner English[12]; 16. 19R-Ryan Gustin[17]; 17. 4W-Tyler Wolff[19]; 18. 2C-Charlie Cole[15]; 19. 66-Eli Ross[20]; 20. 1R-BJ Robinson[25]; 21. 7-RC Whitwell[16]; 22. 49-Jake Timm[23]; 23. 14M-Morgan Bagley[22]; 24. 97-Cade Dillard[18]; 25. 21-Billy Moyer Sr[24]; 26. 86-Kyle Beard[26]

Uncategorized

Thornton Wins at Port Royal, Returns to Lucas Oil Victory Lane on Friday Night

August 25, 2025 ARP Trish

Thornton Wins at Port Royal, Returns to Lucas Oil Victory Lane on Friday Night

PORT ROYAL, PA (August 22, 2025) – For the first time since July 11, defending Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series National Champion Ricky Thornton Jr. returned to victory lane, leading 39 of the 40 laps in Friday night’s $10,000-to-win main event at Port Royal Speedway. Thornton’s 11th win of 2025 came on night one of the Rumble by the River presented by UNOH. Jonathan Davenport challenged Thornton for most of the race, briefly taking the lead on lap 30 after Thornton had led the first 29 laps from his pole position. Davenport then got by him for the race lead, but on the next lap, Thornton regained the lead off turn four on lap 31. Thornton pulled away from the current Midwest Sheet Metal points lead to win his 53rd Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series race. Davenport finished second, with Brandon Sheppard completing the Big River Steel Podium in third. Devin Moran was fourth, and Mike Marlar rounded out the top five drivers in a race that was entirely caution-free. “I didn’t quite know where I needed to be. I could run the bottom, then reach out through the middle, and then I started to feel like I was getting free, and I knew JD was coming. Then I heard him, and he got next to me and drove by, sliding into three. If I have a shot to win this, I’ll need to be able to pass him right back,” said the Chandler, Arizona native. “I had a good run and was able to pass him. I don’t know how much he had to slow down for me getting into three there, and hopefully we didn’t make contact or anything like that. After that, I just moved to the top, started banging the boards, and hoped I could drive away so he couldn’t catch me. With four laps to go, I hit the wall right at the sign in turn two, and I thought, if I pop my right front here, it’s really going to be bad getting into three. But it all worked out for us. I love coming to this place; it’s so slick and technical.” Davenport, who entered the night 55 points ahead of Thornton, lost 20 points as last week’s Topless 100 winner finished in second place. “He (Thornton) just did a good job there. I kept inching up on him from the bottom. I tried the top a couple of times in one and two, but you really had to commit all the way up there, and I kept trying to go up there to gain a little momentum and pull off, but it just wasn’t as effective. I then started running the bottom and tried to slow down more and more, and it seemed to work for us. I ran him back down and got past him, which made him start searching too, and then he just committed to the top in one and two. Obviously, he got a run down the back straightaway and slid me into three. He just did a good job, plain and simple.” Sheppard, who started next to Thornton on the front row, ran second for the first ten laps before yielding the spot to Davenport. “We had a really solid night, for sure. We were just two spots short tonight, you know. It’s one of those deals where it was like stages, and we were really good, so we’re just going to jot it down in the old notebook and give it our best shot tomorrow night. I’ve got a good car and something to work with. When you’re running well and gaining some consistency, that’s what we want.” The winner’s Koehler Motorsports, Longhorn Chassis is powered by a Cornett Racing Engine and sponsored by Hoker Trucking, Knight’s Companies, Coltman Farms Racing, Ultimate Towing and Recovery, Elite Ready Mix, Capital Waste, Sunoco Race Fuels, Bilstein Shocks, EMD Wraps, and Certified Inspection Services. Completing the top ten were Hudson O’Neal, Garrett Alberson, Max Blair, Daulton Wilson, and Chris Madden. Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series Race Summary Rumble by the River presented by UNOH | Night 1Friday, August 22, 2025Port Royal Speedway | Port Royal, PA Allstar Performance Time TrialsFast Time Group A: Brandon Overton | 18.414 seconds (Overall)Fast Time Group B: Devin Moran | 18.887 seconds Penske Shocks Heat Race #1 Finish (8 Laps, Top 4 Transfer): 1. 20RT-Ricky Thornton Jr[2]; 2. 58-Garrett Alberson[4]; 3. 76-Brandon Overton[1]; 4. 60-Dan Ebert[3]; 5. 7-Ross Robinson[6]; 6. 118*-Matt Cochran[8]; 7. 66C-Matt Cosner[5]; 8. 22G-Gregg Satterlee[11]; 9. 2J-Justin Weaver[10]; 10. 24Y-Dylan Yoder[7]; 11. 4S-Danny Snyder[9]
Summit Racing Products Heat Race #2 Finish (8 Laps, Top 4 Transfer): 1. 49-Jonathan Davenport[2]; 2. 18D-Daulton Wilson[1]; 3. N1-Michael Norris[4]; 4. 6-Clay Harris[5]; 5. 22F-Chris Ferguson[8]; 6. 66-Justin Kann[3]; 7. 4-Gary Stuhler[6]; 8. 1Z-Logan Zarin[7]; 9. 15F-Scott Flickinger[10]; 10. 80D-Greg Diehl[9]; 11. 27-Trever Feathers[11]
Cool-It Thermo-Tec Heat Race #3 Finish (8 Laps, Top 4 Transfer): 1. 1-Brandon Sheppard[2]; 2. 99-Devin Moran[1]; 3. 71-Hudson O’Neal[5]; 4. 25Z-Mason Zeigler[4]; 5. 09-Michael Leach[3]; 6. 9-Hayes Mattern[7]; 7. 48-Colton Flinner[6]; 8. 79-Donald McIntosh[9]; 9. D19-Dillan Stake[10]; 10. 21-Chad Myers[11]; 11. 93L-Cory Lawler[8]; 12. 000-Dale Murphy[12]
Simpson Race Products Heat Race #4 Finish (8 Laps, Top 4 Transfer): 1. 157-Mike Marlar[1]; 2. 44-Chris Madden[2]; 3. 111-Max Blair[3]; 4. 22-Daniel Hilsabeck[5]; 5. 15K-Wil Herrington[7]; 6. 93-Carson Ferguson[4]; 7. 24-Rick Eckert[8]; 8. 2-Dan Stone[6]; 9. 0Y-Andrew Yoder[11]; 10. 06-Mike Lupfer[9]; 11. 10S-Dave Stamm[10] Fast Shafts B-Main Race #1 Finish (10 Laps, Top 3 Transfer): 1. 22F-Chris Ferguson[2]; 2. 7-Ross Robinson[1]; 3. 118*-Matt Cochran[3]; 4. 4-Gary Stuhler[6]; 5. 2J-Justin Weaver[9]; 6. 66C-Matt Cosner[5]; 7. 24Y-Dylan Yoder[11]; 8. 1Z-Logan Zarin[8]; 9. 15F-Scott Flickinger[10]; 10. 4S-Danny Snyder[13]; 11. 80D-Greg Diehl[12]; 12. 22G-Gregg Satterlee[7]; 13. 66-Justin Kann[4]; 14. (DNS) 27-Trever Feathers
UNOH B-Main Race #2 Finish (10 Laps, Top 3 Transfer): 1. 15K-Wil Herrington[2]; 2. 09-Michael Leach[1]; 3. 93-Carson Ferguson[4]; 4. 9-Hayes Mattern[3]; 5. 24-Rick Eckert[6]; 6. 79-Donald McIntosh[7]; 7. 0Y-Andrew Yoder[10]; 8. 48-Colton Flinner[5]; 9. D19-Dillan Stake[9]; 10. 21-Chad Myers[11]; 11. 2-Dan Stone[8]; 12. 93L-Cory Lawler[13]; 13. 000-Dale Murphy[15]; 14. 06-Mike Lupfer[12]; 15. 10S-Dave Stamm[14] Rumble by the River presented by UNOH | Night 1 Feature Finish (40 Laps): Pos – Start – Car # – Competitor – Hometown – Pay1 – 1 – 20RT – Ricky Thornton Jr – Chandler, AZ – $10,1002 – 3 – 49 – Jonathan Davenport – Blairsville, GA – $5,6003 – 2 – 1 – Brandon Sheppard – New Berlin, IL – $3,5004 – 6 – 99 – Devin Moran – Dresden, OH – $2,7005 – 4 – 157 – Mike Marlar – Winfield, TN – $2,5006 – 10 – 71 – Hudson O’Neal – Martinsville, IN – $2,3007 – 5 – 58 – Garrett Alberson – Las Cruces, NM – $2,2008 – 12 – 111 – Max Blair – Centerville, PA – $2,1009 – 7 – 18D – Daulton Wilson – Fayetteville, NC – $2,05010 – 8 – 44 – Chris Madden – Gray Court, SC – $2,00011 – 9 – 76 – Brandon Overton – Evans, GA – $1,60012 – 11 – N1 – Michael Norris – Sarver, PA – $1,40013 – 19 – 7 – Ross Robinson – Georgetown, DE – $1,20014 – 14 – 25Z – Mason Zeigler – Chalk Hill, PA – $1,00015 – 13 – 60 – Dan Ebert – Lake Shore, MN – $1,05016 – 18 – 15K – Wil Herrington – Hawkinsville, GA – $92517 – 16 – 22 – Daniel Hilsabeck – Earlham, IA – $90018 – 20 – 9 – Michael Leach – Sun River, MT – $87519 – 22 – 93 – Carson Ferguson – Lincolnton, NC – $85020 – 25 – 2J – Justin Weaver – Clearspring, MD – $82521 – 23 – 79 – Donald McIntosh – Dawsonville, GA – $80022 – 15 – 6 – Clay Harris – Jupiter, FL – $80023 – 24 – 93L – Cory Lawler – Hanover, PA – $80024 – 17 – 22F – Chris Ferguson – Mt. Holly, NC – $80025 – 21 – 118* – Matt Cochran – Williamsport, PA – $800 Race Statistics Entrants: 45Victory Fuel Pole Sitter: Ricky Thornton, Jr.MD3 Lap Leaders: Ricky Thornton, Jr. (Laps 1-29); Jonathan Davenport (Lap 30); Ricky Thornton, Jr. (Laps 31-40)Hellraizer Jacks Halfway Leader: Ricky Thornton, Jr.Wieland Feature Winner: Ricky Thornton, Jr.Margin of Victory: 1.648 secondsColtman Farms Racing Cautions: n/aSeries Provisionals: Donald McIntosh; Cory LawlerFast Time Provisional: n/aEmergency Provisional: n/aTrack Provisional: Justin WeaverBig River Steel Podium Top 3: Ricky Thornton, Jr., Jonathan Davenport, Brandon SheppardPenske Shocks Top 5: Ricky Thornton, Jr., Jonathan Davenport, Brandon Sheppard, Devin Moran, Mike MarlarPEM 4th Place Feature: Devin MoranDMI Rearends 5th Place Feature: Mike MarlarWilwood Brakes Lucky 7th Place Feature: Garrett AlbersonWehrs Machine 11th Place Feature: Brandon OvertonDeatherage Opticians Lucky 13th Place Feature: Ross RobinsonMD3 24th Place Feature: Chris FergusonHoker Trucking Hard Charger of the Race: Ross Robinson (Advanced 6 positions) MD3 Most Laps Led: Ricky Thornton, Jr. (39 Laps)Sunoco Race for Gas Highest Finisher: Ricky Thornton, Jr.Midwest Sheet Metal Spoiler Challenge Point Leader: Jonathan DavenportO’Reilly Auto Parts Rookie of the Race: Dan EbertPro Fabrication Headers Fastest Lap of the Race: Ricky Thornton, Jr. | Lap 2 | 20.694 secondsSlicker Graphics Slickest Move of the Race: Ricky Thornton, Jr.Fresh Roof Hard Luck Award: n/aOuterwears Crew Chief of the Race: Zack FrieldsARP Engine Builder of the Race: Cornett Racing EnginesMiller Welders Chassis Builder of the Race: Longhorn ChassisDirt Draft Fastest in Hot Laps: Garrett Alberson | 17.434 secondsTime of Race: 14 minutes 35 seconds Big River Steel Chase for the Championship Presented by ARP Point Standings:Pos – Car # – Competitor – Hometown – Points – Pay1 – 49 – Jonathan Davenport – Blairsville, GA – 7055 – $371,4002 – 20RT – Ricky Thornton Jr – Chandler, AZ – 7020 – $363,2503 – 71 – Hudson O’Neal – Martinsville, IN – 6635 – $263,2754 – 99 – Devin Moran – Dresden, OH – 6610 – $249,2495 – 1 – Brandon Sheppard – New Berlin, IL – 6380 – $216,7006 – 58 – Garrett Alberson – Las Cruces, NM – 6315 – $153,3507 – 76 – Brandon Overton – Evans, GA – 6075 – $133,7008 – 18D – Daulton Wilson – Fayetteville, NC – 5585 – $110,7259 – 93 – Carson Ferguson – Lincolnton, NC – 5280 – $90,12510 – 79 – Donald McIntosh – Dawsonville, GA – 5215 – $78,45011 – 22 – Daniel Hilsabeck – Earlham, IA – 5060 – $73,05012 – 60 – Dan Ebert – Lake Shore, MN – 4800 – $70,27513 – 6 – Clay Harris – Jupiter, FL – 4660 – $65,80014 – 19M – Spencer Hughes – Meridian, MS – 4335 – $59,70015 – 93L – Cory Lawler – Hanover, PA – 4085 – $43,200

Uncategorized

Berry to Start 11th After Qualifying Canceled at Daytona

August 25, 2025 ARP Trish

Qualifying for Saturday night’s NASCAR Cup Series regular season finale at Daytona International Speedway was canceled Friday evening due to continuous lightning in the vicinity of the track. With inclement weather preventing on-track activity, the starting lineup was set according to the NASCAR Rulebook.As a result, Josh Berry and the No. 21 DEX Imaging Ford Mustang Dark Horse will take the green flag from the 11th position at the World Center of Racing. The Coke Zero Sugar 400 is set to go green at 7:30 p.m. ET on Saturday night. Fans can catch the action live on NBC, with radio coverage available on MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

Uncategorized

Chevy Racing–NASCAR–Daytona–william Byron

August 25, 2025 ARP Trish

NASCAR CUP SERIES DAYTONA INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY TEAM CHEVY DRIVER QUOTES AUGUST 22, 2025

William Byron, driver of the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet and the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series Regular Season Champion, met with the media onsite in advance of the series’ qualifying session at Daytona International Speedway. Byron is a three-time winner in NASCAR’s top division at the “World Center of Racing”, including back-to-back DAYTONA 500 titles.

MEDIA RESOURCES: Photo Gallery | Race Advances Chevrolet Newsroom

NASCAR CUP SERIESDAYTONA INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAYTEAM CHEVY DRIVER QUOTESAUGUST 22, 2025

MEDIA RESOURCES: Photo Gallery | Race Advances Chevrolet Newsroom

Media Availability Quotes:
You spent some time today at the DAYTONA 500 Champions Walk of Fame. Can you tell us what went on there and what that meant to you? “Yeah, it’s really cool. I think just seeing that Walk of Fame that they have was really special; get to do it last year and see your handprints and footprints, and then just kind of getting a chance to see your name with a lot of meaningful names that have won the DAYTONA 500. Just seeing both of them there was awesome and seeing the car for the first time. I love that paint scheme. I think that’s really our best paint scheme. It just looks really nice, and yeah, it was fun. Good to remember that weekend and everything.” A couple drivers have come in today to talk about the desperation throughout the field for those guys that just have to win their way into the playoffs. As someone who has won your way in and you’re just worried about points, how aware are you of that desperation? Can you feel it from behind the wheel when you’re racing around some of those guys?“Yeah. I think this race, you can feel it with about 20 to 30 laps to go. You can just feel the energy. I just don’t understand the mentality — like I understand the mentality, but I don’t see a lot of people making better decisions being desperate. you know what I mean? Like I think the best decisions come from, you know, having the right thought process to get yourself to the end of the race and see the checkered. I think a lot of times, you see desperate moves with 10-15 laps to go and it’s just like — man, just get to the end of the race first. But I think there’s definitely a lot of that throughout the field. For us, we just can go out there and race freely and not really have to worry too much about the outcome. And I think in some ways, the guys that can do that are going to be able to have a freer mindset out there. But yeah, there’s definitely a lot of desperation throughout the field that I think causes probably some early wrecks that probably don’t need to happen. I don’t know, maybe it’ll be different this year. Maybe guys kind of figured that cadence out a bit. I know when we won the race here in 2020, it was we were fighting with Jimmie and Matt DiBenedetto, and really what freed us up to go and get the win was just that we were in a good spot on point and then we just went out there and executed the final restart. But yeah, I think you’ll see a lot of different moves out there, for sure.” The new schedule came out. When you see that schedule for next year, do you really look at it that far ahead, or is it more of you’re too busy concentrating on what you’ve got going on now that you’re not even worried about it and even look at it? And when you do look at it, is it from a strategic standpoint or is it just like, I can’t wait to go here or there or another track or whatever?“To answer your question, I feel like it’s just more for the rhythm of the season is why I look at it. Like where am I going to be in that portion of the year? Is it going to be hot that time of year? Like do I need to prepare differently if we’re going to be racing? You know, I think North Wilkesboro is going to be really hot next year, if it’s a day race in July. I mean, I live in Charlotte.. it’s usually like 98 degrees. So I think that one would be tough on everybody, if that’s the case, so you’re going to have to prepare differently. And I think I just look at the rhythm, like I said, just kind of like — where are we going to be in this part of the year? And then you look at where am I going to be at the end of the year, so how do I need to prepare for that? Unfortunately, like Homestead, our last true learning experience with Homestead has passed us. It’s going to be over a year and a half when we go back there for the championship, so you’re going to really have to learn a lot of stuff quickly there. Maybe we’ll have a test or something that everyone can kind of get some added experience. But yeah, I think you kind of look at stuff like that.” Last week in Richmond, you said that as a team, you wanted to look at getting Alex Bowman into the playoffs, but you also are the first driver to have a chance to win both the DAYTONA 500 and this race in the same season since Jimmie Johnson did it like 10-12 years ago. Would it be equal for you to either help push him to the win, or you taking the checkered flag yourself? Does it matter?“Yeah, obviously we want to win. I mean, that would help them, as well. So I think, we just have to try to go out there and win, but you have to be really mindful of helping a teammate. It’s a very double-edged sword… like I want to make sure I’m making moves to advance myself forward and not advance somebody else forward. So yeah, I think it’s learning from previous races, right? Like learning from previous speedways. I mean, this package is — as easy as it is to say, hey, I don’t want to help somebody else. You’re kind of boxed in… like this is pretty much a two-by-two race. You’re pretty much pushing whoever’s in front of you, and that’s how you go forward. So how do you separate — okay, I want to go forward versus, you know, I want to help my teammates. So you got to kind of find that guy on the track. Hopefully we have a good pit cycle. It’s kind of a peloton race here. You know, you get the guys out front that want to burn a bunch of fuel, try to save fuel, and then you cycle forward. So how do we make that peloton work the best at the end? That’s going to be the key.” Is there an art to saving fuel? I know that fuel has bit you a couple of times this year, but here at this track and especially when the races have a tendency to get going to overtime, do you have to be mindful of what you’re doing, and are there certain things that you can do to help yourself?“Yeah, 100%. I think you’re feeling how much throttle you’re using. The SMT data is helping the engineers figure out how much miles per gallon you’re getting and stuff like that. It’s no secret… like everyone’s doing that now, so it’s not like I’m giving anything away with that. You’re out there trying to be the most efficient you can be. There’s really no point to trying to lead the whole race… like you’re just going to pit, and if you have to take more fuel, you’re going to cycle backwards. So for us, what’s worked is trying to just save fuel and be diligent with that. Tomorrow night’s a little different because you can go that first stage without having to pit, so you’re going to see a true race there. You know, I think everyone’s going to go relatively hard the whole first stage, and then you’re going to kind of save in the second stage, and you’re going to save in the third. It’s an art, for sure. But the real racing, I think, is when you get the pit cycle; you get back and you can go hard from there to the end. You have to make really good decisions off pit road, so that’s the chaotic part. I’m surprised we don’t crash more in that sequence because guys are pulling big blocks and big closing rates. That’s what I would be watching. That’s what I’d be watching for is that blend and how everyone blends out.”
So points in that first stage are going to be what you’re looking at? “Yeah, for sure. If we can win a stage, great. We don’t need second place points, so we’re probably going to be smart about that and how we position for that. But yeah, if we can go out and win a stage, that would be amazing.” It seems simplistic that it would just be Hendrick has three cars locked in… you guys just line up behind the 48 and just help him. But it sounds like it’s a lot more circumstantial than that is what you’re saying… it’s not that easy at all.“Yeah. It’s not that easy. And I don’t know if that’s the right tactic either. This thing is very complicated. You just try to be conscious of that. It’s no secret, right? Like everyone’s going to have some sort of playoff implication tomorrow night, so it’s going to be very strategic throughout the field I’m sure on who’s helping who.” What are your thoughts on the first round of the playoffs going into next week? You’ve got Darlington, St. Louis and Bristol. Any of those three tracks stick out in particular to you in that first round?“I mean, I think Gateway’s been tough for us sometimes, so I think just trying to get a handle on that. Kyle did a test there, so hopefully we’ll have some good information there. And then Bristol’s pretty status quo. I mean, nothing’s really changed there a lot. The tires been pretty similar the last few fall races, and Darlington is pretty similar. It looks like weather’s similar to what it was in the spring.” For tomorrow night on the last lap, would you rather be leading or would you rather be the trailing car trying to make a pass for the win?“It’s just situational. I think how many cars are left and what the energy’s like. I mean, I think you’re in a safer spot leading, honestly, because you control when the caution comes out. You’re in control of that, or you at least have the track position at that point. I don’t know. I think that’s a little bit easier spot, but with these cars, there’s so much drag that it’s also really hard to defend.” The 2026 Cup Series schedule has been released earlier this week. There are two off weekends. I just kind of want to hear your thoughts on that.“I mean, it’s great. I feel like it kind of breaks things up a little bit. I don’t, I don’t remember exactly. I think there’s one in August or something. So yeah, I think that’s good for the guys. We’ve been rotating guys through the summer. A lot of our road crew has been different… pretty much every race we’ve had a sub in some way, so there’ll probably be a little less of that, I guess, with the off week. But yeah, that’s been the trickiest challenge of going from April to now is just trying to kind of keep everyone fresh.”

Uncategorized

CHEVY racing–NASCAR–Daytona–Michael Mc Dowell

August 25, 2025 ARP Trish

NASCAR CUP SERIES DAYTONA INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY TEAM CHEVY DRIVER QUOTES AUGUST 22, 2025

Michael McDowell, driver of the No. 71 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet, met with the media onsite in advance of the NASCAR Cup Series qualifying session at Daytona International Speedway. McDowell has one NASCAR Cup Series win at the “World Center of Racing” on his resume, which came in the 2021 DAYTONA 500.

MEDIA RESOURCES: Photo Gallery | Race Advances Chevrolet Newsroom

NASCAR CUP SERIESDAYTONA INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAYTEAM CHEVY DRIVER QUOTESAUGUST 22, 2025

MEDIA RESOURCES: Photo Gallery | Race Advances Chevrolet Newsroom

Media Availability Quotes:
I would assume there’s a certain level of confidence that you bring to Daytona… “Yeah, there is confidence, for sure. But we also have all been here enough to know that there’s a lot that can happen. I was just watching last year’s race here — we led with, I think 10 laps to go and we were in position to kind of control the race and ended up almost upside down and finished in the 20s, right? So I come here confident that we can be up front and put ourselves in position. I feel like situationally being aware of just how these things play out and where to be and all those things; I feel really comfortable and confident in. But it all goes out the window when things get crazy. So, you know, I think there’s a level of confidence and angst that you bring to places like this because there’s so many variables that are not controllable, but I feel good about it being the cutoff race and giving us an opportunity to go race for it.” With so many drivers needing to win, how do you anticipate this kind of playing out?“Like you guys do… it’s going to be a mess, right? I mean, we all know it. We’ve all lived it and seen it. It’s not like that’s going to be a big shock to us, and that’s why this race is so unpredictable, just because the desperation is high for everybody. So those moments where you’re like — yeah, I’ll give a little bit because whether I’m second or third in line here isn’t going to really matter, does matter in this race, so the intensity just ramps up. I think some of the decision-making is processing changes here with everything on the line.” How important is qualifying to you knowing that there is no practice at Daytona, considering this is the final race before the playoffs start next week?“I’m not really concerned about the not practicing or not having laps parts, as much as I am about having a better starting position than what our current is with the metrics is. Pit road selection and all those things are important, but I think we’re all used to just unloading and going now and I don’t think much would change as far as what you would do for adjustments because it’s so different today compared to tomorrow. Like when you go to qualify, these cars are on the ground and drive terrible; bounce all around and shoot sparks. And then you pick it up off the ground for tomorrow and it drives nice and feels like a completely different car. So I don’t think that part matters as much as just getting a better starting spot and track position. I think it still matters… I mean, I know that there’s times where this race ebbs and flows. In the pack, you can somewhat make moves, but I would rather be starting in the top-10 than starting in 18th or 19th. I would like to get qualifying in, for sure.” The 2026 schedule has been released earlier this week. Chicagoland is coming back to NASCAR. What are your thoughts on that?“My honest thoughts… I would like to add Chicago Street Course back, if we could (laughs). You know, I’m obviously really biased when it comes to that. Chicagoland is a really fun racetrack. It has character bumps and it’s slick. We haven’t been there in so many years, so I don’t know what it’s going to be like. But this current package races is really well at mile-and-a-halves, so I feel like it’s a good selection. I just hate losing a road course in the mix.” You partially answered this with the qualifying question, but with the expected to be so desperate, kind of a mess, do you want to be in front of the wrecks or behind the wrecks so you can you know navigate around them?“Yeah, you don’t want to be in the wreck, I know that. You know, it’s hard to answer that question. It’s a conversation that I’m sure all the teams had this week that are in that spot where they need to win. You can take the mindset of — hey, let’s miss it; let’s avoid it and get to the end. You can and sometimes that works. The problem with that is that you aren’t going to have track position. You’re going to have to come through whatever the field is left. Now if there’s only eight cars, maybe that’s okay. But if there’s 22 cars, that’s hard to pass. But you run the risk running up front and trying to get stage points… and not that the stage points are really what you’re focusing on, you just want to keep track position and stay up front. I think is the best way to give yourself a chance at winning, but it’s also the best chance of being in the crash because it normally starts up there. So yeah, it’s tough. You know, I always let it kind of play out organically in my own mind and race as I go out there to try to lead every lap. If you get stuck somewhere and the packs not really moving and you’re not able to make moves or pit strategy or caution falls or wherever it is; then you assess where you’re at, where you’re at track position-wise, and then you just stick to your gut. You can feel the energy and you can go – oh no, I’m going to be in it… I know I’m going to be in it. You got to make that decision. Nobody can help you make that decision of like — I’m going to bail out and miss it or I’m going to be just in front of it. So it’s tough, but for me, it’s better to stay up front and it’s better to be up there all day and all night long so that when it counts, you know how to make the right moves and how to control the lanes. But it’s very easy to be in it doing that, too. We had that conversation this week and it was a mixed bag.” I’m sure you guys have had the meetings in the Spire camp about what to do this weekend, and I’m sure you guys have put together some kind of plan where it’s worked together. But at the same time, you know, try to get in the playoffs. What is the attitude among the Spire camp knowing when you rub shoulders with your teammates and knowing that you guys have to compete with each other in this in the last chance to make the playoffs to get to win?“Yeah, I think that when it comes to this race in particular, you need each other. I think that the way that give yourself the best chance to run up front and have help when you need it is to have your help be your teammates. As you guys have seen, that doesn’t always work out, but it has worked out, too. We’ve seen teams execute it. So our goal at Spire would be one of those teams that executes that well. You know, as far as what you’re talking about, when it comes to these races, everybody’s fighting for themselves to get themselves in the playoffs. But from a company standpoint, you know, we have to make sure that we take care of each other in that process. So that doesn’t mean you’re going to forfeit your race at by any means, but you definitely have to try to work together when you can and put yourself in the best position. You can come up with the greatest plan ever and come up with all these different scenarios, and very rarely do they actually play out that way. But you have to run through them. You have to talk through them. I think that we’ve seen the RFK cars execute teamwork really well. We’ve seen the Penske cars execute teamwork really well. When teams do it well and they have each other’s back, I think it does pay off. But we’ve also seen where half of them get crashed out; you don’t have any of those guys left and it is what it is. That could be the case tomorrow night, but I think you have to have a plan to give yourself the best shot to win the race, and the best shot to win the race is to work together and have each other at the end because you know they’re not going to leave you or take that run and put you three or four wide… all the things that could mix it up. But very rarely do you get all of your cars lined up for the green-white-checkered and you’re in that perfect spot, so you just you just got to wait and see.” I seem to recall you mentioning, forgive me if I’m getting this wrong, but that when you came over from Front Row to Spire, that some of the things were different and that not everything correlated to the success of the superspeedways. You haven’t had a top-10 so far, and I’m sure there’s various factors, but what are you guys having to do and how have you tried to develop this car and this program to get to this point where tomorrow night a guy and a team that hasn’t been top-10 can win and get in the playoffs?“Yeah, I think more of what we were talking about probably doesn’t correlate so much to the superspeedways, as far as the feel and what I’m looking for and getting that same kind of feel out of it. You know, for sure the speed at the superspeedways from a qualifying standpoint — you know, last year, we sat on six poles, so it’s hard to beat that. But I felt like we made gains from Daytona to Talladega… we qualified I think 14th at Talladega, so we made a pretty good gain at getting close to that top-10 speed. So I think to answer your question, we’re trying to build more speed into our cars, for sure, for these races. In particular, the Fords have been strong here when it comes to qualifying and just executing. That’s why I hope we qualify tonight. I think we’ve made some gains, hopefully. The car drives well, though, in the pack in it and it’s raced, we just had misfortune when it comes to the superspeedway races. But I feel like we can put ourselves in position and contend. I don’t feel like we’re lacking anything to do that, but it’s a building process, too. I think that Spire at the superspeedways — if you asked them where they’re going to qualify, they would say somewhere in the high 20s the 30s. Where now, we’re talking about teens and hopefully we get into the single digits It’s .a lot easier to win when your cars have that much speed in them, there’s no doubt about it. There’s a correlation. You know, some people say qualifying doesn’t matter, but it’s a lot easier sitting on the pole and leading a lot of laps to be up front and have a shot at it, so we’re working towards that. But I feel like this is one of the next steps and builds that we have and hopefully we get to see how it performs.” Like you mentioned earlier, in this race last year, you were leading with 10 to go. What was the takeaway from that? Is there anything looking back that, it was just as much the push in the wrong spot, or what can you do because obviously you hope to be in that same spot come tomorrow night with 10 laps ago. How does this not happen again? “Yeah, that’s a great question…. I’m very analytical, so when I look at it, I look at it as how I could have done things differently to not get spun, where it’d be easy just to say – well, the No. 2 pushed me on the entry of turn one with a lot of speed and spun me out and there’s not a whole lot you can do to it. I felt like I was shading a little bit left. I could have been closer to the wall if I would have drugged back to him a little bit sooner. We got a push when the momentum was different… so I think about all those things and analyze them post-race because you can. On Monday morning, it’s very easy to go back and look at it, so yeah, you can learn from all those experiences. I think if you asked him, he just made contact at the wrong spot and things happen, and when you get down to the end of the race, that’s kind of how it goes, right? Nobody really lifts and you’re trying to build momentum. So you can’t really get super upset about any of those things, but I always look at it like this — if you didn’t win you did something wrong, so what are you going to do different to win? So I still look at that situation that even though I got spun out from behind, that there’s things that I could have done differently to put myself in a better position to win.” We have some organizations that are trying to get one of their cars in because other drivers are already in. We have you guys at Spire Motorsports trying to get at least one person in. But in the day and age where we see superspeedway racing is kind of gridlocked, locked down and saving fuel, how in the world is anybody going to help each other tomorrow?“It’s great question. Yeah, it’s tough. It is tough because it is gridlocked, especially the first little bit where you’re saving fuel. It’s nice how this first stage plays out here because everybody can make it, so you can go hard and kind of hopefully get in position to manage the rest of the race from there. But it always comes down to that last pit stop and that last stage, right? It always comes down to that last pit stop and how you execute pit road; what strategy you use and how many people come with you and all those things. So I feel like that’s when that piece comes together of when you come off pit road for that final stop and you want to be with each other. That’s when you can actually make things happen because if it’s any different than that, it’s going to be hard to coordinate it and organize it. So yeah, to answer your question, it’s just about executing that final pit stop.” This is really the race where you have to win… where you can’t go into it and say I’d love to get a top-10 or my car is good enough for whatever. A lot of people have to win. What is the difference in that, whether it be a feeling or whatever it is, knowing that you have that a win is the only thing you can do in this? “Yeah, it’s a great question. I think it makes it very clear of what you have to do and how you’re going to do it, right? There are times where you go — oh that’s a low percentage move. Well, it doesn’t matter… low percentage is all you got right now, right? And so I think it changes that mindset of the risk versus reward. But I think I’ve said it and been talking about it for a while now and it’s kind of played its way out – we treat, I treat, my crew chief, as you guys see with the strategies, treats every race like it’s ‘do or die’ and you have to win because pointing your way in is so tough, as we see. You look at guys like Chris Buescher, again, who’s had a great season; scored a lot of points and potentially won’t make it unless he wins. So we treated Richmond like that. We treated Watkins Glen like that. We treated all of them like that. So you give up a lot of points in the process of doing it like that, but that’s the mindset that you have to have to potentially get a win and change your season. I think last week was awesome evidence of that, right? Like you could have a tough season, a rough season, but you’re only one week away from that changing. We’re out of weeks now as we head into Daytona. This is the last week that that can change. But I do feel like that mindset for a lot of the teams is what you have to have for the playoffs, even the best teams.”

Uncategorized

Trifecta Motorsports Rookies Develop Fast Friendship, Chase Success Through 2025 Xtreme Outlaw Midget Season

August 22, 2025 ARP Trish

CONCORD, NC – August 22, 2025 – When the 2025 Xtreme Outlaw Midget Series presented by Toyota season began at Farmer City Raceway, Trifecta Motorsports teammates Kameron Key and Michael Faccinto hardly knew each other before the April weekend.

In the four months since pairing up, the relationship between them and their partners as octane-paced friends is something team owner Steve Carbone has taken note of and welcomes with open arms.

“It’s been really good,” Carbone said. “Probably the most surprising thing out of it all is how Michael, Kameron, and the wives have gotten along, so the chemistry altogether has been super fantastic. And, we’re finally starting to speak each other’s language, so the results are starting to show. It’s been a lot of fun, and we’re one of the only few teams that’s why we do this.”

Key enjoys the respect and support that he shares with his teammate off the track, while also racing wheel-to-wheel with him at each event.

“Before this year, I really didn’t know him that well,” Key said. “Now, we’re just barely halfway through the year, and I feel like he’s one of my better friends, and his wife and my fiancé are really close too. We get along great; we can go do stuff away from the racetrack. I want to see him do good, and he wants to see me do good too. We’re competitors, but we’re supporters of each other, and it’s awesome.”

Michael echoed the camaraderie that he, Kameron, and the Trifecta team have shared, which has helped the Hanford, CA driver become more comfortable at unseen tracks that Kameron or the team have participated in to share their knowledge.

“We’ve got these bigger tracks that we don’t really see in California with a Midget,” Faccinto said. “It was a lot for me to learn about the pace, momentum, and everything about Midget racing on these larger kinds of tracks.

“We get to these smaller racetracks that I’m really comfortable on, so I’m really excited for those because I think we can have a lot of speed. Kameron’s been super great as a teammate. We were able to bounce ideas off each other, and he’s seen some of these tracks before running Sprint Cars, so it’s nice to have that to bounce back on.”

Finding a baseline setup that fits Key and Faccinto’s driving styles has been one of the unique challenges Carbone and Trifecta Crew Chief Bobby Milliser faced at the start of the season.

“Everybody that’s done this, Kameron and Michael too, they have their own terminologies and things they want,” Carbone said. “We’re not good enough to where we have a set package where you can get in, and we tell you the way to drive it to get to the front. So, it’s all about leaning on each other and trying to build something that works. So, we’re pointed in the right direction, and we’re almost there.”

“A lot of the navigation comes with having a starting point,” Milliser said. “That one page in the notebook is the difference between unloading remotely close or unloading guessing. Their experience, matched with the ability to communicate what they’re feeling, has really started to turn the corner towards great feedback and communication. They’re working together well, so that really helps because when you have great teammates, anything’s possible.”

In August, the team visited Xtreme Victory Lane for the first time in the 2025 Series season when Key captured the Federated Auto Parts Ironman 55 finale win. The driver and team’s first dumbbell trophy left an impact on Carbone and Key for more personal reasons in their racing lives.

“What was neat about (the Ironman 55) win was that we’ve got several (wins) with guys like Zach Daum and Tanner Thorson,” Carbone said. “But the Ironman is my second favorite race outside of the Chili Bowl. To drive from eighth, and it’s a short list of guys who’ve been able to drive by (Series points leader) Jacob Denney, we just flat out beat everyone that night. There’s very few nights you get to say that.”

Key, a native of Warrensburg, MO, remembers growing up near I-55 Federated Auto Parts Raceway Park and attending the Ironman with his family. The win continues to resonate with him as a validation for completing a dream since childhood.

“Coming into and through the year, I’ve thought that we could get a win, or multiple,” Key said. “You get to the halfway point of the year and don’t have one yet, so you start to question a little bit if you’re going to be able to get it done.

“But man, the race car that night was so good. Not only the best car I’ve had this year, but one of the best cars I’ve ever driven. To go from eighth and drive away, it was just awesome. To be able to come to a track that I love so much, and win the highest paying race of the year, it all worked out perfectly.”

Milliser said he knew he had something special on his driver lineup when Key made his Xtreme Outlaw Midget debut in 2024 at Jacksonville Speedway and contended for the win between the two nights. With the Ironman win, he’s working to get Faccinto’s No. 5U a turn at parking in Victory Lane.

“(The Ironman) was a culmination of just being consistent,” Milliser said. “Kam’s super talented, and we’ve had a few bad runs or bad luck, but we knew the win was coming. The Quick Times, Heat wins, they started adding up, and he was fighting for wins straight out of the box. So, we knew we had something special.

“Michael’s really turned it on here in the summertime months, which we expected. As these tracks start to slow down, slick off, and it gets hotter, you can’t just pin it to the floor. But, we’re making strides in the right direction.”

Faccinto has yet to score a podium with the Series, but owns five top fives and 12 top-10s. He set new milestones during the Appalachian Midget Week with starts on the pole at Linda’s Speedway and Path Valley Speedway, and first laps led in a Feature at Linda’s.

“I’m very happy with the run,” Faccinto said. “There’s definitely some things I could have done to make it easier on myself, but we keep it going with the progression. We’ve worked all year on finding balance, making me comfortable, and I think we finally have that. These (PA) races have really, really helped me, so hopefully, we can continue this string through the rest of the season.”

In the remaining deck of races for the season, Key’s experience at the two upcoming Illinois tracks could help Trifecta chase a second Xtreme Outlaw Feature win in 2025. The Missourian has a 2022 MOWA Sprint Car win at Highland Speedway – the sight of the Xtreme Outlaw-POWRi Challenge Series finale – and owns a MOWA top five from the 2024 Xtreme doubleheader at Jacksonville Speedway.

On the flip side, Key is going to make his first career appearances at Doe Run Raceway on Sept. 5, and at Millbridge Speedway for the Xtreme Outlaw Midget World Championship on Nov. 3-4.

“Jacksonville, last year, was the first race I got to run for Trifecta,” Key said. “We went out the first night and almost won the Feature, then ran really close and got a top five the second night. We have a ton of speed there, and I’ve raced a lot a laps with the Sprint Car too. Highland, I’ve got a (MOWA) win there, so I’ve got great memories of those places, but super pumped for the other two (tracks) I haven’t been.”

Key and Faccinto climb aboard their Trifecta Motorsports Midgets for the Xtreme-POWRi Challenge Series finale weekend at Doe Run Raceway on Friday, Sept. 5, and Highland Speedway on Saturday, Sept. 6.

Trifecta Motorsports Rookies Develop Fast Friendship, Chase Success Through 2025 Xtreme Outlaw Midget Season

In the four months since pairing up, the relationship between them and their partners as octane-paced friends is something team owner Steve Carbone has taken note of and welcomes with open arms.

Key enjoys the respect and support that he shares with his teammate off the track, while also racing wheel-to-wheel with him at each event.

Finding a baseline setup that fits Key and Faccinto’s driving styles has been one of the unique challenges Carbone and Trifecta Crew Chief Bobby Milliser faced at the start of the season.

On the flip side, Key is going to make his first career appearances at Doe Run Raceway on Sept. 5, and at Millbridge Speedway for the Xtreme Outlaw Midget World Championship on Nov. 3-4.

If you can’t make it to the track, you can watch all the action live on DIRTVision – either online or by downloading the DIRTVision App.

Uncategorized

Baggsy– Back in Ferropolis for Drift Masters European Championship

August 21, 2025 ARP Trish

Baggsy reflects on a tough weekend at Drift Masters Ferropolis as the team now looks ahead to Poland in September.

Ferropolis once again delivered a great weekend of drifting as the Drift Masters European Championship returned, and SB Motorsport’s Baggsy was back for the first time since the Spanish round in May.The team started strong, with the car performing flawlessly throughout practice. Baggsy looked comfortable and confident heading into qualifying, ready to chase down a place in the Top 32.

On his first run, Baggsy delivered what felt like a clean and competitive lap. Despite the strong performance, the judges awarded an 84, a score the team felt didn’t quite reflect the quality of the run. Pushing harder in his second attempt, Baggsy adjusted his entry to go after extra style and angle points. Unfortunately, the move compromised the early part of the run, and the score came in at 83.Missing out on the Top 32 by just two points was a bitter pill to swallow, especially with the belief that the opening run merited closer to 90 points, a score that would have put Baggsy right in the mix. But that’s the unpredictable nature of motorsport, and part of what makes Drift Masters so fiercely competitive.

Back in Ferropolis for Drift Masters European Championship

Baggsy reflects on a tough weekend at Drift Masters Ferropolis as the team now looks ahead to Poland in September.

While disappointed with the result, Baggsy remains upbeat and determined to bounce back. The team will now turn their focus to the next round in Poland on September 12th–13th, where they’ll be looking to convert their pace and performance into results.Thank you to our sponsors and fans for their unwavering support, which drives the team to keep pushing for more every time they hit the track. Poland, September 12th–13th. Let’s go again.Next stop: Gravity Show 23rd and 24th Augus

Uncategorized

Chevy Racing–Indycar–Milwaukee Advance

August 21, 2025 ARP Trish

CHEVROLET IN THE NTT INDYCAR SERIESSnap-on Milwaukee Mile 2501.015-mile Milwaukee Mile short ovalMilwaukee, WisconsinRace AdvanceAugust 23-24
DETROIT (August 21, 2025) – The historic Milwaukee Mile located at the Wisconsin State Fairgrounds plays host to the 16th of 17 NTT INDYCAR SERIES in 2025. Hosting it’s 116th INDYCAR SERIES race, the 1.015-mile short oval has been good to Chevrolet-powered drivers since the introduction of the twin-turbo, 2.2L V6 engine architecture, with Bowtie-backed drivers winning all six races, including wins by Pato O’Ward (Arrow McLaren) and Scott McLaughlin (Team Penske) at the 2024 doubleheader.
The first Chevrolet-powered driver to make a start at ‘The Mile’ was Don Davis while driving a Turner D 2 for Racing Associates in the 1962 Rex Mays Classic. In the next 63 years, Bowtie-powered drivers have made 236 starts across 48 races.
Chevrolet at the Milwaukee Mile
Mike Mosley in a Chevrolet-powered Eagle 8100 for All-American Racers was the first Team Chevy winner at the iconic Milwaukee Mile in 1981, with a total of nine drivers visiting victory lane a total of 11 times, including twice, McLaughlin and O’Ward last year.

Chevrolet-powered drivers have won the pole at the 1.015-mile Milwaukee Mile short oval nine times, including three times by the leading driver, Rick Mears, and six times by the leading squad, Team Penske. O’Ward, Will Power (Team Penske) and Conor Daly (Juncos Hollinger Racing) swept the podium in Race #1 last year, the seventh time there was an all-Team Chevy podium at the Wisconsin oval. Eddie Sachs, driving for one-time lead engineer at Kurtis, Walter Meskowski, in the 1963 Rex Mays Classic, was the first of 32 Chevrolet-powered drivers to stand on a podium at ‘The Mile.” Cars adorned with a Bowtie have led 2225 laps at the Wisconsin State Fairground, with Portland International Raceway winner Will Power’s 309 the best for a driver and Team Penske’s 965 laps, the best for a team.
A popular Bowtie victory in Milwaukee
A win in an All-American Racers entered Eagle 8100 powered by a Chevy 355 cubic inch stock block by Mike Mosley in the 1981 Rex Mays Classic was the first at the historic track for Chevrolet and the first for a stock block engine since a win by All-American Racers owner Dan Gurney in 1970.
The distinctive yellow and white No. 48 Pepsi Challenger Chevrolet led practice. However, the team was unable to complete a necessary engine change before qualifying, meaning Mosley would start dead last after getting a promoter’s option into the race. Mosely, already a two-time winner at the Milwaukee Mile, was up to tenth after only seven laps and joined the lead pack after only 22 laps. With 45 laps remaining, Mosley went by Tom Sneva and ended up putting a lap on the entire field.
“I was getting into the corners so much better than anyone else. It was amazing,” observed Mosley to the Indianapolis Star’s Robin Miller. “The only scare I had all day was when Bobby spun, and it was right in front of me.
“But we got lucky for a change.”
“We’ve had so many problems in the past that we’re getting gun shy,” said Dan Gurney to the Associated Press’ Mike Harris. “The stock block concept is just fine, but we haven’t had the dollars to run a proper testing program.”

Tune-In Alert Saturday, August 23 NTT INDYCAR SERIES Practice #1 – 11am (ET)/10am (CT)/9am (MT)/8am (MT) – FS1/INDYCAR Radio Network/SIRIUSXM 218NTT INDYCAR SERIES Qualifying – 2pm (ET)/1pm (CT)/noon (MT)/11am (PT) – FS1/INDYCAR Radio Network/SIRIUSXM 218NTT INDYCAR SERIES High-Line and Final Practice – 4:30pm (ET)/3:30pm (CT)/2:30pm (MT)/ 1:30pm (MT) – FS2/INDYCAR Radio Network/SIRIUSXM 218
Sunday, August 24 NTT INDYCAR SERIES Snap-on Milwaukee Mile 250 (250 laps)– 2pm (ET)/1pm (CT)/noon (MT)/11am (PT) – FOX/INDYCAR Radio Network/SIRIUSXM 218

A.J. FOYT RACING
David Malukas, No. 4 A.J. Foyt Racing Clarience Technologies Chevrolet:
You qualified in the top 10 for both races last year, including outside pole. What is the key to qualifying well at the Milwaukee Mile?
“Honestly, the key to qualifying well at the Milwaukee Mile is just, just trying to go as deep and as late as possible. I mean, the practice sessions are short. You’re quickly going into qualifying. And from what I remember last year, it was, it was simply just trying to turn it up. It’s such short track times, such short amount of data to look at that you kind of just need to go out there and just go deep, let the car slide. The Milwaukee Mile is very special in the fact that it doesn’t really have banking compared to other ovals. So the car likes to slide a lot more. So you need to be comfortable with the uncomfortable and need to trust, trust the setup, trust the car, trust that the engineers have done a good job, and let that car slide. And that’s how you’ll be fast.” What is more important at the Milwaukee Mile, managing tires or managing fuel?
“I would say, for Milwaukee, it’s honestly managing tires. The car is sliding around all the time, so you actually start getting quite a bit of rear tire deg compared to what I’d say is on other ovals. So I from what I remember last year that race, it was, it was very tough to keep the tires alive, to keep the pace up and to keep moving forward in that race. So I would say managing tires would be, would be key.” Question from a seven-year-old, ‘What are you most afraid of?’
“What am I most afraid of? Interesting question. Well, if you want it to be deep, I’m afraid of failure. If you want to just say, everyday life, I am very afraid of spiders. Those guys suck. I don’t like spiders. So yeah, there we go.”

Santino Ferrucci, No. 14 A.J. Foyt Racing Phoenix Investors Chevrolet:
What is the key to racing well at Milwaukee, because you do race well at that track?
“I think one of the big things about racing around Milwaukee would have been just understanding what we need to do for setups. And you know, I think that my experience actually in stock bars and dirt racing kind of really helped me understanding how to pass and set the car up.”
About your passing, you pass in places that other people don’t.
“Last year, the car was good enough that I could just pass wherever. Didn’t matter if people were on top or on the bottom, I could get around them.” What is the most challenging aspect of the Milwaukee Mile for a driver?
“I definitely believe the most challenging bit is the end of stints when the tires go away drastically and you lose a lot of lap time. Just being able to hang on to a loose race car is difficult to do.” Question from a seven-year-old: ‘What are you most afraid of? ‘
“Spiders. I just don’t do spiders!”

ARROW MCLAREN
Pato O’Ward, No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet:
“We’ve had a week to reset and we’re all-in for these last two races. We’re heading back to Milwaukee and Nashville where we had a win and a P2 last year, so I’ll be focused on bringing home more trophies and finishing the year strong.”
Nolan Siegel, No. 6 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet:
“I’m looking forward to getting back on a short oval, especially after not getting the chance to race from that third-row starting position we earned at Iowa. We’ve shown strong pace, and I’m ready to put it all together at this historic track.”
Christian Lundgaard, No. 7 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet:
“Coming off two P2’s the No. 7 VELO Arrow McLaren Chevrolet team is really clicking, and I’m looking to keep pushing in the championship. Last year, we climbed from deep in the field to the top 10 here, so while starting up front is the goal, I know we have the pace and execution to fight for more trophies this weekend.”

TEAM PENSKE
Josef Newgarden, No. 2 Snap-On Team Penske Chevrolet:
“The Milwaukee Mile is an important venue in the history of the INDYCAR SERIES so to return there last year was an important moment. This year’s race will be even more special for everyone on the No. 2 team with Snap-on coming on board as the entitlement partner for the race. They are a long-time Team Penske partner – one of our longest, in fact – and they are celebrating their 105^th anniversary this year. Representing them in a great-looking Snap-on paint scheme is going to be terrific. The goal is Victory Lane.”
Scott McLaughlin, No. 3 Sonsio Vechicle Protection Team Penske Chevrolet:
“I didn’t know a lot about Milwaukee before coming to the INDYCAR SERIES, but I can tell why everyone was excited for us to go back there. The fans in that city are very passionate about our sport and they came out in a big way to support our return there last year. Short ovals always put on some of the best racing and our win last year was very gratifying for us. Putting the Sonsio Chevy in Victory Lane this weekend would be a great way to continue to end this season with some positive momentum.”
Will Power, No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet:
“Milwaukee will always be a special place for me as one of my first oval wins back in 2014. It was a dominant day for the Verizon Chevy team, winning the pole position and leading a lot of laps. That was a key race for our championship that season and something I’ll never forget. It’s a great oval in an important market for the series. I know there was some serious flooding in the area a couple weeks ago. Hopefully we can help them in their recovery process in some way.”

Chevrolet History at the Milwaukee Mile

ARP Racing News

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

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

Thornton Wins First Career Hillbilly Hundred

Pierce Completes Sooner State Sweep, Extends Win Streak to Four

NASCAR CUP SERIES DAYTONA INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY TEAM CHEVY POST-RACE REPORT AUGUST 23, 2025

Thornton Secures Victory in Wild Rumble by the River at Port Royal

Chevy Racing–INDYCAR–Milwaukee, Wisconsin Qualifying Report August 23

CORVETTE RACING AT VIR: Hoping to Move on Up

Chevy Racing–Nascar–Daytona–Justin Marks & Connor Zilisch

2025 IndyCar Champion Alex Palou scores sixth pole of the season

2025 IndyCar Champion Alex Palou scores sixth pole of the season

19-Year-Old Racing Phenom Connor Zilischto Drive Trackhouse Chevy in the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series

RIVER CITIES SWEEP: Kofoid Charges from Ninth for Another North Dakota Win

Pierce Conquers Arrowhead Opener for Third-Straight World of Outlaws Victory

Thornton Wins at Port Royal, Returns to Lucas Oil Victory Lane on Friday Night

Berry to Start 11th After Qualifying Canceled at Daytona

Chevy Racing–NASCAR–Daytona–william Byron

CHEVY racing–NASCAR–Daytona–Michael Mc Dowell

Trifecta Motorsports Rookies Develop Fast Friendship, Chase Success Through 2025 Xtreme Outlaw Midget Season

Baggsy– Back in Ferropolis for Drift Masters European Championship

Chevy Racing–Indycar–Milwaukee Advance

Racer News and Results