In this week’s Motion Motorsport Report, Dave Mathers reacts to the news that Stewart-Haas Racing is shutting down. He also talks about tweaks to ‘The Roval’ and the busy local and international racing scene this past weekend.
I’m curious why Stewart-Haas Racing would shut down this year. With the current NASCAR ‘charter’ system due to expire at the end of this year, the value of their four ‘charters’ would most likely go way up in value next year. The number being bandied about is $40 to $50 million dollars per charter.
Charlotte Motor Speedway has announced some changes to the layout for the Sunday, October 13 Cup Series race on the ‘Roval’ (road course/oval). It was always exciting before and these changes will make it more exciting. Good job Marcus Smith.
It would appear that NASCAR has lost sight of their unwritten Mission Statement. They have announced that Kyle Larson will need a ‘waiver’ to race in the playoffs. They forget that they are selling entertainment and NOT racing. The sheer amount of publicity they got from Larson trying to do ‘the double’ was something even they, or IndyCar, could never buy.
But, like their inability (or refusal) to use the black flag, this one will open the series up to LOTS of (justified) criticism. Your fans want you to do the right thing. Please don’t disappoint us. Yes, I realize that a waiver will be granted if requested but how about adding a ‘not withstanding’ clause to the Rule Book to avoid this type of embarrassment in the future?
A couple of comments from the Monaco GP to share. Red Bull had praise for our Canadian driver Lance Stroll. “Thank God for Lance Stroll, the only guy that managed to overtake in the race.”
Really good to hear. As well, FIA head honcho Mohammed Ben Sulayem stated that Andretti Global should buy an existing team. Fair enough, as I’ve said that all along. BUT his comment that ‘it’s not about the number, it’s about the quality’ defies logic. Quality? Like Williams, RB, Haas and Alpine? THAT type of quality?
In the zMAX CARS Tour race at Langley (Virginia) Speedway last weekend, Treyten Lapcevich finished fifth. He sits fifth in the points after six races, with five top-tens. The entry list showed Treyten coming from Quebec, Canada!
More online problems seemed to be popping up this year. Live Timing has been a problem for NASCAR, IndyCar and now NHRA/Drag Race Central, while NASCAR Canada’s Live Timing has been MIA for the first two races. Solar flares perhaps?
It was a great weekend for ‘Sold Out’ crowds – Gateway Cup and NHRA Epping.
NASCAR CUP SERIES: Fords took the top three qualifying spots at World Wide Technology Raceway (Gateway), with Michael McDowell over Austin Cindric and Ryan Blaney. Fourteen Fords, 14 Chevs and eight Toyotas.
It didn’t take long before the yellow flag flew. John Hunter Nemechek and Cody Ware got together coming out of turn two, on Lap 4. Then Ware repeated it on Lap 18, getting into Derek Kraus and both of them spun. Things then went smoothly to the end of Stage 1, which was won by Christopher Bell.
On Lap 111, Josh Berry appeared to have a left-front flat tire and hit the wall on corner three entry for a caution. On Lap 140, Kyle Larson got loose under Kyle Busch and slid up and made contact; both cars went up to the wall and continued but, unfortunately, Busch took his car to the garage. Bell also won Stage 2. There had been a couple of ‘lost’ wheels during the stage.
With 18 to go, Bell radioed in that he was ‘blowing up’ as he was fighting Blaney for the lead; he then slowed his pace. False message perhaps? On the last lap, leader Blaney appeared to run out of fuel and he dropped back through the field, finishing 24th. At the flag, it was Austin Cindric over Denny Hamlin and Brad Keselowski.
Hamlin leads the points by 21 over Larson and by 27 on Chase Elliott. Their next race is Sonoma Raceway on Sunday at 3:30 p.m. ET on TSN 5.
NASCAR XFINITY SERIES: The Xfinity cars made the long haul to the fun road course at Portland International Raceway in Oregon. Sam Mayer got the pole, in front of Aussie Supercar star Shane Van Gisbergen (both in Chevs) and Riley Herbst (Ford). Stage 1 went green all the way, with Justin Allgaier getting the stage win.
On Lap 51, Matty D (DiBenedetto) came to a stop on track on the same lap as the end of Stage 2, also won by Allgaier. And a coyote set a new track record out on course!! On Lap 64, caution came out for some tire carcass debris from Hailie Deegan’s car. On Lap 69, the yellow came out for a six-car incident, damaging several of them.
The starting line of the dragstrip was covered in broken parts.
At the flag, it was Van Gisbergen getting the win over Allgaier and Sammy Smith. Shane now has a win in both Cup (Chicago) and Xfinity. There were a LOT of bruised race cars at the flag, including the left-front of the winner’s car. Good stuff!
In the points, Cole Custer leads Austin Hill and Chandler Smith, who are tied for second, 18 points back. Their next race is Sonoma, Saturday at 8 p.m. ET on TSN 5.
NASCAR CRAFTSMAN TRUCKS: In qualifying for the Toyota 200 at Gateway on Saturday, Ty Majeski (Ford) got the pole, ahead of the Chevs of Christian Eckes and Nick Sanchez. Canadian Stewart Friesen (Toyota) started sixth.
After a three-hour delay, the green flag came out under overcast skies. On Lap 10, Luke Fenhaus spun for a yellow. Majeski won Stage 1. On Lap 47, Colby Howard spun into the wall. Majeski also won Stage 2. On Lap 130, Vicente Salas went into the spin cycle of a caution. At the flag, it was Corey Heim for the win over Eckes and Sanchez. Friesen finished eighth.
In the points, Eckes leads Heim by 31 and Sanchez by 53. Their next race is Nashville Superspeedway on Friday, June 28.
FORMULA ONE: Their next race is Montreal, with the Canadian GP on Sunday at 1:55 p.m. ET on CTV and TSN 1, 4 & 5.
INDYCAR: Colton Herta picked up the pole for the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix, ahead of Alex Palou and Josef Newgarden. Twenty-seven cars qualified to start the race on the downtown street course.
Since none of the traditional channels (TSN, NBC) aired the race, I followed it with Live Timing. Reports indicate that Santino Ferrucci was a loose cannon in the race, causing a first corner of the first lap wreck and then, a few laps later, he collected some more cars, this time for a penalty.
Scott Dixon got a fuel saving win over Marcus Ericsson and Marcus Armstrong. Dixon now leads the points by 18 over prior leader Palou and by 31 on Will Power. Their next race is Road America on Sunday at 3:30 p.m. ET on NBC.
IMSA: I was very impressed that only 10 P cars and 11 PRO cars raced Saturday on the Streets of Detroit. The reason? The course is VERY tight and more cars would have probably led to more ‘incidents.’ The Penske Porsches of Tandy/Jaminet and Cameron/Nasr qualified one-two in GTP, with the van der Zande/Bourdais Caddy third. In PRO, the Corvettes of Garcia/Sims and Milner/Catsburg started one-two, with the Lexus of Hawksworth/Barnicoat going off third. The Canadian Pfaff Motorsport McLaren of Kirchhöfer/Jarvis started eighth in class.
What I LIKED about the field was the two classes were only a little over three seconds apart in qualifying, meaning a fairly close race. What I DIDN’T like, of course, was the B announce team. However….
It didn’t take long for business to pick up, as the P cars were trading paint NASCAR-style, right off the green flag.
Great show. Sadly, the Garcia ‘Vette pitted on the very first lap and the crew was both underneath the car and had the hood open. Then, Harry Tincknell stopped his Mustang on track. The DePhillippi BMW P car ran into problems with the right-rear suspension at the one hour to go mark and slowed on course, bringing out a yellow.
On the restart, the leading Corvette got into it with the Caddy P car of Jack Aitken and the resulting chaos had the track completely blocked. When the green came back out, with about 38 minutes to go, it was the Jaminet Porsche in front in P and the Heinrich Porsche out front in PRO.
With about 20 minutes to go, the yellow came out for debris on the track, a piece with Multimatic easily readable on it! Hmm. After six minutes to pick up the debris, the green came back out. With about 11 minutes to go, the yellow came back out when the BMW PRO car of Brian Sellers got spun BUT kept going. The green came back with just less than seven minutes to go.
At the flag, in GTP, it was the Taylor/Albuquerque Acura over the polesitter Porsche of Tandy/Jaminet and the Caddy of van der Zande/Bourdais. In PRO, it was the Heinrich/Priaulx Porsche in front of the Hawksworth/Barnicoat Lexus and the Gunn/Riberas Aston Martin. The Pfaff McLaren finished eighth in class. Their next race is Mid-Ohio on Sunday.
ENDURANCE RACING: The 24 Hours of Le Mans will take place June 15 and 16.
NHRA: The series visited Epping, New Hampshire for the New England Nationals.
Top Fuel – A full 16-car field, with Doug Kalitta topping the charts with a 3.700. Canadians in the field included Dan Mercier (10th – 3.777) and Smax Smith (15th – 5.286). Unfortunately, both Canucks were first round runners-up. In the final, Kalitta defeated Tony Schumacher. Five upsets and seven smokers. Justin Ashley leads the points by 71 over Shawn Langdon and by 111 over Kalitta.
Funny Car – Also a 16-car field, with Austin Prock on top at 3.837. In the final, grizzled veteran John Force took the win over his employee Prock. Two upsets and eight smokers. Matt Hagan has a four-point lead on Prock and 42 points on Force.
Pro Mod – Twenty-one entries for the 16-car field, with Ken Quartuccio on top, with a 5.681. As for our two Canadian racers, Justin Bond qualified second, with a 5.688, while Jordan Lazic was third, with a 5.705. Lazic went to the final but lost to Mason Wright. Five upsets and three smokers. Jose Gonzalez leads Quartuccio by 75 and Billy Banaka by 109.
Pro Stock – Seventeen entries, with Erica Enders number one at 6.488. Canadian Eric Latino qualified eighth at 6.540 but went out in round one. Troy Coughlin Jr. topped Enders in the final. Five upsets and four smokers.
Dallas Glenn leads Greg Anderson by four and Enders by 66.
Their next race is Bristol, Sunday at 7 p.m. ET on Fox Sports Racing.
IROC: Their first race is July 20 at Lime Rock Park.
NASCAR CANADA SERIES: With Joe Chisholm Jr.’s spotting, Andrew Ranger won the 300-lapper on the tight little bullring at Autodrome Chaudière on Saturday over Kevin Lacroix and Marc-Antoine Camirand. Their next race is at Newfoundland on Sunday, June 22.
APC SERIES: Their next race is at Flamboro Speedway on Saturday.
ONTARIO SPORTSMAN SERIES: A full crowd greeted the series’ return to Full Throttle Motor Speedway in Durham, ON. In qualifying, Cory McAllister nabbed the pole over Kevin Trevellin and Ollie Ferguson. At the flag, polesitter McAllister took the win, his second of the year, over Brendan Patrick, Ferguson, Chad McGlynn and Trevellin. Their next race is at Sunset Speedway on Saturday, June 15.
DELAWARE SPEEDWAY: In the Bone Stocks, Heat 1 was won by Derek Moesker, but he failed tech, so the win went to Jack Dixon instead; Heat 2 won by Kassy Howard and Heat 3 by Mitch Rawlings. The B Main went to Donavin Clark, while the feature was won by Jeremiah Rabideau over Moesker, Rawlings, Clark and Daniel Mailloux.
In the V/8 Stocks, Heat 1 was won by Dave Evison, Heat 2 by Kyle Mezenberg and the feature went to Doug Stewart over David Rockwood, Jeremy Taggart, Steve Arrand and Kara Martin.
The Super Stocks saw Brody Rickwood win Heat 1, Carson Nagy won Heat 2 and the Main went to Nagy over Ryan Dyson, Rickwood, new father Darrell Lake and Lane Zardo. Nagy’s brother Hudson was on the ‘injured reserve’ list and they luckily called on Kyle Steckly to fill in. When asked what the problem was, he just said ‘ah, it’s just nuts’!
Their next race is Friday, with the Late Model 75-lap and Super Stock 50-lap.
VARAC VINTAGE GRAND PRIX: The 44th edition of the VARAC Vintage Grand Prix takes place June 13-16 at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park. More than 200 vintage and classic racing cars are expected. You can view the event program HERE.
OHSWEKEN SPEEDWAY: Their next race is the Braemar Buildings and Plazek Auto Recyclers on Friday.
FLAMBORO SPEEDWAY: Their next race is the APC Late Model Series on Saturday.
SOUTHERN ONTARIO MOTOR SPEEDWAY (Buxton): Their next race is this Saturday.
FULL THROTTLE MOTOR SPEEDWAY: Their next race is the Ontario Pro Challenge and Pro Sprints on Saturday.
GRAND BEND SPEEDWAY: Their first race is on Saturday, June 15.
GRAND BEND MOTORPLEX: Their next race is next weekend.
ST. THOMAS DRAGWAY: Their next race is this weekend.
TORONTO MOTORSPORTS PARK: Their next race is this weekend.
PMRA: Next event is June 7-8, with Quick 32 Sportsman Series + Pro Bike & Sled Series at Empire Dragway.
660 SPORTSMAN NATIONALS: TMP on June 14-16.
SHANNONVILLE DRAGS: Their next event is this weekend.
Any comments can be sent to Dave Mathers via email at motionman@rogers.com or by Facebook Messenger.
