NBC has announced that the 2023 IndyCar season was the highest watched season in 12 years. That bodes well for the future of the series and the sport. As well, their streaming numbers were 15% higher than last year. Good news all around.
How accident-prone was the IndyCar race a week ago at Laguna Seca, you ask? The Honda pace car had to stop for gas as it was about to run out. Apparently, its 12 gallon capacity was not enough!! LOL
I’m wondering when Red Bull is going to muzzle its ‘loose cannon,’ Helmut Marko. It seems this man makes one controversial statement after another. His latest head-scratcher is that Sergio Perez’s nationality (Checo is Mexican) was the reason that Perez has been unable to challenge teammate Max Verstappen consistently. Really? Update – Marko has been sanctioned by the FIA!
In news that shocked nobody, Bristol Motor Speedway just announced that their two 2024 NASCAR weekends will be run on the concrete. I predicted this right after the dirt races. Now maybe they can race on a real dirt track somewhere.
Condolences to the family and friends of Sherry Pollex. She passed away on Sunday after several lengthy bouts with cancer. Pollex, 44, was the former partner of NASCAR Cup series racer Martin Truex Jr. She maintained a high-profile throughout her health challenges and was active in fundraising and raising awareness about various forms of the disease, especially childhood and ovarian cancers.
NASCAR CUP SERIES: Christopher Bell continues to win poles, this time at Bristol Motor Speedway. Denny Hamlin earned another start from 2nd, also in a Toyota and William Byron (Chev) 3rd. Kyle Larson had a terrible time trial and he started dead last!
After about a half-hour delay, the race got underway under seriously overcast skies. The original start was moved up half an hour, but a sprinkle caused the delay. They got to lap 69 before A.J. Allmendinger bounced off the wall and then got run over by Austin Cindric who was coming at full song and couldn’t avoid the slowing car. The yellow came out at lap 107 for rain. The green came back out on lap 114. Bell wins Stage 1.
The red came out on lap 137 for rain but it didn’t last long maybe 15 minutes. Bell wins Stage 2. Lap 262 and Corey LaJoie got behind on his steering, slid down onto the apron then back up and collects Joey Logano, Ty Dillon, Ryan Newman and Justin Haley.
Logano is a playoff car and the defending series champion, but he was out. At lap 361 Martin Truex got loose on corner exit and scrapped the wall but kept going. The yellow came out anyway.
At the flag it was ‘crowd favourite’ Denny Hamlin over Kyle Larson, Bell, Chris Buescher and Ty Gibbs.
In the reset points, William Byron is tied with Truex and Hamlin is 4 back of them. Ford lost three of its contenders – Logano, Harvick and McDowell – as they fell below 12th.
Their next race is Texas, Sunday on TSN 5 at 3.30 P.M.
NASCAR XFINITY SERIES: Cole Custer (Ford) picked up the pole Friday night at Bristol Motor Speedway ahead of Josh Berry (Chev) and John Hunter Nemechek (Toyota). Dale Earnhart, Jr., making a cameo appearance, started 30th. Hard to believe but Stage 1 went caution-free with Custer getting the win. Apparently, that is a first, EVER!! Good to see.
I knew it was too good to last but on lap 147 Joe Graf, Jr. went into the spin cycle after getting tagged by Connor Mosack to bring out the first race caution.
With four to go before the end of Stage 2 Josh Berry and Sam Mayer got together when Berry went up track with what appeared to be a flat tire. Brandon Jones was collateral damage. Justin Allgaier won Stage 2.
On lap 185 Jeremy Clements spun with Graf. Following the restart, Earnhadrt moved into the lead of the race. Meanwhile his three cars were out of the race. Talk about mixed emotions!!
On lap 218 Sheldon Creed slid up the track and spun Austin Hill. On lap 249 Josh Billicki got together with Rajah Caruth. Josh Bilicki got a little tap from Caruth on lap 249 for another caution.
At the flag it was Allgaier ahead of Daniel Hemric and Nemechek. Earnhart dropped out on lap 271 with a suspected fire that created a lot of in car smoke. In his post race interview, he displayed his burned pant leg!!
Nemechek leads Allgaier by 10 in the points with Custer 26 behind the leader.
Their next race is Texas Saturday on TSN 3 at 3.30 P.M.
NASCAR CRAFTSMAN TRUCKS Christian Eckes picked up the pole for the truck race at Bristol Motor Speedway Thursday night ahead of Carson Hocevar and Chase Purdy, all in Chevrolets. Canadian Stewart Friesen (Toyota) started 24th.
Things ran smoothly until lap 15 when Jack Wood bounced off the wall and collected Dean Thompson on the way back down from the banking. Eckes won Stage 1.
On lap 75 Greg Van Alst had a solo spin coming out of Turn 4 to bring out a yellow. Eckes also won Stage 2. With five laps to go Corey Heim used some lapped cars to get around Eckes for the lead. At the flag it was Heim over Eckes and Grant Enfinger. Friesen ended up 14th.
Heim leads the points by 1 over Eckes and 12 on Carson Hocevar.
Their next race is Talladega, Saturday, September 30 on Fox Sports Racing at 1.00 P.M.
FORMULA ONE: Uh oh, trouble on the range for Red Bull!! They did NOT win the pole at Singapore!! Carlos Sainz picked up the pole for a resurging Ferrari team with George Russell 2nd in his Mercedes and Charles Leclerc 3rd in the other Ferrari.
Max started 11th and Perez 13th. Lance Stroll would miss the entire race after smacking the wall HARD at about a buck fifty!! Ouch. The team only fielded one car (Alonso) as a replacement for Stroll couldn’t be used because a driver would have to participate in practice and/or qualifying in order to be eligible to race the main event.
Lewis Hamilton got off track just after the start but didn’t lose any spots in fact he got by his teammate Russell and Lando Norris. He ended up giving the spot back to both of them.
Yuki Tsunoda didn’t make it past Lap 1 as he parked his Alpha Tauri just off track with a reported flat tire. Boy, that female commentator is really hard to understand!!
On lap 19, Logan Sargeant hit the wall with his Williams but kept going albeit dropping debris from his front wing onto the racing surface! This brought out a full course caution with almost everybody stopping for new tires.
Fernando Alonso had trouble on pit in and went ‘over the line – in this case the curb (or ‘kerb’)’!! He was issued a five-second penalty by the stewards. On lap 43 Esteban Ocon stopped on track with his Alpine to bring out another full course caution. On lap 47 Fernando Alonso stopped his Aston Martin on track causing a yellow but then got it moving again.
It was disappointing that TSN used the ‘picture in picture’ feature for the first part of the broadcast then dropped it for the second half.
Oh, the drama!! Coming to the flag, George Russell stuffed his Mercedes into the wall while running 2nd!! He ended up 16th one lap down. Sainz won the race over Norris and Hamilton. Max Verstappen came from 11th to finish 5th.
In the Drivers’ Championship, Verstappen leads Perez by 141 and Hamilton by 194. In the Constructors’ Championship Red Bull leads Mercedes 597 to 289 – close, eh? Ferrari is 3rd with 265 points.
Their next race is Japan, Sunday at 9.00 A.M. on TSN 1 & 5.
IMSA: The Penske Porsches qualified ‘one-two’ for the race on the boss’s Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course. Bachler and Pilet started first in PRO driving the Pfaff Porsche. Sellers and Snow with their BMW started first in GTD actually out-qualifying all the PRO cars!! 48 cars started.
Well, THAT didn’t take long!! Corner 1, lap 1, and two P cars got together, spun and then kept going. Full course caution flew for debris on the track.
The Pfaff Porsche got penalized on the initial start for changing lanes before the line. A full course caution came out at about the 50-minute mark with the Era Motorsport P2 car sitting crossways on the entry to the front straight. Several close calls but no contact.
Other than a few offs and some ‘argy-bargy’ as the announce team called it, there was little or no carnage during the race. At the flag it was the Penske Porsches finishing in the same place they started, first and second. The De Phillippi/Yelloly BMW finished 3rd in the GTP class.
The Juncadella/Gouno Mercedes won the PRO class. The Pfaff Porsche finished 4th in class. The Mercedes of Ward/Ellis won the GTD class. Thomas and Jensen won LMP 2. Mantella and Boyd won LMP 3.
Their next race is Road Atlanta, Sunday, October 14.
NHRA: It was good to see a Canadian Dan Velenosi at the top of Super Stock qualifying at Maple Grove. Also in the field were fellow Canadians Venice Perno, Ryan Boniferro and Chuck Nagy who also won his class.
They got two rounds in Sunday afternoon until the rains came and things were postponed until Monday.
In qualifying Justin Ashley had another number #1 spot in Top Fuel with a 3.687. Quebec racer Dan Mercier qualified a VERY impressive 11th with a 3.743. Stout!!
In the floppers Bob Tasca was #1 with a 3.866. Not surprisingly Erica Enders was #1 in Pro Stock with a 6.494. Canadian Eric Latino was 15th with a 6.572. Also unsurprisingly, Gaige Herrera topped Pro Stock Bike with a 6.672. In Factory Stock Showdown Del Holbrook of the famous Ford racing Holbrook family got the pole with a 7.642.
Doug Kalitta won Top Fuel taking out Steve Torrence in the final. Four upsets (lower qualified car wins) and four ‘loss of traction’ (tires smoked).
Robert Hight won Funny Car topping Chad Green in the final. Three upsets and NINE ‘loss of tractions’!!
Matt Hartford came out of the 13th spot to win Pro Stock over Kyle Koretsky. Kyle’s father Kenny owns the track!! Six upsets and two ‘loss of traction.’
In Pro Stock Bike Matt Smith took out Chip Ellis in the final. Four upsets and 1 ‘loss of traction.’
Aaron Stanfield continued his dominance in the Factory Stock Showdown class topping number one qualifier Del Holbrook in the final. Five upsets.
Their next race is Charlotte, Sunday at 2 on Fox Sports Racing.
NASCAR PINTY’S SERIES: They wrap up their 2023 season this coming Sunday at Delaware Speedway. Young Treyten Lapcevich has a hammerlock on the championship.
UNITED RACING SERIES: The Qwick Wick Super Stocks and APC Late Models finish their season, also at Delaware, this coming Friday and Saturday.
ONTARIO SPORTSMAN SERIES: Points leader Cory McAllister started from the pole Friday night at Delaware Speedway after qualifying number 1 with a 19.804 for their final race of the year. Mike Hryniuk started 2nd with Brad Robinson 3rd.
Things did not get off to a good start as Varney race winner Tim Tolton’s car was spewing water out the overflow during driver introductions on the front stretch. It appeared to stop on the parade laps but a little bump coming to the green appeared to knock his fuel cell container loose and it slid down the track into Corner 1 for a quick yellow.
He drove onto pit road with his fuel bladder hanging off the back of the car, leaking fuel all the way onto pit road bringing out the red. It’s fair to say that he was out of fluids and out of the race. Unfortunate.
A caution came out on lap 5 when Kaden Patrick hit the back of another car. On lap 61 Kevin Trevellin spun coming out of Turn 2 when his left rear wheel came off. It appeared the hub had broken.
At the flag it was McAllister over Chad McGlynn, Hryniuk, Brendan Patrick and Derek McCullough.
DELAWARE SPEEDWAY: Reinstated NASCAR driver Noah Gragson was at the track Friday night testing a McColl Racing car for the upcoming Pinty’s Series finale at Delaware.
‘Pit Comandante’ Inge Desmarais was treated to a ‘pucker inducing’ trip with Noah in the Delaware Pace Car so he could learn the track. He then ended up in a Late Model filling in for the ailing Brandon Vanderwel. Noah was ‘in the area’ for the Toledo ASA race on the weekend.
It was Championship Night for both the Late Models and the Super Stocks. Pete Vanderwyst, Jr. won Super Stock Heat 1 while Trevor Collver won Heat 2.
The three points contenders, Carson Nagy, Jay Doerr and Lane Zardo, started all together back in the 4th and 5th rows. On lap 10 Steve Book appeared to spin Ethan Orr. On lap 12 Orr appeared to spin Book!!
On the same lap Brody Rickwood got together with Ryan Blight. On lap 16 David McCullough appeared to have a tire go down and he collected Rick Verberne.
At the flag it was Collver ahead of Hudson Nagy, Zardo and Carson Nagy. Carson won the championship by 7 over Zardo and by 14 Doerr and did it with a badly damaged right front fender that fortunately did not cut a tire.
In the Late Models, Kyle Steckly won Heat 1 while Jesse Kennedy won Heat 2. Jason Lidster started on the pole followed by Barry Watson and Noah Gragson. On lap 2 Shawn McGlynn and Marshall Schrenk got together in 2. Points contender Chase Pinsonneault pitted with them.
On lap 6 Watson, Patrick Freel and Matt Robblee got together on the front stretch with Watson going off on the hook. On the last lap Robblee spun under Gragson and collected Shawn Chenoweth and Brady Smith. Kennedy stayed out front for the race win ahead of points champion Connor Pritiko, Ray Morneau, a greatly recovered Pinsonneault and Schrenk.
Pritiko is the 2023 Late Model Champion with Pinsonneault 34 back, Kennedy 35 back and Morneau 37 back.
Their next races are the APC Series, Friday and Saturday and the Pinty’s Series Sunday.
FLAMBORO SPEEDWAY: Their next race is Championship Night, Saturday.
GRAND BEND SPEEDWAY: Their next race is Mini-Truck Championship Thursday night plus The Lights Fest Saturday.
GRAND BEND DRAGWAY: Their next race is the Canadian Sports Compact Series, Saturday, October 14.
ST. THOMAS DRAGWAY: Their next race is the J.P Shootout Reunion, this weekend.
TORONTO MOTORSPORT PARK: Their next race is Canada Heads Up Series, next weekend.
SHANNONVILLE DRAGS: Their next race is this weekend.
Any comments can be sent to Dave Mathers via email at motionman@rogers.com or by Facebook Messenger.
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