PressBox, Author at NXTbets Inc

August 9, 2026

Haas Factory Team adds Thompson for third O’Reilly car

Haas Factory Team will expand to three full-time cars in the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series in 2027, and Dean Thompson will join the organization to drive its third entry on a multi-year deal. The 24-year-old will move from Sam Hunt Racing’s Toyota program to a Haas Chevrolet, with team president Joe Custer announcing the move at Iowa Speedway on Saturday.

Thompson is in his second full-time season in the series and has 57 career starts, one top-five finish and 10 top-10s. He posted eight top-10s in 2025 and has added two more through the first 22 races of 2026, with his best result this year a sixth-place finish at Talladega in April. Before moving up, he ran in the NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series from 2022 to 2024, making 70 starts and earning 11 top-10 finishes.

Custer said Thompson has shown strong progression and said he will compete at the highest level. Thompson said his long relationship with Joe Custer and Cole Custer helped lead to the opportunity, and he said he is excited to join Haas Factory Team and race for wins and a championship. Thompson Pipe Group and MCM Transportation will serve as primary partners on the Chevrolet, and Haas said the car number and crew chief will be announced later. The team currently fields two full-time O’Reilly Series cars for Sheldon Creed and Sam Mayer, and it remains committed to its single-car Cup Series operation with Cole Custer.
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August 9, 2026

Fernandez leads Aprilia 1-2-3 at Silverstone

Trackhouse Aprilia dominated the British Grand Prix at Silverstone, with Raul Fernandez leading every lap to claim the win. Jorge Martin and Marco Bezzecchi completed an Aprilia 1-2-3, while Aprilia also swept the Sprint podium. Fernandez said the victory came from understanding the limit of the medium rear tire from the start and managing tire wear and fuel over the race.

The result also tightened the title picture. Martin had taken pole, won the Sprint and recovered to second in the Grand Prix after a poor start caused by a rear ride-height device that did not disengage properly. He left Silverstone 31 points clear of Bezzecchi, whose podium ended a difficult run since his Mugello win, shaped by crashes, injuries, outside criticism and his own doubts. Bezzecchi’s result was also his first podium since returning from collarbone surgery.

Ducati had a difficult weekend. Alex Marquez was the first Ducati rider home in fourth after a Turn 1 mistake cost him a chance at the podium, Fabio Di Giannantonio finished sixth and said Ducati was behind Aprilia, and Marc Marquez took seventh after tire degradation hurt his pace. Francesco Bagnaia crashed out on lap eight and left scoreless, while Fabio Quartararo’s 12th-place finish was deleted by a tire-pressure penalty, promoting Pol Espargaro to 13th. Pedro Acosta finished fifth for KTM and said the team needed serious improvements, and Cal Crutchlow endured a double DNF in his first British Grand Prix appearance since 2021.
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August 8, 2026

Chase Briscoe Buys Brent Marks Racing, Launches New Team

Chase Briscoe has acquired Brent Marks Racing, rebranding the team as Chase Briscoe Racing in the High Limit Sprint Car Series and setting it up as a full-time operation with 410 winged sprint cars. Brent Marks will remain the primary driver and serve as general manager, and Magical Vacation Planners has signed on as the organization’s first new sponsor.

Briscoe said the purchase brought him back into sprint car racing, connected to his family’s 50-year, three-generation history in the sport and gave him a chance to build a national team and create opportunities for developing racers. He also said he wanted an ownership stake because winged sprint car racing has room to grow commercially, pointing to High Limit’s TV exposure on FS1, Amazon Prime and Flo, along with its charter model. Briscoe called the move a childhood dream and said it gave him an established elite organization and a full-time car on a national tour.

Marks said he initially thought Briscoe’s interest was a joke before deciding to sell after losing business support from Allen Murray last year. He said the move would ease the burden of running the family team and let him focus more on driving. Marks finished third in the 2025 High Limit standings with five wins, and he has won marquee races including the Kings Royal, the Historical Big One and the Williams Grove National Open. Briscoe first contacted Marks in the spring, and Christopher Bell praised the deal as good for dirt-track racing.
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August 8, 2026

C.J. Leary wins Iowa 100 in Silver Crown return

C.J. Leary won Saturday night’s Iowa 100 at Iowa Speedway, giving the event its first USAC Silver Crown race since 2015. Leary started fifth, moved to second by lap 24 and took the lead when Chase Cabre’s car lost power on lap 47. Leary then led the final 54 laps to beat teammate Mario Clouser for a Team AZ Racing/Petty-Rossi/Curb-Agajanian 1-2 finish. It was Leary’s first career visit to Iowa Speedway and his seventh career USAC Silver Crown victory, tying Jerry Coons Jr., Rick Hood and George Snider for 18th on the all-time wins list.

The win also stretched Leary’s championship lead from 36 points to 45. Iowa Speedway’s return to Silver Crown racing came during a busy weekend at the track, which also featured NASCAR national series competition on the 7/8-mile oval in Newton, Iowa.
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August 8, 2026

Schuchart Earns Second Ironman 55 Title at Pevely

Logan Schuchart won the Federated Auto Parts Ironman 55 on Saturday at I-55 Federated Auto Parts Raceway Park in Pevely, Missouri, leading all 55 laps to collect the $25,000 winner’s purse and the dumbbell trophy. The Shark Racing driver earned his second Ironman 55 title, after also winning the race in 2018, and became the fifth multi-time winner of the event. The victory was Schuchart’s second World of Outlaws win of the season and the 46th of his career, while he and Shark Racing extended their run to 17 top-10 finishes in the last 18 races.

Michael “Buddy” Kofoid charged from 18th to finish second, holding off Carson Macedo, who was third. Donny Schatz finished fourth and Spencer Bayston was fifth, with Emerson Axsom sixth. The 55-lap feature was slowed by cautions, including a lap 11 incident after Schuchart made contact with lap car Danny Dietrich. Dietrich climbed the wall and rolled across the track before exiting his car.

The Ironman 55 capped a weekend at Pevely that began Friday night with Chris Windom’s victory in the 40-lap Night Before the Ironman feature. Windom won his first World of Outlaws race in the event that preceded the $25,000-to-win Ironman 55 at the same track.
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August 7, 2026

F1 plans more Sprint weekends in 2027, Domenicali says

F1 plans to expand its Sprint weekend schedule in 2027 beyond the six Sprint weekends set for 2026, and CEO Stefano Domenicali said the change is expected, with more details to be announced soon. He said F1 wants more Sprint weekends because they boost Friday and overall weekend attendance, while still keeping the format scarce enough to feel like a bonus. In the same discussion, Flavio Briatore argued for a Sprint on every weekend, while Juan Pablo Montoya pushed for a full 24-race Sprint schedule.

The comments came in a recent interview with The Race and after Liberty Media’s second-quarter 2026 results, when F1 reported revenue of $764 million for the three months ended June 2026, down 38% because there were four fewer races. Domenicali also said the new U.S. broadcast deal with Apple lifted viewership and total hours watched by 13%.
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August 7, 2026

Joe Gibbs Racing Extends William Sawalich Through 2027

Joe Gibbs Racing said William Sawalich signed a contract extension that will keep him in the No. 18 SoundGear Toyota GR Supra for the 2027 NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series season. The 19-year-old will return for what will be his third full-time season with the team, and JGR said longtime sponsor SoundGear will continue to back the entry.

Sawalich earned his first O’Reilly Series victory earlier in 2026 at Rockingham Speedway, where he led 80 laps. One source identified that win as the North Carolina Education Lottery 250 on April 4. He has put together a strong 2026 campaign with six top-five finishes, nine top-10 finishes and one pole, though he also has four DNFs and remains below the Chase cutline, seven points behind Taylor Gray for the 12th and final spot and 29 points behind Sam Mayer in 10th. He ranks ninth among full-time drivers with 131 laps led and has improved his average finish from 18.9 as a rookie to 16.6 this season.

Sawalich joined Joe Gibbs Racing in late 2022, won two ARCA Menards East championships and scored 20 ARCA victories before making his O’Reilly Series debut in 2024 at Homestead-Miami Speedway. He raced full-time in the series in 2025 and said he was excited to keep building with the organization. Team owner Heather Gibbs said the No. 18 team is expected to build on its success through the rest of 2026 and into 2027.
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August 7, 2026

Bulega tops Mugello MotoGP 850cc prototype test

Nicolò Bulega topped the second and final day of MotoGP’s private 850cc prototype test at Mugello, putting Ducati’s future machine at the head of the two-day run as teams prepared for next year’s major regulation change. Bulega’s best lap was 1:45.859 over 31 laps, a time that was less than two seconds slower than Marco Bezzecchi’s Mugello track record of 1:43.921.

Takaaki Nakagami, who led the opening day on the Honda 850 prototype, finished second on the final day, 1.2 seconds behind Bulega. Lorenzo Savadori was third for Aprilia in 1:47.763, with Dani Pedrosa behind him on the KTM. Reports said no official lap times have been released from the 2027 prototype tests, though sources described Nakagami as the fastest rider on day one and Bulega as the next quickest before he moved to the top on day two.

The two-day test in Tuscany drew test riders from Honda, Ducati, Aprilia and KTM, with Yamaha the only manufacturer not to send a squad. KTM’s day one lineup included Pol Espargaro before he left for Silverstone, and he was due to be absent from the second day for the same reason. VR46 team manager Pablo Nieto said he was pleased that Ducati’s 850cc prototype had been fast in Bulega’s private Mugello test, saying Ducati was doing very good work on the new machine and that the new era would be important for everyone in MotoGP. Test riders are scheduled to continue at Misano at the end of the month.
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August 7, 2026

Bottas Says Cadillac Can Still Turn F1 Debut Into Success

Valtteri Bottas’s first season with Cadillac has been defined by the team’s struggles to score points, but the veteran driver said he still believes the project can turn into a success. Bottas and Sergio Perez became Cadillac’s first Formula 1 drivers, and the U.S. team’s debut campaign has brought a series of firsts that have impressed many people in the paddock. Speaking during the Belgian Grand Prix weekend as the season reached the August break, Bottas said his best years in Formula 1 are still ahead and that he appreciates life in the series more than ever after a year away from the grid.

Cadillac reached the summer break as the only team without a point, though Bottas said the outfit has already improved its pace, reliability and trackside operations. He said the team’s short-term targets are to reach Q2 in qualifying and then score points, but added that the car still needs more speed and reliability. Bottas’s early season was disrupted by five retirements, with his best finish for Cadillac coming in 13th place in China, and brake problems forced him to stop at the Hungaroring. He said he hoped Cadillac would have a fix for Zandvoort after the break.

Bottas, who has 257 Grand Prix starts, 10 wins and 67 podium finishes, said helping build a team from scratch would make any future success more rewarding. He spent 2025 away from full-time racing after losing his Kick Sauber seat and served as Mercedes’ reserve driver. Guenther Steiner has questioned Bottas’s motivation at Cadillac, saying the Finn has “given up a little bit” and could be the driver replaced if the team changes its lineup, leaving Bottas’s future uncertain.
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