Author Archives: PressBox

July 9, 2026

Aaron Plessinger to miss two Pro Motocross rounds after RedBud crash

Aaron Plessinger will miss the next two rounds of Pro Motocross while he recovers from a tailbone injury sustained in a first-turn crash at RedBud last Saturday. Red Bull KTM said Plessinger, who was hurt in 450MX Moto 1, required stitches after the fall and has been cleared of fractures. His injuries left him with significant bruising and a cut around the tailbone area.

Plessinger is expected to sit out the Southwick round on July 11 and Spring Creek on July 17. His condition will be reassessed before Round 8 at Washougal on July 25, with a final decision on his return to be made closer to race day. As of Wednesday, there was no update on whether he would be cleared for Southwick.

Plessinger said he was relieved the injury was not more serious and hopes to return once the wound heals. The RedBud crash was another setback in his 2026 season, after he finished fifth overall at High Point, his best result of the year. He is currently 10th in the 450MX standings.
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July 9, 2026

Denney passes Drake late to win Chad McDaniel Memorial

Jacob Denney took control late and won the 30-lap Chad McDaniel Memorial on Wednesday night at Mitchell County Fairgrounds Raceway in Beloit, Kansas, earning his eighth victory of the season and the 29th USAC national midget win of his career. He passed Kale Drake for the lead on lap 16 and held off late restarts to win by 1.118 seconds. Cannon McIntosh finished second for the second straight night, Drake was third, Justin Grant was fourth and Jakeb Boxell was fifth.

The race was the second night of USAC Mid-America Midget Week and the second round of the USAC national midget series event at Beloit. Denney qualified fourth, and feature-start listings placed him third or fourth. He said improved straightaway speed helped his performance and credited his KKM team, JBL and Toyota. Toyota swept the podium in round two.

The points race was tight entering Beloit. After Gavin Miller won the feature at Sweet Springs Motorsports Complex in Missouri on Tuesday night, Denney led the standings with 617 points, three ahead of Kevin Thomas Jr. Denney then strengthened that lead with the Beloit victory, leaving him atop the standings with 697 points and a 22-point edge over Thomas Jr. The next Mid-America Midget Week races were scheduled for July 10-11, 2025, at Jefferson County Speedway in Fairbury, Nebraska.
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July 9, 2026

Binder’s 2027 MotoGP future hangs after KTM reshuffle

Brad Binder’s 2027 MotoGP future remains unsettled after KTM confirmed he will not ride for its factory team that season and moved to a new lineup featuring Alex Marquez and Fabio di Giannantonio. Binder said his plans are “a little bit up in the air,” and added that he expected more clarity in the coming weeks while his manager explores options. He has spent his entire MotoGP career with KTM, but the reshuffle leaves his next move unclear, with World Superbike still a possible alternative if he does not land a MotoGP seat.

Pedro Acosta offered public support for Binder, saying he would “definitely” give him his bike and praising Binder’s work ethic and commitment even though the results have not matched the effort. Acosta said Binder “definitely” deserves a ride for 2027. Acosta is also leaving KTM after 2026 to join Ducati’s factory team alongside Marc Marquez, and said he was comfortable with KTM bringing in “new blood” for its future plans.

Tech3 is the only team reported to still lack a finalized 2027 lineup, but Binder is not viewed as a leading candidate for one of its seats and has also been removed from Tech3’s shortlist, according to reports. Neil Hodgson said Tech3 owner Guenther Steiner should reconsider leaving Binder out, especially as the team is expected to weigh pairing a rookie with a more experienced rider. Binder’s options are narrowing quickly as the rider market takes shape, with his next MotoGP move likely to become clearer within weeks.
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July 9, 2026

Stella Says McLaren Bets on Summer Push to Catch Rivals

McLaren is revising its 2026 Formula 1 development path as the team adapts to the upcoming rule changes, with team principal Andrea Stella saying it has moved away from some early concepts after gaining more information about the new regulations. Stella said McLaren’s best chance to close the gap will come from a major upgrade push around the summer shutdown, with development planned both before and after the break that follows the Hungarian Grand Prix. He said aerodynamic development has become the main competitive battleground, while mechanical setup now plays a smaller role than in earlier generations of cars.

Stella said McLaren remained about half a second behind Mercedes and Ferrari after the British Grand Prix, where Lando Norris finished fourth in the main race and reached the podium in the Sprint. He called Norris’s fourth-place finish an overachievement for McLaren’s current pace, saying it was helped more by issues affecting other teams than by a true breakthrough. McLaren is 154 points behind Mercedes in the constructors’ standings, Ferrari has moved ahead after winning two of the last three races, and McLaren has yet to win this season, with four podium finishes.

Norris offered a sharper view of the team’s current state after Silverstone, saying McLaren needed “many things better” and more upgrades to become more competitive. He described the car as “pretty poor,” called it one of the hardest Formula 1 cars he has ever driven and said recent smaller updates had not delivered the gains the team expected. Norris said McLaren had not introduced a major upgrade since the Miami Grand Prix, while rival teams had kept improving, and he also criticized the energy-management style of racing at tracks like Silverstone as “not how Formula 1 should be.”
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July 9, 2026

Horner exit still shadows Red Bull a year later

Red Bull removed Christian Horner as team principal on July 9, 2025, ending his 20-year run leading the Formula 1 team. His exit came after a difficult start to the season, a long internal power struggle and a dispute over governance and control inside the organization. Horner, who joined the team in 2005 and oversaw eight drivers’ championships and six constructors’ titles, gave an emotional farewell speech to factory staff at the Milton Keynes headquarters and appeared visibly upset as he left. He had not made a public statement at the time.

Laurent Mekies, who had been leading sister team Racing Bulls, was promoted to replace him. Red Bull Austria pushed for a tighter management structure in Milton Keynes, one in which no single person held total control. The leadership change shocked the Formula 1 paddock and ended an era that produced two title-winning dynasties.

A year on, Red Bull was still being judged through the lens of Horner’s departure. The team had pursued evolution rather than a full-scale revolution under Mekies, and the article described the post-Horner period as a mix of competitive strength, organizational change and unresolved tension. Red Bull remained under pressure to sustain its standards, with Max Verstappen finishing two points short of a fifth world championship in 2025, the team beginning its partnership with Red Bull Ford Powertrains, Yuki Tsunoda being demoted and Isack Hadjar taking the second seat. The team also lost important personnel to rival teams, and Verstappen’s dissatisfaction and uncertainty about his future grew during the year.
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July 9, 2026

Hamilton warns Mercedes could face F1 grid penalties

Lewis Hamilton said Mercedes could face grid penalties later this season because of repeated battery-related reliability failures in its F1 power-unit components. Under F1 rules, each driver is limited to three Energy Store units and three MGU-K units for the season, and any extra component brings an immediate 10-place grid penalty. Hamilton, who trailed Kimi Antonelli by 32 points in the standings, said Mercedes had not matched Ferrari’s reliability this year and should keep maximizing points in races it cannot win while limiting the damage when problems arise.

Mercedes’ reliability issues have already affected both George Russell and Kimi Antonelli. Russell retired from the Canadian Grand Prix while leading because of a battery problem, and Antonelli retired in the closing laps in Barcelona with a similar issue. Hamilton said those failures made later grid penalties a real possibility and described Mercedes’ current reliability troubles as unusual for the team.

The concerns came after another difficult British Grand Prix weekend at Silverstone, where Ferrari beat Mercedes for the second time this season. Charles Leclerc won the race, Russell finished second, and Hamilton finished third. Russell also said he was losing power on the straights, underscoring Mercedes’ problems with straight-line speed and energy deployment, while team boss Toto Wolff rejected that explanation as the main reason for Russell’s recent struggles.
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July 9, 2026

Daulton Wilson scores first WoO Late Model win at Stateline

Daulton Wilson broke through for his first career World of Outlaws Late Model Series victory on Saturday at Stateline Speedway in Busti, New York, winning the Rick Briggs Memorial. From Fayetteville, North Carolina, Wilson led every lap of the 40-lap feature in the Big Frog/Viper Motorsports No. 58V car after sweeping the night’s preliminaries by winning Simpson Quick Time, his heat race and the pole draw. The win made him the 105th different winner in World of Outlaws history and came after near-misses earlier this summer at East Alabama Motor Speedway and Bedford Speedway.

Zack Mitchell finished second in his first start for G.R. Smith Motorsports, Nick Hoffman was third, Dave Hess Jr. took fourth and Bobby Pierce finished fifth. Pierce had been chasing a seventh consecutive World of Outlaws victory and the series record of six straight wins, and his fifth-place finish ended that run. Pierce still holds a 76-point lead in the World of Outlaws Late Model Series title race.

The Stateline race paid $15,000 to win and opened a three-race eastern swing that began July 8 at Stateline and continues at Sharon Speedway for the Battle at the Border on Friday and Saturday. The Sharon opener pays $12,000 to win and the finale pays $20,000 to win. Hoffman returned to Stateline, where he earned his first World of Outlaws win last year, and Trey Mills and Wilson were set to make their first starts at both Stateline and Sharon.
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July 9, 2026

O’Ward calls IndyCar his sole focus in reset from Formula 1 duties

Pato O’Ward asked to be released from McLaren’s Formula One reserve role, saying he wants to put his full attention on his IndyCar title chase with Arrow McLaren. O’Ward said the IndyCar program now needs to be his sole focus, that his Formula 1 ambitions have faded from earlier in his career and that he wants more personal time and a better work-life balance after five straight years without an offseason. He said the constant schedule had become harder to manage and described the move as a professional and personal reset.

O’Ward said the Formula 1 testing and reserve commitment had become too disruptive to his training, offseason preparation and personal life. He had spent years hoping for a Formula 1 opportunity with McLaren and had taken part in practice sessions and post-season testing, but he now said he is focused on winning in IndyCar rather than chasing a seat in F1. He made the comments on Conor Daly’s Speed Street podcast and said he is at a different stage of his career, adding that he loves IndyCar and wants to remain in the American-based series.

McLaren confirmed that O’Ward will remain with the team through the 2027 IndyCar season. His departure from Formula 1 duties leaves 2024 FIA Formula 2 champion Leonardo Fornaroli as McLaren’s only Formula 1 reserve driver. O’Ward’s most recent Formula 1 appearance came in an FP1 session at last year’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, and he is expected to continue his IndyCar season at Nashville on July 20.
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July 8, 2026

Bobby Pierce Chases Record Win Streak on Eastern Swing

The World of Outlaws Late Model Series is set for a three-race stretch as it heads back toward the East Coast after two busy weeks in the upper Midwest. The run begins Wednesday, July 8, at Stateline Speedway in Busti, New York, where the Rick Briggs Memorial powered by Dave Warren Powersports will be a 40-lap feature paying $15,000 to win. DIRTcar UMP Modifieds and Pro Stocks are also on the card. Teams then have Thursday off before the series resumes at Sharon Speedway for the annual Battle at the Border on Friday and Saturday, July 10-11. Sharon’s opener is a 40-lap race paying $12,000 to win, and the Saturday finale is a 60-lap race with a $20,000 top prize. UMP Modifieds are also scheduled at Sharon.

Bobby Pierce enters the week as the headline driver and is trying to win his seventh straight World of Outlaws race, which would break the series record of six consecutive victories. He also carries a 76-point lead in the championship standings. Pierce’s run comes as the series works through a demanding eastern swing that mixes short travel with two major events in New York and Pennsylvania.

Nick Hoffman returns to Stateline Speedway, where he earned his first World of Outlaws win last year. Trey Mills and Daulton Wilson are set for their first starts at both Stateline and Sharon, while Logan Zarin is coming off a career-best sixth-place finish and will compete on two tracks he knows well.
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