PressBox, Author at NXTbets Inc

September 10, 2026

Ricky Warner wins High Limit Crew Chief honor for August

Ricky Warner of Tony Stewart/Curb-Agajanian Racing won the Cometic Gasket Crew Chief of the Month Award for August, giving him his sixth career Crew Chief of the Month honor and the most in Interstate Batteries High Limit Racing history. Warner moved past his former protege Eric Prutzman for the all-time lead in the award.

Warner and driver Rico Abreu scored 412 points in seven August events. Their month included a preliminary win at Silver Dollar Speedway, a runner-up finish and a $100,072 victory in the Gold Cup Race of Champions, and a fifth-place finish in Oregon that put the No. 24 back atop the championship standings.

Brent Marks finished second in the August standings, 21 points behind Warner. The award standings reset in September, and High Limit Racing was scheduled to continue at Port Royal Speedway for the Tuscarora 50 before moving later in the month to Lucas Oil Speedway, Kokomo Speedway and Eldora Speedway.
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September 10, 2026

Justin Cooper to miss SMX Playoffs after concussion recovery

Justin Cooper will miss the three-round Monster Energy SuperMotocross World Championship Playoffs as Monster Energy Star Racing Yamaha shifts its focus to his 2027 campaign after a concussion recovery cut short his preparation. The team said he did not have enough time on the bike to race at the level he expects, and team manager Wil Hahn said the goal is to help him come back healthy and fighting up front next season.

Cooper was injured in a hard crash in round two of the Pro Motocross Championship at Hangtown, where he suffered a concussion and missed multiple races while recovering. He returned at Unadilla, finished ninth overall, then sat out the final two rounds as he continued to recover.

Cooper said he wanted to race the Ohio round but did not feel ready to compete at his best. He said he needed more bike time and wanted to recover to full fitness before next season. Yamaha said he will rest and focus on being fully healthy for the 2027 SMX season.
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September 10, 2026

PBR Teams brings tight title race to Anaheim this weekend

PBR Teams heads to Honda Center in Anaheim, California, this weekend for its seventh event of the 2026 season, a three-day stop that marks the league’s second neutral-site event of the year. All 10 teams will compete in Anaheim, with the standings tight after Ridgedale as Missouri, Nashville and Carolina are tied atop the table at 11-6.

José Vitor Leme enters the event with a PBR Teams-record 12 consecutive qualified rides, one of the top individual storylines heading into the weekend. Missouri is coming off a loss after its eight-game win streak ended, adding more pressure to the team race as the league resumes in Southern California.

Friday’s event starts at 7:45 p.m. PT and streams on Paramount+, Saturday begins at 6:45 p.m. PT and also streams on Paramount+, and Sunday starts at 1:15 p.m. PT and airs live on The CW. Roster moves around the league include Bob Mitchell returning to New York’s lineup, Wingson Henrique da Silva and Kade Madsen going on injured reserve, and Brock Poulin joining Oklahoma’s roster before making his Wildcatters debut Friday against Florida.
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September 10, 2026

Stewards spare Tsunoda; Audi wants Monza ruling clarified

Audi will press ahead with its appeal over Yuki Tsunoda’s Italian Grand Prix penalty controversy after stewards declined to punish the Racing Bulls driver for causing an extra formation lap at Monza. Audi argued that the regulations were clear: a driver who causes an extra formation lap should start from the pit lane, and Gabriel Bortoleto said the team was appealing because “what’s right is right.”

Tsunoda lined up in the wrong grid box, which led to the start being abandoned and the extra formation lap being triggered. Race director Rui Marques was uneasy with Tsunoda’s position, but the stewards later accepted that Tsunoda had not been out of his slot and had not affected rivals, so they chose not to apply the usual stop-and-go penalty, which would have become a 30-second time penalty.

Audi wants clarification for future cases and is also seeking a possible reversal of the result. The team was affected because Bortoleto finished 11th behind Tsunoda, with Nico Hulkenberg 12th and Tsunoda 10th. The FIA had not yet set a hearing date.
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September 10, 2026

Denny Hamlin leads NASCAR playoffs into Enjoy Illinois 300

The NASCAR Cup Series playoffs continue this weekend at World Wide Technology Raceway in Madison, Illinois, where the Enjoy Illinois 300 will run Sunday, Sept. 13, as the second postseason race. The 300-mile event is scheduled to start at 3 p.m. ET, will air on USA Network, stream on HBO Max, and be carried on MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. NASCAR’s championship battle will then move to Bristol Motor Speedway on Sept. 19.

Denny Hamlin enters the weekend as the defending winner and the driver to beat after winning last year’s race from the pole and opening the playoffs atop the standings. Hamlin also holds the track qualifying record at World Wide Technology Raceway. He leads the current playoff standings ahead of Christopher Bell and Ryan Blaney, and he is listed among the track’s strongest performers along with Blaney, Bell and Austin Cindric. Since 2022, the last four Cup races at the track have been won by Joey Logano, Kyle Busch, Austin Cindric and Hamlin, with Logano cited for the best overall statistical consistency there.

The race will cover 240 laps, with stage breaks set for laps 45 and 140. Cup teams are scheduled for practice and qualifying on Saturday on truTV, and the starting lineup will be set after those sessions. Saturday also includes the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series race, which will practice, qualify and race on the same day.
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September 10, 2026

Velocity Tour opens in Buffalo, ends in Corpus Christi

Professional Bull Riders announced the 2027 Pendleton Whisky Velocity Tour schedule, which will feature 26 regular-season events across 27 cities in 19 states and span 55 event days. The season will open Dec. 4-5, 2026, in Buffalo, New York, and will conclude with the Velocity Tour Finals on April 30-May 1, 2027, at the Hilliard Center in Corpus Christi, Texas.

The schedule includes a Jan. 11-13 stop in Denver at the National Western Stock Show, along with returns to San Diego for the first time since 2015 and Baltimore for the first time since 2020. The tour also includes eight double-up weekends and a three-day stop in Bangor, Maine.

Tickets for the first eight events will go on sale Sept. 10, with later ticket blocks set for Oct. 15 and Nov. 19.
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September 10, 2026

Binder swaps MotoGP for BMW’s title chase in WorldSBK

Brad Binder will join BMW’s factory WorldSBK team in 2027, replacing Danilo Petrucci and partnering former KTM teammate Miguel Oliveira. BMW confirmed the move and said Binder wanted a new challenge and a chance to fight for the world title. Binder called it “a new adventure” and said he was excited to “start from zero.”

The switch will end Binder’s factory KTM MotoGP ride when his contract expires after the 2026 season. He has spent most of his career in the grand prix paddock, starting in 2011 in the 125cc class, and he joined KTM’s MotoGP program in 2020. Binder is currently 13th in the 2026 standings, has two MotoGP wins for KTM, and his best grand prix finish is seventh. He said he still has half a season left in MotoGP.

BMW has won the last two WorldSBK titles and views Binder’s MotoGP experience as an asset ahead of the championship’s switch to Michelin tires in 2027. The team also pointed to his familiarity with Michelin rubber, although one report said he struggled to adapt to Michelin’s super-grippy rear tire in MotoGP. KTM has already reshaped its 2027 factory lineup with Alex Marquez and Fabio Di Giannantonio.
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September 10, 2026

Alex Rins to leave MotoGP for four-wheel project in 2027

Alex Rins says he will leave MotoGP at the end of the season and move toward a four-wheel racing project in 2027, choosing a path he believes will motivate him more than continuing on two wheels. The Yamaha rider made the announcement on the eve of the San Marino Grand Prix, after losing his seat for next year.

Rins said he had offers to stay in motorcycle racing, including interest from WorldSBK teams such as GoEleven, but turned them down because he wants to pursue a “really interesting” project that is still undisclosed. The 29-year-old will end his grand prix career with six wins, five for Suzuki and one for LCR Honda, after about 14 years in the championship, and he said injuries and his move to Yamaha stalled his momentum.
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September 10, 2026

Jacques Villeneuve Rejects F1 Legacy Narrative

Jacques Villeneuve said he never entered Formula 1 to extend the legacy of his father, Gilles Villeneuve, and rejected the media’s framing of him as the continuation of an unfinished family story. He said he raced because he loved racing, and that when he joined F1 in 1996 he wanted to compete for his own reasons rather than as an extension of his father’s name. He later stopped discussing the comparisons, saying the conversations were not constructive.

His comments came as a new biopic, Villeneuve: Rise of a Legend, prepared to premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on Sept. 19. The film centers on Gilles Villeneuve’s early career before his Ferrari years and is scheduled to open in Quebec in November, with a global rollout planned for next year. The project is also being discussed around the 50th anniversary of Gilles Villeneuve’s Formula 1 debut.

Jacques Villeneuve said he was 11 when Gilles Villeneuve died in qualifying for the 1982 Belgian Grand Prix, leaving him with only limited memories of his father. He said the film helps fill in gaps from his childhood and clarifies confusing memories, and he believes it accurately portrays Gilles Villeneuve’s formative years. He also said he learned from his father’s self-belief, risk-taking and determination, and that his own upbringing helped him calculate risks a little better.
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