Author Archives: PressBox

July 25, 2026

RFK exercises Preece option, securing No. 60 Ford

Brad Keselowski said Saturday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway that Ryan Preece will return to RFK Racing’s No. 60 Ford in the NASCAR Cup Series in 2027. Keselowski said the team exercised the option on Preece’s multiyear contract a few months ago, locking in the driver who joined RFK in 2025 after two seasons at Stewart-Haas Racing.

The move means RFK expects all three of its Cup drivers, Keselowski, Chris Buescher and Preece, to have rides in 2027. Buescher signed a multiyear extension in June. RFK Racing is set to lose its third charter next year, and team president Chip Bowers said in May that the organization planned to keep all three Cup teams on track in 2027.

Preece is in his seventh full Cup Series season and is 18th in the standings with five races left in the regular season, 48 points below the playoff cutline. He has started all 21 NASCAR races for RFK this season and has four top-10 finishes, including a win in the preseason Cook Out Clash at Bowman Gray Stadium. Preece narrowly missed the playoffs in 2025 and posted a career-best three top-five finishes last year. He finished 10th at North Wilkesboro in his most recent noted result and has three top-11 finishes in his last six races.
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July 25, 2026

Stevens tops USAC passing standings after 14-pass night

Kevin Thomas Jr. scored his first USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship victory of 2026 on Saturday night at Kokomo Speedway, leading all 30 laps in round three of the 39th annual USAC NOS Energy Drink Indiana Sprint Week. Thomas, who had switched to BBI Motorsports in late June, beat Justin Grant to the line by 1.032 seconds for his 49th career USAC National Sprint Car win. It was Thomas and BBI’s first national sprint car victory together in their fifth start as a pairing, and his 2026 season already included USAC CRA and USAC Southwest wins for the team earlier in the year.
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July 25, 2026

Carson Hocevar grabs Brickyard 400 pole at Indy

Carson Hocevar won the pole for Sunday’s Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway after posting a fastest lap of 48.232 seconds in Saturday’s NASCAR Cup Series qualifying, good for 186.598 mph. Daniel Suarez, Hocevar’s teammate, qualified second at 48.288 seconds, followed by Tyler Reddick, Ty Gibbs and Denny Hamlin. The Cup Series field for the July 26 race is set at 39 cars.

Kyle Larson qualified 10th in the 39-car lineup, Ryan Blaney was 13th, William Byron 21st, Chase Elliott 27th and Bubba Wallace 29th. NASCAR had split the qualifying order into two groups based on metric scores, with Casey Mears slated to go out first and Denny Hamlin listed last in the order.

Friday practice at Indianapolis was led by Christopher Bell at 49.043 seconds, with John Hunter Nemechek second and Ty Gibbs third. Erik Jones was fourth, and Hamlin, Larson, Hocevar, Reddick and Blaney completed the top 10. Austin Cindric, Wallace and Ryan Preece had problems during the session. The Brickyard 400 is scheduled for Sunday at 2:00 p.m. ET on TNT Sports and HBO Max, with stages set for 50, 100 and 160 laps and a listed purse of $11,233,037.
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July 25, 2026

Alonso says Aston Martin AMR26 feels planted after update

Aston Martin’s major 16-part upgrade package made a clear first impression at the Hungarian Grand Prix, where Fernando Alonso said the revised AMR26 felt much better, more planted and easier to drive. The update, which included a significant chassis change plus revisions to the front wing, floor, diffuser and rear suspension, produced the correlation the team expected in Friday practice. Alonso said the car matched simulation targets, carried more potential to unlock and looked close to the top of the midfield through corners. Team principal Adrian Newey said the team was chasing respectability after a difficult start to 2026, while Alonso called the package an encouraging first step for this year and for future car projects.
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July 25, 2026

Sheldon Creed grabs pole for Pennzoil 250 at Indy

Sheldon Creed earned the pole for Saturday’s Pennzoil 250 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway with a lap of 53.069 seconds, putting him ahead of Carson Kvapil, Sam Mayer, Jeremy Clements and Taylor Gray. Chase Elliott was set to start seventh, Ross Chastain eighth, Justin Allgaier 13th and Austin Hill 19th in the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series race, which was scheduled to start at 1 p.m. PT, 4 p.m. ET and air on the CW Network.

The event arrives with the postseason Chase picture tightening, as drivers outside the top 12 have three regular-season races left to earn a berth. Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Brent Crews and Taylor Gray entered Indianapolis 11th and 12th in the standings, Rajah Caruth was 13th and trailed Gray by 17 points and Crews by 18, and William Sawalich was 21 points behind Gray. Indianapolis has rewarded speed lately, with eight of the last 10 winners starting in the top three and all 10 finishing eighth or better, while four of the last 10 winners came from the pole.

Justin Allgaier, the 2018 Indianapolis winner and this year’s points leader with six victories, said the track is especially meaningful after he came close to winning there again last year. He led a JR Motorsports group that also included Elliott and Chastain, and the team was one top-10 finish away from extending its streak to 79 straight races. In practice on July 24, Chastain was fastest at 53.517 seconds, followed by Allgaier and Kvapil, with Mayer, Elliott and Jesse Love rounding out the top six. Crews was seventh after hitting the outside wall and sustaining moderate right-side damage, while Sawalich was briefly parked for a mechanical issue before finishing 16th in practice.
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July 25, 2026

Red Bull struggles with balance as Verstappen calls car undriveable

Max Verstappen said Red Bull’s Hungarian Grand Prix qualifying session was “completely hopeless” after the car became increasingly difficult to drive, with what he described as an aerodynamic problem that made it “undriveable.” Verstappen spun at the final corner on his last Q3 lap, which left him sixth on the grid, and he said the car was getting worse lap after lap as oversteer increased and grip fell away. He said the team could see from the data that something was wrong, but it had not identified the exact cause and had no effective fix during the session.

The complaints followed a difficult Friday at the Hungaroring, where Red Bull technical director Pierre Waché said the team was clearly too slow and still struggling with balance. Waché said low grip, the bumpy circuit and shifting conditions were upsetting the car, though he said the revised rear wing was working as intended. Verstappen had also said after practice that the team needed significant work before qualifying, and he complained about the car’s feeling under downshifting as well as a seat problem.

Verstappen said the issue was different from problems Red Bull had faced before and that the car was degrading rather than the tires wearing normally. He said the weekend kept bringing different problems, and when asked if he felt desperate about Red Bull’s recurring struggles, he said he was already past that stage. Teammate Isack Hadjar was set to start eighth and also said the car lacked balance and was hard to drive, while Verstappen said Red Bull would let it go and try again the next day.
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July 25, 2026

Four Showdown wins set 16-car PDC Modified Nationals field

Brandon Sheppard won the Prairie Dirt Classic at Fairbury for the fourth time, giving Rocket1 Racing another major victory after the team reunited in 2025. The win was Sheppard’s first crown jewel triumph in the Rocket house car since 2022, and it was his 90th World of Outlaws Late Model Series victory and 128th national-touring win. His 128 combined wins across World of Outlaws and Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series history broke his tie with Scott Bloomquist for the most all-time.

Friday’s action also set part of the Prairie Dirt Classic field, with 16 drivers earning spots in the 2026 event through four Showdowns at Fairbury Speedway. The World of Outlaws Late Model Series presented by DIRTVision paid $5,000 to win each race, and Jason Feger, Sam Seawright, Sheppard and Trey Mills each won a Showdown to lock in entries.

The Prairie Dirt Classic also advanced 16 drivers into Saturday’s DIRTcar Summit Racing Equipment Modified Nationals main event at the 36th annual event in Fairbury, Illinois. Tyler Nicely won Showdown Feature 1 by leading all 15 laps for his third career PDC Showdown win, Mike McKinney won Showdown Feature 2 flag to flag, Ricky Thornton Jr. won Showdown Feature 3 after holding off Michael Ledford, and Trevor Neville won Showdown Feature 4 after passing Landen Miller on a Lap-4 restart. The top four finishers in each 15-lap race advanced, and the top two from each feature were set to redraw for starting spots during opening ceremonies.
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July 25, 2026

Norris Backs Manufacturers but Questions F1 Priorities

Lando Norris said Formula 1 had become too driven by commercial priorities and argued that drivers should have more say in the sport’s future, calling the direction of the rules a shame ahead of the Hungarian Grand Prix. He said F1 bosses needed to remember the championship was not just a business, and said drivers, who best understand racing, had very little input as major decisions were made.

His comments followed criticism of the 2026 regulations at Spa-Francorchamps, where the new 50-50 combustion-and-electric power split drew complaints from drivers. Norris said the system, including energy deployment controlled by an AI-driven algorithm, had helped create races in which drivers slowed down to manage battery charge, and he said hybrid engines had hurt overtaking. He said the changes were being made to attract manufacturers such as Audi and Cadillac, which he described as evidence that business priorities had been put ahead of the best racing.

Norris said Formula 1 still needed to attract manufacturers, pointing to Audi’s arrival through its takeover of Sauber this season, but said technical choices were being shaped by money and team arrivals rather than competition. He said the sport’s growing audience was more focused on driver personalities than race quality, while longtime fans who followed F1 before Netflix’s Drive to Survive would hate the current direction. Formula 1 and the FIA are discussing changes to the regulations, with the hybrid split set to move to 58-42 in 2027 and 60-40 in 2028, changes expected to reduce energy management but not remove it. Norris said Formula 1 remained strong overall, but believed it could be better.
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July 25, 2026

Jimmie Johnson Becomes First Motorsports Star on Walk of Fame

Jimmie Johnson became the first motorsports competitor to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, earning the honor in the sports entertainment category during a Friday ceremony in Los Angeles. Johnson called the recognition humbling and said it reflected the support of his family, teammates, partners, competitors, fans and friends.

The star recognized Johnson’s on-track success, including 83 NASCAR Cup Series victories and seven championships, tied for the all-time lead. He won five consecutive Cup titles from 2006 through 2010 and remains the only motorsports athlete named Associated Press Male Athlete of the Year. Hollywood Walk of Fame producer Ana Martinez said Johnson’s career as a driver and broadcaster, along with his influence beyond racing, made him a fitting honoree.

Johnson, from El Cajon, California, stepped away from full-time Cup racing after the 2020 season but has continued in select events while expanding into broadcasting, entrepreneurship, philanthropy and business. He co-owns Legacy Motor Club and has said the 2027 Daytona 500 will be his final NASCAR Cup Series start.
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