PressBox, Author at NXTbets Inc

September 5, 2026

Pit Strategy Lifts Sheldon Creed to Darlington Win

Sheldon Creed won the Fleetio 200 at Darlington Raceway, using pit strategy to take the lead with 49 laps remaining and then hold off Corey Day by 2.961 seconds in the Chase opener. The victory was Creed’s second career NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series win, his first at Darlington, and Haas Factory Team’s first win of the playoff run. Justin Allgaier won Stage 1 and Anthony Alfredo won Stage 2, while Brent Crews, Sammy Smith and Austin Hill completed the top five.

The race also featured a late incident between Day and William Sawalich that carried over onto pit road after the checkered flag. Day said Sawalich threatened to wreck him and told him to “go f*** myself,” while Sawalich rejected that account and said Day ran into his rear bumper first, turning him into the wall and ending his race. Sawalich’s No. 18 Toyota was heavily damaged on lap 68, and he finished 30th after falling 41 laps down. The two prospects spoke for nearly two minutes after the race.

Day recovered from the contact to finish second and move from seventh to fifth in the standings, cutting his points deficit from 55 to 46 with eight races left. Creed’s win moved him to second in the playoff standings, seven points behind Allgaier, who finished 17th after hitting the wall late. Post-race inspection found no overall issues with Creed’s victory, but Creed, Crews and Hill each lost pit-stall selection for the next race after unsecured lug nuts were found, and Jesse Love was penalized for an at-track inspection issue.
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September 5, 2026

Thunderstorms cancel Darlington qualifying; NASCAR uses metric order

Lightning and thunderstorms canceled Saturday practice and Busch Light Pole Qualifying at Darlington Raceway, forcing NASCAR to set the Cook Out Southern 500 starting lineup by its performance metric. Tyler Reddick inherited the pole for the playoff opener, with Daniel Suárez alongside him on the front row and Ryan Preece and Denny Hamlin in Row 2. Michael McDowell was set to start fifth, while Austin Cindric, Chase Briscoe, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Austin Dillon and Alex Bowman completed the top 10. NASCAR also moved the 367-lap race up 10 minutes to a 5:00 p.m. ET green flag because of rain in the forecast.
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September 5, 2026

C.J. Leary Leads All 100 Laps to Win Ted Horn 100 Again

C.J. Leary won the 72nd Ted Horn 100 at Du Quoin State Fairgrounds in Illinois on Sept. 5, 2026, leading all 100 laps after starting second. Leary beat Chase Stockon by 1.840 seconds, and after the race said he would jump into the infield pond, carrying out a pre-race promise. The victory was Leary’s second straight Ted Horn 100 win, his eighth career USAC Silver Crown victory and his third win of the 2026 season.

Briggs Danner finished third after charging from 16th and earned the Hard Charger award. Justin Grant placed fourth and Jake Swanson was fifth. Jimmy Light flipped on lap 15 and was scored 19th in the feature.

Leary extended his USAC Silver Crown top-five streak to 14 races, a series record, and increased his championship lead from 69 points to 81. He left Du Quoin with 555 points, while Grant was second in the standings with 474. Two races remained on the schedule, with the next Silver Crown event set for Sept. 25-26 at Eldora Speedway for the 4-Crown Nationals.
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September 5, 2026

Blaney Loses Pit-Stall Pick After Darlington Penalties

Ryan Blaney and the No. 12 Team Penske Ford opened the NASCAR Cup Series playoff weekend at Darlington Raceway with pre-race inspection penalties after failing twice before passing on the third attempt. The penalties led to car chief Raymond Fox being ejected for the rest of the weekend and Blaney losing pit-stall selection. NASCAR rules allowed the team to remove one crew member after the second failed inspection, and the No. 12 car avoided harsher penalties that could have sent it to the rear of the field with a pass-through penalty after the green flag.

Team Penske had swapped pit crews between the No. 12 and No. 2 cars for the postseason, adding another layer to the No. 12 team’s opening setback. Blaney, the No. 2 seed in the playoffs and 25 points behind Denny Hamlin, entered the postseason with three wins in 2026. He was able to qualify after a lightning delay lifted before track activity resumed.

The Cook Out Southern 500 was scheduled for Sunday at 5 p.m. ET and was set to be the first of 10 playoff races. Darlington Raceway, a 1.366-mile track in South Carolina, also had its track activity put on hold because of lightning in the area while teams were scheduled to be on track.
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September 5, 2026

Gasly Tops Russell in Late Lap for Alpine Pole

Pierre Gasly delivered the story of Italian Grand Prix qualifying at Monza, taking the first pole position of his Formula 1 career for Alpine with a late lap of 1:21.786. He beat Mercedes’ George Russell by 0.060 seconds and said the result was especially meaningful after Alpine’s difficult week following the loss of his Monaco podium, calling the Monza lap a response to that setback. Alpine managing director Steve Nielsen said the team would try to win on Sunday and should not be cautious after earning pole on merit.

Gasly’s surprise pole came after a strong qualifying run in which he improved through Q1 and Q2, then found the pace needed in the final segment. Alpine’s Monza-specific upgrades, including low-drag work and a recent update package, helped the team match the speed of Mercedes cars on the straights. Russell had briefly been on top in Q3 before Gasly’s final effort, and Mercedes boss Toto Wolff said Max Verstappen’s positioning compromised Russell’s lap. Russell said he still had a strong chance from the front row, while Gasly said he planned to stay ahead for as long as possible.

Behind them, Oscar Piastri initially qualified third for McLaren but received a three-place grid penalty for impeding Liam Lawson in Q2, dropping him to sixth and promoting Charles Leclerc, Lewis Hamilton and Verstappen on the grid. Ferrari left qualifying disappointed after Leclerc and Hamilton qualified fourth and fifth on pace, both narrowly escaping elimination in Q2, and Hamilton said Ferrari’s execution was poor despite strong practice. McLaren also struggled with its tow strategy, with Lando Norris qualifying ninth, while Lawson was left frustrated after the incident that ended his Q2 run and Red Bull said it still had issues to solve before Sunday’s race.
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September 5, 2026

Russell leads Mercedes 1-2 in Monza final practice

George Russell topped final practice for the Italian Grand Prix at Monza on Friday with a lap of 1:22.219, leading Lewis Hamilton by 0.226 seconds and Max Verstappen by 0.350. Kimi Antonelli was fourth, Lando Norris fifth and Charles Leclerc sixth, with the top six covered by less than half a second. Mercedes appeared strong heading into qualifying, while Ferrari and McLaren stayed in the mix on a traffic-heavy, slipstream-dependent session.

The hour also turned tense between Hamilton and Verstappen. Verstappen accused Hamilton of blocking him ahead of Turn 7, then later the pair ran into each other again as Hamilton passed Verstappen before the final corner and Verstappen lunged into Turn 1 on the next exchange. Both drivers aborted their final laps and traded blame on the radio, while Verstappen also vented about Ferrari. Stewards did not take further action.

Friday had already pointed to a tight battle at the front. Ferrari led opening practice with Leclerc ahead of Hamilton, then Mercedes answered in FP2 with Russell fastest ahead of Leclerc and Antonelli. Ferrari said its upgraded power unit was a step forward, but Hamilton said the team still lagged Mercedes in straight-line speed and would need overnight work on balance and energy deployment. McLaren struggled more than expected, with Oscar Piastri eighth in FP3 after lock-ups and traffic, while qualifying was set to begin later on Saturday.
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September 5, 2026

Rico Abreu wins third straight Skagit Nationals title

Rico Abreu capped the Angel of the Winds Casino Resort Skagit Nationals with his third straight title, winning the $126,000 finale Saturday night at Skagit Speedway in Alger, Washington. Abreu passed polesitter Tanner Thorson for the lead on Lap 15, lost it, then regained control on Lap 26 and held on in traffic to secure the victory. Aaron Reutzel finished second, Thorson was third, and Justin Sanders and Giovanni Scelzi completed the top five.

The final race was slowed by a Lap 31 collision between Reutzel and Trey Starks that sent Starks into the turn three fence and led to about 30 minutes of fence repair. Starks was not injured. Abreu’s win was his sixth High Limit Racing victory in nine series races at Skagit Speedway, and Tony Stewart/Curb-Agajanian Racing extended its championship lead to 46 points over Reutzel’s team.

The weekend opened with Thorson snapping a 29-race skid by leading all 30 laps of the opener and beating Reutzel by 1.553 seconds for his first High Limit Racing win since JST Motorsports took over the No. 88 in late July. Trey Starks then won Friday’s $26,000 Rayce Rudeen Foundation Race in his family-owned No. 55x, passing Abreu on a Lap 17 restart and leading the final 14 laps. Abreu finished second in that race, while Tanner Holmes locked into the finale in third.
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September 4, 2026

Spire pokes back at Carson Hocevar critics before playoffs

Spire Motorsports leaned into the criticism of Carson Hocevar before Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series playoff opener at Darlington Raceway, posting a graphic around his No. 77 car that included the words “moron,” “immature,” “no respect” and “wannabe,” along with the caption “Blocking out the noise.” The move came as Hocevar began the 10-race playoffs after a season that drew repeated attention for his aggressive driving.

Hocevar entered the Cook Out Southern 500 as the No. 12 seed in the 16-driver field and said he and the No. 77 team were “playing with house money.” He said he did not plan to worry about the standings until the end, a view shared by crew chief Luke Lambert and competition director Matt McCall.

The playoff berth capped a breakout season that included Hocevar’s first Cup Series win at Talladega in April and career highs of five top-fives and nine top-10s. A rough four-race stretch dropped him from fifth in the standings after the Brickyard 400, with one top-20 finish, three results of 31st or worse and two DNFs. He also finished 38th at Daytona after over-rotating while racing Ryan Preece for second with six laps left, but said the weekend was still positive because he gained about 300 points on Denny Hamlin before the reset. Hocevar said the team’s goal was to win a race and stay comfortably in the playoff field.
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September 4, 2026

Wache links Monza balance problem to Red Bull’s Zandvoort pain

Red Bull ended Friday practice at Monza worried about a balance problem on the RB22, with technical director Pierre Wache saying the issue was similar to what the team faced at Zandvoort. The team missed FP1 after rookie Ayumu Iwasa drove Verstappen’s car, which left Red Bull with less track time and less data to address the setup before the rest of the weekend.

Max Verstappen first got into the car for FP2 and reported balance problems, low-speed grip issues, weak braking and heavy bouncing after setup changes. Iwasa said the car felt manageable in low-speed sections but was tricky in high-speed corners. Wache said Red Bull’s main concern was balance rather than any upgrades brought to Monza.

Wache said the team would evaluate components and make choices before FP3 in an effort to react overnight. Red Bull also found an energy-management issue during preparation laps, although Wache described that as a normal practice concern. Verstappen finished ninth fastest on Friday, and both Red Bull cars were behind a Racing Bulls car and a Haas.
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