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When Anthony Alfredo joined B.J. McLeod Motorsports for the 2023 NASCAR Xfinity Series season, it seemed sensible that he would race for McLeod’s Cup Series arm Live Fast Motorsports too at some point. Such speculation was confirmed Thursday when the team announced he will drive the #78 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 at Richmond Raceway on 2 April. A second race at a to-be-announced location is also planned.

“I am thrilled to have the opportunity to drive the #78 Chevrolet Camaro in the NASCAR Cup Series at Richmond. It is a huge opportunity for me to get experience in the Next Gen car,” said Alfredo. “We have already made major strides with the Xfinity programme and I am excited to take that momentum to the Cup side. It wouldn’t be possible without all the great people at Live Fast, as well as our partners and supporters.”

Alfredo raced the full Cup Series in 2021 for Front Row Motorsports, finishing thirtieth in points with a best finish of tenth at Talladega. He departed the team at the end of the season and returned to the Xfinity Series, where he ran a limited slate in 2020, with Our Motorsports and placed fifteenth in the standings with a pair of top tens.

He signed with McLeod in January. After three races, he sits twenty-first in points and is riding a string of top twenties.

“Anthony’s drive and determination is something we’ve seen stand out on our Xfinity team,” McLeod commented. “We are excited to give him the opportunity to compete at the Cup level again and gain some experience in the Next Gen car.”

In 2016, William Byron dominated the NASCAR Truck Series while driving a Toyota Tundra for Kyle Busch Motorsports, a year before migrating to Chevrolet. In 2023, he will once again race for KBM after they made their own move to the Bowtie.

Byron will race the #51 Chevrolet Silverado RST with sponsorship from HendrickCars.com at Bristol Motor Speedway Dirt on 8 April, Darlington Raceway on 12 May, and North Wilkesboro Speedway on 20 May. He has never raced at any of the three tracks in the Trucks as all were added to the schedule after his graduation, with Bristol and North Wilkesboro also providing him with extra practice ahead of their Cup events.

“I am so excited to return to racing with KBM. I’m looking forward to getting back in their trucks and hopefully having some fun for these three races,” commented Byron. “These are three cool race tracks we’re paired up for and I’m interested in running at them since I haven’t raced there in a truck before.”

Byron was easily the top driver in the Truck Series as a rookie in 2016 as he led all drivers with seven victories (champion Johnny Sauter had the second most with three), but missed out on the Championship Round after suffering an engine failure in the penultimate race. After winning the 2017 Xfinity Series title, he has been a regular in the Cup Series with Hendrick Motorsports with five career wins.

Since 2021, he has also made one-off returns to the Truck and Xfinity Series. He blew an engine at the 2021 Nashville Truck race in a second truck for Rackley WAR, but rebounded the following year by winning at Martinsville with Spire Motorsports. He ran three Xfinity races for Hendrick and JR Motorsports in 2022, finishing runner-up with the latter at Texas and leading the most laps at Watkins Glen with HMS, and will once again drive for HMS at Circuit of the Americas in March. HendrickCars.com is also sponsoring his Hendrick Xfinity entry.

The 2023 Desert X Prix will once again be in NEOM, Saudi Arabia, but will feature more sights than just dunes and sand. Instead, Extreme E drivers will be treated to a view of the Red Sea as the race will run along the coast.

The course is 3.4 kilometres in length, half that of the 2022 version. Races will begin with a short run leading into a right turn, followed by a series of hairpins before hitting the aforementioned beach straightaway. Dunes in the area will also contribute to elevation changes, including a steep drop after the coastal run and a pair of jumps at the start/finish line.

“There are lots of challenging sections on the track, with compressions, crests, difficult corners and two very spectacular jumps,” said Championship Driver Andreas Bakkerud, who along with Tamara Molinaro has been testing the course beforehand. “A number of the turns are pretty wide, so drivers will be able to choose multiple lines out on the course, and that sort of variety will allow for lots of overtaking opportunities.”

The beach dash also provides a passing opportunity via the ENOWA Hyperdrive, a push-to-pass function that works best on such straights.

“All of the Extreme E courses have that something special and this latest design in NEOM certainly has it,” Molinaro commented. “The drivers are really going to enjoy racing on this course as they can make a huge difference to lap time by being smooth, consistent, and fast, and there should be plenty of overtaking out there if you are quick out of the corners. It should be a great first round of Season 3.”

Kimi Räikkönen is no stranger to Circuit of the Americas, having won his final Formula One race there at the 2018 United States Grand Prix. On the other hand, he is still fairly new to NASCAR, having just made his Cup Series début at Watkins Glen in 2022 after a decade away from the discipline.

On 26 March, both worlds will collide as Räikkönen returns to Trackhouse Racing Team‘s #91 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 for the Cup race at COTA.

“I had a fantastic time in NASCAR,” said Räikkönen. “There was a lot to learn in a very short amount of time, but everyone was very helpful, the competition was a big challenge. This time I get to race on a track I am familiar with so there won’t be as steep of a learning curve. I want to have fun, but also do as well as we can.”

Räikkönen’s maiden Cup start saw him ride in the top ten before being collected in a crash on lap 44 that relegated him to thirty-seventh. Despite the abrupt end, he was willing to give it another shot in the future and Trackhouse owner Justin Marks even said the #91 is “kind of his until he tells me otherwise.” The #91 is fielded under the PROJECT91 banner, an initiative by Trackhouse to bring international racing stars to NASCAR, especially as the Next Gen Cup car is more capable of road course racing and takes pages out of other disciplines’ books like touring and sports cars.

“I’m sure there are a lot of drivers that would like to have a chance to try NASCAR,” Räikkönen continued. “It’s not very easy, so maybe it will open some doors in the future for more chances to try and get more Europeans into the sport.”

Hendrick Motorsports‘ #17 NASCAR Xfinity Series car will once again run a road course-heavy calendar in 2023 with a lone oval start, once again entrusting the car to their Cup Series lineup.

Three of the team’s four Cup drivers will race the car, with the exception being Chase Elliott who also did not pilot the car in 2022. The #17’s first start of the year will come at Circuit of the Americas on 25 March with William Byron, followed by Kyle Larson at Sonoma Raceway on 10 June and Alex Bowman at Watkins Glen International on 19 August to give the trio one road start each. Larson will enter its lone oval race at Darlington Raceway on 2 September.

Larson won at Sonoma, his home track, in the Cup Series during his championship run in 2021.

The #17 will be sponsored by HendrickCars.com, a number and sponsor pairing that team owner Rick Hendrick‘s late son Ricky sported during his driving career. The number was also used by the team’s Cup and Truck Series programme, with Darrell Waltrip winning the 1989 Daytona 500 in the former.

“Watching the #17 return to the track last year was very special,” Hendrick stated. “It was fun being back in the Xfinity Series and seeing a great return from our HendrickCars.com sponsorship. The team had strong results on the track, but we didn’t quite get to Victory Lane. Having unfinished business gives us extra motivation this season.”

Chip Ganassi Racing‘s Extreme E challenger will have a facelift for the third straight year. On Wednesday, days before the start of the 2023 season in Saudi Arabia, the team revealed a new livery with a predominantly grey and red base.

In 2022, the team’s first season with increased backing from General Motors’ Hummer line, CGR’s #99 was white with turquoise running around the lower edge. This was also a dramatic change from the previous year’s livery, which was blue, red, and white to reflect their title sponsor Segi TV.

Their 2023 Spark ODYSSEY 21 is mainly grey with red along the roof and white and black trim at the back. The Hummer EV logo is once again displayed along the doors as well as the brand along the grille. On the other hand, the large American flag decal on the hood, to reflect CGR’s roots as well as the nationalities of both of their drivers, is no longer present.

Although Extreme E is a spec series in which every team uses the ODYSSEY 21, CGR and ABT CUPRA XE have slightly different bodywork as their partners are automotive brands. In Ganassi’s case, their car’s nose is modelled after the Hummer EV developed by GM for the GMC marque since 2021.

The #99 will be piloted by RJ Anderson and Amanda Sorensen in 2023 after two years with Kyle LeDuc and Sara Price. The latter duo scored the team’s maiden victory at the 2022 Island X Prix 1 en route to a fourth-place points finish.

While it no longer takes place in his native Argentina, Leonel “Leo” Larrauri is looking to head back to the Dakar Rally in 2024. In a Tuesday interview with Carburando Radio at the ExpoAgro trade show in San Nicolás, Larrauri stated his intention to run the rally for the first time since 2018. To prepare himself for the race, he plans to enter the Desafío Ruta 40 in August.

“I have a lot of desire to return to the Dakar to run it again,” said the 46-year-old. “I really got excited last year and I set myself the goal that in 2024 I wanted to be racing in Arabia. In the idea of mine to return to Dakar, the World Cup’s Ruta 40 came up, which was great because it will allow me to have a date to gain experience and test. It will be the last step to return to Dakar.

“We still have not decided if we will race in T3 or T4, but the idea is to do the Ruta 40 here to gain experience again. I have been away from the discipline for so many years. It really was a beautiful experience. The category has continued to grow, it is becoming more and more competitive, and obviously my expectations are very low. In reality, my goal is to be competitive again, and finishing Dakar or the Ruta 40 is already a lot.”

Larrauri is primarily a touring car racer, recently finishing twenty-third in the 2022 Turismo Nacional Class 3 standings. He has competed in the category since 2001, placing runner-up in the 2002 championship and third in 2004 and 2017. In 2010, he was second in the TC2000 Championship’s Private Pilots Cup for privateer competitors.

While used to pavement competition, Larrauri began dabbling in rally raid with the 2016 Desafío Ruta 40, which inspired him to enter the 2018 Dakar Rally. Driving a Can-Am Maverick for South Racing with Fernando Imperatrice as co-driver, he finished sixth in the UTV category and scored a home soil victory in the final stage.

Garrett Smithley began the 2023 NASCAR Xfinity Series as the driver of the #99 for B.J. McLeod Motorsports, but a disastrous start to the season has him finding a ride elsewhere for the fourth race. On Tuesday, he announced he has signed with DGM Racing to drive the #91 Chevrolet Camaro in Saturday’s event at Phoenix Raceway with plans of more starts later in the year.

“This weekend at Phoenix Raceway I will drive the No. 91 www.DozerWinchParts.com Chevrolet for DGM Racing with plans to run additional races with the team this season,” reads a statement from Smithley. “Mario and Michelle Gosselin, thank you for picking me up when I was down, the opportunity to drive your race cars is an honor.

“I remain steadfast in my extreme desire to compete at the highest levels of motorsports. I know that I have many years of racing ahead of we and look forward to the next challenge and the next opportunity.

“A special ‘thanks’ to Jeff Miller, Maxx Miller, LouAnn Norris and everyone at Trophy Tractor for all you have done for we and continue to do for we Thank you to all my partners, supporters, fans and friends for continuing to support me.”

Smithley and the #99 failed to qualify for the 2023 opener at Daytona, and was excluded from the grid for the next race at Fontana when qualifying was rained out. He succeeded in making the third round at Las Vegas, but a power steering fluid leakage relegated him to thirty-sixth. As he moves to DGM for Phoenix, BJMM has withdrawn the #99 and will continue with just the #78 for Anthony Alfredo.

Spire Motorsports now has an arm in all three NASCAR national divisions. On Tuesday, the team announced they will begin fielding the #77 Chevrolet Camaro in the Xfinity Series for series newcomer Carson Hocevar, complementing their two-car full-time operation in the Cup Series and part-time Craftsman Truck Series programme.

The #77’s first race will be at Dover Motor Speedway on 29 April followed by Charlotte Motor Speedway (27 May), Nashville Superspeedway (24 June), Michigan International Speedway (5 August), Darlington Raceway (2 September), and Bristol Motor Speedway (15 September).

Hocevar is currently in his third full season of Truck Series racing for Niece Motorsports. While he has yet to win a race, he has established himself as a quick driver who has come close to victory on several occasions; he has four runner-up finishes including three in 2022 en route to a tenth-place points run.

He finished twelfth at Dover in his lone Truck start there in 2020. At Charlotte, he was second in 2021 and led the most laps the following year before late contact dropped him out of the top ten. His 2022 Nashville race ended in third. Another runner-up came at the 2022 Darlington race, a year after he finished third and eleventh in two races. He finished sixth at Bristol in 2021, while also having a second in its dirt configuration in 2022.

“Carson Hocevar is a rising talent who earned the opportunity to compete in the NASCAR Xfinity Series,” said Spire Motorsports co-owner Jeff Dickerson. “Spire Motorsports prides itself on identifying talented race drivers who are still in the early stages of their career and pairing them with veterans who can help get the most out of that talent. Carson fits the bill perfectly. We’re eager to provide him with the opportunity to showcase his talent and work with Bono, Mike Greci, and the group from JR Motorsports.”

Three-time IMSA champion Jordan Taylor has long been a favourite among both sports car and stock car racing fanbases despite never having competed in the latter, being close with the industry and popular for his “Rodney Sandstorm” persona—a NASCAR superfan in Jeff Gordon gear.

On 26 March, Taylor will get to race for Gordon’s team as he makes his NASCAR Cup Series début at Circuit of the Americas in the #9 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 for Hendrick Motorsports. The ride comes in substitution for Chase Elliott, who is out for at least six weeks with a fractured tibia in a snowboarding accident.

Taylor is closely affiliated with General Motors, having won the 2017 IMSA DPi championship for the family-run Wayne Taylor Racing and Cadillac before claiming the 2020 and 2021 GTLM titles as a factory driver for Corvette Racing. He also has three Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona victories, with his first in 2017 coming alongside Gordon. When COTA was on the IMSA calendar between 2014 and 2017, he won the final two editions.

Owing to his successes at Daytona, Taylor had hoped to enter the inaugural NASCAR/ARCA weekend on the infield road course layout in 2020 but was reportedly not approved by the sanctioning body. While he did not find a ride over the next two years, he is currently involved with NASCAR’s Garage 56 programme as a driver coach for Hendrick alumnus Jimmie Johnson, Mike Rockenfeller, and Jenson Button as they prepare for the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Taylor won the GTE Pro class at Le Mans in 2015 with Corvette.

“This is obviously under difficult circumstances with Chase being injured,” tweeted Taylor. “It is going to be a heck of a learning curve, but I hope we can make him proud while he’s recovering.”

X44 Vida Carbon Racing‘s Extreme E championship defence will come with a new driver pairing and team backing. On Tuesday, the team announced Fraser McConnell will partner with Cristina Gutiérrez in the #44, while Rodin Carlin will provide technical support.

Gutiérrez returns to the team after claiming the 2022 title alongside Sébastien Loeb with a win in Chile, but Loeb’s departure comes as Carlin replaces Prodrive. Loeb races for Prodrive in the World Rally-Raid Championship, which he currently leads after two rounds including last week’s Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge. Gutiérrez also competes in W2RC, albeit in the T3 category versus Loeb’s T1.

“Following last season’s win, I am so excited to get back on track and give it my all again for the team,” said Gutiérrez. “Fraser is an exciting young talent and I am looking forward to racing with him this year. I’m also looking forward to meeting the new team, and I feel privileged to be part of the journey towards a fairer, more inclusive industry. I can’t wait to see what we can achieve together.”

McConnell served as the Championship Driver for Extreme E for much of 2022, assuming the role after his predecessor Timo Scheider found a ride at XITE Energy Racing. Scheider returned to the post at the season-ending Energy X Prix as McConnell was picked up by JBXE to replace the Veloce-bound Kevin Hansen; McConnell and Hedda Hosås finished ninth.

Outside of Extreme E, McConnell mainly competes in Nitro Rallycross where he sits third in Group E points with a victory at Glen Helen. Andreas Bakkerud, who is one spot ahead of him in the standings, recently joined Extreme E as Championship Driver. McConnell will also get to compete against 2021 XE champion Johan Kristoffersson once again, having last done so in the Nitro RX round in Strängnäs.

The last time Brian Weber raced in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, it was the Busch Series, the playoff system was a year away from being introduced to the Cup Series, and Jimmie Johnson was just a hotshot Cup sophomore whose trajectory to legendary status had yet to be experienced.

Twenty years later, Weber hopes to make his return in Saturday’s race at Phoenix Raceway. He will drive the #66 Ford Mustang for MBM Motorsports.

Weber first competed in the Xfinity Series in 1988 at IRP, where he drove his own Buick to a finish of thirty-first; should he make the Phoenix race, he will be the last active driver to have raced for the manufacturer, which exited NASCAR in 1995 though factory support ended four years prior. Over a decade later, he made nineteen starts in 2001 and 2002 mainly for his own operation with a best finish of twenty-fifth on three occasions (Bristol and Nazareth in 2002, Gateway in 2003).

He returned to NASCAR’s top three divisions in 2010 when he entered two races with Daisy Ramirez Motorsports, a team for whom MBM owner Carl Long also raced. His last national series event was a twenty-sixth at Phoenix in 2012 for Mike Harmon Racing.

While Weber did not made a NASCAR start in the ten years since, he continued to race in modified cars in the Southern Modified Auto Racing Tour and Carolina Crate Modified Series. He is also an entrepreneur who recently launched Last Option Bed, an inflatable bed line for airline travellers which will sponsor his #66.

Akinori Ogata will run his first NASCAR national series race of 2023 when he enters the Craftsman Truck Series at Atlanta Motor Speedway. He will drive the #46 Toyota Tundra TRD Pro for G2G Racing.

“I am glad we could get this deal done,” said team owner Tim Viens. “Ogata has been a significant part of NASCAR’s international drivers that came into the sport and I am happy he is with us.”

He is one of four Japanese drivers to have competed in the Truck Series alongside Shigeaki Hattori, Kenji Momota, and Kenkō Miura. Miura and Ogata are both active drivers who made Truck starts in 2022, albeit in one-offs as Ogata crashed out at Darlington with Reaume Brothers Racing while Miura—a NASCAR Whelen Euro Series regular—was a road course ringer for RBR. Hattori also remains involved in the sport as the owner of Truck team Hattori Racing Enterprises, while Momota has covered NASCAR as an analyst following his driving career.

Ogata made his Truck début in 2014 and has thirteen career starts to his name with a best finish of eighteenth at New Hampshire in 2015. He raced at Atlanta between 2017 and 2018 and in 2021, all prior to its reconfiguration, retiring in his first two tries and placing thirty-seventh in the last.

The Kanagawa native mainly races in late models, with four Limited Late Model victories at Hickory since 2022; he is the first Japanese driver to win a race at the track. That year also saw him enter four Xfinity races for MBM Motorsports, missing two and retiring from the others.

The second round of the World Rally-Raid Championship, the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge, truly lived up to its name as teams battled through heat and mechanical issues over five stages.

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Twelve minutes and three seconds separated the top two in the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge‘s T4 category, but a fifteen-minute penalty was the ultimate decider of who won.

Reigning World Rally-Raid Champion Rokas Baciuška and non-W2RC competitor Mansour Al-Helei were the class of the field in Abu Dhabi as they each won three stages apiece including the former taking the Prologue. However, Baciuška never lost the overall lead at any point as Al-Helei was forced to play catch-up when he had fifteen minutes added to his time for missing a waypoint in Stage #1.

Despite the hometown driver’s best efforts as he won the final two legs, Baciuška finished behind him by less than four minutes in both and Al-Helei was only able to close the gap to 12:03. Had it not been for the penalty, he would have pulled off the upset. Al-Helei and Rally2 overall victor Tobias Ebster are the only entrants to win a stage while not racing for the world championship.

“It was an amazing adventure for us. I really love every kilometre of (the) Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge,” Al-Helei told Cross-Country Rally News. “It’s been a pleasure racing against top drivers and world champions, Dakar winners racing with them side by side. It’s an amazing experience. Unfortunately for me, this year, yes we missed a waypoint and had a penalty, but the bright side I kept pushing and I kept seeing my rhythm with the top people. For me, three stage wins against top drivers is amazing.”

With Al-Helei not competing for the W2RC, Baciuška ended up maximising his points earned among eligible drivers as he always finished either first or second behind Al-Helei. Al-Helei also would have done the same had it not been for his first-stage penalty that dropped him from second to fifth.