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It took a drag race to the finish for Noah Gragson to lock his spot in the Championship Round, but he is now in contention for his first NASCAR Xfinity Series title. Gragson edged out Austin Cindric to win Saturday’s Dead On Tools 250 at Martinsville Speedway by just .064 seconds, making him one of four drivers to race for the championship alongside Cindric, Daniel Hemric, and A.J. Allmendinger.

Cindric, the reigning champion and pole-sitter, and Gragson dominated the race as they respectively led 64 and 153 of 250 laps. The former dominated the opening stage as he led every lap to win, while Cindric did the same for Stage #2.

The incidents began to mount in the third and final segment; compared to just two on-track cautions across the first two stages (Stage #2 was entirely green), there were four times as much in Stage #3. One such caution on lap 244 came after Justin Haley‘s brakes caught fire and blew his right-front tyre, causing him to spin and eliminating him from title contention.

Ty Gibbs led the way for much of Stage #3 until he was turned by Gragson and impacted by Joe Gibbs Racing team-mate Harrison Burton, dealing damage to the latter’s playoff run. Gragson assumed the lead until JGR’s Hemric passed him on lap 232. Hemric, who was still seeking his first career win, saw his hopes disappear with Riley Herbst spinning Josh Berry on lap 250 to set up overtime.

A poor restart by the inside line enabled Gragson to propel into first with Cindric in tow. Cindric closed the gap in the final corners and was able to pull alongside Gragson, but could not complete the overtake. The win is Gragson’s third of 2021, a career high, and means he has won at all three short tracks on the Xfinity schedule (Bristol in 2020 and Richmond in September). He had won at Martinsville in the Camping World Truck Series in 2017, which also locked him into that year and series’ final round.

Somehow, some way, Zane Smith will fight for a NASCAR Camping World Truck Series championship. Despite entering the last race at Martinsville Speedway before the season finale outside of the top four and with just one top-five finish, he slipped into the lead as a wreck took out the leaders on the final lap to clinch his first win of the season and a spot in the Championship Round. It is his second time in as many years in which he made the final round, and he hopes to improve a spot from his runner-up points finish in 2020.

The Truck Series has drawn scrutiny throughout the season for its high frequency of wrecks, which many have chalked up to inexperience as the lowest tier of NASCAR’s three national divisions or even a lack of mutual respect between drivers. In any case, Saturday’s United Rentals 200 did little to reduce those comments as thirteen cautions (excluding the yellow to signal the end of Stage #2) were waved, resulting in an average of just 8.2 laps being run under green.

Some of the incidents took out playoff contenders, most notably with John Hunter Nemechek being turned by non-playoff driver Austin Wayne Self into the wall on lap 131. Although he retired and finished thirty-ninth, his domination of the season leading up to the race kept him above the cut line.

“(Self) shouldn’t be out here if he’s just going to hook someone in the right rear and turn them in the fence,” said Nemechek. “NASCAR should definitely look at that. It’s playoff contention. You’ve got to have respect and he doesn’t.”

Other wrecks were compounded by the overall physical nature of short track racing, as was the case with Parker Kligerman spinning Johnny Sauter on lap 178 in retaliation for vice versa occurring twenty laps earlier. Both incidents resulted in cautions.

Another lights to flag victory was scored by Toyota Gazoo Racing in the penultimate round of the season, with the #7 crew coming out on top of the #8 and extending their championship lead.

The six hours of racing yielded little action in the Hypercar class, with the #7 trading the lead with the #8 for the opening 90 minutes before the two cars settled into formation. As was suggested in yesterday’s qualifying and the practice sessions ahead of the race, the Alpine Elf Matmut sole entry could not find the pace to put the pressure on the Japanese team, gifting the team an easy one-two from start to end of the six hours of racing.

With Toyota scoring pole position yesterday and a one-two today, Alpine are now mathematically out of the drivers’ championship battle. This means the 8 Hours of Bahrain next weekend will be a battle of the Toyotas.

After a surprising start from the #29 Racing Team Nederland, managing to climb from sixth to the lead of LMP2 by the first corner, it was the 24 Hours of Le Mans winners #31 Team WRT who took the chequered flag. They too had a good start, challenging the #29 in the opening stages of the race and taking hold of the class lead they would scarcely give up. But the class win did not come without a fight as both JOTA entries and the #22 United Autosports were also after the top step of the podium.

The pole-sitting and then class championship-leading #28 JOTA had a dreadful start and managed to reclaimed the ground they lost to get into the lead fight. It was an impressive drive from Sean Gelael, Stoffel Vandoorne and Tom Blomqvist to recover and take second at the end of the six hours. The drive from Charles Milesi, Robin Frijns and Ferdinand Habsburg-Lothringen in the #31 however was too consistent, and their defence was impregnable. Their drive not only gave them the race victory but also the LMP2 championship lead with one race to go.

Fernando Alonso was forced to retire from the United States Grand Prix with a broken rear wing, but the Spaniard feels the talking points are about track limits and penalties that were and were not applied.

The Alpine F1 Team driver was told to hand a place back to Alfa Romeo Racing ORLEN’s Antonio Giovinazzi as the two squabbled for position after the Spaniard passed the Italian whilst off the track at the end of the back straight.  The battle with the Italian was far from over as Giovinazzi was then told to hand the place back to Alonso after running off track a lap later to hold onto the place.

However, it was the move by Kimi Räikkönen at turn one that Alonso was unhappy with as the Spaniard felt the Finn passed him with all four wheels off the track.  Stewards deemed that Räikkönen did not need to concede the position as Alonso had run him off the track rather than the Finn going off track himself, much to the disgruntlement of the Alpine driver.

“It was an unfortunate end to today and overall a challenging weekend for us,” said Alonso. “Our race was quite good considering we started from the back of the grid.

“We were heading towards a possible top ten finish after a few back and forth battles with the Alfa Romeos and Aston Martins. There were some incidents that perhaps we need to look at. Two of them were penalised and one was not.

Mick Schumacher enjoyed his first taste of racing at the Circuit of the Americas on Sunday, even though the Uralkali Haas F1 Team driver finished down in sixteenth position.

Schumacher felt that with five more laps he could have closed the gap to Nicholas Latifi enough to be able to make an attempt at an overtake on the Williams Racing driver, but ultimately, he ran out of laps and was forced to settle for sixteenth.

The German also played a small role in the battle for the lead, with Schumacher allowing Max Verstappen to pass him just after the DRS detection zone heading into the final corner, which enabled the Red Bull Racing driver to stay ahead of championship rival Lewis Hamilton until the chequered flag.

“It was fun – I enjoyed it,” said Schumacher.  “Overall, we expected worse so we’re happy with what we managed to do with the package we had. I had some tight battles, especially at the start and we were right in the mix, and all of those things are preparing me for next year.

“We were catching up to Latifi in the last few laps and I think with five more laps we probably would’ve been close enough to make a move. I really enjoy being in the States and the fans are great spectators – I’ve loved racing in front of them.”

George Russell had a relatively lonely United States Grand Prix last Sunday, with the Briton ending down in fourteenth despite making a good start from the back of the grid.

The Williams Racing driver went into the race at the Circuit of the Americas twentieth and last on the grid after taking an engine penalty, but by the end of lap one he had found his way up fourteenth, and although he would profit from retirements ahead of him, he would end up in the same position as faster cars found their way ahead.

Overall, Russell, who will join the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team in 2022, admitted it was a tricky weekend in the United States for the Williams team, but he was happy that the Alfa Romeo Racing ORLEN team also failed to score points in their battle for eighth place in the Constructors’ Championship.

“I had some good fun today but we didn’t really have the pace this weekend to challenge for the points paying positions,” said Russell.  “I made a good start and moved from P20 up to P14 but was then struggling to keep Fernando (Alonso) and Sebastian (Vettel) behind me.

“Once they were past it was a long, lonely race from then on in. It was a tricky weekend overall but none of our rivals scored any points so it’s onwards to Mexico.”

With NASCAR permitting its three manufacturers to make body upgrades for the 2022 Camping World Truck Series season, Chevrolet has finally unveiled next year’s challenger with the Silverado RST.

In September, NASCAR announced Chevrolet, Ford, and Toyota would be allowed to modify their trucks for the 2022 season to resemble their production counterparts. For example, the NASCAR Silverado has a new front bumper and grille that resembles the street version.

“We’ve worked hard to enhance the features of the current race truck to continue to closely align with the production vehicle,” said Chevrolet Motorsports programme manager Dayne Pierantoni. “We’re really looking forward to seeing our 2022 Silverado on-track in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series next season.”

Toyota and Ford revealed their new trucks in September. The former will use the Tundra TRD Pro while the latter’s vehicle will still be the F-150.

Chevrolet, who has fielded the Silverado since 1998 (the first three seasons in the Truck Series saw the brand use the since-discontinued C/K), has won ten Truck manufacturer championships. Of the twenty-nine full-time trucks in 2021, fourteen use Silverados: GMS Racing fields five, Niece Motorsports and Young’s Motorsports has three, and AM Racing, Jordan Anderson Racing, and Rackley WAR each race with one apiece. Reaume Brothers Racing uses Chevrolet and Toyota, with the #33 primarily being the former.

Richard Childress Racing will have a pair of rookies driving their NASCAR Xfinity Series cars in 2022. On Friday, the team announced Camping World Truck Series regular Austin Hill has joined the organisation’s Xfinity programme for the 2022 season. A number and sponsorship were not immediately announced.

Hill, currently in his fourth full-time Truck season, has been one of the top drivers in the third-tier national series. Since joining Hattori Racing Enterprises in 2019, he has won eight races and made the playoffs every season. Despite being eliminated from the 2021 playoffs after the first round, he has wins at Knoxville (the inaugural race there) and Watkins Glen (the first and only race there since 2000), and mathematically would be third in points under a season-long points system. He announced his departure from HRE with hopes of moving up to Xfinity prior to the Talladega race in early October.

“Austin Hill has established himself as a very competitive racer within the NASCAR Truck Series and we know that he is ready for a full-time opportunity in the NASCAR Xfinity Series,” said team owner Richard Childress. “Austin is a talented young driver and I feel confident that he will help contribute to wins at RCR.”

In addition to his trucking duties, Hill has raced part-time in the Xfinity Series since 2019 with HRE (who has a partnership with MBM Motorsports). Despite failing to make his attempted series début at Daytona due to a mechanical issue plaguing his qualifying run, he scored a top ten in his actual maiden race when he placed ninth at Indianapolis. In fifteen career Xfinity starts, he has four top tens with a best finish of fifth at Kansas in 2020.

“To say it’s an honour to drive for Richard Childress Racing is an understatement,” Hill commented. “I’ve been working hard for an opportunity like this since I was a young kid. I really admire RCR’s NASCAR Xfinity Series programme, and I am looking forward to having the chance to add my name to the impressive list of drivers who have won under the RCR banner.”

Brendon Hartley beat out sister car Toyota Gazoo Racing driver Kamui Kobayashi to take his first Hypercar pole position at the 6 Hours of Bahrain whilst Porsche GT Team were unbeatable in LM GTE Pro.

It was a battle of Toyotas from the start of the twenty minute qualifying session, with the question more ‘which’ Toyota would be on pole rather than ‘would a’ Toyota be on pole as the Japanese cars held the advantage over the only other Hypercar entry, the Alpine Elf Matmut. The battle was over in a one-shot wonder as the cars were conscious of high tyre wear around the Bahrain International Circuit and doing what they could to reserve as much rubber for the race.

Hartley set the marker in the sand with a 1:47.049, beating Kobayashi by just under four tenths of a second (1:47.447). Andre Negrao set the time for the sole Alpine, a 1:48.003, to take third, but this was a time set on his second flying lap which means he has burnt more of his tyres ahead of the race. The effect will be minimal, as they are only one lap older, but it does give the Toyota duo another line of advantage ahead of the six hour race.

The pole position bonus point went to LMP2 class championship leaders Sean Gelal, Stoffel Vandoorne and Tom Blomqvist. Behind the wheel of the #28 JOTA was Blomqvist, who kept up the team’s appearance at the top of the timesheets for every session. Even in the first runs, Blomqvist was on top, but managed to find some additional time and improve to a 1:49.885 to secure LMP2 pole.

Filipe Albuquerque kept the pressure on the British-New Zealand-Swedish driver, finishing in second only a tenth down on the pole time. The United Autosport trio will be hot on the tail of the JOTA team during the six hours of racing, chasing down their first class victory since Monza in July. Albuquerque ended in a JOTA sandwich as Antonio Felix da Costa brought home the #38 JOTA machine in third with a 1:50.198.

RSS Racing began the 2021 NASCAR Xfinity Series season as a two-car team, then shrank to a one-car team, but will return to a multi-car operation in 2022. On Thursday, RSS announced they have formed a technical alliance with Stewart-Haas Racing for next season, along with retaining full-time primary sponsor CMR Construction & Roofing and an engine partnership with Ford Performance and Roush Yates Engines.

After racing with Chevrolet for their entire history, RSS switched to Ford in 2021. The team began the year with the regular #39 of owner/driver Ryan Sieg and the #23 for multiple drivers like Jason White and Natalie Decker in an alliance with Truck Series organisation Reaume Brothers Racing. The latter was sold to Our Motorsports in March when Our’s second car, the #03, began to be locked out of the grid for non-qualifying events despite having two-time champion Tyler Reddick behind the wheel due to qualifying being rained out.

With Our assuming control of the #23 and switching its make to Chevrolet, RSS returned to a one-car stable with Sieg. Sieg is currently fourteenth in points with seven top tens, two top fives, and a best finish of fifth in both top-five runs.

Ford does not have a major Xfinity presence in terms of cars, with the RSS #39 being one of just three full-time Mustangs alongside SHR’s #98 of Riley Herbst and Team Penske‘s #22 of Austin Cindric. However, quantity does not guarantee quality, as evidenced by Cindric being in the hunt for his second consecutive series championship.

“This is a huge step for our team to return with Ford Performance and Roush Yates Engines, along with the addition of a technical alliance with Stewart-Haas Racing,” said Sieg. “I’m very excited and looking forward to next season.”

Frédéric Vasseur hopes that the Alfa Romeo Racing ORLEN team can be rewarded with a good result in the final five races of the season after seeing a potential top ten finish in the United States Grand Prix slip away from them in the final five laps.

Kimi Räikkönen and Antonio Giovinazzi were running tenth and eleventh at the Circuit of the Americas with just a few laps remaining, but both ended outside the points-paying positions at the chequered flag.

Giovinazzi was passed by Sebastian Vettel, with the Aston Martin Cognizant Formula One Team driver then taking tenth a lap later as Räikkönen took a trip through the turn six gravel trap after losing control of his C41-Ferrari.

Alfa Romeo have scored only seven points so far in 2021 and sit a lowly ninth in the Constructors’ Championship, but Vasseur, the Team Principal of the Hinwil-based squad hopes the recent form where they’ve been contenders for the top ten turns into a positive points finish for the team.

“The team would have deserved at least a point after a good race, and it’s obviously disappointing to see it slip from our hands so close to the chequered flag,” said Vasseur.  

Kimi Räikkönen was on course for a top ten finish in Sunday’s United States Grand Prix, but a trip through the gravel trap at turn six after losing control of his C41-Ferrari cost him dearly.

The Alfa Romeo Racing ORLEN driver had been a contender for the top ten at the Circuit of the Americas all afternoon long and survived contact with Alpine F1 Team’s Fernando Alonso before losing the rear end of the car with just a couple of laps remaining to fall to thirteenth.

Räikkönen felt the contact with Alonso, which came heading into turn one as the two battled for position and caused some floor damage, meant his tyres did not last as long as he would have hoped, and in the end the spin lost him the opportunity of a point.

“The car felt really good, especially in the first part of the race, and we were able to fight in the top ten,” said Räikkönen.  

“Unfortunately, at the start of the second stint I had a clash with Alonso and I got some floor damage: it didn’t really affect the balance of the car, but we seemed to run out of tyres a lot quicker afterwards.

Otmar Szafnauer labelled Nicholas Latifi ‘clumsy’ after an opening lap clash with Lance Stroll, with the Aston Martin Cognizant Formula One Team driver finding himself spun around by the Williams Racing driver at turn one.

Stroll was minding his own business and was heading into the turn only to be turned around by his fellow Canadian, with the incident also damaging the Aston Martin driver’s front wing.

Szafnauer, the CEO and Team Principal at Aston Martin, says the incident ended the chances of Stroll scoring points, with the Canadian ending the day down in twelfth after struggling to make many gains.

“Lance was the innocent victim of a clumsy lunge by [Nicolas] Latifi at Turn One on the opening lap, which relegated him to P19 and caused damage to his front wing,” said Szafnauer.

“From there, although he passed both the Haas cars on lap two, he was never going to be able to recover to a points-scoring position; he did his best and ended up 12th.”

Sebastian Vettel reckoned it was a good afternoon for him during the United States Grand Prix after he climbed from the back of the grid to finish tenth and claim a valuable world championship point.

The Aston Martin Cognizant Formula One Team driver had been forced to start at the rear of the field after taking a penalty for an engine change at the Circuit of the Americas, but he was able to stay out of trouble on the opening lap before making a good charge through the field.

He was running eleventh late in the day after passing Alfa Romeo Racing ORLEN’s Antonio Giovinazzi, which became tenth a lap later after Kimi Räikkönen made a mistake and span into the gravel trap.

And Vettel was pleased to have made the points after good strategy calls, although he feels he could have claimed ninth from Yuki Tsunoda had the race been a couple of laps longer.

“We only scored one point today and we had to fight hard,” said Vettel.  “It was a good recovery after the grid penalty yesterday and when we were in clean air the pace was good.

Jody Egginton, Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda’s Technical Director, says the team showed a good level of performance throughout the United States Grand Prix weekend, with Yuki Tsunoda rewarding them with a ninth-place finish on Sunday afternoon.

Tsunoda, racing at the Circuit of the Americas for the first time in his career, used the soft tyre to good use to jump from tenth on the grid to run eighth on the opening lap, and despite losing a position to Valtteri Bottas, he was able to close out the race with two stints on the hard compound to finish ninth.

Unfortunately for AlphaTauri, Pierre Gasly was an earlier retirement on Sunday with a suspected suspension problem, and Egginton says they will be looking at what caused the problem and ensuring it does not happen again in the future.

“Today we’ve had a fantastic, well-deserved points finish for Yuki,” said Egginton.  “He managed his race well, making good use of the soft tyre in the first stint and then managing both sets of the Hards to maintain his track position and score points.

“Frustratingly, Pierre had what looks like a suspension issue, which meant that we had to retire his car. This is something we need to ensure we have understood and resolved ahead of the next race. It cost us some crucial points, which is unfortunate for Pierre and the team.”