Motorsports Racing News & Blog Articles

After going 0-for-26 in the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series regular season, Denny Hamlin is 2-for-2 in 2021 playoff round openers. After winning the first race in the Round of 16 at Darlington three rounds prior, he dominated the Round of 12 kickoff at Las Vegas Motor Speedway as he led 137 of 267 laps en route to his maiden win at the track.

Kyle Larson, who won last week at Bristol, was on the pole but second-place starter Ryan Blaney had the early advantage to lead seven laps before Hamlin did so until the lap 26 competition caution. Although Hamlin continued to lead on the restart, Larson was in front by lap 45 and held it to the end of the segment. Kyle Busch, Hamlin, Blaney, William Byron, Chase Elliott, Tyler Reddick, Kevin Harvick, Matt DiBenedetto, and Martin Truex Jr. rounded out the top ten. All but Reddick and DiBenedetto were in playoff contention, and Byron and Truex had started the night at the rear for multiple pre-race inspection failures (as did Aric Almirola and J.J. Yeley).

Five circuits into Stage #2 on lap 93, Joey Gase would be involved in the race’s lone wreck in major fashion when his left-rear wheel came off in turn two and caused him to spin and slam into the outside wall, briefly sending his car airbourne. The crash resulted in hospitalisation for further evaluation. Neither the team nor NASCAR have provided updates at the time of this article’s publishing.

Larson led on the restart and dominated the rest of the stage. However, he was among those who pitted under green shortly before the segment’s conclusion and cycled the lead to Reddick and Hamlin. The latter would take the stage win ahead of Busch, Reddick, Truex, Joey Logano, Brad Keselowski, Kurt Busch, Harvick, Austin Dillon, and Bubba Wallace.

The 101-lap Stage #3 ran completely green. Hamlin led before the next green-flag pit cycle opened on lap 210, which rotated the top spot to Reddick, Keselowski, and Dillon. Dillon led the most of the trio with seven laps, his highest lap-led count of the season and a personal best at Las Vegas (beating his two in 2016), before relinquishing first back to Hamlin on lap 229.

Robby Gordon is now the Stadium Super Trucks‘ all-time wins leader at the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach. The two-time champion took the lead early in Race #2 on Sunday and did not let go en route to his third win of 2021 and fourth at Long Beach, breaking a tie with Matt Brabham.

An inversion of Race #1’s finishing order placed Mads Siljehaug on the pole and winner Jerett Brooks at the rear. After retiring from the first race with a mechanical issue, Jacob Abel did not start the second.

Siljehaug led a triumvirate of Crosley Brands trucks as Brandon Parrish and Bo LeMastus followed. The trio occupied the top three for the opening lap while Gordon worked through the field. Zoey Edenholm, who started third, ended up in the tyre barrier after the brake line wrapped around her truck’s suspension.

Mechanical issues with Siljehaug as he approached the start/finish line to start lap three allowed Parrish to take the lead. On lap four, Crosley driver Jeff Ward spun in turn one after contact with LeMastus. Gordon chased down Parrish and cleared him shortly before the competition caution later on the lap.

A strong restart by Brooks gave him the advantage over Parrish, who eventually lost spots to Brabham and Robert Stout. By the second competition yellow on lap seven, the top four had isolated themselves from the field while Parrish battled with Christian Sourapas and Max Gordon for fifth.

Timmy Hansen stormed his way to victory Sunday after defeating his competition in a thrilling final. The Red Bull Hansen driver secured his win after clearing Travis Pastrana in turn one and never looking back. Hansen drove an easy race clear of dust which was causing other drivers problems, but he maintained composure and took the victory after six laps.

Following the swede was the Canadian Cowboy of Steve Arpin in his Hyundai i20. Arpin finished second on the day after battling Fraser McConnell and Scott Speed in the early stages of the race and got ahead by using a jump gap to clear his competition. The GRX Loenbro driver grabs a handful of points for one of two privateer teams running this season for NRX.

Finishing third on the day was Kevin Hansen who started from the back of the grid after winning the stunning LCQ race. Starting ninth, he drove a clean race and calm race but not without some contention from Oliver Eriksson who was poised to take third until damage to the car forced him to drop back.

Meanwhile, other drivers like Foust, Bakkerud, and Pastrana all found issues with their cars in a combination of flats and sustained damage from race contact. Of the nine drivers who started the race, three were forced to retire due to damage, a common issue at this track.

Timmy’s victory marks Red Bull Hansen’s third win over three years of racing at the Utah Motorsport Campus. The team seems to have the track nailed down and mitigated damage as best they could to perform the best over the weekend. Red Bull Hansen will look forward to future wins as the schedule unfolds over the next few weeks, heading to ERX in Minneapolis next weekend.

In an exciting finale that matched the intensity of the season before it, Colton Herta made his way through the field from fourteenth to win the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach, while Chip Ganassi Racing‘s Alex Palou finished fifth to win his first career NTT IndyCar Series championship at only twenty-four years old.

With a problem-free race and fourth place finish, Palou earned Chip Ganassi’s fourteenth championship, becoming the first Spanish IndyCar champion in history. Patricio O’Ward, who sat second in points entering the weekend, was taken out of the event in the hairpin on the first lap by Ed Jones, bringing out the first caution. Those issues came home to roost in the form of a broken driveshaft on lap 20 that forced him to park the car on the frontstretch and bring out another caution. This allowed Palou to race his race and maintain his calm demeanor to cruise to his first series championship.

“That’s ours, right?” Palou said, pointing to the Astor Cup.

“[I’m] super happy, can’t thank enough everybody who made this possible.”

Herta showed the speed that saw him at the top of both practice sessions from the drop of the green flag, carving through the field. He was able to take advantage of the second caution by being the first to hit pit road. IndyCar gave the whole field a chance to pit before throwing the caution, with Herta effectively moving up to third.

Dennis Hauger sealed the FIA Formula 3 Drivers’ title with a peerless performance in Race 1 at Sochi but would narrowly miss out on the win which would’ve been the perfect way for the Norwegian to cap off a sublime season, finishing second on track to Charouz Racing System’s Logan Sargeant.

With Jack Doohan having a terrible start and finding himself down in 15th, Hauger needed just six points to clinch the crown, but the Norwegian would not settle for the minimum and had his eyes set on victory. Having started the race in fourth, he had already risen to second midway through the race and would spend the rest of the race in pursuit of Sargeant and first place.

Although he got close to the American, cutting down 3.5 seconds of the American drivers advantage it was not enough for the Norwegian to take another win in what has been a dominant season.

The achievement makes Hauger the third F3 winner and keeping PREMA’s 100-percent record in the drivers championship following in the footsteps of 2019 and 2020 champions Robert Shwartzman and Oscar Piastri both of whom now race for the same team in FIA Formula 2.

Reverse polesitter Victor Martins conceded his first place to Sargeant at the start but did manage to hang on to a podium spot, ahead of Trident’s Clément Novalak and Martins MP Motorsport teammate, Caio Collet.

The Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team extended their constructors’ championship lead to thirty-three points, after incredibly dramatic Russian Grand Prix saw Lewis Hamilton claim his one-hundredth Formula 1 victory to take championship lead by two points over Max Verstappen. Valtteri Bottas performed a rain dance to finish fifth.

After changing from the Intermediates to the Slicks too late in qualifying, Mercedes timed the switch from Slicks to Intermediates perfectly as the rain began to pour in the closing laps at the Sochi Autodrom.

Before the rain came, Hamilton had been patient all race after making a poor start, the British driver found himself in seventh by the third corner and was left in a DRS train. The same could be said for Bottas who after starting sixteenth due to another power unit change, was caught in a DRS train and struggled to progress.

Hamilton finally started moving towards the front as those ahead pitted, giving the world champion clean air to post multiple fast laps. This helped Hamilton to come out ahead of everyone apart from race leader Lando Norris when he finally made his stop. Bottas on the other hand was stuck below the top ten for almost the entire race.

Hamilton then closed Norris rapidly but was unable to get past the Mclaren F1 Team driver, then in the closing stages the heavens began to open. Mercedes ordered both drivers in for Intermediates, unlike Norris who tried to stick it out on slicks, like many others. This meant that when the track suddenly became fully wet Hamilton was able to cruise past a helpless Norris, likewise with Bottas who overtook a number of drivers who delayed the switch to the Intermediates.

Lewis Hamilton finally claimed his one-hundredth victory at the Russian Grand Prix in one of the races of the season, where the last seven laps at the Sochi Autodrom saw a sudden dramatic downpour! Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team team-mate Valtteri Bottas finished a miraculous fifth.

It is a day Hamilton will never forget and a race the fans won’t forget for a very long time, as Hamilton and his team timed the switch from Slicks to Intermediates perfectly, unlike qualifying, with only a few laps remaining.

Hamilton who started fourth actually made a poor start, by the second corner the British driver was down to seventh and stuck in a DRS train led by George Russell. The Seven-time world champion slowly moved his way through the field, as those ahead of him made very early pit-stops, unlike Hamilton who was one of the last few medium runners to stop.

A key moment of Hamilton’s race came on Lap 23 when Daniel Ricciardo, whom Hamilton was batting for third, made his stop. It was a poor stop by the Mclaren F1 Team, meaning that after setting some fast lap times in clean air, Hamilton had enough of a gap to pit on Lap 27 and come out ahead of the Australian and be in a theoretical second place behind race leader Lando Norris.

Hamilton closed the eight second gap to Norris rapidly but struggled to get inside DRS range, the Mclaren driver was superior in the final sector gaining back a few tenths every lap. Hamilton remained patient and followed Norris for a number of laps, and then the heavens began to open.

Josh Berry was supposed to be spending his Saturday night at Martinsville Speedway competing in the ValleyStar Credit Union 300 late model race. Instead, the 2019 winner was at Las Vegas Motor Speedway driving the #1 of JR Motorsports in place of the injured Michael Annett. The so-called “super sub” for Chevrolet teams more than delivered in relief duty as he led the final seventeen laps and JR Motorsports team-mates Justin Allgaier and Noah Gragson en route to winning his second career NASCAR Xfinity Series race in the Alsco Uniforms 302.

Austin Cindric started on the pole ahead of regular season champion A.J. Allmendinger, and the former would lead until the competition caution on lap 29. Hell broke loose on the ensuing restart when Riley Herbst was clipped entering turn one, triggering a massive wreck that collected Brandon Brown, Jeb Burton, Jeremy Clements, Bayley Currey, Ty Dillon, Joe Graf Jr., Alex Labbé, Dylan Lupton, Sam Mayer, B.J. McLeod, and J.J. Yeley. After cleanup, the first lap concluded with a five-lap run that Allmendinger won ahead of future Kaulig Racing team-mate Daniel Hemric, Cindric, Ty Gibbs, Noah Gragson, Harrison Burton, Ryan Sieg, Brandon Jones, Berry, and Brett Moffitt.

Dillon kicked off Stage #2 by leading seventeen laps, his most in NASCAR since he led sixteen in the 2017 Richmond fall race. During his run, Sieg spun on lap 55 and hit Jade Buford, resulting in the lone caution of the stage. Allgaier took the lead on lap 66 and held it to the finish. Dillon, Cindric, Gragson, Hemric, Berry, Gibbs, Moffitt, Allmendinger, and Haley closed out the top ten.

Allgaier continued to lead as the final stage commenced. On lap 122, Moffitt bumped Haley shortly after being passed and caused him to spin. On lap 160, Berry claimed the top spot from his JRM ally and only briefly relinquished it during green-flag pit stops, during which Haley and Allgaier enjoyed some time in front. Berry cycled back to the lead on lap 185 and would not give up the spot as he secured his second career Xfinity win.

Some fans saw the reigning Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series champion’s victory as an indictment of Annett, who brings sponsorship to the JRM #1 but only has one victory in five years with the team, and the role of funding in the sport; Berry often struggled to find adequate financial support to become an Xfinity regular, but will finally get such a shot with JRM in 2022. Others drew parallels between his win and Christian Eckes‘ in Friday’s Camping World Truck Series event: both were part-time drivers who were not competing in the playoffs while their teams swept the top three spots; Eckes’ ThorSport Racing team took it a step further with a 1–2–3–4 finish. JRM’s fourth car of Mayer finished thirty-fourth after the wreck.

Lewis Hamilton finally claimed victory number One-Hundred at the Russian Grand Prix, after judging the switch to Intermediates in the closing laps perfectly at the Sochi Autodrom, Max Verstappen despite starting last finished second with Carlos Sainz Jr rounding off the podium.

The race begun under dry conditions but with a seventy percent chance of rain at some point in the race, no one could have predicted that it would come as heavy as it did in the final seven laps!  There was drama before the race had even begun, as Valtteri Bottas had yet another new power unit fitted resulting in an engine penalty, he started sixteenth. Ahead of Charles Leclerc and most importantly Verstappen. 

Lando Norris made an initially great start from pole, but was a sitting duck with a huge slipstream behind as Sainz despite making a poor start led into Turn Two with Norris and George Russell behind. Hamilton too made a poor start but made it four a breast down into Turn Two thanks to the slipstream. The world champion lost out though and dropped down to seventh, the Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team driver not wanting to risk an early fight. Lance Stroll made a great start and launched into fourth ahead of Daniel Ricciardo. 

Further down the field the Leclerc made the best start of the engine penalty quadruple, and worked his way to twelfth by the end of the first lap. Bottas and Verstappen didn’t make as much ground as the Scuderia Ferrari driver. Home boy Nikita Mazepin made an excellent start up to thirteenth. 

In the opening stages Sainz and Norris were able to escape and build an eight second gap over Russell, who had a DRS train of Stroll, Ricciardo, Hamilton and Sergio Pérez behind. The Williams Racing car clearly not on the same pace as those in the top seven. 

Josef Newgarden, the mathematical underdog for the championship, earned pole for the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach, setting himself up to earn maximum points to give him a shot at a title.

In the past two races, Newgarden has struggled in qualifying, starting those races sixteenth and seventeenth, but now puts himself in the best position to capitalize on the controversial rulings that see his title rivals Alex Palou and Patricio O’Ward outside of the fast six in tenth and eighth respectively.

In the second round of qualifying, the Fast Twelve, a local yellow was thrown for Will Power, who dealt with a shifting issue and stopped on track. Palou and O’Ward slowed down as per the rules of the local yellow, but were bumped down the order by Felix Rosenqvist, James Hinchcliffe and Ed Jones, who all improved on their final laps knocking the title contenders out of the next round.

Both camps wanted there to be penalties for the trio for failing to slow down for the yellow flags, and so the teams waited for nearly 20 minutes awaiting an official ruling. After much deliberation, only Jones was penalized, and neither contender made it through. Only Rosenqvist was in a position to advance and was able to having not been penalized.

While Palou might not have had a shot to advance, being behind O’Ward as it stood, the Arrow McLaren SP camp was not happy with the decision, with AMSP President Taylor Kiel even stating that his own driver Rosenqvist should not have made it through according to the team’s own telemetry.

Mclaren F1 Team’s Lando Norris claimed his first ever pole position at the Russian Grand Prix, after Mclaren timed the crossover point from intermediates to slicks with perfection at the Sochi Autodrom. It was also Mclaren’s first pole since 2012.

With Free Practice Three being cancelled due to a heavy downpour resulting in no medical helicopter, qualifying begun on a very damp track. Drivers ventured out predominantly on the green intermediate tyre, Fernando Alonso was the sole driver to begin on the full wets. For Qualifying One and Two, intermediates was the correct option with the track surface taking a long time to dry.

Qualifying Three however was frantic, with Mclaren, Scuderia Ferrari and Williams Racing judging the all important crossover point from intermediates to the red soft tyre with perfection. This resulted in a top three of Norris, Carlos Sainz Jr and George Russell for Sunday’s race.

An important factor for Sunday’s race is that every driver will get free choice of tyre, after all Qualifying Two times were set on the intermediates.

Looking ahead to the race where the weather forecast still isn’t certain, if it’s a full dry race then a one-stop is the most likely strategy, unless there is a safety car or any other incident which could allow for a change of tyre. The preferred option for a dry race would be to start on the medium C4 tyre and switch to the hard C3, however the likes of Verstappen starting at the back may start on the C3 and run deep into the race.

Mick Schumacher yet again was the top Uralkali Haas F1 Team driver in qualifying, after putting his Haas in seventeenth place for the Russian Grand Prix ahead of Alfa Romeo Racing ORLEN driver Antonio Giovinazzi. Home-boy Nikita Mazepin qualified nineteenth at the Sochi Autodrom.

With conditions being very damp at the Sochi Autodrom, there was always the possibility of a few surprises in qualifying, for Haas however it was business as usual with both drivers out in Qualifying One.

Schumacher did well however to split the Alfa Romeo’s in challenging conditions, and will actually start the race from fifteenth on the grid due to drivers ahead having penalties. In the end it was a good Saturday for the German who was hoping to sneak into Qualifying Two.

“I was hoping for maybe a secret Q2 appearance, that would’ve been great. The lap felt ok – I think there were maybe a few mistakes – maybe two or three tenths in it, but that wouldn’t have been enough to go to Q2, but at least we’re close. A bit frustrated but very happy on the other side and I think we as a team did a great job.

“I love it, they’re the best conditions honestly. You get thrown into the cold water and essentially if you’re the fastest to find your way around the track, you will be the fastest on track. I’ve always enjoyed it, even in the past and hopefully we’ll have some rain tomorrow.”

It was a damp, disappointing afternoon at the Sochi Autodrom for Alfa Romeo Racing ORLEN, with both drivers getting eliminated in Qualifying One at the Russian Grand Prix. Kimi Räikkönen qualified sixteenth with Antonio Giovinazzi in eighteenth, both will start slightly higher due to penalties to other drivers.

The returning Räikkönen got the better of his Italian team-mate at a very damp Sochi Autodrom circuit. The Finnish driver was close to a spot in Qualifying Two but in the end just didn’t quite have the pace to make the top fifteen.

Räikkönen found the car on edge the entire time in qualifying but as always will try his best on Sunday.

“The conditions weren’t too bad out there but we lacked a bit of grip. The balance of the car was ok, but we were just on the edge all the time – and when that goes over the limit, it goes quickly. The more lap we did the better it got, but in the end we just couldn’t get more out of it. We’ll try our best tomorrow and see where we can end up.”

“We couldn’t express all our potential” – Antonio Giovinazzi

The recently strong Giovinazzi had a miserable qualifying in Russia, the Italian suffered an issue with the brakes during qualifying. This prevented him from putting any real competitive lap together and was therefore no threat to the top fifteen.

For only the third time this season Pierre Gasly failed to make it into Qualifying Three, after a catastrophic error by the Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda team at the Russian Grand Prix. Gasly qualified twelfth with Yuki Tsunoda just behind in thirteenth.

Gasly has looked good all weekend and carried his pace from Friday into the very damp Qualifying One at the Sochi Autodrom, where the Frenchman looked quick on the intermediates. However in Qualifying Two the team made the wrong call, by deciding to leave Gasly out on track and not give him fresh intermediates in the closing minutes of the middle session. This meant come the closing stages of Qualifying Two, Gasly had no tyre left to allow him to improve into the top ten.

The Frenchman was very annoyed not to have made it into the top ten and knows a discussion with the team is needed.

“I don’t have too much to say right now, I think we had the pace to easily make it through to Q3, so I’m obviously frustrated. In Q1 I was really fast in these conditions, I felt comfortable in the car and could push straight away. However, for Q2 I stayed out on just one set of tyres, that were completely used by the end of the session.

“I think this was a big mistake from our side, but I will have to speak to the team to understand more about what happened today. It’s a missed opportunity not making it through to Q3, but we now need to look forward to tomorrow and see what we can do to make up lost ground.”  

Daniel Hemric has yet to win a race in NASCAR, but perhaps Kaulig Racing‘s tagline of “Trophy Hunting” will resonate with his quest to finally visit Victory Lane. On Saturday, ahead of the Xfinity Series race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Kaulig announced Hemric will join the team for the 2022 season. He will drive the flagship #11 Chevrolet Camaro.

“We’re excited to welcome Daniel to our Kaulig Racing family,” said team president Chris Rice. “Daniel is a strong competitor, and we think he will make a great addition to our Xfinity Series programme. Statistically, Daniel ranks right among the Kaulig Racing cars each week on the race track, so it’s fitting that we bring in someone who will only continue to make us better.”

Hemric, currently in what will be his lone season with Joe Gibbs Racing, is sixth in points with fifteen top-ten finishes, nine top fives, and a best run of second at Las Vegas in March and Road America. Despite his lack of wins, he has proven to be a consistent driver, as evidenced by his two Championship Round appearances with Richard Childress Racing in 2017 and 2018.

“The belief that Matt Kaulig (team owner) and Chris Rice have in me to come drive their notable #11 car means the world to me,” Hemric commented. “Equally, I believe in their programme, their vision, and what they’re building at Kaulig Racing. It’s impressive to see how they’ve become an elite, multi-car Xfinity Series programme in such a short period of time. I’m just incredibly thankful for the opportunity to drive for them next year, and I’m ready to put in the work to continue building on the team’s success.”

The news fills the void left in the #11 with Justin Haley set to move up to the Cup Series with Kaulig in 2022. 2021 is Kaulig’s first season with three cars and has proven to be a wildly successful campaign with Haley, A.J. Allmendinger, and Jeb Burton all in playoff contention while Allmendinger won the regular season championship. Allmendinger and Kaulig also won the Cup race at the Indianapolis Road Course in August.