Motorsports Racing News & Blog Articles

The eNASCAR iRacing Pro Invitational Series, a Cup Series driver-featured sim racing production, has been discontinued for the rest of 2021. Five races were run during the first half of the season under Fox Sports broadcast, but the league was not picked up as NBC took over coverage.

The PIS was formed during in spring 2020 as the racing world was sidelined by the COVID-19 pandemic. Featuring Cup drivers and other real-life competitors on iRacing, the PIS proved to be a hit as it provided fans with a sense of normalcy even in difficult times. For 2021, Fox aired five races that took place in the weeks leading up to races at major events like Talladega and Darlington, new tracks to the actual calendar such as Bristol Dirt and Circuit of the Americas, and a fictional street circuit in Chicago. The Darlington race also marked the sim racing début of the 2022-bound Next Gen car, which had been revealed earlier in the day.

Although NBC Sports was initially expected to continue the series upon assuming broadcast duties for the second half, a schedule for the network was never provided. On Friday, NASCAR confirmed the series would not return for the rest of the year. Such a decision was spurred as ratings and interest declined in response to the world reopening. Nevertheless, NASCAR has not ruled out the possibility of reviving the PIS for special occasions.

While a formal championship was never kept, James Davison would have mathematically won the 2021 title if one existed. Davison was the only driver to have multiple wins with victories at COTA and Chicago. William Byron, Brad Keselowski, and Erik Jones respectively won at Bristol, Talladega, and Darlington; Keselowski would also win the real-life Talladega event.

With the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series heading to one of the premier sprint car tracks in Knoxville Raceway, Jordan Anderson Racing has enlisted the services of a driver who certainly knows his way around Knoxville and in a sprint car. On Friday, JAR announced Parker Price-Miller will drive the #3 Chevrolet Silverado in 9 July’s Corn Belt 150. It will be his maiden NASCAR race.

Nicknamed “The Law Firm”, Price-Miller is no stranger to winning at Knoxville. The 410 sprint car racer has won at the Iowa dirt track and participated in the prestigious Knoxville Nationals, making the A-Main in 2018 (finished eighteenth, won the B-Main) and 2019 (sixteenth). The Indiana native has also raced outside the United States, winning the Canadian Nationals in 2016 and 2018 and competing in Australia.

“As a sprint car driver, it’s so cool that I’m getting the opportunity to make my NASCAR Camping World Truck Series début at a track that is the absolute mecca of sprint car racing,” Price-Miller said.

“This year racing for Guy (Forbrook), we have been trying to run as many weekly races at Knoxville at possible in preparation for the famed Knoxville Nationals in August. I am hoping to apply some of the things I have learned over the years to have an edge over the NCWTS regulars and earn a solid finish for everyone in the sprint car community.”

After the Truck race, Price-Miller will also run Knoxville’s 410 sprint car event the following day.

Charles Leclerc does not feel Scuderia Ferrari’s pace was representative on Friday, particularly in the afternoon session when the Monegasque racer ended sixteenth fastest.

Leclerc was an encouraging second in the morning session behind Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen, but he was compromised at the end of the afternoon session by drizzle just as he was about to start a qualifying simulation.

Leclerc, who has two pole positions to his name in 2021, says the team are feeling positive about their chances of having a strong Qualifying on Saturday, while also believing they have a strong car for race day.

“It was a busy day, because of the packed programme we ran,” said Leclerc.  “We still have lots of things to work on, and I don’t think our times are representative.

“The main improvement we need to find is on the rears and we also have to tune the car better for tomorrow. We used the C5 compound for the first time, and have to understand how to extract the maximum from it.

Yuki Tsunoda enjoyed his Friday at the Red Bull Ring, with the Japanese racer ending inside the top six in both free practice sessions.

The Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda driver ended the morning session an impressive fifth, and he followed that up by posting the sixth fastest time in the afternoon, less than nine-tenths of a second off the best time of the day set by Lewis Hamilton.

Tsunoda says the team have been able to identify things that they struggled with in last weekend’s Styrian Grand Prix at the same circuit, and coupled with the progress made, he was happy with his own mistake-free day in Austria.

“We’ve had a decent day and are happy that we’ve maintained the pace from last week,” said Tsunoda.  “We have worked hard on our longer running, as that was something we found we struggled with during the race, and I think this has been really positive.

“They weren’t the easiest conditions out there, the circuit is much colder this week and then we had some rain towards the end of FP2.

Antonio Giovinazzi says it was a positive Friday for himself and for Alfa Romeo Racing ORLEN, with the Italian placing inside the top ten in the afternoon session at the Red Bull Ring.

Giovinazzi sat out the morning session as Alfa Romeo gave Callum Ilott a chance behind the wheel of the C41-Ferrari, but despite this, he was able to have a competitive afternoon session to end tenth fastest.

The Italian says there is still work to be done by Alfa Romeo to fine tune and refine their package ahead of Saturday’s Qualifying session, where Giovinazzi will be aiming for a second appearance in Q3 of the season.

“It was quite a smooth FP2 for me, we finished the full programme we set out to do including some laps on the prototype tyres and some high-fuel runs,” said Giovinazzi.  “In general, it was a positive session.

“The midfield seems very close, as always, so we will need to keep working hard to find that little extra performance to be at the edge, especially on Saturday. We still have one session before qualifying to refine our package and then we’ll give our maximum in qualifying.”

Callum Ilott participated in his second free practice session of the season with the Alfa Romeo Racing ORLEN team at the Red Bull Ring on Friday, and the young Briton says he felt he was able to learn a lot during his twenty-three-lap run.

The runner-up in the 2020 FIA Formula 2 Championship replaced Antonio Giovinazzi for the session, and he performed admirably to finish sixteenth fastest, less than a second shy on the team’s regular race driver Kimi Räikkönen.

Ilott had his first practice outing in the Portuguese Grand Prix earlier this year, and he felt more comfortable behind the wheel of the C41-Ferrari than he did at the Autódromo Internacional do Algarve.

And Ilott felt he did a respectable job as he took to the track the majority of the field had raced at just last weekend.

“I really enjoyed the session today:  I feel I made a good progression and we were able to try and learn a good amount of things,” said Ilott.  “Jumping in the car when everyone else had a full week of running here is never easy, but I still feel it was a very positive session.

Fernando Alonso made amends from missing first practice at the Red Bull Ring by placing inside the top eight in the afternoon, with the Alpine F1 Team driver feeling there is still more to come this weekend.

The veteran Spaniard sat out the opening session as Alpine gave test driver Guanyu Zhou an opportunity behind the wheel of the A521, but despite this, he was able to break into the top ten in the afternoon, 0.870 seconds behind pacesetter Lewis Hamilton.

Alonso says experiencing Pirelli’s softest compound of tyre in Austria, a tyre that was not available seven days ago within the Styrian Grand Prix, was good, and he hopes the team can fine tune their car overnight in a bid to be competitive in Qualifying on Saturday.

“It was good to be back in the car this afternoon especially with the C5 tyre compound, that we didn’t have last weekend,” said Alonso.  “It was good to try some laps on them on both short runs and long runs.

“I think that we still need to do some work to fine tune the set-up of the car; with this tyre compound, maybe, we have a different balance. It was quite a smooth FP2 for us and there’s more to come tomorrow hopefully.”

The opening day of the Austrian Grand Prix has been a mainly positive one for Mclaren F1 Team’s Lando Norris, the British driver ended both sessions just inside the top ten.

The opening sessions at the venue where Norris claimed his first podium in Formula 1, saw him test multiple things, resulting in ending the day ninth fastest almost a second behind the pacesetter Lewis Hamilton.

Both sessions went fairly smoothly for Norris, the only mistake by the driver came in the second practice session where Norris span on the exit of the first corner. Thankfully for the team the spin was harmless and no damage was caused. Norris can be somewhat optimistic going into Saturday.

“A positive day because we tested a lot of different things, but we just haven’t put everything together really. Of the things we tested, some were good, some not as good, and we now have a better understanding of the car than we did last weekend. Hopefully we can choose all the best things from the work we did today and progress tomorrow to make sure we’re that little bit quicker than we were last week. Today was a productive day and let’s see what we can do tomorrow.”

“It’s been an interesting day” – Daniel Ricciardo

For the other Mclaren F1 Team driver Daniel Ricciardo, it was at least to him a good day at the office, the classification however doesn’t make for pretty reading with the Australian ending the opening day in fifteenth.

Opening practice at the Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course saw Team Penske’s Josef Newgarden comfortably top the times as he goes in search of his first win of the 2021 NTT Indycar Series.

The Nashville, Tennessee native saw a dominant victory snatched away from his grasp at Road America last time out as his Penske Chevrolet developed a problem on the last restart with under five laps to go, just one race since he was overtaken late on by Pato O’Ward for the win in Detroit.

O’Ward himself was also quick but he was a quarter of a second of Newgarden’s table-topping time for Arrow McLaren SP to give Chevrolet a one-two although there was a swarm of Honda’s behind them.

Leading the Honda contingent was Jack Harvey who continuously proves how the little guys can mix it at the front with Meyer Shank Racing, but he is yet to win in Indycar despite many strong performances on road courses.

Alexander Rossi has had something of a nothing season so far so he will desperately want a good weekend and he started well in fourth ahead of Graham Rahal and Romain Grosjean.

Guanyu Zhou enjoyed his first official free practice session in Formula 1, with the Chinese driver replacing Fernando Alonso at the Red Bull Ring on Friday morning.

The Alpine Academy driver, racing full-time in 2021 with UNI-Virtuosi in the FIA Formula 2 Championship, took to the track in Austria for the Alpine F1 Team and ended an encouraging fourteenth fastest, just over four-tenths of a second behind Esteban Ocon.

Zhou became just the second driver from China to participate in a free practice session in Formula 1, and he felt more confident with every lap he completed.  He also did not think he would get up to speed as quickly as he did.

The twenty-two-year-old hopes the experience at the Red Bull Ring will benefit him down the line as he bids to become China’s first ever full-time Formula 1 driver, with Zhou not far away from earning a Superlicence that would make it a more realistic proposition.

“It felt special to drive FP1 today,” said Zhou.  “I’m really happy with all my runs and I was able to get familiar with the tyres early on.

For the fifth consecutive weekend, Matt Brabham was the fastest in Stadium Super Trucks qualifying. Friday’s practice/qualifying session at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course saw Brabham lead the field of nine to notch his third Fastest Qualifier in as many rounds in 2021.

Brabham set a best lap time of 1:48.117, a .668-second advantage over second-placed Robby Gordon; by comparison, at the first Mid-Ohio date in June, the margin between first (Brabham) and second (Sheldon Creed, who is not entered this weekend) was .376. In addition to extending his FQ streak to five, which dates back to the 2020 season opener in Adelaide in a two-weekend schedule, Brabham has led every SST qualifying session at Mid-Ohio including the two 2019 rounds. He and Gordon are the only drivers in the field with victories at the Lexington track as they split the 2019 NASCAR Xfinity support weekend and Gordon won Race #2 in June.

Jerett Brooks, making his return to SST after last racing in 2019, was third at 1:50.410. Brooks has never raced on a permanent road course in a stadium truck, but the off-road truck champion has three podiums on paved street circuits.

A deadly combination for Atlanta Falcons fans followed the trio as numbers 28–3 placed fourth and fifth with Robert Stout and Aaron Bambach, respectively. Bambach ran the June Mid-Ohio round in what was his first SST start since 2018.

Tailing sixth-placed Max Gordon was Bill Hynes, who returns after skipping Mid-Ohio 1 for scheduling reasons. Jett Noland and Bo LeMastus, both of whom ran the opener in St. Petersburg and have experience in the NASCAR Camping World Truck and ARCA Menards Series, rounded out the grid.

Lance Stroll felt it was a good Friday for himself and the Aston Martin Cognizant Formula One Team at the Red Bull Ring, with the Canadian ending the afternoon practice session fourth fastest.

It had been a tricky and eventful morning in Austria for Stroll, with two wild spins, first at turn six and then at the final turn seeing him facing the wrong way.

But it all came good for Stroll and for Aston Martin as they found a lot of time in the afternoon session, although he knows it will be important to extract the maximum from his AMR21 when it matters in Qualifying.

“It has been a good day for us,” said Stroll.  “The morning was a little more eventful for me, but I think we managed to put together plenty of clean laps and we have learned a lot.

“One of the key factors this weekend will be the softer range of tyres that Pirelli has chosen. I think it is a good call because it could mix things up on Sunday and create some strategy variance. In a tight midfield battle, that could be exciting.

Max Verstappen finished behind both the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team drivers in second practice for the Austrian Grand Prix on Friday, but the Dutchman is confident about the Red Bull Racing’s pace this weekend.

Verstappen started the weekend by setting the pace in the morning session, but he slipped behind both Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas when the pace quickened in the afternoon, although he admits he did not get a perfect lap in.

The current championship leader feels this weekend in Austria will be a close one against Mercedes, and he knows Red Bull will have to get everything right to ensure a third consecutive victory.

“From our side we didn’t have a perfect run in FP2 but nevertheless I felt good in the car and there are no real problems,” said Verstappen.  “Mercedes looked quite quick on the soft so we just have to make sure we have a little more pace on that compound because we looked stronger on the medium and in the long runs, which at the end of the day is the most important for the race.

“We also tested the new Pirelli prototype tyre which seemed to be fine. It did get quite greasy out there but luckily it was good enough to keep on driving so we had a good read on the long run pace.

Lewis Hamilton feels Red Bull Racing still have something extra over the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team this weekend at the Red Bull Ring, despite the Briton ending Friday with the fastest time overall.

The reigning World Champion was only seventh fastest in the mornings running in Austria as Max Verstappen set the pace, but the afternoon was a different story as the Briton led the way in a Mercedes one-two.

Hamilton said the changes the team made between sessions, reverting to a set-up close to what they used last weekend at the same track for the Styrian Grand Prix, made the car felt better, but he still believes Red Bull have not yet shown their true hand or form.

“Red Bull have definitely got something extra in their bag, but we’ve made some small steps forward and over a single lap, the car felt pretty good,” said Hamilton.  “FP1 was a bit of a struggle, we were trying different set up variations based on our work in the sim this week and the car wasn’t happy.

“In FP2, we reverted to a similar set up as last week, with a few other adjustments, and the car felt much better. I probably won’t change much now because most often if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it! So just tiny tweaks for me this evening.

Like in 2019, the Stadium Super Trucks are running back-to-back rounds at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. After supporting the NASCAR Xfinity Series in June, the trucks will join the NTT IndyCar Series this weekend at the Honda Indy 200 weekend. Eight drivers comprise the field.

Robby and Max Gordon, Robert Stout, and Matt Brabham are unsurprising faces as full-timers. The elder Gordon and Brabham won at Mid-Ohio in 2019, and the former also won Race #2 in the 2021 NASCAR weekend. While Brabham is still seeking his first win of the year, he is the only driver with podium finishes in every race in 2021 and was the fastest qualifier for both of the season’s rounds to date. Aaron Bambach also returns after running Mid-Ohio 1.

Although the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series is on a bye week, points leader Sheldon Creed, who has dominated the season so far as he led the most laps and won all but one of the four races, has opted to skip the Mid-Ohio return. Driving the Continental Tire truck instead will be Jerett Brooks in his first race since the 2018 finale. It will be Brooks’ first time racing on a permanent road course; much of the off-road star’s SST background has been on non-paved and mixed-surface tracks such as Crandon (where he won his lone race in 2013), though he has three podiums on street circuits.

Bo LeMastus, who débuted in the season opener at St. Petersburg, is in the #42. He previously raced with #68.

After skipping Mid-Ohio 1, Jett Noland returns in the #50. He finished eighth and sixth at St. Petersburg in his second SST weekend. Since then, he has mainly focused on late models like the Southern Super Series. Last weekend, Noland made his ARCA Menards Series début at Pocono, where he finished eleventh for Niece Motorsports.