The No. 47 Hyak Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro will have a bright, new look during the 2026 season as the team brings a new sponsor to the NASCAR Cup Series.

The team announced on Monday morning that Ricky Stenhouse Jr. will have Chef Boyardee as a primary sponsor in select races and as a full-season associate sponsor. He will showcase the food brand with a red scheme featuring the Spaghetti & Meatballs and Beef Ravioli flavors.

Excited to welcome @ChefBoyardee to the team for the 2026 season!

Chef Boyardee will sponsor the No. 47 team for multiple races this season starting with The Clash and Daytona 500 👨🏻‍🍳 pic.twitter.com/0wphwIiM3z

— Hyak Motorsports (@HYAKMotorsports) January 12, 2026

The Chef Boyardee scheme will make its debut on Jan. 31 and Feb. 1 with The Clash weekend at Bowman Gray Stadium. It will then return for the season-opening Daytona 500 on Sunday, Feb. 15. Stenhouse is a former two-time winner at the 2.5-mile superspeedway, which includes the 2023 Daytona 500.

The final race featuring the Chef Boyardee scheme will be at another track where the veteran driver has success. He will showcase the red and green scheme during the April 26 race at Talladega Superspeedway.

“We’re excited to welcome Chef Boyardee to the Hyak Motorsports family,” Stenhouse said in a press release.

“They’re a brand everyone knows, and bringing them into NASCAR is something the entire team is looking forward to. We’re ready to start the season off strong and represent Chef Boyardee throughout the year.”

The addition of the new sponsor comes as Stenhouse and Hyak Motorsports prepare to get back into contention for wins. The team missed the playoffs and went winless after posting back-to-back winning seasons in 2023-2024. The number of top-10 finishes fell from six in 2024 to only three last season.

Yet, Stenhouse said during the season finale weekend at Phoenix Raceway that he and crew chief Mike Kelley had many ideas about how to improve early in the race weekend. The practice and qualifying sessions particularly stood out for them.

“We know what we did to get our balance better, and now it’s just trying to figure out how to use all four tires better and just be faster,” Stenhouse told FanBuzz in November. “Looking at data (at Phoenix) I felt like we’re still good on the long run, which has been a good thing for us over the last month and a half. But it’s going fast early, qualifying.

“Looking at practice… after 16-17 laps, I felt like we actually started running some little better lap times than (Kyle Larson) at the same time that we were out there together. But early in the run, he’s going through the corner two-and-a-half, three miles an hour faster than I am through the center.

“And so just trying to figure out how to do that. We have some ideas, but it’s going to take more effort, more work in the offseason to get all that done.”

(GMM) Alex Dunne (pictured) has played down speculation surrounding his shock decision to leave McLaren’s driver development program last year, insisting the move was a calculated step toward his ultimate goal of reaching Formula 1.

The Irishman’s mid-season exit in October raised eyebrows across the paddock, coming after a breakout rookie Formula 2 campaign with Rodin Motorsport and two Formula 1 practice appearances for McLaren – including a standout FP1 debut in Austria.

Speaking to Irish outlet Balls.ie, Dunne made clear that the call was his own, despite external assumptions about politics or stalled talks elsewhere. “For me, there’s a goal and a plan in place and that’s to be a Formula 1 driver,” Dunne said.

“From the options that I knew I had, the decision we made was one that had to be made to be in F1. I think it’s as simple as that – it was actually my decision.”

Dunne admitted the choice was not universally supported at home. “When my dad and I were talking about it, he wasn’t 100 percent sure,” he said. “Normally, he’s the one who is 100 percent sure.”

Now 20, Dunne’s McLaren departure was strongly linked with Red Bull, amid a turbulent period for the energy drink giant’s F1 program. Those rumors intensified late in the year with the departure of Dr Helmut Marko.

Related Article: Formula 1 News: Red Bull driver picture takes shape amid Dunne rumors

Dunne, meanwhile, stressed there was no fallout with McLaren and said he’ll “always thank” the Zak Brown-led outfit. He has since re-signed with Rodin Motorsport for the 2026 F2 season, keeping his F1 ambitions alive.

When asked whether another driver academy announcement could follow, he remained deliberately vague. “We’ll have to wait and see,” he smiled.

Related Article: Formula 2 News: Dunne leads the way on the final day of post-season testing at Yas Marina

With the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series season just over a month away, teams are already hitting the track for crucial preseason testing. This week, one driver from each chartered organization will participate in a dedicated test at the historic North Wilkesboro Speedway — the short track north of Charlotte — to evaluate NASCAR’s new higher-horsepower package.

The test focuses on the updated configuration for short tracks (under 1.5 miles) and road courses, where baseline horsepower jumps from 670 to 750. This increase, first announced by NASCAR in October, pairs with reduced downforce through smaller three-inch rear spoilers and fewer strakes on the rear diffuser. The changes aim to boost tire wear, enhance driver control, and deliver more exciting racing by putting more emphasis on skill behind the wheel.

The one-day session at the revived 0.625-mile oval — which returns to the points-paying schedule in 2026 with its first regular-season race in 30 years on July 19 — offers teams an early look at how the package performs in real-world conditions.

Several storylines add extra intrigue to the test:

– Daniel Suárez will make his on-track debut with his new team, Spire Motorsports, after switching rides following the 2025 season. North Wilkesboro marks his first laps in the No. 7 Chevrolet.
– Two organizations — Rick Ware Racing and Haas Factory Team — will run Chevrolet for the first time in the Gen-7 era after switching from Ford and securing technical alliances with Richard Childress Racing and Hendrick Motorsports, respectively.

Here is the complete list of confirmed drivers participating:

– Ross Chastain – No. 1 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet
– Daniel Suárez – No. 7 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet
– Kyle Busch – No. 8 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet
– Chase Elliott – No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet
– AJ Allmendinger – No. 16 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet
– Chris Buescher – No. 17 RFK Racing Ford
– Chase Briscoe – No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota
– Josh Berry – No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing Ford
– Joey Logano – No. 22 Team Penske Ford
– Zane Smith – No. 38 Front Row Motorsports Ford
– Cole Custer – No. 41 Haas Factory Team Chevrolet
– Erik Jones – No. 43 Legacy Motor Club Toyota
– Tyler Reddick – No. 45 23XI Racing Toyota
– Ricky Stenhouse Jr. – No. 47 Hyak Motorsports Chevrolet
– Cody Ware – No. 51 Rick Ware Racing Chevrolet

This test serves as an important early checkpoint for teams preparing for the revamped rules package that will shape racing action across multiple venues in the upcoming season. Fans can expect more driver-focused competition and potentially closer battles as the changes take effect. The 2026 Cup Series kicks off soon — stay tuned for updates from North Wilkesboro!

An eyewitness to NASCAR legend Greg Biffle’s plane crash harrowingly claimed that “there is nobody alive” during a haunting 911 call.

On the morning of Dec. 18, a private jet owned by Biffle burst into flames upon attempting to make an emergency landing at Statesville Regional Airport in North Carolina. NASCAR confirmed that Biffle, along with his wife Cristina and their children Ryder and Emma, lost their lives in the crash, as did Dennis Dutton, his son Jack, and Craig Wadsworth.

The devastating news sent shockwaves through the racing community, with tributes pouring in from current and retired drivers alike, including Denny Hamlin and Richard Petty.

Moments after Biffle’s Cessna 550 Citation II erupted in a blazing fireball, a witness called first responders to inform them that the plane was “down and burning.” The individual described the scene as a “pretty big-sized fireball, a lot of black smoke,” before adding: “Whoever was on the plane probably didn’t make it. It’s a big fireball.”

When asked to elaborate on what occurred, the caller revealed that the aircraft was “fully engulfed” by flames. “I can see the tail section, but the rest of the plane…. Looks like a small private jet,” he said.

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The witness expressed little confidence that any passengers on board the jet could’ve survived the crash, stating: “There is nobody alive. There’s no way they could survive it. Looks like it hit short of the runway. Here comes the fire engines.”

As of writing, the official cause of the plane crash that took the lives of Biffle, his family, and three other passengers remains undetermined by authorities. Federal investigators began probing the wreckage of the Cessna 550 Citation II on December 19.

The National Transportation Safety Board reported that the aircraft had taken off from Statesville Regional Airport bound for Florida but attempted to return about 15 minutes into the flight.

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A joint statement issued by the families of the victims read: “We are devastated by the loss of our loved ones. This tragedy has left all of our families heartbroken beyond words. Greg and Cristina were devoted parents and active philanthropists whose lives were centered around their young son Ryder and Greg’s daughter Emma (mother – Nicole Lunders). Emma was a wonderful human being with a kind soul who was loved by many people. Ryder was an active, curious and infinitely joyful child.

“Dennis Dutton and his son Jack were deeply loved as well, and their loss is felt by all who knew them. Craig Wadsworth was beloved by many in the NASCAR community and will be missed by those who knew him. Each of them meant everything to us, and their absence leaves an immeasurable void in our lives.”

Off the back of a much-improved 2025 campaign which yielded a comfortable fifth place in the Formula 1 world constructors’ standings, Williams is now a team that is looking up rather than over down.

Over the past 18 months the Grove-based squad harvested bountiful low-hanging fruit that was holding it back, and that meant that while its aerodynamic development has largely been focused on 2026 and beyond, it still found ways to improve its performance level with the FW47, guided by its experienced driver line-up of Alex Albon and Ferrari hire Carlos Sainz.

But while Williams’ trajectory has been likened to that of world champion McLaren three or four years ago, when the Woking-based squad was embarking on a similar rebuild, Vowles is also the first to admit Williams remains a work in progress and is not ready for life at the very top of F1 yet.

That’s why he sees 2026’s wholesale regulations changes as a big opportunity for Williams to take the next steps in its large-scale overhaul rather than the final exam of whether his team has succeeded.

“I think it’s harder within the current regulations set to be finding performance relative to others, when you’re constrained by perhaps a way of thinking or a construct you’ve had before, whereas 2026 really is just a clean sheet of paper, so you’re able to approach it a very different way,” Vowles explained to Motorsport.com in an exclusive interview.

“But I don’t think it’s an acid test. I think it’s just a continuation of the journey. I think, if anything, the opportunity to scrap a few things and start again gives us a bit of a leg up.”

Williams took two podiums with Carlos Sainz in Baku and Qatar as part of a much-improved 2025 campaign

Photo by: Andy Hone/ LAT Images via Getty Images

That journey has involved plenty of ups and downs, including the humiliation of not being able to field two cars in 2024’s Japanese Grand Prix due to a lack of spare chassis. At the time Williams was fighting to produce two cars that were on weight and on the same specification, an uncomfortable situation that it fully addressed for 2025.

It is just one public example of how its many behind-the-scenes changes have addressed some of the structural issues Vowles identified after joining from top team Mercedes, and the other is a – very limited – upgrade programme that showed the Grove factory was operating much more efficiently than before. But Vowles suggested the general lack of 2025 aero development was also an opportunity to focus on other areas, giving the team the freedom to use the 2025 season to experiment.

“We’ve only put a couple of weeks of aerodynamic development into the 2025 car during the year,” he said. “But what we’ve been working on instead is: ‘Do we have the right balance? Do we have the right way of working the tyres? Do we have the right way of communicating with the drivers? Do we have the right differential tools? All those are zero cost. They’re just about using a product in a different way to what we had before.

“Quite a bit of performance that was locked away has been coming out of that, and that’s what I’ve been focused on.

“It’s what I like about our sport. You constrain yourself in one way by not putting any more development in this car, but I give you the freedom every weekend to go out there and try something different. As long as it is backed up by logic and has a data-driven mechanism behind it, then I’m fine to support it and try it. And that’s what we’ve been doing, and it’s working. You could see across the year how, despite the car not changing, we were moving forward.”

More “honest” Williams ready for more change

That kind of approach is only possible within a transparent organisation. One of the biggest changes Vowles has had to make since taking over at Grove is stamping out the team’s previous blame culture and providing the “psychological safety” for departments to be brutally honest rather than fool itself.

“It’s very easy for you to produce a report that says I’ve added two tenths of performance this week through X, Y and Z – not validated, not backed up, not checked,” he explained.

Alex Albon, Williams

Photo by: Andrew Ferraro / LAT Images via Getty Images

“And actually, what we do now is very robust, peer reviewed checks on what performance we’re adding, how it’s adding, and it’s what I call honest, correct accounting. In aerodynamics, all too often you have something called drift, and there’s two ways to deal with drift. You can just go: ‘That’s our new benchmark’. Or you go: ‘No, I’ve lost a point, and I’m going to get that point back.’

“And we’re very good here at doing what I think is honest accounting because of the psychological safety and belief in the culture to do so.

“I’m giving you a lot of detail, but actually the biggest change is we have a culture that is ready for more. We know we’re not at a championship level yet, but that scrutiny we apply to ourselves allows us to be stronger.”

Any change is difficult at first, but the results Vowles’ approach has been yielding means the Williams’ organisation has become much more amenable to it.

“As an organisation the first change you make is hard, but then you become more agile and more accommodating to it as you see that the change is net beneficial,” he explained. “So I’d actually say globally, we’ve changed more in 2025 than we did in 2023 and 2024, but the business is also ready for it.

“And now we have a really interesting situation where the business is going: ‘Okay, what next? What else do we do? Let’s go.’ It’s great. And now we have to move faster than we did before.”

F1 2026 rules ‘in a good place’

Quite how that will pan out for Williams in 2026 is anyone’s guess right now, and it will likely take several races into the new campaign to have a clear picture of F1’s new world order.

James Vowles, Team Principal, Williams Racing

Photo by: Shameem Fahath / Motorsport Network

“This is just guesswork,” Vowles said. “But clearly, we won’t see the same gaps we had in 2025 where a few tenths separates a few cars. But conversely, it won’t be anywhere near 2014 where there’s like three and a half seconds, it’ll be somewhere between the two.

“That said, there’ll be a couple of teams who have now done a power unit for the first time, have done a car for the first time. It really is hard and competitive now. Let’s be completely blunt, that’s why we fell back to 10th for a period of time.

“I think the gaps will be a couple of seconds front to back, but I still think you’ll have competition at the sharp end, which is a good point. And the sport has understood that we need competition, so therefore we will close the regulations up in a way that will create that.”

He added: “I think the regulations are in a good place now. I’m sure we’re going to see overtaking, it just won’t be in the places you normally expect it to be, because it is an electrical energy chess game that you’ll be playing.

“But I think it’s worth saying the regulations from where they were when we were talking in Montreal in 2024 [when they were first revealed by the FIA] to where they are today are quite different, and it’s produced a much better package.”

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Alex Bowman may not have stockpiled wins like his teammates Kyle Larson, Chase Elliott, or William Byron, but he has shown quite a consistency in both speed and progression across various types of tracks. His quantum leap into Hendrick Motorsports traces directly back to Dale Earnhardt Jr., who first spotted his potential.

In 2016, when Junior’s injuries sidelined him for an extended stretch, he pushed Bowman’s name forward to drive his No. 88 HMS machine. Bowman subsequently filled in for Jeff Gordon to secure his No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports seat. During a recent conversation with HOT ROD Pod, Bowman credited Dale Jr. for opening doors at Hendrick Motorsports, while acknowledging his good fortune.

His Cup Series tenure dates back to 2014, though his first campaign saw him piloting a No. 23 Toyota for BK Racing, a smaller outfit. The following season brought a shift to Tommy Baldwin Racing. Neither stint produced meaningful results, leaving Bowman searching for traction.

Reflecting on that watershed moment, Bowman recounted the sequence of events. “I qualified next to Dale at like Richmond, I think, and we were riding around the truck pre-race together, talking about I was trying to get in some good Xfinity cars at the end of that year and have some good races cuz running for small teams was definitely rough.”

“He had some openings at JRM the end of that year that I was able to get into. Kind of took off from there.” The stars aligned when Junior’s injury created an unexpected vacancy. “So obviously, crazy set of circumstances, with him getting hurt. I was driving the Sim for Hendrick at the time. Dale was a big supporter of mine and called me and kind of forced Hendrick to use me…”

“I feel like, because we all found out so late. But super fortunate to get to fill in for him and then share the car with some guy named Jeff Gordon for the rest of the year, which was wild to me. And somehow I’m still here.”

Bowman’s most recent Cup win came at the Chicago Street race in 2024, marking one and a half seasons since he last tasted victory. But across nine campaigns with HMS, he has missed the playoffs just once, in 2023, when a back injury sustained during a sprint car accident forced him to sit out three races.

Last season presented challenges as well. Though winless, the 32-year-old recovered a 13th-place finish in the final standings. His best performance last season came in Mexico, where he competed despite nursing injuries from a crash at Michigan International Speedway the previous weekend.

Racing at less than full strength in NASCAR’s inaugural Cup Series event in Mexico City, Bowman clawed from P29 on the grid to P4 at Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez, claiming his third top-five result of the year.

Gordon and the entire HMS operation maintain faith in Bowman’s abilities and ceiling. But only the upcoming season will bring answers to their confidence as Bowman adapts to the new Chevrolet body and higher horsepower.