One Lap of America Keeps Cannon Ball Baker’s Legacy Going Strong
Without Erwin George “Cannon Ball” Baker, it’s likely that nothing in the rest of this story would have ever happened. Baker, who passed away in 1960 at the age of 78, defied the odds by dying of a heart attack instead of crashing a motorcycle or a car while participating in one of the 130-odd […]
Without Erwin George “Cannon Ball” Baker, it’s likely that nothing in the rest of this story would have ever happened. Baker, who passed away in 1960 at the age of 78, defied the odds by dying of a heart attack instead of crashing a motorcycle or a car while participating in one of the 130-odd mad dashes he made from one side of America to the other, the first occurring in 1914 when he rode an Indian motorcycle coast-to-coast in 11 days. He backed that up a year later by driving a Stutz Bearcat cross-country, which also took 11 days.
Baker lived to set records, 143 of them, like the time he drove a Buick two-ton truck—loaded down with gallons of water from the Atlantic Ocean—to the Pacific Ocean in five days, 17 hours and 30 minutes. In 1933, he drove a Graham-Paige from New York City to Los Angeles in just over 53 hours, setting a record that stood for 31 years. The Indianapolis News once referred to him as, “Here-He-Comes-There-He-Goes Baker.”
1923: Erwin ‘Cannonball’ Baker is surrounded by fans during his transcontinental road trip from New York to Los Angeles. Baker completed the trip, driving an Oldsmobile Model 30A, in a record-breaking 12 1/2 days at that time.Hirz/Getty Images
Sponsors loved Cannon Ball Baker, which is how he signed his name; he even copyrighted it, and Cannon Ball is what his tombstone reads at Crown Hill Cemetery in Indianapolis, lot 150, section 60. A 1929 Mobil Oil ad featured four men who were stellar examples of making possible “achievement through quality:” Pioneer aviators Charles Lindbergh and the Wright brothers, and Cannon Ball Baker. He was that famous.
No wonder Cannon Ball became a genuine folk hero to automotive journalist Brock Yates, who wrote 15 books but is perhaps best known for his work at Car and Driver magazine, a relationship that spanned 42 years. After Yates and a C&D editor named Steve Smith (not me—I’d figure into this story later) envisioned a Baker-style, modern-day cross-country dash, it was fittingly dubbed “The Cannonball Baker Sea-to-Shining-Sea Memorial Trophy Dash,” or just Cannonball for short.
Brock YatesISC Archives/CQ-Roll Call Group
Ostensibly, it was in protest of the national 55-mph speed limit, enacted to help save gasoline during the current gas crisis, which, no question, Yates hated. But part of his motivation, some suspect, was to just see what would happen.
Yates and his son, Brock Jr., age 14, along with Smith and family friend Jim Williams, made the first crossing alone, as a test, leaving from the now-famous Red Ball Garage in Manhattan on May 3, 1971, headed to the racer-friendly Portofino Inn in Redondo Beach, California, a distance of about 2900 miles, depending on your route. They were driving a much-modified 1971 Dodge Tradesman van, nicknamed Moon Trash II.
They made it in 40 hours, 51 minutes, considerably faster than any of Cannon Ball Baker’s runs, but the quartet in the Dodge van had something Cannon Ball never did: The interstate highway system.
Frederic Lewis/Getty Images
Satisfied by his sample, Yates and crew quietly laid out plans for an all-out assault on the federally mandated speed laws and the cross-country record, along with seven other teams that wanted in on the action. The first official, competitive Cannonball Run left the Red Ball Garage on November 15, 1971. The winning car rolled into the Portofino parking lot 35 hours and 41 minutes later: It was racing legend Dan Gurney, accompanied by Yates, driving a borrowed Ferrari Daytona. Tongue in cheek, Gurney said that at “no time did we exceed 175 mph.”
Yates said there would be another Cannonball Run, and there was: In fact, there were four in all. The second one was held November 13, 1972; the third on April 23, 1975, and the last one on April 1, 1979.
One of the Cannonball entries was Hal Needam, a top Hollywood stuntman who wanted to produce and direct movies, and he and Yates partnered to make multiple films that drew loosely on their experience with super-legal interstate travel at maximum speeds. First came Smokey and the Bandit (1977), quickly followed by Smokey and the Bandit II in 1980, both starring Burt Reynolds, who, at the time, was allowing Needham to stay in his guest house.
Then, in 1981, they finally made the first Cannonball Run movie. Needham directed it and Yates wrote it, but if you mentioned that to Brock, you’d get an earful about how he envisioned it as a more serious effort, starring auto racing enthusiast Steve McQueen, who was interested. But the Bullitt star was diagnosed with cancer and died at age 50 in 1980.
“Then Reynolds got hold of it, and turned it around completely,” Yates said. He was a little embarrassed about how the Cannonball Run movie turned into a slapstick farce, but he cashed the check. Made on a budget of $18 million, the film made $72 million in its first year, big money back then, and has since grossed $160 million. Film critic Roger Ebert gave Cannonball Run one-half of a star out of a possible four, and the less said about the two Cannonball sequels, the better.
Still, the movies made the Cannonball Run internationally famous, and interest from autocentric fans who wanted to compete in an actual Cannonball Run was at fever pitch. Yates knew the time had passed for the true Cannonball, so he conceived—and thanks for waiting for me to get around to this—One Lap of America, theoretically a more sedate event that had competitors driving around the U.S. from racetrack to racetrack, with timed stages in-between that could be accomplished, Yates promised, at a legal 55 mph.
The first One Lap launched in 1984, an unorganized, fledgling effort that had competitors try to match exactly the mileage Yates himself laid down when he pre-drove the route. Not knowing exactly what roads Yates took, where he stopped for dinner, where he got lost, made it a guessing game. Some 76 teams were on the entry list in ’84, ranging from a Cadillac Cimarron, to a Porsche 930 Turbo, to an Itasca motor home, to a Hertz unlimited-mileage rental car, to a 1959 Rolls-Royce Silver Wraith.
Yates promised the 1985 event would be bigger, better, and at least more organized, as a time/speed/distance rally with point-to-point timed stages which you must complete no faster and no slower than your written instructions say: You’d be penalized one point for every second you were either early or late. These surprise timed stages were done en route to a variety of racetracks, where performance there would count toward the overall and class wins, too. Yates toured the country promoting the 1985 Uniroyal One Lap of America, visiting newspapers in the largest cities. That’s how I met Yates, and when I asked him if a seat might be available for the event, he said he’d see.
Not long after, Yates had added me to a team of several Chrysler factory entries. The bad news: I’d be on a three-man team driving a then-brand-new Dodge minivan. The good news: A fellow Chrysler teammate, driving a Chrysler LeBaron GTS, was Phil Hill, the 1961 Formula 1 champion, who also won the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the 12 Hours of Sebring, and the 24 Hours of Daytona. A kind, humble, extremely smart man, and one of my heroes; the day before we were to start the One Lap in downtown Detroit, Hill asked if I would drive him around to several stores. In my Dodge minivan. I’ve never made a more self-conscious trip.
My driving partners, whom I’d never met, were Ben Farnsworth, a commentator for the CBS Radio Network in New York City, and Bob Burns, a student who would go on to lead Land Rover and Range Rover’s off-road programs. Burns and I became lifelong friends; Farnsworth, not so much. You spend 10 sleep-deprived days hermetically sealed in a minivan with strangers, and you have no idea whether everybody will get along.
For 1985, the entries had swelled to a barely manageable 78, with a long list of alternates who wished they’d applied earlier. Notable was a 1985 Audi Quattro, with rally pros Ty Holmquist and Nicole Ouimet, and Car and Driver writer Jean Jennings, who was then Jean Lindamood.
Rocky Aoki, the founder of Benihana restaurants, was in a vintage Rolls that was equipped with a microwave, so he could prepare “the delicious new Benihana frozen meals” on the road. In a later One Lap, Rocky showed up in a Porsche 911 limousine.
Another Audi Quattro Turbo held rally champion John Buffum and experienced navigator Tom Grimshaw. Racer Anatoly Arutunoff, who can’t stand to miss anything and will be referenced later, was in a Mazda RX-7. Marshall Schuon, the New York Times automotive columnist, was in a Plymouth Voyager. Rally master Gene Henderson was in a turbocharged Subaru. Female race car drivers Patty Moise, Robin McCall, and Margie Smith-Haas shared a Chevrolet Suburban. And the bravest entry had to be brothers George and Timothy Fallar, in a 1984 Harley-Davidson TriHawk three-wheeler.
It was miserable and wonderful. Our route began in Detroit—a much-publicized launch that safety advocate Ralph Nader, a longtime nemesis of Yates, threatened to block by lining up wheelchair-bound individuals who had been seriously injured in car crashes, and Nader would tell everyone who listened that he essentially expected one of us to T-bone a school bus full of nuns. It’s important to report that no nuns were hurt during the running of any One Lap.
Neither Nader nor his wheelchaired constituents showed, and we were flagged off, one minute apart, by drag racer Shirley Muldowney. Who was, incidentally, in a wheelchair, recuperating from an accident in Montreal after she crashed into a wall at 245 mph. The car disintegrated, and Muldowney ended up in a field, still strapped in her seat, far from the initial crash impact. It was more than 18 months before she got back in her dragster.
The route took us to Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, then back south and west through Montana, where we were the last vehicle allowed through on a just-closed interstate, due to a blizzard. More than half the field didn’t beat the closure and were stuck for hours at a truck stop. It was no picnic on that road, either; I was driving at beyond-maximum speed, in a minivan, unable to see the pavement. I began hallucinating by the end of the storm. From there, west to Oregon, then south to the Portofino Inn in Redondo Beach, California.
That was the only stop on the schedule in the 9000-mile trip. The only night we’d spend in a bed was at the Portofino. The next morning, it was south and then east, through the Big Bend in far south Texas, to New Orleans and through Bourbon Street, then on to Jacksonville, Florida.
Somewhere between New Orleans and Jacksonville, we were able to stop at a cheap by-the-hour motel, which is about how long we were there—just enough time for three showers.
Then it was north for a midnight drive through Manhattan, to the Watkins Glen road course, then west through Ohio, where the One Lappers were greeted by at least a hundred state troopers, some of whom would follow our cars—at 55 mph, of course—all the way to the border. Then back north to the finish, at Detroit’s Renaissance Center. A bed awaited, but first there was the One Lap Official Banquet, at which more people snored than ate. The winner, to no one’s surprise, was the Buffum/Grimshaw Audi. We were stunned and delighted to have finished 17th. I drove in several One Laps after that one, but the 1985 grind was the most memorable, and generally considered the toughest of all.
Brock Yates died at age 82 on October 5, 2016. Well before that, the responsibility for One Lap fell to Brock Yates, Jr., part of that original one-van entry in May of 1971 that, along with his dad and two friends, made that original cross-country drive to test the Cannonball theory. Brock Jr. was, in fact, a bartender at the Portofino Inn, where I first met him 40 years ago.
Brock Yates Jr.Grassrootsmotorsports.com
Now formally called the Tire Rack One Lap of America, the 2025 edition began at the massive Tire Rack headquarters in South Bend, Indiana, on May 3 and concluded at Tire Rack on May 10. In between, One Lap visited eight venues, including Gateway Motorsports Park just east of St. Louis; Virginia International Raceway; Pittsburgh International Race Complex; the little-known Hedge Hollow road course in southwest Missouri, and the NCM Motorsports Park in Bowling Green, Kentucky, owned by the National Corvette Museum and located next to the Corvette assembly plant.
Of the 41 One Laps, Brock Jr. has been on 38 of them, first as a competitor, and then running the show, starting with the 2009 One Lap. Over the years, One Lap has dialed it down from the one-night-in-a-motel frantic dash it was in 1985 to a targeted maximum distance of about 3500 miles done over eight days, with an opportunity to get some sleep every evening.
Stephen Burke/Driftpoint Media
It’s a formula that works. This year, 83 cars were entered—85 is the maximum allowed—and the list included a bunch of Corvettes and Porsches, but also a 1963 American Motors Rambler Ambassador (there’s a Vintage class), and a 2017 Ford Focus (it competed in the Mid-Priced class). The entry fee per car is $4000, with lots of that going towards track rental—it’s much more expensive now than it used to be, Yates says—and administrative costs, including insurance. There’s also a charity aspect: Brock Sr. died after a 14-year battle with Alzheimer’s, and to date, One Lap has raised over $200,000 for the Alzheimer’s Association.
The experience level of the competitors varies dramatically—this year’s field included professional racers Randy Pobst and Ross Bentley—but the vast majority are amateurs. Brock Jr., a performance driving instructor himself, requires competitors to have completed at least two driving schools.
While many participants return year after year, there’s always a healthy batch of first-timers like Justin Schuh, 45, an experienced amateur racer from Loveland, Colorado, driving a 2019 Camaro ZL1 with the track-focused 1LE package, owned by his driving partner, Hsun Chen. The car is powered by a supercharged 6.2-liter V-8, pumping out 650 horsepower.
Stephen Burke/Driftpoint Media
Or at least it was supposed to. Chen had only owned the car for six weeks, and it wasn’t fully sorted. On the racetracks, Schuh noted that the Camaro ZL1 did fine on the corners, but it was slow on the straights. There was another Camaro ZL1 in the field, “and the driver of that car mentioned that he’d hit 161 mph on the straight at VIR, and we thought, ‘That’s 20 mph faster than us. Something is wrong with our car.’”
While Schuh drove to the next track, Chen began Googling all the potential problems. One likely culprit: The air-to-water intercooler. Indeed, “Half of the intercooler coolant had bled out of it through its six-year life of basically doing nothing, and we had about half the horsepower we should have had up until the last three events,” Schuh says. They discovered that it wasn’t a big deal: “Top it off and burp it, using a screwdriver, a funnel, bottled water, and duct tape. Near Beaver Run. Or Pittsburgh. Someplace. And suddenly we had the top speed that we were supposed to have had all week long. The car was transformed.” The closing event was the wet skid pad at Tire Rack, and Schuh won it.
Stephen Burke/Driftpoint Media
So what drew him to One Lap? “It had always been on my bucket list,” Schuh says. “I looked at the route, and I’d been to a couple of the tracks, and I asked my wife if it was OK for me to disappear for nine days. Maybe 10. And she said, ‘You’ve talked about this before—you’d be silly not to do it.’ So I did.”
But would he do it again? As is common with One Lap participants, right after the event was over, Schuh thought, “Never again. Not for me. It’s a pretty brutal event as far as sleep goes. But as I began talking to some friends, telling stories about it and all the good times we had—with the right car and the right co-driver, I think I’d do it again. You have stories to tell for a lifetime. It was a week-long race, whether the stopwatch is on you or not. It was fun. It really was.”
The event is unique, he says, as “You’d better be able to switch both you and the car from transit mode to track mode. I don’t think there’s a better test of street cars out there. You can spend all the money you want for something super racy, but you’d better be prepared to live with it for a week.”
Stephen Burke/Driftpoint Media
Another factor is that competitors are presented with a list of 200-treadwear tires available from Tire Rack: This year, there were 13 brands. Teams choose the tires they want, and you must run those four tires for the entire event. Schuh and Chen picked Continentals, which Schuh said are great in the rain, because past One Laps tended to be wet. This year was surprisingly dry, but the Continentals did their job on that wet skid pad event that Schuh won.
Grassrootsmotorsports.com
For Tom Suddard, the publisher of Grassroots Racing and Classic Motorsports magazines in Holly Hill, Florida, this was his fourth One Lap. While Grassroots is a presenting sponsor, Suddard uses the event to thoroughly test a car, and this year, it was a 2025 Hyundai Ioniq 5 N, entered in the Alternative Fuel class, with that fuel being, of course, electricity. The 5 N is the performance version of the Ioniq, and is capable of up to 641 horsepower.
But isn’t he taking a chance, with so much time spent hurrying from point to point, that they wouldn’t be able to find a charger when they needed one? No, Suddard says; he’s done this before, and “This is the first time, honestly, where every charger worked—we didn’t have any issues, didn’t have to go out of our way—and it really didn’t slow us down. We were getting to the hotels about the same time as the gas cars.”
Stephen Burke/Driftpoint Media
Performance, he says, was “Pretty stunning. It’s still a 5000-pound SUV, and the laws of physics still apply, but it was super durable. We could run it as hard as we wanted on track without worrying about the charge. It didn’t slow down as the battery reserve was used up; in fact, we ran one of our best laps at VIR with the car at the lowest charge level of the whole trip.”
Suddard keeps coming back, he says, “Because I really enjoy the challenge. I love the challenge of learning a course that nobody’s ever seen before, having to do it quickly, then having to race on it right away. That’s what really draws me to it, and the fact that it’s a week long, and so many transit miles, the physical and mental aspect of performing not just one day, but for a week straight.”
And then there’s the people. “You see some of the same people over and over again, every time, and it’s like a big family that comes together for the event. People you haven’t talked to in a year, you’re right back at the dinner table with them, telling stories, having a blast.”
Grassrootsmotorsports.com
This is a good place to mention the overall winners of the 2025 Tire Rack One Lap of America Presented by Grassroots Motorsports: It was team number 2, Salil Shukla and Christopher Mayfield, driving a white 2024 Porsche Cayman. Certainly not the most powerful entry in the field, but obviously a versatile and well-driven car. Worth noting is that an electric car, a 2021 Tesla Model S, finished second overall.
Grassrootsmotorsports.com
The car count, vehicular variety, and camaraderie are music to the ears of Brock Yates, Jr. He’s already working on the route for the 2026 edition of One Lap of America—it’s different every year. For the event itself: “Basically, I’m the nanny,” Yates says. Herding 83 cars from place to place, making sure they all get the track time they were promised, supervising the track workers, who are typically different from one track to the next; yeah, it’s work. “But I’m still having fun,” he says.
Yates Jr.Stephen Burke/Driftpoint Media
Yates says one of the hardest parts of the job is booking racetrack time. Not that long ago, “Racetracks were sallow for most of the year,” he says, and they were eager to book One Lap. Now, most of the good ones are busy—“If I don’t get all my requests for track time in by August for the next year, I’m out of luck.” Part of that, he believes, is due to One Lap’s tradition of introducing new drivers to racetracks, driving their street cars—track days, they call it now.
Arguably, he says, it began in 1989, when One Lap descended on the Hallett Motor Racing Circuit in Oklahoma. Then, the Sports Car Club of America sanctioned One Lap, and their rules were a little too restrictive for Brock Sr., and Hallett’s owner, the aforementioned racer and One Lap veteran Anatoly Arutunoff, so rather than run a slalom course on the front straight, they basically turned the cars loose on the track, one at a time like always, and you could go as fast as you were able. “We learned that street cars could actually run on racetracks and not spontaneously combust. Out of that came TrackTime, Car Guys, and a bunch of other racing schools. After we ran Hallett, it opened up a whole new industry,” Yates says.
Stephen Burke/Driftpoint Media
Every year, Yates says, the quality of cars entered increases, but he worries about the amount of horsepower presently available to inexperienced drivers. Those cars often have manual transmissions, but few of the new drivers, he says, can heel-and-toe, which is where the driver brakes with their right toes while flipping the throttle with their right heel, enabling the engine’s rpms to match the lower gear on the downshift. Yates Jr., as a kid, used to marvel at his father’s ability to heel-and-toe, “and I taught myself to do it by practicing for hours on a Morris Minor that didn’t run. I was learning smoothness, and gentle downshifts.”
Now, he says, “People show up at racetracks with, say, a Mustang Shelby GT350 and tell me, ‘Teach me how to drive this stupid thing.’ Without a clue, without a background, without reading any books on driving. That’s what I’m contending with. We’ve always had the two-driving-schools minimum, but most of them can’t heel-and-toe—they’d rather use those little paddley things behind the steering wheel. They’re not prepared when they overstep the machine’s limits.”
“I’m not touting the fact that I’m a great driver, because I’m certainly not. Middling, at best. But I’ve been able to save myself and get out of some really stupid situations.” With so many new performance cars, Yates says, “You are removed from the driver’s seat. You are insulated. Desensitized.” Sometimes when Junior talks, I hear Brock Senior.
“I worry for the sport, I guess. I’m an old fart, and I admit it. But there’s a lot to be said for old school. For analog. That’s my rant for the week.”
If worrying keeps Junior motivated to run successful One Laps year after year, we’re all for it—bringing out the Pobsts and the Bentleys of the racing world and attracting weekend hotshoes like Schuh will help keep motorsports—and Cannon Ball Baker’s legacy—alive. Farts of any age with interest in the 2026 One Lap of America are welcome to keep an eye on the official website, and Facebook, for information about the 42nd One Lap of America. If you’d like to compete, sign up early: There’s typically a long waiting list.
Project Motor Racing Launches November 25, Career Mode & Mods Revealed – GTPlanet
We now have an official release date for Project Motor Racing, as well as a first look at the plans for the game’s career mode and mods. After announcing earlier in the year that the title would be coming to PC and ninth-gen consoles — that’s the PlayStation 5/Pro and Xbox Series S/X — in […]
We now have an official release date for Project Motor Racing, as well as a first look at the plans for the game’s career mode and mods.
After announcing earlier in the year that the title would be coming to PC and ninth-gen consoles — that’s the PlayStation 5/Pro and Xbox Series S/X — in the autumn, publisher GIANTS Software has now revealed the precise date: November 25.
It’s interesting timing as it comes three days before Black Friday, the busiest shopping day of the year and a period in which lots of games consoles find new homes, and a month before Christmas Day when those consoles are taken out from under the tree and unwrapped.
However the title should be available to preorder from today in the PlayStation Store, Xbox Store, and Steam, along with boxed versions on all three platforms — yes, even PC — from other retailers.
In addition to the launch-date announcement, GIANTS and Straight4 have also revealed some more about two key aspects of PMR: the single-player career and mod support.
Project Motor Racing: Career Mode
Although we only get a glimpse of the finer details in terms of cars, tracks, and events, the career mode trailer reveals the bigger picture — and the goal seems to be making PMR as much like a career in racing as possible.
Described as “an authentic motorsports economy”, the career will see you pick a place in the motorsports ladder and keeping an eye as much on your bank balance as the race track.
There’s no cars, tracks, or events to unlock, with everything available from the start, and it’s simply a case of entering what races you can afford to do. That’s based on your initial “financial backstory”, named Journeyman Driver, Professional Level, and Global Operation in the build in the video, but also influenced by whether you want your base of operations to be in Asia, Europe, or North America.
Where you choose to base yourself affects the prices of cars and entry fees to events, as well as the travel costs involved. Sponsorship helps out there, with eight different sponsorship models that range from a “Rolling Billboard” that offers a flat fee for each event, while others may fund costs like travel and repairs, and some set goals for your payments.
And yes, repairs will be one of your expenses, so you’ll need to watch out for overly optimistic moves — and we hope the AI is up to scratch too! It’s not clear right now what happens when you run out of money, but we can’t imagine it’s anything good.
Project Motor Racing: Mod Support
The game is set to launch with more than 70 cars in a range of ten different racing categories and 27 scanned track locations from around the world. We’ve already had confirmation of five tracks, and the trailer above adds Circuit Zolder and “Northampton” — which looks to be Silverstone with a more generic, and hopefully placeholder branding.
That might not be enough for some, even with potential for more cars post-launch, so Project Motor Racing will support user-generated game mods across all three platforms.
Modding can be something of a Wild West affair, and with highly variable quality, but PMR hooks into GIANTS’ expertise with the Farming Simulator series — where the ModHub has seen 4.5 billion cumulative downloads over the past decade.
Prospective mods are therefore created with the official GIANTS Editor and submitted for testing by the developers themselves before they’re listed in (what we assume to be) the PMR ModHub for free public download. Those with experience of creating mods for the farming titles will also be aware that GIANTS also pays modders a small amount per download — which can be gifted to charity if you wish — so it’s likely that Project Motor Racing will follow suit.
As for what can be modded, it looks like everything is on the table, from cars to tracks and even down to fundamentals of how the game operates. Boris Stefan, CSO and head of publishing at GIANTS Software states in the press release that “racing modders will be able to tweak, tune, and transform their experience however they like.”
If you fancy an early hands-on with Project Motor Racing and happen to be in the UK, there’ll be a playable version for visitors to the Goodwood Festival of Speed from July 10 to July 11.
NASCAR set for summer stretch March Madness style. Will new tournament end summer schedule malaise? – WFTV
LONG POND, Pa. — (AP) — It’s time to bust out the brackets, pick an upset or two, and follow winners on the road — a journey over city streets, concrete and bricks — to the final four and beyond. Totally awesome, baby? Forget all the upset specials in March. NASCAR will find out soon […]
LONG POND, Pa. — (AP) — It’s time to bust out the brackets, pick an upset or two, and follow winners on the road — a journey over city streets, concrete and bricks — to the final four and beyond.
Totally awesome, baby?
Forget all the upset specials in March.
NASCAR will find out soon enough if its attempt to snap out of a mid-summer malaise with its first in-season tournament is a success with drivers and fans as it strives to boost engagement and build buzz in the staid regular season.
The concept has already juiced enthusiasm in NASCAR to levels not seen since the halcyon days when Donnie Allison and Cale Yarborough duked it out in the 1979 Daytona 500.
“To be really honest with you,” 2020 NASCAR champion Chase Elliott said, “I have not paid any attention to it.”
Maybe a look at the matchup will get NASCAR’s most popular driver pumped!
Elliott is seeded fifth against No. 28 seed Austin Dillon in the first round of the head-to-head showdown in the race-within-the-race set for this weekend at the track better known as Atlanta Motor Speedway.
Here’s a refresher for Elliott and any other sports fan who missed out on the specifics of NASCAR joining the in-season tournament party, much like attempts in the NBA, NHL, and, of course, throughout the world in soccer.
NASCAR is set to start the engines on a five-race, bracket-style tournament called the In-Season Challenge in the midst of the summer slate, which comes with a $1 million prize to the winner.
The final 32-driver field was set by results of the last three races at Michigan, Mexico City and Pocono. The drivers are paired in head-to-head matchups based on seeding, with the winners advancing to the next round in a bracket format that mirrors the NCAA basketball tournaments.
Buoyed by a win at Michigan and a runner-up finish at Pocono, Denny Hamlin earned the top seed. He’ll square off — race off? — against No. 32 seed Ty Dillon. Pocono winner Chase Briscoe is the No. 2 seed and is pitted against No. 31 seed Noah Gragson.
Chris Buescher is third, Christopher Bell fourth and Elliott fifth, among notable names.
The format is single elimination with the field cut to 16 at the street race in Chicago, eight at Sonoma, four on the lone concrete track in the series at Dover and the final two over the yard of bricks at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
The Challenge is part of NASCAR’s media rights deal that includes TNT, and the Atlanta-based cable network will broadcast all five races in the tournament, starting with the 400-miler in Atlanta.
Aside from a shrug from Elliott and a few others, drivers are intrigued by the idea of increasing the stakes in each race beyond a playoff berth, trophy and the winner’s purse.
“I love it. I think it’s great,” three-time Cup champion Joey Logano said. “I think it’s placed perfectly where it is in the season. This is kind of that moment where the newness is worn off. We’re into the rhythm, we’re racing every week. It’s starting to start a little bit of, who’s going to be in the playoffs, who’s not, the cutoff line all those types of things. But it’s not really the main story quite yet.”
Stories are what sell, of course, and the sizzle in Pocono over the weekend had little to do with which drivers or teams are the ones to beat for the 2025 championship. Rather, it was whether two pedestrian drivers were going to fight, the end of Amazon Prime’s run of wildly-popular telecasts and Hall of Fame driver Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s win in his first race as a crew chief.
“This really spices up the mid-part of the season,” Logano said.
So does placing a few bucks on No. 11 to win.
But as of Monday afternoon, most sports gambling sites did not offer odds on specific matchups headed into Atlanta. NASCAR is offering $1 million to a winning fan with a perfect bracket in its fantasy game.
There are some quirks to the bracket: Shane van Gisbergen won the Cup race in Mexico City and is not in the field while series points leader William Byron is only a No. 9 seed. The tournament boasts matchups in the first-round of past Cup champions (Kyle Busch-Brad Keselowski), former teammates (Briscoe-Gragson), and even best friends (Bubba Wallace-Daniel Suarez).
The idea for the challenge was largely championed by Hamlin, a three-time Daytona 500 champion who floated the idea of a mid-season tournament on his “Actions Detrimental” podcast. When NASCAR bought into the idea and announced the creation of the tournament last year, Hamlin called the tournament on social media “such a win for our sport and drivers.” He jokingly added, “I will collect my 1M royalty next season.”
Hamlin’s on deck and clearly a favorite to win it all, with three wins this year for Joe Gibbs Racing and the top seed.
(And let’s not haggle over who gets credit in court.)
“I’m a sports guy, so I’m going to be engaged with it,” Hamlin said. “I’ll know who I will have to beat next week. I’ve told the team, we are going to try and do what we can. We are going to be up against it because we are going to tracks that aren’t very favorable to me. But we are going to try to do our best to beat that one car for the next four to five weeks.”
NASCAR will present the tournament winner at Indianapolis with a ring, jackets, trophy and — oh yeah, a million bucks.
That’s enough cash to get anyone’s attention — even Elliott’s.
“I don’t know what you get. You get anything,” Elliott asked.
“Oh, a million dollars to the winner? Then yeah, we want to win.”
___
AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing
Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
MOTORSPORTS: Successful Autograph Night at Oswego Speedway | Sports
Autograph Night delivered in a big way at Oswego Speedway. While the racing was superb, the draw of Autograph Night turned into rousing support for Mike Bruce. Bruce was involved in a harrowing crash — his throttle stuck and he hammered the wall during a practice session. During intermission, the track welcomed drivers to help […]
Autograph Night delivered in a big way at Oswego Speedway.
While the racing was superb, the draw of Autograph Night turned into rousing support for Mike Bruce.
Bruce was involved in a harrowing crash — his throttle stuck and he hammered the wall during a practice session.
During intermission, the track welcomed drivers to help “pass the helmet,” raising funds to help aid Bruce’s recovery. After the crash, Oswego Speedway reported Bruce suffered fractures to his L1 and T12 vertebrae. After a short hospital stay in Syracuse, he was fitted for a back brace and has been under the watchful eye of a neurosurgery team, as well. He was at the track Saturday night and was comfortable and in good spirits.
Logan Rayvals won the 50-lap Supermodified feature over Camden Proud and Dave Shullick Jr. The win paid $2,000. Dave Danzer raced to third ahead of a very fast Tyler Thompson.
Rayvals led wire to wire in the feature, taking his first career Supermodified win.
Dave Cliff won the 350-Supers feature, collecting $2,000 in his 30-laps of work. Kyle Perry was chasing at the line, with Jim Storace, Talen Hawksby and Dawson Hawksby in the top five. Brad Haynes topped Greg O’Connor in the 30-lap Small Block Supers feature; Noah Ratcliff, DJ Shuman and Matt Magner filled the top five.
Looking ahead, Oswego and Team Abold Racing will team next month for the third Kids’ Bicycle Giveaway Promotion, slated for July 19.
This will again be on the front straight, held during Oswego’s next driver autograph night. Children aged under 16 years will be given a free ticket at the front gate for a chance at a bicycle of their choice. Last summer, Abold Racing gave away nearly 70 bicycles, along with helmets and other prizes.
Donations of new bicycles or helmets are welcome and can be dropped off or sent to A&P Automotive in Oswego, or to the Oswego Speedway Office.
Visit OswegoSpeedway.com for more details.
TOURING SERIES
Jordan Poirier won the Empire Super Sprints stop at Brockville Ontario Speedway Saturday. Jason Barney was second ahead of Paulie Colagiovanni, Logan Crisafulli and Davie Franek. The series raced at Cornwall Motor Speedway on Sunday night. This weekend, the Empire Super Sprints (EmpireSuperSprints.com) will be part of a co-headliner at Can-Am Speedway’s Pabst Shootout. Friday’s card will also feature the DIRTcar 358-Modifieds, and DIRTcar Sportsman divisions.
Zach Sobotka went from no 305 wins to back to back victories in CRSA Sprints action, winning Saturday at Fulton Speedway. He held off Bobby Parrow for the win, with Spencer Burley, Johnny Smith and Scott Landers in tow. Sobotka started 11th and picked up the win over Parrow, who started on the pole. Visit www.CRSASprints.com for more.
Weather cancelled the Super DIRTcar Series’ Mr. DIRT Track USA event at Lebanon Valley Speedway. The series will return to The Valley on Aug. 28; tickets and wristbands from the 2024 edition of the race that was rained out after hot laps will be honored.
The Super DIRTcar Series will host a double-header next weekend, June 29-30. First, the tour will visit Cornwall Motor Speedway for the O’Canada 100. Then, on June 30, the Series heads to Mohawk International Raceway for the Summer Shootout 75. Alex Yankowski will head to Cornwall with a 24-point lead over Mat Williamson, who won the last time the Series raced at Mohawk (2019). Matt Sheppard has won the last three SDS races at Cornwall. Next month, the Super DIRTcar Series will visit Land of Legends Raceway on July 3, and then Weedsport Speedway on July 26. For more, visit www.SuperDIRTcarSeries.com.
AREA RESULTS
SATURDAY
At Fulton Speedway, Corey Barker took the 35-lap feature over Ronnie Davis III and Alan Fink. Lance Willix and Billy Dunn raced to fourth and fifth. Wade Christman tallied the B-Main win and took 20th in the feature. Emmett Waldron charged from 12th to win the DIRTcar Sportsman feature. Jimmy Moyer was chasing after 25 laps, taking second ahead of Clayton Brewer III, David Moyer and Mike Fowler. Josh Livingston took the B-main and turned that into 13th in the main feature. Andrew Eaton was victorious in the Novice Sportsman 15-lap feature. Brennan Fitzgibbons won the 15-lap Hobby Stock feature over Nate Peckham and John Pietrowicz.
Daniel Morgiewicz Jr. earned his first Thunder Mountain Speedway win on a night paying tribute to longtime racer Doug Worthington. The emotional win came in the 35-lap memorial feature, with Morgiewicz Jr. starting third before holding off Cody Higbie and PJ Goodwin for the win. Jimmy Zacharias won the 30-lap DIRTcar 358-Modified feature over Darren Smith and Doug Smith Jr. Matt Brewer took the 25-lap DIRTcar Sportsman feature. Jerry Lobdell (Factory Stock), Sam Hubbard(600cc Modified) and Zach Bobbett (600cc Sprint) earned class wins.
Land of Legends Raceway was off with respect to Canandaigua Academy’s Commencement Ceremonies. Racing returns Saturday with the Mid-Season Championships. All classes are on the card, with the Modifieds serving as the headline attraction. Grandstands open at 5 pm, hot laps follow at 5:30 and Racing is scheduled for 6:30 pm. Adult admission is $15. Visit LandofLegendsRaceway.com for more details.
FRIDAY
An epic night of racing at Outlaw Speedway was capped by Danny Kerrick. Kerrick won the 40-lap Freedom 40 Hobby Stock special event.
Kerrick collected $2,200 to win the 40-lap race, featuring a strong field of 21 entries. Dundee native Jered Hill struck early, leading the first 19 circuits. Two caution periods through the halfway mark allowed Kerrick to move to second, passing cars by the handful. Passing Hill on Lap 20, Kerrick withstood two more caution periods in the second half of the feature, and motored to the victory. Marc Minutolo was second ahead of Frank Burnell Jr., Mike Stone and Nate Peckham.
Alex Payne won the 30-lap Modified feature in convincing fashion. Mike Maresca was second ahead of Ron Cartwright Jr. Kreg Crooker was fourth with Bobby Varin taking fifth. Blake Parsons won the Sportsman feature, scoring the victory over Dale Welty and Chris Fisher after 25-laps of work. George Schweigart was fourth with Donnie Lawson charging to fifth. Jimmy Grant won the 15-lap Street Stock feature, his second of the year. Shane Wolf was next, with Glenn Whritenour, CJ Guererri and Gene Sharpsteen following. Teddy Moreseman won the four-cylinder feature over Austyn Diaz and Mike Stone. Justin LaDue won the 20-lap Hustle the Highway 600cc Modified feature over Anthony Desimone and Ali Scutt.
At Brewerton, Tim Sears Jr. became the fifth different winner in the Modified ranks at Brewerton, taking Friday’s 35-lap win over Logan Watt and Zachary Payne. Chris Hulsizer was fourth and Chris Mackey took fifth. Watt and Kyle Devendorf were the big storylines behind the fifth different winner. Watt towed from Boyertown, PA; he had never raced at Brewerton before. He started 15th and finished second. Devendorf was on point for 18 circuits of the modified feature; he started outside the front row and had built a two-second lead on the field before a caution period brought the field to his bumper. Sears and Devendorf dueled for the lead for a stint; additional restarts shuffled Devendorf out of contention. He eventually finished 15th. Jimmy Phelps won the B-main, and raced to 10th in the feature.
Tony Finch III won the DIRTcar Sportsman feature. Joe Trichilo was second after starting second in the 25-lap feature. Earl Rudy, Trevor Catalano and Brett Sears filled the top five. Jack Meeks won the B-Main. Joe Isabell won the Mod Lite feature; Mike Mullen was second in the 20-lap feature ahead of Anthony Scott, Thomas Mackey and Roger Olschewske. Nathan Powers won the 15-lap Four-Cylinder Super Stock feature and Belle Hogan won the 15-lap Novice Sportsman feature. Land of Legends Future star Kyle Ridley was fourth.
Can-Am Speedway hosted a fan appreciation night. Billy Dunn won from 10th in the 25-lap DIRTcar 358-Modified feature, a tuneup for the popular Pabst Shootout event scheduled for this week. Remington Hamm was next, followed by Ryan Bartlett, Lance Willix and Tim Fuller. Taylor Doxtater took the 20-lap DIRTcar Sportsman feature over Richard Murtaugh; Eric Neir was third in the 20-lap main. Gavin Eisele and Jessica Power filled the top five. Bruno Richard scored the 602 Crate Sprint Car feature over Ken Klinkowski and Tucker Donath. Corey Valade won the Thundercar feature. Mason Rogers, a kart racer who just recently turned 11 years old, won the Limited Sportsman feature and became the youngest winner in Can-Am Speedway history.
At Utica-Rome Speedway, Matt Sheppard triumphed in the Modified feature. Sheppard held off Brandon Walters and Rocky Warner for the win. Matt Janczuk and Willy Decker filled the top five. David Hackett delivered a popular win in the Sportsman division, taking the checkers ahead of Payton Talbot and Carson Rothwell. Mike Richmond, Tyler Peet and Josh Amodio followed at the stripe. Brett Belden picked up a win in the Pro Stock feature, topping Slater Baker and Devon Camenga. Sullivan Dickey (Limited Sportsman), Stephen Burka (Four-Cylinder, SOHC), Joseph Bouch (Four-Cylinder, DOHC) and Brett Putman (All Star Slingshot) earned class wins. Preston Trautschold swept the Junior Slingshot features, winning the make-up from May 2 and the regularly scheduled main.
Pocono on Prime delivers Chase Briscoe and Dale Jr’s warm body
The flurry of driver movement late last season was flurrier than usual, due largely to the shuttered windows at Stewart-Haas Racing. SHR’s closeout sale included four drivers with varying amounts of experience and street cred. Noah Gragson ended up at Front Row Motorsports, Ryan Preece at RFK and Josh Berry with the Wood Brothers/Team Penske. […]
The flurry of driver movement late last season was flurrier than usual, due largely to the shuttered windows at Stewart-Haas Racing.
SHR’s closeout sale included four drivers with varying amounts of experience and street cred. Noah Gragson ended up at Front Row Motorsports, Ryan Preece at RFK and Josh Berry with the Wood Brothers/Team Penske.
It was Chase Briscoe who got the most coveted seat — the No. 19 Toyota bequeathed by the retiring Martin Truex Jr. You know the story: With great opportunity comes great pressure.
“Such a big weight off my shoulders,” Briscoe said Sunday after collecting his third career checkered flag and his first as an employee of Joe Gibbs Racing. It also ends a shockingly long winless streak (68 races) for the No. 19 team.
Briscoe is the 11th different winner through 17 races and has now clinched his spot in the 16-team playoffs. Nine regular-season races remain.
Let’s review: 11, 17, 16, 9. We’re throwing around some numbers. Why? Explanation to follow as we go through the gears and speed along toward a place so new, it’s not yet on our GPS.
First Gear: Can we finally fill the NASCAR playoffs with winners?
You probably know the playoff deal. Win a regular-season race and you’re in, provided you’re a full-time driver who hasn’t had any unexcused absences during the season (Denny Hamlin got a “hall pass” two weeks ago due to the birth of his third child).
Assuming there are fewer than 16 winners, the playoff field is filled by turning to the points standings. And that’s what has always happened since the 16-team format began in 2014. They came close to filling the playoffs with winners two years ago when 15 different guys won.
And I’m here to tell you there’s a chance they’ll get to 16 winners this year. And while that chance might be as slim as Carson Hocevar, it’s not remotely out of the realm of possibility. Why?
Of the nine remaining regular-season races, five are wildcards — three road courses (Chicago, Sonoma, Watkins Glen) and two plate races (Atlanta, Daytona).
Like Shane van Gisbergen in Mexico City, AJ Allmendinger and Michael McDowell will get legitimate shots at the road races. Frankly, given McDowell’s plate-race history, Daytona and Atlanta are also possible for him — and everyone else, more or less.
Mix in a surprise or two at one of the four “regular” races — say, Ty Gibbs or Carson Hocevar — and 16 becomes workable. Don’t be shocked if a 12th winner emerges Saturday night at … at … at … what’s it called again?
Second Gear: Atlanta Motor Speedway erased from the map
That’s right, the Motor Speedway formerly known as Atlanta now answers to EchoPark.
As we connect the dots, an historic connection will emerge and you’ll realize that the more things change, the more they remain the same — except this time they want to sell you a car instead of a cordless drill.
EchoPark Automotive is a chain of used-car dealerships. Oops: “A U.S.-based retailer of nearly-new pre-owned vehicles.”
It’s a subsidiary of Sonic Automotive. Sounding familiar yet?
Sonic was founded by the late Bruton Smith and now overseen by his son, David. Yep, the same Smith family that owns and operates several big-league speedways, including Atlanta.
They brought the naming rights game to NASCAR in 1999 when they rebranded their mothership as Lowe’s Motor Speedway — 10 years later, the Charlotte label returned.
Third Gear: Dale Earnhardt Jr. puts a warm body on the box
Kyle Busch is still out there in the wilderness, hoping to uncover a combination that’ll make his RCR Chevy faster. He hasn’t lost his ability to stir the pot, however.
Quick background: Dale Earnhardt Jr. filled in as crew chief for Connor Zilisch this past Saturday at Pocono, and wouldn’t you know it, Zilisch won the race. The usual crew chief was suspended due to a violation found in post-race tech at the previous race.
With modern technology, a crew chief can probably do his chiefing from the couch back home, which Kyle pointed out over the weekend. Just a cool way to garner some publicity, he said. Nothing but a “warm body” up there on the pit box.
Sometimes, it doesn’t hurt to refrain from stating the obvious. The older, wiser Kyle knows that, which probably explains his next day’s apology of sorts. He suggested he was just pointing out the absurdity of suspending a crew chief when you know he’ll still be very involved through the marvels of modern telecommunication.
Either way, in the stat book, Junior is now 1-0 as a crew chief and Connor Z has his first NASCAR win on something without right-hand turns.
Fourth Gear: Amazon forwards NASCAR TV coverage from Prime Video to TNT
Tell your grandparents they’re back in business. Amazon Prime’s five-week run as the home of Cup Series racing has come and gone, and not a moment too soon for those who either …
A. Would rather tackle a Rubik’s Cube than try finding a streaming outlet on a TV that’s a little too smart for their liking.
B. Refuse to spend more money to watch TV since the cable company is already charging them over $200 a month for air.
C. Wouldn’t take advantage of the free month of Prime, even though it would’ve meant they could watch all five races, because they’re convinced they’d be unable to cancel in 30 days. I see you out there nodding in agreement.
Much to their relief, the next five races are on TNT, where they used to go to watch rasslin’. And they’ll get a feel for what they missed on Prime, since the main booth will still be manned by Adam Alexander, Steve Letarte and Junior Earnhardt’s warm body.
NASCAR‘s Countersuit Against 23XI, Front Row Motorsports Advances
U.S. District Judge Kenneth D. Bell on Monday denied a motion to dismiss NASCAR’s antitrust counterclaim against Front Row Motorsports, 23XI Racing and 23XI co-owner Curtis Polk, a group NASCAR says has engineered an “illegal cartel.” The legal battle between these parties has become a familiar topic in sports law. Last year, 23XI and Front Row […]
U.S. District Judge Kenneth D. Bell on Monday denied a motion to dismiss NASCAR’s antitrust counterclaim against Front Row Motorsports, 23XI Racing and 23XI co-owner Curtis Polk, a group NASCAR says has engineered an “illegal cartel.”
The legal battle between these parties has become a familiar topic in sports law.
Last year, 23XI and Front Row sued NASCAR and its CEO, James France, claiming they’ve unlawfully monopolized premier stock car racing and used charters, which guarantee teams a starting position in NASCAR-sanctioned races but restrict their opportunities to compete in other circuits, to further their alleged conspiracy. In March, NASCAR countersued, asserting 23XI Racing and Front Row have conspired to use threatened group boycotts and other harmful measures to “threaten, coerce and extort NASCAR” into acquiescing.
NASCAR’s counterclaim included Polk, who owns 23XI with Michael Jordan and Denny Hamlin, as a defendant. Polk is depicted as largely responsible for the alleged conspiracy. Polk has been an advisor and confidant to Jordan since the 1990s and served as vice chairman of Charlotte Hornets Sports & Entertainment when Jordan was the team’s majority owner.
Front Row, 23XI and Polk maintain that NASCAR’s counter lawsuit is meritless and a “retaliatory” filing designed to intimidate them and other race teams. A counterclaim raises the possibility that not only could Front Row and 23XI come up short in proving NASCAR violated antitrust law, but they could be found to have violated antitrust law themselves and thus owe NASCAR damages.
Bell, whose granting of a preliminary injunction in favor of Front Row and 23XI was recently vacated by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, concluded that NASCAR’s counterclaim is sufficient to proceed.
Bell determined that NASCAR offers a relevant market for antitrust analysis, namely the market of entry of cars into NASCAR Cup Series races. NASCAR, Bell added, also plausibly alleges teams racing in the Cup Series “collectively have power in the market,” and the alleged use by Polk, 23XI and Front Row of boycotts and demands for more money could cause NASCAR harm in the market. In other words, Bell found NASCAR to have adequately stated a claim.
But Bell emphasized NASCAR has satisfied a “low bar” for proceeding past a motion to dismiss. Further, he noted that Front Row and 23XI “have several responses” to NASCAR’s allegations. The judge went so far as to suggest those responses might prove persuasive later in the litigation.
Even so, a win is a win for NASCAR at this early stage of the counterclaim litigation. The advancement of NASCAR’s claims could open new terrain for pretrial discovery.
In a statement shared with media, 23XI and Front Row attorney Jeffrey Kessler said he and his colleagues are “disappointed” Bell did not dismiss what Kessler blasts as “NASCAR’s meritless, retaliatory counterclaim.” Kessler added that while Bell didn’t side for his clients, the judge’s “recognition of many of our arguments, including the efficiency and necessity of joint negotiations and lack of credible evidence, reinforces our confidence that we will prevail in summary judgment.”
Porsche pair seizes IMSA points lead after gritty fourth at Watkins Glen
Photo credit: Porsche Porsche Penske Motorsport endured a mixed Six Hours of Watkins Glen, salvaging fourth place with the No. 6 Porsche 963 while the sister No. 7 entry crashed out. The result was enough to move Matt Campbell and Mathieu Jaminet to the top of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship standings, leap-frogging team-mates Felipe […]
Porsche Penske Motorsport endured a mixed Six Hours of Watkins Glen, salvaging fourth place with the No. 6 Porsche 963 while the sister No. 7 entry crashed out. The result was enough to move Matt Campbell and Mathieu Jaminet to the top of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship standings, leap-frogging team-mates Felipe Nasr and Nick Tandy despite the latter’s retirement.
Rain at the start played to Porsche’s strengths, allowing Nasr to charge from 10th to the lead within five laps. Once the track dried and temperatures climbed to 90°F, however, the 963s slipped back behind Cadillac and BMW rivals. Campbell and Jaminet held steady to secure fourth, but with 80 minutes remaining Tandy lost control in Turn 1 and hit the barriers at 25 g. The Briton walked away unhurt, though the No. 7’s title lead evaporated.
Customer squads also struggled. JDC-Miller’s No. 85 Porsche 963 took eighth on the road but a pit-lane infraction dropped it to 10th, and Proton Competition’s car retired after a multi-class tangle. In GTD Pro, AO Racing’s fan-favorite “Rexy” 911 GT3 R reached the class lead during the early wet stint but finished sixth after late contact and refuelling woes. Wright Motorsports’ GTD entry came home 13th.
Despite the setbacks, Porsche retains first place in the GTP team and manufacturer tables. The top prototype class is idle until Road America on August 3; LMP2 and the GT fields race next at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park on July 13.
