INDYCAR

The INDY NXT by Firestone season resumes this weekend at Barber Motorsports Park, with a 35-lap Grand Prix of Alabama scheduled for 11:30 a.m. ET Sunday, May 4. The event will be broadcast on FS1 with audio coverage available on SiriusXM channel 218 and the INDYCAR Radio Network.

The season began March 2 with an impressive performance by Andretti Global rookies Dennis Hauger and Lochie Hughes, who qualified and finished 1-2 in the season opener on the streets of St. Petersburg. Hauger has since demonstrated his versatility by topping the charts at the Nashville Superspeedway oval test April 1 and the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course test April 22.

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The duo enters the 17-turn, 2.3-mile Alabama road course as the drivers to beat.

However, there are plenty of capable rivals among the 20-driver field ready to challenge the Andretti Global rookies’ pursuit of victory lane Sunday.

Headlining that list could be sophomore teammate Salvador de Alba.

After transferring from Andretti Cape INDY NXT to Andretti Global after last season, de Alba aims to build on a strong fifth-place finish at St. Petersburg. His goal is to improve on road courses this season, and Barber could be the perfect venue to showcase his progress.

A sleeper is ABEL Motorsports driver Jordan Missig. He impressed with a sixth-place finish in St. Petersburg and was eighth fastest in the Nashville oval test.

Here are two other things to watch for this weekend’s second race of the 2025 season.

Can Sophomores Keep Andretti Global Rookies Honest?

Andretti Global is still searching for its first Barber Motorsports Park victory in the INDYCAR development series since 2019. Barber’s technical layout could reward experience over raw pace, which could help someone besides Hauger or Hughes enter victory lane.

The track has a history of veterans winning.

David Malukas won one of the doubleheader races in 2021 for HMD Motorsports. Linus Lundqvist won the single race in 2022 while Christian Rasmussen was victorious for the team a year later. Jacob Abel drove his No. 51 ABEL Motorsports entry to Victory Lane last season.

If history holds and trends continue, Myles Rowe could leverage his seasonal surge pattern this weekend. Rowe moved from HMD Motorsports to ABEL Motorsports this offseason.

He enters this weekend after placing fourth in the season opener at St. Petersburg and finished sixth in his rookie season last year.

Plus, Rowe has driven into victory lane in the second race of the season in two of the last three years.

In USF2000 in 2022, he won the second race of the St. Petersburg doubleheader weekend. He then won at the second track of the year at Barber Motorsports Park.

In his USF Pro 2000 championship-winning season in 2023, Rowe won the second race of the St. Petersburg season-opening weekend again to follow with a sweep at the second venue of the year – Sebring International Raceway.

Rowe’s teammate Callum Hedge could threaten, too. Hedge had an eighth-place finish in St. Petersburg and ninth at Barber last year. Hedge, 21, racked up eight top-10 finishes last season, with five top-five finishes.

Last year’s Rookie of the Year, Caio Collet, needs a good weekend. He finished a distant third in St. Petersburg, the same spot he finished in points last year. The Brazilian had championship aspirations for his sophomore season and aimed to use his experience to finish ahead of the Andretti rookies’ inexperience early in the season.

Collet finished fourth at Barber last season, leading to a strong rookie year on natural road courses. He finished with seven top-five finishes in eight natural road course starts, including his lone victory at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course last July and a pair of runner-up results in the WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca doubleheader.

Driver Changes

Hailie Deegan, who finished 14th in her maiden INDY NXT start at St. Petersburg, will be the lone female driver in the field after HMD Motorsports and driver Sophia Floersch announced March 27 that they mutually agreed to part company for the rest of the season.

Floersch, from Germany, qualified 17th and finished 12th in her debut in the INDYCAR development series on the streets of St. Petersburg, Florida, in the No. 24 HMD Motorsports entry.

Rookie Evagoras Papasavvas will drive the car this weekend. The 17-year-old tested for the team at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course and comes to INDY NXT after racing the last three seasons in USF 2000 for Jay Howard Driver Development. He was named as an HMD Motorsports reserve driver early this season.

Another driver change is sophomore driver Bryce Aron will switch from HMD Motorsports to the No. 9 Chip Ganassi Racing entry. Aron, from the Chicagoland area, finished 13th in St. Petersburg. He replaces Jonathan Browne in the car. Browne finished seventh in the season opener.

Aron joins new CGR teammate Niels Koolen, who remains in the No. 10 entry.

Track Specs: 2.3-mile, 17-turn natural road course

Qualifying Record: Christian Rasmussen (1 minute, 10.7371 seconds, 117.053 mph, April 29, 2023)

Push To Pass Parameters: 150 seconds of total time, with a maximum time of 15 seconds per activation.

NASCAR is on its way to Texas for the lone stop of the season at Texas Motor Speedway.

The WURTH 400 NASCAR Cup Series race is set for May 4 with the NASCAR Xfinity Series and NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series running races throughout the weekend.

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When is NASCAR Texas race?

The WURTH 400 is set for 2:30 p.m. CT on May 4 at Texas Motor Speedway.

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Know about parking at Texas Motor Speedway

Free parking: All unpaved parking on the west side of the facility between Victory Circle and the Preferred Parking Lot. The paved Dirt Track parking lot located across Lone Star Circle from the backstretch grandstand.

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Disabled Parking: Available in the front of the Preferred Parking Lot with valid handicapped placard/license plate.

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Entertainment, appearances for NASCAR Texas race

There are a series of entertainment opportunities and other appearances with drivers making their way to interact with fans. There are side shows including Funkanometry, Boogie Storm, The High-Flying Pages, Lucha Libre, Swifty Swine Pigs and more. Further information can be found on the Texas Motor Speedway website.

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This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: NASCAR Texas race: Upgrade, enhance experience for WURTH 400 weekend

Kyle Busch may not be known for speaking about regret, but he has finally admitted that his breakup with Hendrick Motorsports might have been avoidable – while sharing the exact point at which the decision was made to leave.

Busch opened up about the beginning of the end with the team that gave him his first shot at NASCAR stardom. The moment immortalized in the 2022 documentary ‘Rowdy’ came during the 2007 All-Star Race crash at Charlotte Motor Speedway. A three-wide pass attempt gone bad wiped out Jeff Burton and Busch himself and his older brother Kurt, costing all three a shot at the $1 million prize.

Kevin Harvick would go on to win, while Jimmie Johnson finished second for Hendrick. The Busch brothers would further establish their legacies in a rivalry showcased by their aggressive nature toward each other on the track.

“That was the end, that night,” Busch said in the film. “That was the end of HMS [for Busch]. Not having a whole lot of life experience to that point of getting into a professional career, one that’s in the limelight…You’re on TV every weekend, and you don’t really know how to act in certain situations.”

The crash served as a microcosm of deeper issues simmering behind the scenes between him and team owner Rick Hendrick. These days, Busch believes immaturity and a lack of communication played a bigger role than he previously acknowledged.

In a conversation with Jeff Gordon that Busch said lasted more than an hour, he admitted the relationship “wasn’t one to terminate” and conceded it “could’ve been fixed.” But Busch had a better relationship with Rick’s son, Ricky Hendrick, who passed away in 2004 at the age of 24.

Busch left Hendrick following the 2007 season and signed with Joe Gibbs Racing, where his career took off. He admitted to Gibbs taking a more hands-on approach to his job and asked about his ambitions and visions for a successful season.

Between 2008 and 2022, he won 52 Cup races, secured two Cup Series championships [2015, 2019], and became one of the most dominant drivers in the sport’s modern era. He also achieved 102 Xfinity Series wins and added 67 more in the Craftsman Truck Series, driving for his Kyle Busch Motorsports team.

DON’T MISS

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Kyle Busch was hyped for NASCAR greatness long before he was a teenager by his Hall of Fame nominee brother, who vowed “if you think I’m good, wait until you see my little brother.”

Busch’s debut in a NASCAR national series race was delayed, though, when he turned up at California Speedway in 2001 intent to run the Truck Series race. He dominated practice in a race sponsored by Marlboro but, because he was only 16 at the time, was ruled ineligible to compete over NASCAR’s interpretation of the 1998 Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement.

The MSA prohibited individuals under 18 from participating in events sponsored by tobacco companies. And because NASCAR at the time was sponsored by Winston, the series eventually adopted its own rule six weeks later implementing a minimum age requirement of 18 that began in 2002.

Busch had no choice but to move to the American Speed Association National Tour, and then ARCA after graduating early from his Las Vegas high school.

Fast-forward to Friday when Busch celebrates his 40th birthday as a two-time Cup Series champion headed to Texas Motor Speedway with 232 national series victories. Kurt Busch, his older brother by seven years and a nominee last week to next year’s Hall of Fame class, has one Cup title and 43 career national series victories.

Busch can now laugh at his experience 24 years ago at California Speedway, where he went on to win five Cup races, including the last one in 2023 before the track was shuttered by NASCAR.

“Shut that place down,” he said, noting the irony that he’s now sponsored by zone nicotine pouches, which has an additional relationship with online retailer Nicokick. “Full circle moment.”

Busch celebrated his birthday early — over the Easter weekend, which was NASCAR’s only break of the 38-race schedule — via a vacation with wife, Samantha. They left their two children home, and Samantha made a heartfelt social media post honoring her husband.

“Early celebration for Kyle’s big 4-0, love ya babe,” Samantha wrote, sharing a picture of herself and her husband at dinner on a beachfront. In a separate image, Kyle could also be seen with a small chocolate cake in front of him with a candle burning.

Busch said he and Samantha “made the most of it” even though he finds it difficult to unwind.

“Just a nice little quiet time, tried to disconnect. That’s not easy for me to do,” Busch said. “So I’m still kind of doing some work from afar, emails and things like that.”

And as for turning 40? Well, he wasn’t exactly thrilled. Busch is in his 23rd season in the Cup Series, and although he joined Richard Childress Racing in 2023 and won three races, he went winless in Cup last year for the first time in his career and missed the playoffs. His losing streak headed to Texas is an eye-popping 67 races.

“I remember turning 30 and thinking that was going to be it,” Busch said. “It is what it is. Samantha has made the best of that for me where we celebrated my birthday on that trip. I don’t feel much older than I did five, six years ago. So that’s the good part of it. And I’m in pretty decent shape, so thankful for all of that.”

Busch briefly considered retirement at the end of the 2022 season when he parted ways with Joe Gibbs Racing, where he is the winningest driver in team history with Denny Hamlin closing in on his mark. Now, he’d like to race at least until his 9-year-old son, Brexton, turns 18 and the two can compete against each other in NASCAR.

FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — Connor Zilisch, the 18-year-old driver already with two NASCAR Xfinity Series race wins, will miss Saturday’s race at Texas because of lower back injuries sustained in a last-lap wreck at Talladega.

Trackhouse Racing said Wednesday that its development driver will return as soon as possible to the No. 88 JR Motorsports Chevrolet. The team didn’t provide any additional details about Zilisch’s injuries.

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Cup Series regular Kyle Larson will drive the No. 88 in Texas. After that, the Xfinity Series has a two-week break before racing again May 24 at Charlotte.

Zilisch, sixth in points through the first 11 races, was driving for the win at Talladega Superspeedway when contact on the backstretch sent his car spinning, and head-on into inside wall.

Zilisch won in his Xfinity debut at Watkins Glen last Sept. 14. He added another win this year at Austin, the same weekend that he made his Cup Series debut. He has six top-10 finishes in his 15 Xfinity races.

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AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing