Motorsports
From Winner to Champion, Part 4: Execution, evolution and some radio magic
Editor’s note: This is the fourth installment in a seven-part series celebrating the 30th anniversary of Jeff Gordon’s first NASCAR Cup Series championship and the first for Hendrick Motorsports in 1995. Join us each Thursday as we relive all the moments and talk to many of the players involved in one of the organization’s and the sport’s most unforgettable […]

Editor’s note: This is the fourth installment in a seven-part series celebrating the 30th anniversary of Jeff Gordon’s first NASCAR Cup Series championship and the first for Hendrick Motorsports in 1995. Join us each Thursday as we relive all the moments and talk to many of the players involved in one of the organization’s and the sport’s most unforgettable and important seasons.
For Jon.
CONCORD, N.C. – February. Daytona Beach, Florida.
Crisp morning breezes are combated by mid-day sun, with enough warmth and light bathing the coast – and a certain 2.5-mile, historic, asphalt loop – to hint at spring on the horizon.
For a race car driver, crew chief, team member or fan, nothing arrives with more promise or hope than Speedweek at Daytona International Speedway.
Of course, back in 1995, it was still, “Speedweeks”, with the biggest discernable difference being more valuable time at the World Center of Racing at a mighty fine time of year to be in eastern Florida.
Armed with a brand-new hot rod – the aerodynamically pioneering Chevrolet Monte Carlo – and coming off of a season that included his first two career wins, Jeff Gordon certainly rolled into Daytona that February with a spring in his step and hope in his heart.

“I know we were building momentum, and the confidence was building right along with it and I think early testing of the Monte Carlo showed a lot of promise, so I think we were pretty optimistic,” Gordon told HendrickMotorsports.com ahead of this series.
Optimistic, yes.
Realistic? Well, at least somewhat according to Gordon.
After all, Dale Earnhardt was entering the year fresh off of his record-tying seventh NASCAR Cup Series championship and his fourth in five years. He was seemingly poised to rule stock car racing for the unforeseeable future. And when it came to the crown, he already had an established and formidable pack of chasers, names like Rusty Wallace and Mark Martin. Both drivers had finished in the top three in points in each of the prior two seasons.
REWIND: Jeff Gordon wins inaugural Brickyard 400 in 1994
Undoubtedly, with the aforementioned victories – the 1994 Coca-Cola 600 and the Brickyard 400 – Gordon made strides in his second full-time season. He’d also improved his points standing from 14th to eighth.
But with an established gridlock atop the sport, did Gordon really believe his team was ready for a title push?
“If I had to guess, (crew chief) Ray (Evernham) was probably thinking championship, but I don’t know that I was quite yet,” Gordon admitted. “It’s a big leap to go from where we were to feeling like you’re championship material.”

There were a few key numbers that illustrated the gap Gordon alluded to.
Speed wasn’t an issue. The team had proven that from the jump, winning its Daytona Duel race to open the 1993 season and showcasing it again at two of the biggest events on the ’94 calendar.
If anything stood in the way of the 24 team ascending to the highest echelon of stock car racing it was consistency, or a lack thereof. Between 1993 and 1994, Gordon piled up 14 top-five finishes to go with 25 top 10s. But also, across those same 64 starts, he had as many DNFs as he did lead-lap finishes (21).
RELATED: From Winner to Champion, Part 3: Championship Metal
“If you look back at 1994, they won a couple of big races but they tore up a lot of stuff too. I think they went through 16 rear clips or something like that,” Hendrick Motorsports teammate Terry Labonte said. “I didn’t think they could’ve gotten that good in that short of a period of time.”
And that seemed to be the prevailing thought as the season was set to open.
Winston Kelley, now the executive director of the NASCAR Hall of Fame, was establishing himself as a voice of the sport with the Motor Racing Network. He’d done all 31 races in 1994.
“Going into it, I don’t know if anyone would’ve had him in the Mount Rushmore of potential candidates in terms of the title, but I would say given the promise they’d shown in 1994, they would’ve been in the conversation,” Kelley told HendrickMotorsports.com. “Maybe top 10 or 12. But would I have thought they’d be in the top three or four or five? Probably not. You had Dale, Mark, Rusty and those guys. Dale Jarrett had started running good too.”

Even with the progress the team had shown in ’94, Gordon had still finished second within his own garage. Labonte scored three victories in his debut season at Hendrick Motorsports, powering his way to a seventh-place finish in the points standings.
For Evernham, Labonte’s success only sharpened his desire to hasten his team’s march forward.
“It was almost competitive between the three teams and that in itself drove us,” Evernham said. “You want to be the leader of your pack, so that competitiveness between the three cars actually worked in our advantage.”
RELATED: From Winner to Champion, Part 2: Championship Material
As teams descended on Volusia County that spring, few could’ve guessed that the apple cart was about to be upset. Even fewer would’ve guessed that it would be the 23-year-old driver/37-year-old crew chief combination clad in rainbow-colored uniforms that would upset it.
And that way of thinking likely didn’t change after the DAYTONA 500, either.
It takes time to progress from winner to champion. It also takes time to change the perception of a race team.

But as the 1995 progressed, Gordon and the 24 team parlayed an explosive but volatile start into a consistent reliance that showed up, along with speed, each and every week at the race track.
Brian Whitesell, now vice president of manufacturing at Hendrick Motorsports, was an engineer and a key car builder on the 24 team that year.
“We had started to bring a little different way of racing that happens even now and every few years, the script changes and you have to continue to adapt,” Whitesell said. “We hit on that with Jeff’s talent and a little different methodology. We did a lot of work to make the cars consistent, which played into the points standings at the time. A lot of the things we did coupled with Jeff’s talent, that’s where we slowly pulled away. Back then it was common to have suspension failures, hub failures, brakes, engines, radiators – there was a myriad of failures and eliminating those one-by-one and piling up points … and then we also had the performance to back that up.”
And for Gordon, it was time to start fulfilling the promise Evernham had seen years prior.
RELATED: Phorm Energy inks multi-year partnership with Hendrick Motorsports
“He captured it the first time he stepped on campus before he was hired. We talked after that and he was like, ‘Man, if you can’t win races and a championship at that place, you can’t do it anywhere. They’ve got everything you can possibly need,'” Gordon recalled. “To hear that from him, someone I had a lot of confidence and trusted in his knowledge … to me, maybe other people didn’t see it or recognize it at that time but all that mattered was the people on the team that we were going to surround ourselves with.
“And I know one thing; it didn’t take long once the season started to feel like this is the year we can get it done.”
‘Magic on the radio’
It’s funny how statistics and results can read three decades removed from the moment.
Just empty numbers on a page, void of context.
For instance, if one were to look up the 1995 DAYTONA 500 today, he/she would find that Gordon finished a nondescript 22nd. Sure, the 61 laps led might arch an eyebrow, but if anything, it would only speak to the inconsistencies that had limited the team through the growing pains of its formative years. A ton of speed with a middling finish.
DAYTONA 500 | Race 1 |
---|---|
Date: | Feb. 19, 1995 |
Started: | 4th |
Finished: | 22nd |
Laps led: | 61 |
Points earned: | 102 |
Earnings: | $67,915 |
Points standings: | 1. Sterling Marlin 185; 2. Dale Earnhardt 175 (-10); 3. Mark Martin 170 (-15); 4. Ted Musgrave 160 (-25); 5. Dale Jarrett 155 (-30); 5. Michael Waltrip 155 (-30); 7. Steve Grissom 146 (-39); 8. Terry Labonte 142 (-43); 9. Ken Schrader 138 (-47); 10. Morgan Shepherd 134 (-51) |
This time around, it wasn’t driver error or mechanical failure that took Gordon out of contention for the win. After spending much of the afternoon as a fixture at the front of the field, a slow pit stop relegated Gordon to the middle of the pack. After making up ground, another miscue on pit road – dropping the jack too early – damaged the 24 car and it never drove the same. Shortly after, with the stretch run approaching, Gordon brushed the wall and had to pit, losing a lap along the way.
It would’ve been easy, even understandable, for a 23-year-old, hungry driver looking for a breakthrough, all while under the pressure of driving for an organization still searching for its first championship, to play the blame game. NASCAR history is littered with radio transmissions of angry voices from inside the cockpit lambasting crew members after miscues.
That’s not what happened on that afternoon in Daytona Beach. What did happen, according to Evernham, was a moment that would loom as large in the 1995 championship chase as any of the seven wins the 24 team would go on to gather.
RELATED: From Winner to Champion, Part 1: ‘One Hot Night’

“Instead of Jeff unloading on everybody that day, he said, ‘Look, we had a great day, we had a great car, we’re going to get them next week.’ That was like magic on the radio that day,” Evernham said. “I think everybody stepped up and never wanted to let Jeff Gordon down again.”
“Jeff was always mature beyond his years. For a young guy who had his first chance to win the DAYTONA 500 – and they had a really good car, probably the strongest car in the field along with (eventual winner) Sterling (Marlin), who was always good at Daytona – to pick the crew up says a lot,” Kelley echoed. “I think that chemistry you hear about from everybody, things like that make championships. How people deal with a bad day has more impact than how they celebrate wins.”
Race wins and humbling moments
Gordon and the No. 24 team would get several opportunities to celebrate wins in 1995, and they presented themselves early and often.
If Gordon’s performance throughout the majority of the DAYTONA 500 was a hint of things to come, a dominant performance in a victory at Rockingham Speedway (then North Carolina Motor Speedway) the following week served as confirmation. At least in terms of speed, the No. 24 would be a force in the weeks to come.
Starting from the pole, which would be a staple of the team throughout the mid-to-late 90s as well, Gordon led 329 of 492 laps including the final 83 in holding off Bobby Labonte by 1.19 seconds.
ROCKINGHAM | Race 2 |
---|---|
Date: | Feb. 26, 1995 |
Started: | 1st |
Finished: | 1st |
Laps led: | 329 |
Points earned: | 185 |
Earnings: | $167,600 |
Points standings: | 1. Dale Earnhardt 345; 2. Mark Martin 316 (-29); 3. Sterling Marlin 312 (-33); 4. Dale Jarrett 310 (-35); 5. Steve Grissom 296 (-49) 6. Ricky Rudd 289 (-56); 7. Jeff Gordon 287 (-58); 8. Michael Waltrip 267 (-78); 9. Kyle Petty 261 (-84); 10. Ward Burton 256 (-89) |
During a postrace interview, pit road reporter Ned Jarrett remarked, “The car was so good, it looked like at times there that you couldn’t back up even if you wanted to.”
For Gordon, gone were the tears and aw, shucks-ness of the Coca-Cola 600 win. Certainly, his third career victory came with joy, but the maturity Gordon had shown in handling adversity at Daytona came through in his television interview as well.
“The new Monte Carlo is an awesome car. I never thought we’d have them like we did today,” Gordon told Jarrett. “The longer we went green the better that thing was. And we had to work on it; it wasn’t that perfect at the beginning. It came to us; the track came to us. Ray Evernham and the Rainbow Warriors, they did a heck of a job.”
But while the team was pushing its speed to new heights, the lows continued to hinder its big-picture process. A week after the win, Gordon was right back on the pole at Richmond Raceway but a mechanical issue took the No. 24 out of the race less than halfway through, resulting in a 36th-place finish.

Meanwhile, Labonte visited victory lane, moving up to fourth in the points standings. Gordon plummeted to 13th.
“The car was strong, the team was strong. I felt like I was just really getting comfortable and confident in knowing what I wanted in the car at all the different tracks,” Gordon said. “Obviously, wins do a lot for you, but it’s a long season. You gain this confidence. It’s, ‘Yeah, we can win every week,’ and then you get knocked down a little bit and you’re like, ‘Woah, hold on, we’re going to have to work really hard at this and it’s not going to come easy.’”
“It was never just, ‘We’re on a stretch that nobody is going to touch us. It just seemed like it was week-to-week of, ‘Man, we’re good.’ We’d get on a streak of winning some races and then there were some humbling moments too.”
But the group kept fighting. A week after Richmond came the first of two dates at Atlanta Motor Speedway. The second would serve as the season finale.
As it turned out, both would be pivotal events on the 1995 schedule for the 24 team.

ATLANTA | |
---|---|
Date: | March 12, 1995 |
Started: | 3rd |
Finished: | 1st |
Laps led: | 250 |
Points earned: | 185 |
Earnings: | $104,950 |
Points standings: | 1. Dale Earnhardt 685; 2. Sterling Marlin 613 (-72); 3. Mark Martin 596 (-89); 4. Terry Labonte 582 (-103); 5. Dale Jarrett 553 (-132); 6. Jeff Gordon 532 (-153); 7. Ricky Rudd 531 (-154); 8. Bobby Labonte 496 (-189); 9. Derrike Cope 491 (-194); 10. Morgan Shepherd 468 (-217) |
For the second time in four races, Gordon was able to finish off a dominant day, this time pacing 250 of 328 laps in rolling to victory lane for the fourth time in his career.
But again, the team couldn’t get off the roller coaster.
Race No. 5 came at Darlington Raceway. Gordon collected his third pole of the young season and yet again, had what was likely, the best car, pacing 155 of the first 199 circuits. Yet, Gordon was collected at the front of the field when Bobby Labonte made contact with the lapped car of Randy LaJoie just past the start-finish line on a restart.
REWIND: Ray Evernham pit call sends Jeff Gordon to Coke 600 win in 1994
The beginning of the 1995 proved a couple of things – one, the team had reached a new level in terms of performance capabilities and two, it had as much fight as it did speed.
And that mentality trickled down from driver and crew chief.
“It took a lot of effort to establish that reliability and Jeff’s talent pushed us to operate at his level as well,” Whitesell recalled. “It just kept feeding on itself to continuously improve what we were doing. Every component from a radiator hub to the gears to the transmission, all of those things kept improving to get that consistency to operate the entire vehicle.”
So, when the NASCAR Cup Series marched on to Bristol Motor Speedway the following week, Gordon and the team was ready.
This time, it was 95 laps led and the team’s third win of the season that pointed the No. 24 back in the right direction.
Bristol Motor Speedway | |
---|---|
Date: | April 2, 1995 |
Started: | 2nd |
Finished: | 1st |
Laps led: | 95 |
Points earned: | 175 |
Earnings: | $61,625 |
Points standings: | 1. Dale Earnhardt 948; 2. Sterling Marlin 931 (-17); 3. Mark Martin 795 (-153); 4. Jeff Gordon 794 (-154); 5. Terry Labonte 789 (-159); 6. Derrike Cope 770 (-178); 7. Dale Jarrett 752 (-196); 8. Ted Musgrave 733 (-215); 9. Rusty Wallace 730 (-218); 10. Ricky Rudd 725 (-222) |
In just six weeks to open 1995, Gordon earned more wins (three) than he had in two full seasons prior. That was the good news.
However, those three victories were paired with three finishes of 22nd or worse. And as good as the wins felt, in the big picture, it added up to a fourth-place points standing, 154 markers behind the leader, Earnhardt.
Yet, despite the bumps in the road, everything felt different. While the results weren’t quite consistent yet, the race-winning speed was, and the 24 bunch was bringing it to the race track every week.
“We won more races in the first six events of that year than we did the first two years of our team, so that was really cool,” Evernham said. “A lot of it was maturity and confidence. Jeff and I had little experience in Cup when we came in and did that. It took us a long time – Jeff figuring out the cars and coming into his own.”

‘…And then, they showed up’
A funny thing happened after the win at Bristol: Gordon followed it up with another great run, finishing second at North Wilkesboro Speedway. Then came a third-place run at Martinsville Speedway.
Yet another second-place showing at Talladega Superspeedway following that briefly put Gordon in a tie for the points lead with Earnhardt. It would be short lived, Earnhardt responded with a victory at Sonoma Raceway, the only road-course win in his career. Gordon would then finish 33rd in the Coca-Cola 600 after starting on the pole, pushing him back to fourth and 101 markers behind.
History is never recognized in the moment. Even as Gordon continued to display his driving prowess and as Evernham and company continued to crank out fast race cars, few could’ve seen what the rest of 1995, and most of the rest of the decade, would hold.
But with every lap led and with every new race track conquered, the 24 team began to acquire an aura of inevitability. Bad days started to become less frequent and when Gordon wasn’t crashed, he was usually out front.

Whether he was a preseason favorite or not didn’t much matter by the time the Cup Series headed to Dover Motor Speedway on June 4 of that year for the 12th event of the season. What no one could’ve known, is that a run-of-the-mill sixth-place finish would kickstart the first long run of brilliance in Gordon’s career, one that would turn the 1995 season on its head and push the No. 24 team to the pinnacle of the sport.
Yet, there had been enough signs already. And team owner Rick Hendrick could sense the tide turning for good.
“Jeff had shown flashes – winning the 600 and the Brickyard were huge moments – but we knew the key was consistency,” Hendrick told HendrickMotorsports.com. “Ray had built a team that was incredibly tight-knit. They trusted each other. Jeff was still young, but he was mature beyond his years in the car. You never counted out Dale Earnhardt, but it did feel like a shift was happening.”
REWIND: Jeff Gordon ties Dale Earnhardt on all-time wins list at Phoenix
“I feel like by race 10, it was, ‘OK, we’re starting to see who the players are and we’ve got to get through the summer and really understand it,'” Gordon added. “I was so nervous because we’d never won a championship. I’m sure Ray was feeling a lot of pressure. The whole team was feeling a lot of pressure because Mr. Hendrick had never won a championship at that point. Nobody on the team had ever won a championship and we’re going up against some fierce competitors.”
Speaking of which, they were starting to take notice as well. Even the ones in the same race shop.
“It was obvious (Gordon) was very talented and obviously, he was going to do well,” Labonte said. “To be that young and be as good as he was and when you look at these race tracks, it’s not like he was winning at the same track every weekend. Typically, that takes four or five years in the Cup Series just to gain the experience at different tracks because everything you learned this weekend doesn’t really apply to next weekend.”

Earnhardt, as expected, was in the midst of yet another championship-caliber season. He’d started 1995 with five-consecutive top-four finishes and had a pair of wins and only three showings of worse than sixth place by the conclusion of the Dover race. He led the points standings by 100 tallies and seemed to be more than a third of the way toward a ground-breaking eighth title.
And there were others. Sterling Marlin would parlay an opening win in the Great American Race into likely the best season of his career and he was planted in second place behind Earnhardt when the checkered flag waved at Dover. The ever-steady Martin was fourth and putting pressure on Gordon in third.
REWIND: Jeff Gordon wins fifth and final Brickyard 400
But fresh off the win at Sonoma, a sixth place at in the 600 and a fifth at Dover, the mood was still fairly rosy in the No. 3 camp. But Earnhardt’s crew chief Andy Petree, who shared a friendship with Evernham and who’d played a vital part in pairing him with Gordon, could feel the storm brewing.
And the rest of the year would birth what would become one of NASCAR’s greatest and most endearing rivalries.
“We kind of knew it was coming, you just never know when,” Petree said. “I felt confident in the fact that we were going to be more consistent; nobody scored points like Dale did and he had a sense for that old points system. He never threw away points. We felt like we could handle it. Mark Martin and Rusty Wallace had been our biggest competitors, we were probably more looking toward them and how were we going to beat them … And then, they showed up.”
Motorsports
NASCAR’s Shane van Gisbergen is hoping for another successful weekend in downtown Chicago
CHICAGO (AP) — The first time Shane van Gisbergen raced in Chicago, he was largely unknown in NASCAR. The second… CHICAGO (AP) — The first time Shane van Gisbergen raced in Chicago, he was largely unknown in NASCAR. The second time, he was one of the favorites on the downtown street course. The third time […]

CHICAGO (AP) — The first time Shane van Gisbergen raced in Chicago, he was largely unknown in NASCAR. The second…
CHICAGO (AP) — The first time Shane van Gisbergen raced in Chicago, he was largely unknown in NASCAR. The second time, he was one of the favorites on the downtown street course.
The third time is a different situation for van Gisbergen once again. This time, he has a second Cup Series victory in his back pocket — providing some flexibility for the 36-year-old New Zealand native as he prepares for the playoffs.
“We’re in a nice position now having won a race,” van Gisbergen said Friday. “And it may change our strategy. If we’re in a position to get a playoff point, we’ll probably try and get that, but that’ll put us deep in the field for the next stage. So yeah, there’s a bit of a toss-up there what we’re going to do, but it’s a nice position to be in.”
Sure is.
Just two years ago, van Gisbergen — a three-time champion in Australia’s Supercars — put on a dazzling show in a rainy first edition of NASCAR’s downtown Chicago experiment. Making the most of his extensive street racing experience, he became the first driver to win his Cup Series debut since Johnny Rutherford in the second qualifying race at Daytona in 1963.
He won Chicago’s Xfinity Series stop last year and the first stage in the Cup race before he was knocked out by a crash.
“You know, I have great memories here,” van Gisbergen said. “This place has changed my life, so I’m going to have special memories of this place forever.”
Van Gisbergen’s success in Chicago led to a full-time Cup ride with Trackhouse Racing. But the driver of the No. 88 Chevrolet is learning his way around NASCAR and he got off to a slow start this season.
While oval tracks remain a challenge, he certainly hasn’t forgotten his roots on street and road courses. He posted his second Cup win last month at Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez in Mexico City.
Van Gisbergen is scheduled to compete in both Chicago races this weekend. Next up for NASCAR is another road course at Sonoma Raceway, providing an opportunity to move up from No. 32 in the Cup standings and build up some momentum.
“Road courses are just a bonus for us,” he said. “We know we’re going to be good and we can just focus on trying to get results there.”
Even after two years, the downtown Chicago street course remains a tricky proposition. The 12-turn, 2.2-mile track is narrow and bumpy in spots — to go along with manhole covers, and transitions from concrete to asphalt and back — and there is little room for error in some areas. Rain affected the action in each of the first two weekends, and there could be more showers on Sunday.
Patience is sometimes the best approach, but that only goes so far in NASCAR.
“It’s easy to say that until Shane is out there a second faster than you and you have to go put yourself in some uncomfortable situations,” said Joey Logano, the reigning Cup Series champion.
When it comes to van Gisbergen on road courses, Logano said the rest of the Cup Series is “in a way, playing catch-up.” Van Gisbergen said he feels the same way about ovals.
“These guys have been doing left-handers since they were 10 years old,” van Gisbergen said. “You know, they’re two completely different sports, and although there has been road racing in NASCAR forever, it’s not that much. So yeah, just the experience levels are different in what we do. And I feel like, yes, they’ve definitely gotten a lot better since the first one on this track, for sure.”
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Motorsports
Katherine Legge gets ominous news ahead of NASCAR Cup return
Katherine Legge, who has competed part-time in the NASCAR Xfinity Series this season, made her Cup Series debut at Phoenix Raceway back in March, and after she caused multiple incidents, NASCAR’s decision to let her compete was heavily scrutinized. The fact that she has been at the center of several Xfinity Series wrecks has amplified […]

Katherine Legge, who has competed part-time in the NASCAR Xfinity Series this season, made her Cup Series debut at Phoenix Raceway back in March, and after she caused multiple incidents, NASCAR’s decision to let her compete was heavily scrutinized.
The fact that she has been at the center of several Xfinity Series wrecks has amplified that criticism, as she now has four DNFs, two DNQs, and only one finish (of 32nd place), to go along with a DNF in her ARCA Menards Series debut.
But Legge made her Cup Series return at Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez and stayed out of trouble en route to securing a 32nd place finish, and this coming Sunday afternoon’s Grant Park 165 at the Chicago Street Course has long been a race in which she has looked forward to competing.
However, it will not be that simple.
There are 41 cars on the entry list for this 75-lap race around the 12-turn, 2.2-mile (3.541-kilometer) temporary street course in Chicago, Illinois, and Cup Series races are limited to 40 cars.
Legge is set to drive the No. 78 Chevrolet for Live Fast Motorsports, which is one of the five non-chartered (open) cars on the entry list.
The others are the No. 13 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet, the No. 33 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet, the No. 66 Garage 66 Ford, and the No. 67 23XI Racing Toyota, which are set to be driven by Will Brown, Austin Hill, Josh Bilicki, and Corey Heim, respectively.
Three of those teams are full-time teams that field multiple chartered entries on a regular basis: Kaulig Racing, Richard Childress Racing, and 23XI Racing. For that reason, it’s hard to imagine that Brown, Hill, or Heim will fail to qualify.
But Garage 66 and Live Fast Motorsports are always either the slowest (or the second slowest) team whenever they compete, which could set up a dramatic battle for the 40th and final starting spot between Bilicki and Legge on Saturday’s qualifying session.
Bilicki may very well have a leg up, no pun intended, based on his Cup Series experience, which dates back to the 2017 season; Legge has made just two career starts. However, road and street course racing is her specialty, given her sports car racing background, which has seen her win multiple IMSA races.
Still, having five cars battling for four spots adds a whole new layer to the upcoming race weekend. The Cup Series has not had a more cars than spots in the field for a non-Daytona 500 race since the November 2018 race at Texas Motor Speedway, when Timmy Hill and MBM Motorsports were left on the outside looking in.
If there is anything positive Legge can take from that weekend, it’s the fact that MBM Motorsports is the team now known as Garage 66. Will history repeat itself, or will Legge be left with her third DNF of the NASCAR season?
Qualifying for the Grant Park 165 is set to be shown live on TruTV from the Chicago Street Course starting at 2:00 p.m. ET this Saturday, July 5, while the race itself is set to be shown live on TNT Sports beginning at 2:00 p.m. ET on Sunday, July 6.
Motorsports
Lochie Hughes Edges Rival Dennis Hauger in First Mid-Ohio Practice
The duel for the INDY NXT by Firestone championship between Andretti Global rookies Lochie Hughes and Dennis Hauger stayed spicy even in practice Friday for the Grand Prix at Mid-Ohio, as Hughes produced a strong lap late in the session to take the top spot from his teammate. Hughes was quickest at 1 minute, 11.0263 […]

The duel for the INDY NXT by Firestone championship between Andretti Global rookies Lochie Hughes and Dennis Hauger stayed spicy even in practice Friday for the Grand Prix at Mid-Ohio, as Hughes produced a strong lap late in the session to take the top spot from his teammate.
Hughes was quickest at 1 minute, 11.0263 seconds in the No. 26 McGinley Clinic/USF Pro Championship car of Andretti Global. Hughes is second in the standings for the INDYCAR development series, 28 points behind series leader Hauger.
SEE: Practice Results
That top lap from Hughes came with 1 minute, 45 seconds remaining in the 45-minute practice at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. He trimmed more than six-tenths of a second from his previous best and jumped from 10th to first, supplanting Hauger.
“Decent first practice,” Hughes said. “Made some changes, changed the balance a little bit. Felt really good and ready for the rest of the weekend.”
Hauger ended up second at 1:11.1107 in the No. 28 Nammo machine. He and the Andretti Global crew continued to tinker with the setup throughout the session, as Hauger wandered off-track during the session on the 13-turn, 2.258-mile road course as he explored the limits of grip.
“This track is quite different compared to the test we had (here), so just trying to work on that, go for a few things,” Hauger said. “I think we did a really good job, and the pace is surprisingly strong. We didn’t go on the new tires at the end of the run, and we have those for tomorrow, and that’s good.”
Callum Hedge ended up third at 1:11.2255 in the No. 17 Abel Motorsports car. Like Hauger, Hedge also explored the outer reaches of grip and took a ride through the gravel trap in Turn 4 late in the session, barely missing the tire barrier.
Salvador de Alba was fourth at 1:11.3392 in the No. 27 Grupo Indi car as Andretti Global placed three drivers in the top four. Caio Collet, winner of the most recent round at Road America, rounded out the top five at 1:11.3983 in the No. 76 HMD Motorsports entry.
Up next is practice at 8:30 a.m. ET Saturday, followed by qualifying at 1:30 p.m. The 35-lap race starts at 10:30 a.m. ET Sunday. FS1, the FOX Sports app and the INDYCAR Radio Network are broadcasting all remaining sessions this weekend.
Motorsports
WAYNE COUNTY FAIR ANNOUNCES SCHEDULE OF EVENTS JULY 6TH – JULY 12TH
The Wayne County Fair returns with a packed schedule of events Sunday, July 6th through Saturday, July 12th offering a wide range of activities for all ages including livestock shows, motorsports, competitions, and family entertainment. HIGHLIGHTS INCLUDE: Sunday, July 6th: Harness Racing begins at 1:00 p.m., sponsored by Fairfield National Bank (FREE) Church Night starts […]

The Wayne County Fair returns with a packed schedule of events Sunday, July 6th through Saturday, July 12th offering a wide range of activities for all ages including livestock shows, motorsports, competitions, and family entertainment.
HIGHLIGHTS INCLUDE:
Sunday, July 6th:
Harness Racing begins at 1:00 p.m., sponsored by Fairfield National Bank (FREE)
Church Night starts at 7:00 p.m. (FREE)
Monday, July 7th:
Rabbit Show (8:00 a.m.), Poultry Show (1:00 p.m.) (FREE)
Motocross at 7:00 p.m., sponsored by People’s National Bank and Lemond’s Motorsports ($15)
Tuesday, July 8th:
Beef and Goat Shows begin at 8:00 a.m. (FREE)
Queen Pageant at 7:00 p.m. ($10)
Wednesday, July 9th:
Swine and Sheep Shows during the day (FREE)
Ranch Rodeo at 7:00 p.m., sponsored by Trust Bank ($15)
Thursday, July 10th:
Livestock Judging Contest, Round Robin, and 4-H Awards (FREE)
Rodeo at 7:00 p.m., sponsored by Fairfield National Bank ($15)
Friday, July 11th:
Craft/Vendor Market 4:00pm – 9:00pm
Pig Penning at 7:00 p.m., sponsored by Citizens National Bank ($10)
Saturday, July 12th:
Antique Truck Show (9:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m.)
Antique Tractor Show (11:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.)
Craft/Vendor Market 4:00pm – 9:00pm
Demolition Derby at 7:00 p.m., sponsored by Nutrien Ag Solutions – Keenes/Orchardville – BAS ($20)
Carnival: Monday – Saturday 6:00pm- 10:00pm
Throughout the fair will be livestock shows, 4-H competitions and a variety of food vendors.
Motorsports
Team Penske names new leadership
MOORESVILLE, N.C. — Team Penske named its new leadership structure for the organization’s NTT INDYCAR Series and sports car programs. The organization promoted Jonathan Diuguid to president of Penske Racing, Inc., and named Travis Law as the competition director. They will officially transition to their new roles this weekend. Jonathan Diuguid, courtesy of Team Penske Travis […]

MOORESVILLE, N.C. — Team Penske named its new leadership structure for the organization’s NTT INDYCAR Series and sports car programs.
The organization promoted Jonathan Diuguid to president of Penske Racing, Inc., and named Travis Law as the competition director. They will officially transition to their new roles this weekend.


“Diuguid and Law bring a combined 38 years of experience at Team Penske that will serve them well as they look to build on the organization’s legacy of motorsports success. In their new roles, Diuguid and Law will oversee the Team Penske teams competing in the NTT IndyCar Series, as well as Porsche Penske Motorsport, which races in both the IMSA WeatherTech Sportscar Championship (IMSA) and the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC).”
According to Team Penske, both Diuguid and Law served in leadership positions for Porsche Penske Motorsport. As the managing director, Diuguid led the global sports car program to wins in the 24 Hours of Daytona in 2024 and 2025. They also won the 2025 12 Hours of Sebring. They earned two championships in 2024 – in IMSA’s GTP class and the WEC Hypercar driver’s crown.
“The opportunity to lead the Team Penske efforts across the NTT IndyCar Series, IMSA and WEC is a tremendous responsibility and the feeling of being trusted to lead these teams is a great honor,” Diuguid said. “After two decades working for Roger Penske, I truly know and understand what the Penske name means in the world of motorsports. The best way I know to show my appreciation to him for his trust is to ensure our success continues well into the future.”
After joining Team Penske in 2007 as a sports car tire specialist, Law rose through the ranks to become a championship-winning chief mechanic in IndyCar. He then had the same success in sports car competition. Law most recently served as competition director for Porsche Penske Motorsport.
“Success is what is expected at Team Penske,” Law stated. “Roger Penske is someone that leads by example. When we get to the racetrack, we know we have the support of someone who has achieved at the highest levels. I am ready to get to work.”
These changes come after a scandal embroiled Team Penske during the Month of May. The scandal led to Tim Cindric and Ron Ruzewski losing their jobs as team president and managing director, respectively.
MORE: Team Penske announces major departures ahead of Indy 500
The NASCAR leadership structure for Team Penske will remain the same. Michael Nelson will continue as president. Travis Geisler will continue as vice president of competition.
Jonathan Fjeld is the co-owner of the The Racing Experts, LLC. He has been with TRE since 2010.
A Twin Valley, MN, native, Fjeld became a motorsports fan at just three years old (first race was the 2002 Pennsylvania 500). He worked as a contributor and writer for TRE from 2010-18. Since then, he has stepped up and covered 24 NASCAR race weekends and taken on a larger role with TRE. He became the co-owner and managing editor in 2023 and has guided the site to massive growth in that time.
Fjeld has covered a wide array of stories and moments over the years, including Kevin Harvick’s final Cup Series season, the first NASCAR national series disqualification in over 50 years, Shane van Gisbergen’s stunning win in Chicago and the first Cup Series race at Road America in 66 years – as well as up-and-coming drivers’ stories and stories from inside the sport, like the tech it takes for Hendrick Motorsports to remain a top-tier team.
Currently, he resides in Albuquerque, N.M., where he works for KOB 4, an NBC station. He works as a digital producer and does on-air reports. He loves spending time with friends and family, playing and listening to music, exploring new places, being outdoors, reading books and writing among other activities. You can email him at fjeldjonathan@gmail.com
Motorsports
5 NASCAR drivers could miss the Cup race in Chicago
It is rare, but it still happens. For a NASCAR Cup Series race other than the season-opening Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway, there are officially more cars on the entry list than there are spots in the 40-car field, something that hasn’t happened since November 2018 at Texas Motor Speedway. A total of 41 […]

It is rare, but it still happens. For a NASCAR Cup Series race other than the season-opening Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway, there are officially more cars on the entry list than there are spots in the 40-car field, something that hasn’t happened since November 2018 at Texas Motor Speedway.
A total of 41 cars are on the entry list for Sunday afternoon’s 75-lap Grant Park 165 around the 12-turn, 2.2-mile (3.541-kilometer) temporary street course, officially called the Chicago Street Course, in Chicago, Illinois.
The 36 chartered cars are all locked in, and yes, the six full-time cars fielded by 23XI Racing (three cars) and Front Row Motorsports (three cars) are still considered chartered cars, even amid the ongoing antitrust lawsuit against NASCAR and the fact that recent rulings have not gone their way.
This means that there are four spots left open, and there are five drivers set to battle for those four spots in Saturday’s qualifying session.
The slowest of these five qualifiers is set to miss the race entirely.
The non-chartered (open) entries include the No. 13 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet, which is set to be driven by Will Brown; the No. 33 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet, which is set to be driven by Austin Hill; the No. 66 Garage 66 Ford, which is set to be driven by Josh Bilicki; the No. 67 23XI Racing Toyota, which is set to be driven by Corey Heim; and the No. 78 Live Fast Motorsports Chevrolet, which is set to be driven by Katherine Legge.
Kaulig Racing generally show well on road and street courses, and Heim literally beat all three of 23XI Racing’s full-time drivers in his first start of the year at Kansas Speedway back in May. Richard Childress Racing are also a step above Garage 66 and Live Fast Motorsports, regardless of who is driving (and where).
On paper, it appears that the battle to get into the race will come down to Bilicki and Legge. Garage 66 and Live Fast Motorsports are always among the slowest teams whenever they compete, and on a challenging street course, they are both facing an uphill battle. The good news is that at least one of them won’t miss out.
Grant Park 165 qualifying is set to be shown live on TruTV from the Chicago Street Course beginning at 2:00 p.m. ET on Saturday, July 5. The race itself is set to be shown live on TNT Sports beginning at 2:00 p.m. ET on Sunday, July 6.
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