Kevin Lacroix and the #74 NAPA Racing / Adaptive One Calipers team are heading to uncharted territory this weekend as the NASCAR Canada Series makes its long-awaited debut at Calabogie Motorsports Park. The green flag drops on Sunday at 2:10 p.m. ET for the Calabogie 150, Clash of the Titans presented by NAPA.

Located just outside of Ottawa, Calabogie is the longest and most technical track on the calendar. NASCAR Canada will run what is called the ‘Stadium Track’, which will be a new challenge for all drivers, but Lacroix, known for his road course expertise, is ready to rise to the occasion aboard his powerful #74 Camaro.

“It’s always exciting to race somewhere new, and Calabogie is no joke,” said Lacroix. “It’s a demanding track, but I love a good challenge, and I think this layout will suit our car and driving style.”

This round carries added importance for Lacroix and the team as they continue to fight for the championship. After a strong showing in the West, including a victory in Saskatoon, Lacroix is just one point shy of the series lead. A podium result at Calabogie could be pivotal as the series approaches its mid-season climax.

Prepared by Innovation Auto Sport (IAS) and engineered by Étienne Cliche, the #74 NAPA Racing entry has shown consistent pace throughout the season. With NAPA and Adaptive One Calipers continuing their support, the team is more motivated than ever to deliver another standout performance.

“The level of competition this year is incredibly high, and the margins are razor-thin,” Lacroix added. “But I know our team is capable of executing, and we’re going into Calabogie with confidence and determination.”

Catch the action from the Clash of the Titans this Sunday at 2:10 p.m. ET. Broadcast details will be shared on the NASCAR Canada website and social media channels.

Kevin Lecroix PR

Who’s ready to kiss the bricks this weekend?

Every NASCAR driver would love to do just that, as the Cup Series heads to historic Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the Brickyard 400.

NASCAR’s race at the famed track doesn’t have quite the history of the Indianapolis 500, but the stock car series has carved out its own unique traditions. There’s no milk in victory lane, but NASCAR did start the tradition of kissing the iconic brick-covered start-finish line after winning — thanks to current NBC analyst Dale Jarrett.

So, what’s in store for Indianapolis this year? What’s the TV schedule for the weekend? And who could contend for the win on Sunday? Here’s everything you need to know for Brickyard 400:

When is the Brickyard 400 NASCAR race?

The Brickyard is set for Sunday, July 27, at 2:20 p.m. ET.

Before the race, there will be practice and qualifying on Friday and Saturday, respectively. All 39 drivers will hit the track for practice Friday, with 50 minutes scheduled. For qualifying, each driver will get one lap to set the starting order based on speed — taking the track in this order.

NASCAR TV schedule this weekend for Brickyard 400

This weekend marks the final race airing on TNT before NBC takes over for the rest of the season.

Adam Alexander (play-by-play), Dale Earnhardt Jr. (analyst) and Steve Letarte (analyst) will be on the call, with Shannon Spake, Jamie McMurray and Parker Kligerman providing pre- and post-race coverage.

Here’s the full schedule for Indianapolis:

Friday, July 25 (truTV and HBO Max)

• Practice: 1:05 p.m. ET, truTV and HBO Max

Saturday, July 26 (truTV and HBO Max)

• Qualifying: 2:35 p.m. ET, truTV and HBO Max

Sunday, July 27 (TNT and HBO Max)

• NASCAR Nation Pre-Race: 1 p.m. ET, TNT and HBO Max
• Brickyard 400: 2 p.m. ET, TNT and HBO Max
• NASCAR Nation Post-Race: 5:30 p.m. ET, TNT and HBO Max

The 2025 NASCAR season kicks off on Feb. 16, 2025 with the 67th running of the Daytona 500.

Who is racing in the Brickyard 400? Here’s the entry list

Thirty-nine drivers will race at the Brickyard — the 36 full-timers, plus three additional entries.

Josh Bilicki (Garage 66), Jesse Love (Beard Motorsports) and Katherine Legge (Live Fast Motorsports) are continuing their part-time schedules this season by racing at this historic venue. Bilicki and Love are both making their fourth Cup start of 2025, while Legge is back for her fifth. She has also made four prior starts at the Brickyard in the Indianapolis 500, so the track should be familiar.

Two other drivers in the spotlight at Ty Gibbs and Ty Dillon, who are competing in the final round of the In-Season Challenge with $1 million waiting for whoever crosses the finish line first.

Here’s the full entry list for Indy:

Brickyard 400 picks, predictions, favorites

Last week at Dover, the powerhouse organizations stole the show. Joe Gibbs Racing and Hendrick Motorsports drivers occupied the top six finishing positions and led 387 of 407 laps. Expect more of the same at the Brickyard.

Starting with JGR, no driver has had more close calls without a Brickyard win than Denny Hamlin. Fresh off a win at Dover, the 44-year-old star knows he doesn’t have many more chances left to kiss the bricks. His teammate and Indiana native Chase Briscoe, who was second last week, is another strong pick — as is Christopher Bell, who was fourth at Indy last year.

For HMS, it all starts with Kyle Larson. Last year’s Brickyard 400 winner has started the last two Indy 500’s — giving him more track time here than any driver. Sure, it’s a different car, but the experience certainly helped him last year. Chase Elliott, after leading 238 laps last week, is leading the points standings and should challenge for the victory.

James Gilbert/Getty Images

James Gilbert/Getty Images

The third traditional powerhouse organization is Team Penske, who hasn’t quite had its usual speed this season. If there’s a track for them to turn it around, though, it’s Indy. Team owner Roger Penske owns and operates the track, and none of his drivers have yet won there. Ryan Blaney is the best bet for Penske this year.

If anyone can topple those three, look toward a pair of upstart teams — RFK Racing and 23XI Racing.

Tyler Reddick (40 laps led), Brad Keselowski (35) and Bubba Wallace (26) were the top three lap-leaders at the Brickyard last year — and all three need a win to lock themselves into the playoffs. Reddick was second and Wallace was fifth for 23XI, while Keselowski ran out of fuel while leading late in the race and finished 21st.

The winning pick for Indy is Elliott, who bounces back from disappointment last week to finally score his first career crown jewel victory.

NASCAR past winners, race history for the Brickyard 400

Just three of the 39 drivers in the field are past winners at the Brickyard.

Busch has won the race twice (2015 and 2016), while Keselowski (2018) and Larson (2024) are one-time winners.

NASCAR pit stops are a sport themselves with how much planning goes into a perfect pit stop. Here’s what you need to know about what happens during a pit stop.

Another talented, young prospect is getting his first shot at ARCA Menards Series action. Tristan McKee is ready to make his debut. McKee has been cutting his teeth in the CARS Tour and Trans-Am Series. He is seen as one of the best prospects in NASCAR.

While we will have to wait a few more years to see Tristan McKee race full-time in NASCAR, he is going to be around here and there. The development process of McKee is already getting to the point where you could argue he’s starting to outgrow the series he races in right now.

McKee is going to make his ARCA debut in the Spire 77 car at Watkins Glen. He will then race at Phoenix in the same car. Born in 2010 in Kannapolis, racing is all that McKee has known in his life.

DAYTONA BEACH — AJ Allmendinger admires this about NASCAR over the last few years.

“I’m all for trying new things,” the driver of the No. 16 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet said. “Dirt race at Bristol, whether you liked or hated it, it was new. Street racing, going to different places. I think it’s cool.”

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This week, NASCAR formally announced its newest novelty.

Next season, it will run a street race at Naval Base Coronado in San Diego. The weekend, which is scheduled for June 19-21, will include Cup, Xfinity and Truck events.

It serves as the spiritual successor to the Chicago Street Race of the last three seasons, becoming just the second street course in the modern era. It also will be the first time NASCAR has put on a show from an active military base.

“I think it’s a win for everybody,” Allmendinger told The News-Journal during a fundraising visit to Daytona International Speedway on Wednesday.

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San Diego street race will put NASCAR back in SoCal

The event will insert NASCAR back into the Southern California market, something it lost with the shuttering of Auto Club Speedway in Fontana in 2023.

Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum filled the gap for one year in 2024. But that was the last of its three years hosting the preseason Clash. The exhibition relocated to Bowman Gray Stadium in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, for the 2025 season.

“That Southern California market we miss, for sure,” Allmendinger said. “We still had it a little bit with the Coliseum, but now that is gone. And San Diego itself is just such a pretty area. So it’ll be fun to see how they set up the race track.”

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Allmendinger added that’s the biggest potential con to street racing — the track layout.

He harbored initial doubts about Chicago.

When that race arrived in 2023, he looked at the course and thought it would eliminate passing opportunities. It was too narrow.

He quickly realized that wasn’t the case, though.

“I think we had some of the best passing opportunities, and it showed that over the three years of racing,” he said.

AJ Allmendinger thought NASCAR’s Chicago Street Race was successful

Allmendinger liked the Chicago experience.

He participated in all three iterations and posted his best finish (sixth) earlier this month.

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“I thought Chicago, for the most part, was very successful over the three years,” he said. “It was nice, for the most part, to have good weather this year because I felt like, the first two years, that’s what hurt the Cup race. But this year, it seemed more crowded than it had been. It just kept growing.

“I think that’s what’s great about street racing in general. You kind of bring a new public to it. Back when I raced Champ Car, that’s what we always said — 30% of the fans knew what was going on and 70% of them usually drove down those streets at 30 miles per hour and they kind of rolled out there like, ‘What’s going on now?’”

Despite putting the event on pause, NASCAR might return to Chicago in the future. The door remains open for 2027.

Allmendinger wouldn’t mind that.

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“It’d have been fun to keep it,” he said. “I think it was doing a really good job. But I also think sometimes, with street races, you’ve got to go try new markets and it kind of runs its course. But I’m not opposed to going back there.”

Does the NASCAR schedule have too many road courses?

Because 2026 won’t feature a Chicago Street Race, with San Diego essentially replacing it, the number of road courses on the schedule could stay at six. The full slate is expected to be released in the next few weeks.

Road courses have been a point of contention recently.

Brad Keselowski criticized the amount of them on social media. Denny Hamlin stated his desire for fewer on his Actions Detrimental podcast. Both drivers publicized their feelings in mid-July, right as Shane van Gisbergen was ripping off his third road-course victory in five weeks and rumors about a San Diego addition swirled.

Then, Michael McDowell defended NASCAR and opposed Keselowski’s comments during an appearance on the Door Bumper Clear podcast.

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Where does Allmendinger fall?

“I think six is about as max as we need,” he said. “Anywhere from four-to-six, I’m good with.

“But you can say we have six superspeedway races, right? I don’t want any more of those, either. You don’t want too much of one thing, so I think that’s a good number. We don’t need more of it. But I would hate to go back to just two or three of them as well.”

Especially with the San Diego news, a massive decrease doesn’t look likely anytime soon.

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: NASCAR driver AJ Allmendinger supports San Diego street race

Bradenton Motorsports Park, a drag racing facility off State Road 64, is poised to make history this winter. It is hosting an event called the 2025-2026 Drag Illustrated Winter Series that will award $1 million to a Pro Modified driver who can win all three races. (Pro Modified is a class of drag racing with cars based on popular production vehicles that feature opening-and-closing doors with few restrictions on engine size, horsepower or body modification.)

“This is the largest performance-based payout in drag racing history,” writes Wes Buck, founder of the trade publication Drag Illustrated. The publication has partnered with racing operation Elite Motorsports to sponsor the winter series, which will consist of three races: the Snowbird Outlaw Nationals (Dec. 5–7), U.S. Street Nationals (Jan. 23–25, 2026) and the World Series of Pro Mod (Feb. 26–28, 2026).

“This isn’t for the faint of heart. You’re going to have to beat the best, on the biggest stage, under the brightest lights,” Richard Freeman, owner of Elite Motorsports, says in a statement. “But somebody out there is going to do it — and I can’t wait to shake their hand when they do.”

Historically, the prize money for drag racers has paled in comparison to other motorsports, according to Buck.

“This is about changing the trajectory of our sport,” Buck says in a statement about the Drag Illustrated Winter Series. “For too long, drag racers — legends and champions — have had to downplay their winnings when talking to peers in other forms of motorsports. That ends now. Drag racing deserves big numbers, and a million-dollar prize does more than get attention – it gets results. It motivates teams. It inspires dreams. And it tells the world we mean business.”

Bradenton Motorsports Park features a quarter-mile drag strip and is one of the premier drag racing facilities in the country, according to its website. It is open year-round and hosts approximately 300,000 visitors annually.

In December, YouTube star “Cleetus McFarland” became a 50% partner at Bradenton Motorsports Park with co-owner Victor Alvarez. Together, the duo is investing in upgrades to the facility, such as a $100,000 tech shed providing storage, tools and space for technicians to work on race cars on scales.