What’s Happening?

Friday Morning, the legal teams of both NASCAR and the two teams suing them, 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports, went to court for oral arguments in NASCAR’s appeal of a Dec. 18 ruling that allowed the teams to race as chartered entries in 2025.

The two sides met today as part of the ongoing lawsuit filed by 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports on Oct. 2. As part of the early stages of this lawsuit, the two teams, which were held out on signing the 2025 NASCAR Charter Agreement, motioned for a preliminary injunction to compete as chartered teams throughout the lawsuit.

This gives them access to revenue sharing and automatic entry into every NASCAR Cup Series race for each of their three entries. This ruling was in spite of a release in the NASCAR Charter Agreement that said the two teams could not sue NASCAR while racing as chartered teams. The Dec. 18 ruling also allowed the two teams to be granted charters they had purchased from the now-shuttered Stewart-Haas Racing.

During the hearing, each side’s lawyer was allowed 15 minutes to discuss their claims to a panel of judges from the Fourth Circuit of Appeals.

In NASCAR’s Feb. 12 appeal brief, they claimed that the court’s Dec. 18 decision “was fraught with errors, both legally and factually.” They also claimed that the court altered the status quo by making NASCAR grant the teams Charters, though the teams did not agree to “many of the Charter’s material terms.”

NASCAR repeated this sentiment today, with attorney Christopher Yates stating that he was going to focus on three facts:

• “No court has ever held that a release of claims provision can be anticompetitive conduct in violation of section two of the Sherman Act.”
• “A release does not harm competition. A release, of course, just focuses on the claims between the two parties.”
• Yates also stated that the injunction was mandatory and guaranteed payments to teams that did not sign the 2025 charters, thereby harming NASCAR and other racing teams.

23XI and FRM attorney Jeffrey Kessler claims, “there’s no legal dispute, this is a factual dispute.” However, his claims did see pushback, with the main question being whether the teams, by getting the contract but not the release, were attempting to have their cake and eat it too.

Judge Paul Niemeyer said he doesn’t see how the release addresses competition, saying, “If you don’t want the contract, you don’t enter into it, and you sue. Or if you want the contract, you enter into it, and you’ve given up past releases. But I think our Omega* observation is you can’t have your cake and eat it too.”

You can listen to the entire video via YouTube above. Yates (NASCAR) begins at 15:30 and Kessler (23XI and FRM) at 31:00.

The teams and NASCAR are set to meet for a two-week trial in December. However, there are active counterclaims, with NASCAR filing a counterclaim on Apr. 17. Hopefully, this suit should be completed prior to the start of the 2026 season.

If the two teams lose this appeal, they will have to compete as open teams this season. We have covered this lawsuit extensively via the link below.

*Editors note: This is in reference to Omega World Travel vs TWA, a precedent case being used.

Let us know your thoughts! Join the discussion on Discord or X, and remember to follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube for more updates.

Rookie Lochie Hughes led all 35 laps of the Indianapolis Grand Prix Race 1 to earn his first career INDY NXT by Firestone victory on Friday on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course.

2024 USF Pro 2000 champion Hughes, from Australia, drove his No. 26 McGinley Clinic/USF Pro Championship car fielded by Andretti Global to victory by .7229 of a second over the No. 76 HMD Motorsports car of veteran Caio Collet.

SEE: Race Results

“This is an awesome weekend so far,” Hughes said. “I can’t thank the whole team enough. It’s been a tough jump to this series. It’s a big step from what I was in, so I’ve been playing catch-up for a while.

“It’s nice to finally get a win, especially around here. What a day. My parents are here, as well, this weekend, and they’re not usually here, so I think it’s the first time they’ll see me win in a long time because they don’t come over (to America) much. Pretty cool.”

Veteran Myles Rowe finished a career-best third in the No. 99 Abel/Force Indy machine. Callum Hedge (No. 17 Abel Motorsports) and Salvador de Alba (No. 27 Grupo Indi of Andretti Global) rounded out the top five.

Hughes started from the pole and opened a 1.6813-second lead before a caution on Lap 10 when Juan Manuel Correa and Niels Koolen went off course in Turn 1. Hughes then led the field to green on the Lap 12 restart and quickly built a 2.3395-second advantage by the halfway mark on Lap 18. His lead blossomed to 2.6693 seconds before teammate James Roe crashed in Turn 14 on Lap 29, collecting 16-year-old Nikita Johnson and triggering the second and final caution of the race.

Hughes kept the lead on a restart, this time on Lap 31, and held off Collet for victory. Andretti Global has won 12 of the last 14 INDY NXT by Firestone races, dating back to Race 2 of last year’s Indianapolis race weekend.

“I was pretty annoyed when I kept seeing the yellow come out,” Hughes said. “I was just trying to get a good jump off the last corner there and brake late into (Turn) 1 and make sure I don’t get passed.”

Hughes pulled to within three points of series leader and Andretti Global teammate Dennis Hauger with the victory. Hauger, who won the first two races of the season, finished eighth in the No. 28 Rental Group car.

Hauger started second but had contact with Hedge in Turn 1 on the opening lap, forcing his car off track. He returned to the racetrack last in the 21-car field. He steadily climbed through the day and was in 13th at the first caution and eighth by the second yellow.

Race 2 of the doubleheader, another 35-lap contest, starts at 1 p.m. ET Saturday on FS1, the FOX Sports app and the INDYCAR Radio Network. Hughes and Hauger once again will share the front row, with Hughes on the pole.

IndyNXT PR

Dade County High School’s Coed Varsity Bass Fishing team made waves this season — and none bigger than the performance of standout anglers River McBryar and Jake Harris, who were officially named Anglers of the Year at the Northwest Georgia High School Anglers Association’s end-of-season banquet on Thursday.

The talented pair clinched the top honor by finishing 1st place out of 58 total teams, representing 13 schools from across the region. Their consistent performances throughout the season earned them the highest cumulative score, showcasing not only their skill but also their dedication to the sport.

Held annually, the banquet recognizes outstanding achievement in high school bass fishing, a growing competitive sport that blends strategy, teamwork, and a deep respect for the outdoors. This year’s event celebrated a season of strong competition and camaraderie among young anglers.

The Northwest Georgia High School Anglers Association extended congratulations to all participants, praising the sportsmanship and effort of every student who competed.

As the season concludes, Dade County High’s bass fishing program can take pride in its growing success — and look forward to another year of casting, competing, and conquering.

CLAREMONT, N.H. — Claremont Motorsports Park is excited to announce that the highly anticipated Summer Six-Pack Series for the R.E. Hinkley Superstreets will officially begin on Sunday, May 25, with the running of the Todd Martel Memorial. Originally scheduled for Friday, May 23, the event has been rescheduled to Sunday evening at 6 p.m.

Track management made the decision to move the event after evaluating the challenges of holding two major Superstreet races on the same weekend. Given the significant cost and effort involved for race teams, the move was made in the best interest of the competitors and to ensure a successful kickoff to the Summer Six-Pack Series.

“We want to give teams every opportunity to compete without having to stretch resources,” said track GM Mike Parks. “The Todd Martel Memorial deserves a great showing, and we believe Sunday night will deliver just that. This will be a 60 Lap $2,000 to win event”

The Summer Six-Pack Series promises to bring intense Super Street action to fans all season long, and the Todd Martel Memorial will set the tone with one of the most competitive fields of the year.

More information, including ticket pricing and full weekend schedule, will be released soon via Claremont Motorsports Park’s official channels.

KANSAS CITY, Kan. — One year ago, Chris Buescher was beaten by Kyle Larson at Kansas Speedway by the blink of the eye.

Less than a blink of an eye.

The official margin of victory for the spring race at the track was 0.001 seconds, the closest in NASCAR Cup Series history, and nobody has forgotten it. Not the way that Larson came slinging around the outside of Turns 3 and 4, nor how they were nose-to-nose at the wire, nor how broadcasters thought that Buescher had held him off for the win.

“Certainly at that moment, thought we got it just by my eye,” Buescher recalled this week. “I was probably a little biased.”

It wasn’t until they had nearly finished their cool-down lap that Larson learned he had won.

And that Buescher learned he had not.

“At the end of the day, it was, you know — it was ‘that’ close, right?” Buescher said. “Like I said, played a lot of things in our head that week on what we would have done different, and maybe it would have ended in a different result. But ultimately, it doesn’t matter until we have a chance to replay it.”

They get that chance on Sunday when the Cup Series returns to Kansas Speedway.

Larson is off to another sensational start to the season, with wins at Homestead and Bristol, and three consecutive top-5 runs after his fourth-place finish last week at Texas. He’s the betting favorite to repeat at Kansas and start a busy three-week stretch that includes another shot at the “the Double” — the Indy 500 and Coca-Cola 600 on the same day later this month.

Buescher hasn’t had nearly the same success. His best finish has been a fifth at Phoenix, and in the last three races, he has not finished better than 18th, which is where he put his Ford for RFK Racing last week at Texas.

But perhaps a return to the Heartland will turn around some fortunes. Forget for a moment that he was oh-so-close to winning at Kansas last year, and remember that he not only finished second in the spring but ran a strong 11th in the fall race.

He also had a strong run at Kansas in 2015, when he won the Xfinity Series championship.

Buescher recalled that season this week when he was thinking back to last year’s run at Kansas. Sure, his crew may have been celebrating in his pit stall, thinking he had beaten Larson to the line. But the fella behind the wheel refused to begin celebrating until everything became official — which, of course, turned out to be a good idea.

“I’m not one to celebrate too early, because I just have bad feelings all the time,” Buescher said. “I go back to our championship in Xfinity in 2015. We went into the race, we had to finish 13th, I believe was the number, no matter what (Chase) Elliott did, and we finish that race — no matter what, it was a lock. And I was being yelled at for racing, you know? For trying to pass for sixth or seventh. I was being yelled at by everybody.

“Anyway, we come across the line and we finished the top 10, I think. And you know, it was better than 13th, I know that. And I knew it at the time. So I knew we were done. And I still couldn’t bring myself to celebrate until somebody said something.”

Buescher knows he will always be part of Cup Series history after that photo-finish a year ago. It edged the 2003 spring race at Darlington, where Ricky Craven and Kurt Busch banged doors for the lead, as the closest in Cup Series history. The margin in that case was 0.002 seconds, or double the time between Larson and Buescher at Kansas.

The spring race at Talladega in 2011 also had a 0.002-second margin when Jimmie Johnson beat Clint Bowyer to the finish line.

“We’re chasing a thousandth of a second every week. … You’re chasing fractions all the time. Ultimately, it’s what we signed up to do,” Buescher said. “If it was 1,000th of a second for fifth and sixth, it wouldn’t have stung. But you know, for a win, it makes you relive it for a little bit. But again, it’s just, it’s our world, right? We are always chasing these minute details.”

1 of 3

Jim Tonseth demonsttrats how he uses the spatula, once he has dipped it in the paint, to drtizzle it over the tire, which is placed on the Lazy Susan. — Karen Kistler

Jim Tonseth shows several types of his artwork, on tread, at left and a NASCAR tire sidewall. — Karen Kistler

Jim Tonseth shows the original tire to the finished painted piece of artwork. — Karen Kistler

Karen Kistler

karen.kistler@salisburypost.com

SALISBURY — Driving for a career delivering horse trailers was a blast for Jim Tonseth of Salisbury. It was something he loved doing, but on Jan. 1, 2020, that all changed. His career path took a different turn — into the world of art.

It was the day before on Dec. 31 that he returned home from Missouri after dropping off a trailer. He and wife Phyllis had gone to sleep early, and Jim woke up the next day, completely blind, with just a huge white cloud in front of his face.

“I could see absolutely nothing, which is terrifying,” he said.

Tests followed with the diagnosis of mild sleep apnea which had damaged the optic nerve, which had been starved of oxygen, he said. He was told he might get his sight back in six to eight months but that was not a guarantee.

Wanting a second opinion, they went to Duke University where, following hours of testing and an MRI ruling out a tumor or other causes, the answer was the same — mild sleep apnea.

This, said Tonseth, was happening when COVID was going on, “so getting a sleep study to get a CPAP machine was next to impossible.” 

It was scheduled, postponed and rescheduled. When it finally happened, it revealed he had mild sleep apnea, and the same process for the sleep lab.

However, he now has the machine and while he said it was a challenge in the beginning, he is used to it and “now it’s no big deal at all.” The result has definitely been, as he said, “life changing.”

Before that day in January 2020, Tonseth had intended on cutting down on the amount of driving he did, which was about 4,000 miles a week.

That all ended and he said it took him about three and a half to four years to get his head straight as he went from completely sighted to completely blind, plus he has to rely on somebody else all the time.

When he drove for a living, he was also involved in another business — We Recycle Tires, which made things out of old NASCAR racing tires. It made about 80 different items, Tonseth said, with one of the major being rubber fencing for horses. Other items included silage cover weights for dairy farmers, mouse pads, Christmas ornaments and keychains.

“Literally anything you can think of to reuse the material rather than throw it away,” he said.

Things changed in 2008 when the economy crashed, he said, and sales went way down.

He noted that his best friend and partner is handling their concession business in Florida. For Tonseth, since losing his sight, things are more difficult and he is doing other things with the material.

And one of those things is using the sidewalls as a painting canvas.

Having gotten back about 95 percent of his sight, Tonseth can see things that are large and high contrast, but what is right before him is just a blur.

“If it’s small stuff, that doesn’t work, it’s just a blur,” he said.

He has some custom-built glasses similar to a telescope, thinking he might be able to use these to drive again, he said.

Using them, he said he could “see 500 yards down the road clear but when you’re looking through a telescope, it’s that small” and that he “could change the focal point but it’s very small. There’s no peripheral stuff.” 

So not wanting to endanger himself and others, he decided to forfeit his license. He came to the decision to start what was originally planned for 2020 and that was to use his creative talents, something he has been gifted with all his life, and “merged my tire stuff with painting.”

The process begins with a whole tire, and the sidewalls are cut out “because of the space it takes up,” he said.

These tires are old NASCAR racing tires, he explained as he held one before it was painted. It showed the markings on it, revealing that it was a right rear tire from a race in Atlanta, and it was a qualifying set, he said.

He has been collecting tires for many years, and has quite the collection to use for his artwork.

“I have a huge warehouse with about 20,000 tires right now, down from 70,000,” he said. ”Over 30 years, you collect a lot and sell a lot.”

Once the tire is cut, he cleans it with chemicals to get rid of the oil or any other debris it might have picked up on the track.

Then, a base coat of paint is applied to the tire, one that he said “will adhere to it because rubber doesn’t take paint very well unless you condition it, put stuff on it to make that happen. We have a special paint that we use and paint the whole thing.”

A classically trained artist, having received his degree from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, Tonseth knew what to do. The problem is, he said, “all that training, I can’t use it because I can’t see.” He was inspired by the artist Jackson Pollock and his style, which is called “action painting, which is basically throwing or splashing paint onto canvases,” something he became famous for.

He also noted that he is basically using enamel paint, “primarily because that was what Pollock used.”

And while Pollock’s paint was oil based, Tonseth is using water based, because it’s easier for him. 

“It’s a whole lot easier for someone who is blind to work with it because it’s easier to wash off,” he said.

As for Tonseth, he said he is inspired by what Pollock did because “I can actually see it, a lot of it. I can’t see a bunch, but a lot of it I can see because there’s high contrast.”

The actual painting process is done on a lazy Susan platform he made to place the tire or a canvas on and he turns it. He uses a small spatula, which he dips into the paint and drizzles it over the tire as it turns.

He said, “I want the major portion to flow. I don’t want it to be really heavy or thick and then I will drizzle and try to watch what I’m doing. The initial colors are easy to see because there’s high contrast because this is painted white and with white and any color I can see that.”

He also uses silicone spoons for bigger canvases and has all sorts of different items.

For one piece, he told how he did one part with a brush and other parts were done with a spatula. Dots on the top layer were made by him putting his hands in the paint, and making sure it was streaming off but “literally dribbling over the top. That’s why there’s actually no pattern to that and there’s no consistency,” he said, adding that he loves this particular style of painting.

As for how he knows the painting is complete and it’s how he wants it to look, he said, “a lot of it is actually just divine guidance really because I can’t see a lot of what I’m doing.” So he just waits for that guidance as he is drizzling the paint.

“And basically, it’s going to sound weird,” he said, but “I listen to the sound of the paint and it’s telling me when there’s enough. It sounds really, really weird, probably is to most normal people, but when you lose one sense the other ones get kind of accentuated. They don’t take over,” but he said he concentrates more.

Prior to his going blind, Tonseth said he had bought many supplies such as canvases, paint and alcohol ink which he intended to use. His plan, he said, “got kind of wiped out and what I’ve since done after going through the depression that goes with losing your sight, I’ve finally gotten back to doing something.”

When he paints, Tonseth said that is doing a process of putting layers on the tire or canvas and letting it dry. “I do not want the paint to actually mix together for what I’ve been doing so far.”

When wet paint is on top of another layer that is wet, he said you can have a chemical reaction, something he tries to avoid happening.

As for how long it takes to complete a piece, he said it depends on the layers and the time it takes to dry. He typically lets it dry four hours between layers.

For example, he said a piece that has 12-15 layers may take over a week.

And then once the piece is dry, he lets it dry for another 24 hours before putting two coats of varnish on it.

“The varnish actually brings out the pigments in the colors a whole lot brighter as well as protects the surface from damage,” said Tonseth. “Once the varnish is on there, the surface is a whole lot tougher.”

He has plans for additional paintings, he said, “where I’m basically setting up parameters for stuff to happen with machines like a giant pendulum machine as well as a giant spin machine and then combining both of those to do incredibly unique canvases of painting. I’m not really painting it, I’m pretty much setting up what can occur and then letting nature take its course.” 

He has the materials to build these machines and is in the process of building this equipment.

“The problem is, I need eyes to do it,” he said. He’s had some help, but would like to get someone who has basic mechanical skills who can help and hopes to work on these machines this summer.

When asked what he wants people to learn from seeing his work, he said, first, you can paint on anything, noting the tires and he also uses the tread to paint on. He has  also painted on frisbees and record albums.

Secondly, he said, “anybody I believe can do this.”

Tonseth has done several shows and anticipates one later in the fall with Carolina Artists and plans to have several pieces of his rubber artwork and the remainder would be new items.

In addition to his painting, he said he also “stays very active watching art-related YouTube videos of other folks and what they are doing, getting inspired by some of them.”