(Ben Earp/Ben Earp Photography via AP)
An MLB Speedway Classic Open House Event marked the construction of a baseball field at Bristol Motor Speedway in Bristol, Tenn., on Tuesday.

NASCAR driver Ricky Stenhouse Jr. advises the Cincinnati Reds and Atlanta Braves to watch a couple of night races at Bristol Motor Speedway before the Speedway Classic. Once at the racetrack, he recommends a walk up the banked walls to truly appreciate the half-mile bullring.

MLB’s Speedway Classic on Aug. 2 means either the Reds or Braves will win at Bristol before Stenhouse reaches victory lane at his favorite track. He still plans to watch as they play an MLB game on a ballpark built inside the Bristol infield.

“Hopefully, if they get one over the wall, kind of see where that ball ends up landing,” Stenhouse said of the track where going over the wall usually means injuries and ambulances. “But, yeah, just a really cool venue and something that I’ll be looking forward to watching.”

Two-time Daytona 500 winner Michael Waltrip, now a Fox racing analyst, said search his 1990 crash where his car disintegrated after hitting a wall to learn how challenging Bristol can be.

He joined Stenhouse, former Braves centerfielder Andruw Jones, 2009 World Series champ Nick Swisher and three-time All-Star Reds first baseman and now MLB Network analyst Sean Casey in promoting the first MLB game in the state of Tennessee.

Waltrip said the banking of the track has to be seen to be believed and is a big part of its intensity.

“The banking is straight up,” Waltrip said. “You can barely climb up it, and it’s condensed down to a half-mile track. So you’re just constantly in the corners and speeds upwards of 150 miles an hour. It’s just crazy how precise and how technical you have to be to be successful there.”

Trying to hit a baseball might be a bit easier than stepping into a racecar at Bristol. At those speeds, Stenhouse said he forgot to breathe for 10 laps his first time there.

Bristol still has tickets available for an event that will feature a pregame concert with Tim McGraw and Pitbull. A fan zone outside the track will feature more music, a 110-foot Ferris wheel, a food truck row, pitching tunnels and batting cages and team mascots.

“It’s going to be one of those special nights that goes down in history,” said Jerry Caldwell, president of Bristol Motor Speedway. “People are going to want to be there and want to be a part of it or tune in on Fox and take in this event.”

Casey played in a March 2008 exhibition between the Red Sox and Dodgers at Los Angeles Coliseum that drew 115,300 for the largest crowd ever to see a baseball game. Casey said this crossover gives baseball fans a reason to check out Bristol and NASCAR fans the chance to see something different.

Players like Reds shortstop Elly De La Cruz and Atlanta outfielder Ronald Acuña Jr. will get an experience to remember.

“These guys that are going to be able to have that memory of playing at Bristol, it’s going to be a one of a kind thing,” Casey said.

Stenhouse said he played some wiffle ball during the last stop in Bristol. NASCAR will be in Iowa with a Cup race Aug. 3, but he hopes to sneak over from his North Carolina home for a chance to hit some hard balls over the fence at Bristol — or pitch off the mound.

“I hit a wiffle ball over the fence,” Stenhouse said. “Yeah, it would be cool to get there and take the field in all at the same time.”

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AP Baseball Writer Ron Blum contributed to this report from New York.

Carson Hocevar made the fourth of his four planned starts in the NASCAR Truck Series this past Friday at Pocono Raceway, and the Kansas Speedway winner from last month placed 13th just two weeks after finishing in 11th at Michigan International Speedway.

Hocevar, who also competed in the Truck Series at Texas Motor Speedway last month, has driven the No. 7 Chevrolet for Spire Motorsports, the team for which he competes full-time in the Cup Series, in all four of his starts this year.

This weekend, the Truck Series is set to head to Lime Rock Park for its first ever race at the seven-turn, 1.53 miles (2.462-kilometer) natural terrain road course in Lakeville, Connecticut.

The LiUNA! 150 is the first of three road course races on the 25-race 2025 schedule, and Hocevar will not be driving the No. 7 Chevrolet in it.

Carson Hocevar confirmed at Lime Rock Park

Instead, Spire Motorsports have turned to IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship driver Jordan Taylor to drive the No. 7 truck this Saturday afternoon.

Taylor, a three-time IMSA champion, has made three NASCAR national series starts, all in 2023, but he has never before competed in the Truck Series.

Two years ago, he ran the Cup Series race at Circuit of the Americas and the Xfinity Series races at Portland International Raceway and the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval, recording finishes of 24th, 27th, and 16th place, respectively.

Though Hocevar does not currently have any Truck Series starts lined up for the remainder of the year, the No. 7 truck is still without a confirmed driver for eight of the 10 remaining races on the schedule after this weekend. Additionally, Hocevar is not restricted to five Truck Series races per year, given the fact that he does not yet have three years of full-time Cup Series experience.

Hocevar is set to be at Atlanta Motor Speedway on Saturday night for the Cup Series race, the Quaker State 400. He finished in a career-high second place at the track in February.

Four Classes Join The Premier Superbike Series As Ridge Motorsports Park
Plays Host To MotoAmerica, June 27-29.

IRVINE, CA – June 25, 2025 – (Motor Sports NewsWire) – Although there have been four different race winners in the first three rounds of the 2025 Motovation Supersport season, the cream of a year ago has already risen to the top, giving us another PJ Jacobsen vs. Mathew Scholtz slugfest as the series heads to the Pacific Northwest for round four at Ridge Motorsports Park, June 27-29.

PJ Jacobsen leads the Motovation Supersport Championship as the series heads to Ridge Motorsports Park in Shelton, Washington, June 27-29. Photo by Brian J. Nelson

The name at the top of the heap is Jacobsen and his Rahal Ducati Moto w/XPEL Ducati Panigale V2, with the New Yorker consistently fast with two wins, three seconds, and a third, which translates to him finishing on the podium in all six races.

Scholtz and his Strack Racing Yamaha YZF-R9 have also won two races, but his non-wins haven’t been as strong as Jacobsen’s, with two thirds, a fourth, and a fifth. The South African rolls into Shelton, Washington, trailing Jacobsen by 20 points.

Vision Wheel M4 ECSTAR Suzuki’s Tyler Scott hasn’t won a race yet in 2025, but you can sense that it’s coming. And he needs it, as he can’t let the top two get much farther ahead and still have a fighting chance in the championship. Scott is coming off a good weekend at Road America with a second in race one and a fifth in race two. He heads to round four 46 points behind Jacobsen and 26 in arrears of Scholtz.

Scholtz’s teammate Blake Davis is the third rider to win a Motovation Supersport race, with the youngster arriving at Ridge fresh off a race-two victory at Road America. Unfortunately, Davis crashed out of race one. The 19-year-old is two points behind Scott in the battle for third.

The fourth rider to win a race is BPR Racing’s Josh Hayes, with the four-time AMA Superbike Champion winning in the rain in the second race of the year at Road Atlanta. Hayes had a miserable Road America and has dropped down to eighth in the title chase.

Altus Motorsports’ Jake Lewis was happy to see Road America in his rear-view mirror, with the Kentuckian’s size always a problem at the track in Elkhart Lake. Lewis salvaged two seventh-place finishes to hold on to fifth in the championship, just two points ahead of Celtic/Economy Lube+Tire/Warhorse HSBK Ducati’s Cameron Petersen, with the South African scoring his first podium finish of the year in race two with his second-place finish.

Petersen is just four points ahead of Rahal Ducati Moto w/XPEL’s Kayla Yaakov and 10 ahead of Hayes.

SC-Project Twins Cup – Back To Work 

The last time the SC-Project Twins Cup racers turned a wheel in anger was way back on April 4 at Barber Motorsports Park, which means that many of them haven’t raced a motorcycle since then.

Alessandro Di Mario isn’t among them, as the Robem Engineering-backed Kentuckian has been competing and is leading the Parts Unlimited Talent Cup By Motul Championship. But this coming weekend, Di Mario will be back on his Aprilia RS 660 in an effort to successfully defend his 2024 Twins Cup title.

So far, so good for Di Mario, as he leads the title chase heading to Ridge by 19 points over RevZilla/Motul/Vance & Hines Suzuki’s Matthew Chapin.

Chapin leads the way in race wins with his two victories from Daytona back in March, but he has a non-score in race two at Barber, while Di Mario has been both fast and consistent with a win and three second-place finishes.

Giaccmoto Yamaha Racing’s Dominic Doyle is third in the championship by just five points over Bad Boys Racing’s Avery Dreher and seven over Koch Racing’s Sean Ungvarsky.

Parts Unlimited Talent Cup By Motul race winner Hank Vossberg will make his SC-Project Twins Cup debut at Ridge Motorsports Park on a Robem Engineering Aprilia RS 660.

The top three in the championship are racing motorcycles from three different manufacturers – Aprilia, Suzuki, and Yamaha.

Mission Super Hooligan National Championship – Lewis Red Hot 

Saddlemen Race Development’s Jake Lewis heads to the Pacific Northwest with the hot hand in the Mission Super Hooligan National Championship. Lewis has won three of the four races held thus far in 2025 – race two at Daytona International Speedway and a doubleheader sweep at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta.

The three wins put him atop the championship standings by 15 points over his teammate Travis Wyman, who in turn is just five points ahead of his younger brother Cody and his KWR Harley-Davidson Pan America.

Saddlemen Race Development’s defending class champion Cory West is the only rider other than Lewis to win a race (race one at Daytona) and he’s currently fourth in the title chase, a point behind Cody Wyman and 21 points behind Lewis.

Giaccmoto Yamaha Racing’s Dominic Doyle is the first non-Harley in the championship point standings. Doyle and his Yamaha MT-09 SP are fifth in the title chase.

Royal Enfield Build.Train.Race. – Tripleheader! 

The women of the Royal Enfield Build.Train.Race. program will race three times this weekend at Ridge Motorsports Park to make up for the race that was pushed off the schedule by inclement weather at Barber Motorsports Park in April.

With three races on their scorecard thus far in 2025, Miranda Cain is atop the point standings, with the Road America race-two winner leading Kira Knebel by four points in what promises to be a hotly contested championship.

Knebel is the only multi-time winner so far in 2025, with her wins coming in the lone Barber race and the recent race one at Road America.

Shea MacGregor is only six points out of the lead in third, with her two second-place finishes putting her just four points clear of Camille Conrad and eight ahead of Cassie Creer, who rounds out the top five in the championship as the series has its first tripleheader at Ridge.

Pre-Ridge Motorsports Park Notes… 

Last year’s race at Ridge Motorsports Park was the fifth round of the MotoAmerica Championship, and Mathew Scholtz left the Pacific Northwest with four wins in a row, including his two at Ridge. Scholtz beat PJ Jacobsenand Kayla Yaakov to win race one prior to the controversial race two in which Scholtz and Jacobsen came together, with the latter crashing out of the race. Scholtz was able to carry on, beating Yaakov and Tyler Scott. 

Cody Wyman and Jake Lewis were the winners in the two Mission Super Hooligan National Championship races at Ridge. Wyman beat Hayden Schultz and Tyler O’Hara in race one, with Lewis topping O’Hara and Cory West in race two.

Mikayla Moore won both races in the Royal Enfield Build.Train.Race. program at Ridge in 2024, beating Camille Conrad and Kira Knebel in race one and Lauren Prince and Aubrey Credaroli in race two. 

The SC-Project Twins Cup class didn’t race at Ridge last year, but Dominic Doyle and Rocco Landers emerged victorious in the two races in 2023.

PJ Jacobsen leads all active Supersport racers on the all-time MotoAmerica Supersport wins list with 13 career victories. That puts him sixth all-time and just one behind Josh Herrin (fifth) and two behind Richie Escalante (fourth). The all-time wins leader in the class is JD Beach with 32 career victories.

Seven riders have won Mission Super Hooligan National Championship races in the four-year history of the class: Tyler O’Hara, Cory West, Jake Lewis, Andy Di Brino, Jeremy McWilliams, Cody Wyman, and Troy Herfoss. O’Hara leads the way with eight wins.

About MotoAmerica

MotoAmerica is North America’s premier motorcycle road racing series. Established in 2014, MotoAmerica is home to the AMA Superbike Championship as well as additional classes including Supersport, Stock 1000, Twins Cup, Talent Cup, Super Hooligan National Championship, and King Of The Baggers. MotoAmerica is an affiliate of KRAVE Group LLC, a partnership including three-time 500cc World Champion, two-time AMA Superbike Champion, and AMA Hall of Famer Wayne Rainey; ex-racer and former manager of Team Roberts Chuck Aksland; motorsports marketing executive Terry Karges; and businessman Richard Varner. For more information, please visit www.MotoAmerica.com, and MotoAmerica’s social platforms on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, and YouTube. To watch all things MotoAmerica, subscribe to MotoAmerica’s live streaming and video on-demand service, MotoAmerica Live+

Source: MotoAmerica

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CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — A federal judge on Wednesday ordered a dozen NASCAR teams to provide 11 years of financial data to the stock car series as part of an ongoing legal fight but sharply limited what they need to share.

A day after hearing arguments from both sides, U.S. District Judge Kenneth Bell of the Western District of North Carolina said the information will “allow NASCAR to have much of the arguably relevant substance of the requested information, while protecting the legitimate interests” of the 12 teams. They had raised concerns that the private financial details could end up being made public and would hurt competitive balance.

Under the decision, the teams must provide top-line data — total revenue, total costs, and net profits and losses — dating to 2014. The teams and NASCAR were ordered to settle on an independent accounting firm to handle the details by Friday, with that work paid for by NASCAR.

Earlier this week, attorneys for 12 of the 15 overall race teams argued against disclosing their financial records to become part of NASCAR’s antitrust lawsuit. They are not parties in the ongoing suit filed by 23XI Racing, which is owned by the NBA Hall Jordan and three-time Daytona 500 winner Denny Hamlin, and Front Row Motorsports, owned by entrepreneur Bob Jenkins.

23XI and Front Row are the only two organizations of the 15 that refused last September to sign take-it-or-leave offers on a new charter agreement. Charters are NASCAR’s version of a franchise model, with each charter guaranteeing entry to the lucrative Cup Series races and a stable revenue stream. Of the 13 teams that signed, only Kaulig Racing has submitted the financial documents NASCAR subpoenaed as part of discovery.

Teams have long argued that NASCAR is not financially viable and they need a greater revenue stream and a more permanent length on the charter agreements, which presently have expiration dates and can be revoked by NASCAR. Two years of negotiations ended last fall with 13 teams signing on and 23IX and FRM instead heading to court.

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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.

(Adobe Stock)

Attorneys for 12 of NASCAR’s 15 race teams argued in federal court Tuesday that disclosing their financial records to the stock car series would be “catastrophic” to competitive balance and warned that making such details public would put them all in danger.

The hearing was over a discovery dispute between NASCAR and the teams that are not parties in the ongoing antitrust suit filed by 23XI Racing, which is owned by retired NBA Hall of Famer Michael Jordan and three-time Daytona 500 winner Denny Hamlin, and Front Row Motorsports, owned by entrepreneur Bob Jenkins.

23XI and Front Row are the only two organizations out of the 15 that refused last September to sign take-it-or-leave offers on a new charter agreement. Charters are NASCAR’s version of a franchise model, with each charter guaranteeing entry to the lucrative Cup Series races and a stable revenue stream. Of the 13 teams that signed, only Kaulig Racing has submitted the financial documents NASCAR subpoenaed as part of discovery.

The other 12 organizations are fighting against releasing the information to NASCAR and even argued that NASCAR asking for them violates the charter agreement, which claims all disputes must go to arbitration.

U.S. District Judge Kenneth Bell of the Western District of North Carolina promised a quick ruling but, just like last week, seemed exasperated at the lengths being taken in this brawl that for now is heading toward a December trial.

“I am amazed at the effort going into burning this house down over everybody’s heads,” Bell said at the end of the nearly two-hour hearing. “But I’m the fire marshal and I will be here in December if need be.”

Attorneys for the teams say their financial records are private and there is no guarantee the information won’t be leaked; in a hearing last week, information learned in discovery was disclosed in open court.

“It would be absolutely devastating to these race teams if their competitors were able to find out sponsorships on the cars, driver salaries and all revenue streams,” attorney Adam Ross said. “It cannot make its way into the public realm.”

Ross said NASCAR has asked for 11 years of records and communications—including what Hendrick Motorsports spent on both its Garage 56 project building a car to race at the 24 Hours of Le Mans and the cost of Kyle Larson running both the Indianapolis 500 and the Coca-Cola 600 the last two seasons.

“NASCAR has gone a step too far,” Ross said.

NASCAR argued it needs the financials to understand profit margins and whether teams are actually unable to make ends meet under the charter agreement. NASCAR vowed to redact details to conceal team identities, a suggestion that was met with skepticism from team attorneys who contended it would be easy to connect the dots and, for example, figure out which contracts belong to, say, Team Penske.

Attorneys also argued that money is not often distributed equally across the board with each team. For example, Team Penske might use an engineer for a NASCAR team, an IndyCar team and a sports car team.

Bell asked NASCAR why it would not be satisfied with just “topline” numbers.

“Why is not enough to know it costs X to run a car?” Bell asked.

Attorneys for the 12 teams also noted that their clients are extremely uncomfortable to be dragged into the suit.

“This is the opposite of what they want—all the teams are torn to pieces that NASCAR wants them to disclose this information and they don’t want to upset NASCAR,” Ross said.

Teams have long argued that NASCAR is not financially viable and they needed multiple concessions, including a greater revenue stream and a more permanent length on the charter agreements. Those presently have expiration dates and can be revoked by NASCAR. Two years of negotiations ended last fall with 13 teams signing on but 23IX and FRM instead heading to court.

The hearing came one day after Bell declined to dismiss the teams’ request to toss out NASCAR’s countersuit, which accuses Jordan business manager Curtis Polk of using “cartel”-type tactics in the most recent round of charter neg