HMD Motorsports proudly announces that Davey Hamilton Jr. will join the team for the oval portion of the 2025 INDY NXT by Firestone season. Building on his rich family legacy and impressive racing background, Hamilton Jr. will pilot the HMD entry at the upcoming two oval test days and four oval races.

“I’m extremely excited for this opportunity with HMD Motorsports,” explained Hamilton, who has added several partners to his racing efforts. “Oval racing is in my blood, and getting back into the INDY NXT series with a strong team is a big step. I’m grateful to everyone at HMD Motorsports for the chance to be back behind the wheel, and  I’m ready to get to work and make the most of this campaign. A huge thank you to all the partners I have behind me to help make this program possible.”

A third-generation racer, Open Wheel Showdown Promoter, and son of INDYCAR veteran Davey Hamilton, Davey Hamilton Jr. brings deep oval racing roots to the HMD Motorsports lineup. With experience in sprint cars, supermodifieds, and prior INDY NXT oval tests at the Nashville Superspeedway, Hamilton Jr. aims to make a substantial impact as he returns to the series.

Mike Maurini, President of HMD Motorsports added, “We’re happy to welcome Davey Hamilton Jr. to our team for the oval races this season. His background and experience on ovals make him a great fit for this program. He completed two test days, one in 2024 and one in 2025, in Nashville, and showed great improvement year-over-year. His goals are realistic, and that is the best approach to have as we head into an oval-heavy portion of our campaign.”

Hamilton Jr. will debut with HMD Motorsports at the upcoming INDY NXT oval events at the World Wide Technology Raceway, Iowa Speedway, Milwaukee Mile, and Nashville Superspeedway. Davey will also take part in the June 9th test in Iowa as well as the June 24th test in Milwaukee.

Please be sure to follow HMD Motorsports on Facebook, X, and Instagram by searching @HMDMotorsports. For more information on HMD Motorsports visit HMDMotorsports.com or email [email protected].

HMD Motorsports PR

With Kyle Larson preparing to run the 2025 Indy 500, Justin Allgaier will pilot the No. 5 Chevrolet for practice and qualifying ahead of Sunday’s NASCAR All-Star Race at North Wilkesboro Speedway. Larson will be at Indianapolis Motor Speedway for testing and qualifying.

All-Star practice and qualifying takes place Friday. As was the case last year when Kevin Harvick drove the car, Allgaier will not be eligible to take part in the race itself. If Larson can’t make it back to North Wilkesboro in time for the race, the No. 5 team will not compete.

While not having Larson is less than ideal, fortunately for Hendrick Motorsports, there’s plenty of familiarity with Allgaier. Larson attempted the Indy-Charlotte Double last year. The Indy 500 started late due to weather, forcing NASCAR to start the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway without Larson. Allgaier drove the car for the full 249 laps of the rain-shortened race, finishing 13th.

Larson made it to the racetrack just before the rain but never got to complete a single lap. Nonetheless, the experience for Allgaier should help him this time around.

“We’re fortunate to have Justin and we appreciate him stepping in to help,” said Cliff Daniels, crew chief for the No. 5 team. “He and Kyle are very similar in size, so there’s a lot in the cockpit that’s common between the two.”

Justin Allgaier earns opportunity to run laps at North Wilkesboro

Allgaier, who drives the No. 7 car for JR Motorsports in the Xfinity Series, is the series’ reigning champion. The 38-year-old is off to a hot start in 2025, atop the points standings with two wins and eight top 5s in 12 starts. Allgaier has led a series-high 434 laps. He ran the Daytona 500 this year in JRM’s No. 40 entry, bringing the car across the start/finish line P9.

North Wilkesboro is obviously a far different track than Charlotte or Daytona. The 0.625-mile short track will be challenging, and communication will be key, Daniels said.

“I think no matter what there’s going to be a general progression of balance from Friday through Sunday,” Daniels said. “The track is going to take more rubber. Friday, the groove is going to be a bit more narrow and Sunday I think it’s going to open up a bit. So, there’s still some changes regardless of Justin or Kyle that we would plan to progress through throughout the weekend.

“At the end of the day, I just want to make sure Justin is comfortable in what he feels and he, of course, trusts the feedback he’s going to give us. If there’s something he can provide to us to make the car faster, we’re going to listen. We’re going to do those little things and then we’re going to kind of stick to a little bit of what we think the track is going to evolve through, throughout the weekend.”

The post Hendrick Motorsports names Justin Allgaier as Kyle Larson replacement driver for All-Star practice and qualifying appeared first on On3.

INDYCAR

HMD Motorsports announced May 14 that Davey Hamilton Jr. will join the team for the oval portion of the 2025 INDY NXT by Firestone season.

Hamilton will drive the HMD entry at the upcoming two oval test days and four oval races.

“I’m extremely excited for this opportunity with HMD Motorsports,” Hamilton said. “Oval racing is in my blood, and getting back into the INDY NXT series with a strong team is a big step. I’m grateful to everyone at HMD Motorsports for the chance to be back behind the wheel, and I’m ready to get to work and make the most of this campaign. A huge thank you to all the partners I have behind me to help make this program possible.”

Hamilton is a third-generation racer and son of INDYCAR SERIES veteran Davey Hamilton. He brings deep oval racing roots to the HMD Motorsports lineup with experience in sprint cars, supermodifieds and prior INDY NXT oval tests at Nashville Superspeedway.

“We’re happy to welcome Davey Hamilton Jr. to our team for the oval races this season,” HMD Motorsports President Mike Maurini said. “His background and experience on ovals make him a great fit for this program. He completed two test days, one in 2024 and one in 2025, in Nashville, and showed great improvement year over year. His goals are realistic, and that is the best approach to have as we head into an oval-heavy portion of our campaign.”

Hamilton will debut with HMD Motorsports at the upcoming INDY NXT oval events at World Wide Technology Raceway (June 15), Iowa Speedway (July 12), Milwaukee Mile (Aug. 24) and Nashville Superspeedway (Aug. 31). He also will take part in the June 9 test at Iowa and the June 24 test in Milwaukee.

When I asked Kyle Busch last week about what lap he thought that North Wilkesboro (N.C.) Speedway track owner Marcus Smith would call for the caution during the all-star race, Busch had a funny line.

“Do we want to put money on if I create a natural caution, or I let Marcus [Smith] throw a caution?” Busch quipped. “It depends on how far Kyle Larson’s out leading the race.”

It’s easy to laugh at the All-Star race format because it is supposed to be gimmicky. Yes, it is for $1 million to the winning team, but it is designed to be a special event that gets people talking.

And in that way, let’s hope it accomplishes that feat. And nothing more. There doesn’t need to be a mystery caution that will be thrown during a race that actually counts in the standings.

For those who need a refresher, here’s the format for the weekend:

— Qualifying will be on Friday. There will be three laps with a four-tire pit stop after the second lap. The total time will determine the lineup for the Open and All-Star heats. The pit stop time will determine the order of pit selection (and the winner of the pit-stop challenge). While in the past the Open teams did traditional qualifying, this year they will do a pit stop, and they will be eligible for pit-stop competition awards.

— For drivers automatically in the All-Star race, they will compete in 75-lap heat races on Saturday. The first heat race will determine the inside lane of the main event; the second heat race the outside lane.

For drivers not automatically in the all-star race, they compete Sunday in the Open, a 100-lap race (competition caution at Lap 50) with the top-two finishers making the All-Star Race and then another advancing through the fan vote. The top-five drivers as of Monday in the fan vote were (in alphabetical order): Noah Gragson, Carson Hocevar, Ryan Preece, Shane van Gisbergen and Bubba Wallace.

— The All-Star race is a 250-lap event. There will be a competition caution on Lap 100. And then sometime before Lap 220, Smith (chairman of track operator Speedway Motorsports) can throw the caution. If he doesn’t before Lap 200 and then a natural caution occurs, he won’t have the option to throw another caution before Lap 220.

The idea is that the promoter of the race can try to bunch up the field when he wants. And the teams won’t know when that will be, possibly forcing them to make strategic decisions.

It’s already the case that we never know if there will be a caution (except at designated stage breaks) on a typical race weekend. So there is an element of the unknown every week. But if a driver appears on his way to a relatively drama-free $1 million — well, this promoter’s caution could add some drama.

A purist would believe this to be bogus. But it’s not like there is some question about whether a caution is necessary at certain times during any race weekend.

In general, NASCAR shouldn’t be putting competition decisions in the track operator’s hands. That’s NASCAR’s job.

If they really wanted to make it fun, they’d let fans choose when to flip the caution lights. Fans vote a driver in, so why not just add it to that selection process? Of course, that wouldn’t be able to take into consideration the real-time factors of the race.

All-Star events are tough for most sports, as they try to figure out what will resonate with fans. So try this and see if it works? Sure. But NASCAR also has a history of taking elements introduced in the All-Star race and implementing them into the standard competition rules. This shouldn’t be one of them.

Bob Pockrass covers NASCAR and INDYCAR for FOX Sports. He has spent decades covering motorsports, including over 30 Daytona 500s, with stints at ESPN, Sporting News, NASCAR Scene magazine and The (Daytona Beach) News-Journal. Follow him on Twitter @bobpockrass.

Todd Gilliland and the No. 34 Overplay Ford Team
North Wilkesboro Speedway Competition Notes
NASCAR All-Star Race
Date: Sunday, May 18, 2025
Event: Race 14 of 38
Series: NASCAR Cup Series
Location: North Wilkesboro Speedway (0.625-miles)
#of Laps: 250
Time/TV/Radio: 8:00 PM ET on FS1/MRN/SiriusXM channel 90

Todd Gilliland Notes

All-Star weekend is here as the NASCAR Cup Series takes a short drive to the North Wilkesboro Speedway for the series’ annual All-Star race. For Todd Gilliland, the 24-year-old driver must race his way into the main event in the All-Star Open race on Sunday at 5:30 pm ET.

Overplay— the world’s first user-generated gaming platform where anyone can make games from videos—will team up with FRM and Gilliland at the speedway. Founded by seasoned interactive media executives Dan Projansky and Caroline Strzalka, Overplay aims to democratize game development and make it accessible to everyone. By downloading the Overplay app users can gamify their lives instantly! The platform already has hundreds of thousands of downloads and millions of games played. Overplay was also featured in Season 15 of Shark Tank where the company struck a deal with billionaire investor Mark Cuban.

“The All-Star race is kind of like the kickoff to the 600 with all the activities surrounding the weekend,” said Gilliland. “We’ll have to race our way into the main event, but with the speed we have been bringing the past couple of races, I think we have a good shot to make the big show.”

Road Crew

Driver: Todd Gilliland

Hometown: Sherrills Ford, North Carolina

Crew Chief: Chris Lawson

Hometown: Medway, Ohio

Car Chief: Joe Marra

Hometown: Somers, New York

Engineer: Marc Rullo

Hometown: Ringwood, New Jersey

Engineer: Kevyn Rebolledo

Hometown: Mooresville, North Carolina

Spotter: Brit Andersen

Hometown: Branford, Connecticut

Underneath Mechanic: Michael Brookes

Hometown: Columbus, Ohio

Interior Mechanic: Chance Burke

Hometown: Siler City, North Carolina

Tire Specialist: Billy John

Hometown: Pitman, New Jersey

Engine Tuner: Tim Meyer

Hometown: Beatrice, Nebraska

Transporter Driver: Christian Boller

Hometown: Mooresville, North Carolina

Pit Crew

Front Tire Changer: Danny Olszowy

Hometown: Lexington, Kentucky

Rear Tire Changer: Justin Fox

Hometown: Concord, North Carolina

Tire Carrier: Paul Steele

Hometown: Wichita, Kansas

Jackman: Landon Honeycutt

Hometown: Mount Pleasant, North Carolina

Fueler: Zeke Nance

Hometown: Calhoun, Georgia

ABOUT OVERPLAY

Overplay is a user-generated gaming platform that gives users the ability to create their own games from short videos and share them with the world instantly. Founded by seasoned interactive media executives Dan Projansky and Caroline Strzalka, Overplay aims to democratize game development and make it accessible to everyone. The platform has generated over 2 million games played and well over 300,000 app downloads. Overplay is backed by venture capitalists N29 Capital Partners, Village Global, Gaingels, Sound Media Ventures, Plus Eight Equity Partners, Red & Blue Ventures, Band of Angels, Stampede Ventures, Outlander Capital, Singularity Capital, Everyrealm, Adobe Fund for Design, as well as angels from Warner Brothers and Riot Games. For more information, please visit overplay.com.

ABOUT FRONT ROW MOTORSPORTS

Front Row Motorsports (FRM) is a winning organization in the NASCAR Cup and Craftsman Truck Series. The team is the 2021 Daytona 500 and 2022 Craftsman Truck Series champions. The team was founded in 2004 and is owned by successful entrepreneur, Bob Jenkins. FRM fields the No. 4, No. 34, and the No. 38 NASCAR Cup Series teams along with the No. 34 and No. 38 Craftsman Truck Series teams from its Mooresville, N.C. headquarters. Visit teamfrm.com and follow FRM on social media: Twitter at @Team_FRM, Instagram at @teamfrm and Facebook at facebook.com/FrontRowMotorsports.