What’s Happening?

Arby’s is taking its NASCAR sponsorship in a new direction, announcing a mega deal with JR Motorsports that will see the brand serve as primary sponsor for eight different races during the 2026 NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series season.

NASCAR Studios today announced Kid Racers, an original feature-length documentary capturing one of the most raw, electric, and little-known corners of American motorsports. The film debuts Wednesday, December 17 at 7 p.m. ET, airing live and exclusively on The NASCAR Channel.

Filmed at the legendary Millbridge Speedway in Salisbury, N.C., Kid Racers follows five families and their fearless 8-and 9-year-old racers as they chase dreams on a red-clay track that has become a proving ground for NASCAR’s next generation. These kids, fresh out of car seats and already piloting winged Outlaw karts at 45–55 miles per hour, go head-to-head with the children of NASCAR greats including Kyle Busch, Kyle Larson, and Clint Bowyer. At Millbridge, the message is universal: “If you can win here, you can win anywhere.”

“Kid Racers shines a light on one of the most authentic and emotionally charged corners of our sport, where passion is born, families rally together, and the next generation of NASCAR talent takes shape,” said John Dahl, NASCAR SVP of Content. “This documentary captures the heart of our sport and we’re proud to debut it on The NASCAR Channel.”

The film spotlights five unforgettable young competitors:

• Tanner Tucker, the fierce 2022 season champion carrying his father’s unfinished NASCAR dream.
• Giselle Hicks, a fourth-generation racer learning to rise above doubt in a male-dominated class.
• Jackson Darnell, the analytical “nicest guy on the track,” with the instincts of a future broadcaster.
• Gabe Yacono, the track’s beloved sportsman, racing for the joy and community it brings.
• Chase DeMarco, a multi-talented racer and diehard fan overcoming late-season setbacks.

Kid Racers is directed by Cynthia Hill, the Peabody Award–winning and Emmy-nominated filmmaker known for several documentary projects including A Chef’s Life, Burden of Proof, Road to Race Day, and What Happened, Brittany Murphy?. It is executive produced by Tim Clark, John Dahl and Tally Hair from NASCAR Studios, and produced by Sandra Davidson.

The NASCAR Channel is NASCAR’s free ad-supported streaming television (FAST) network. It offers 24/7 programming with no subscription required and is available on The Roku Channel, Xumo Play, Tubi, Samsung TV Plus and Prime Video.

NASCAR PR

Chase Elliott’s No. 9 Chevrolet will look noticeably different when it hits the track next season, marking a dramatic visual shift tied to one of NASCAR’s most significant commercial partnerships.

Amazon Prime Video’s evolving role in the sport has now extended beyond broadcasts and into a refreshed paint scheme that reflects the streaming giant’s serious investment in NASCAR’s future.

Amazon Prime Video joined Hendrick Motorsports as a primary sponsor for Elliott beginning in 2025, aligning with its arrival as NASCAR’s first fully direct-to-consumer media partner, a move that sparked strong reactions from fans during its Coca-Cola 600 broadcast debut.

That debut scheme leaned heavily on blue and clean lines, making it instantly recognizable but also drawing comparisons to other similarly colored cars in the field. For 2026, those similarities are gone.

The updated design introduces darker tones, including black accents and added contrast, giving the car more depth and a sharper presence on track.

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The new look mirrors Prime Video’s expanding footprint in the Cup Series. The streamer will once again serve as a primary sponsor for select races, including Talladega, Texas and the All-Star Race, while continuing as a major broadcast partner.

Prime Video’s Cup Series coverage begins during the heart of the season, and the No. 9 car will again be used as a rolling promotion for the races carried exclusively on the platform.

Elliott has been a natural fit for a partner aiming to reach NASCAR’s broad and loyal fan base. The 30-year-old remains the series’ most popular driver, a title he has held every year since 2018.

He is also a former Cup Series champion with 19 career points-paying wins and a reputation for consistency that keeps him in the playoff conversation year after year.

On the track, Elliott is coming off a solid 2025 season that included two victories and steady week-to-week results. Over the last two years, he has finished outside the top 20 only eight times, with just three of those coming in races where he avoided a DNF.

That level of reliability continues to separate the No. 9 team from much of the field, even as Hendrick Motorsports teammates Kyle Larson and William Byron have often grabbed more of the spotlight.

Much of Elliott’s recent stretch has been about reestablishing momentum after setbacks earlier in the decade, including the leg injury that disrupted his 2023 season and the ongoing challenge of adapting to NASCAR’s Next Gen car.

Prime Video 2026 Primary Sponsorship Schedule

• April 26: Talladega Superspeedway
• May 3: Texas Motor Speedway
• May 17: All-Star Race at Dover Motor Speedway

The look for the No. 9 Prime Video Chevrolet has a noticeably darker palette this year, as the front and back of the car carry a black base coat. In the center of the doors of the car is the iconic Prime Video blue, and between the jagged design of blue and the black base coat are hints of the NASCAR red and yellow colors flowing through the design.

It’s a drastic change from last year’s paint scheme, which carried more Prime Video blue and white accents.

Last year, Elliott carried the Prime Video colors at Talladega Superspeedway, where he finished fifth, the All-Star Race at North Wilkesboro Speedway, where he notched a fifth-place result, and at Kansas Speedway, where he came home 15th.

Elliott will look to snag the first NASCAR Cup Series win for the NASCAR Broadcasting Partner in his three-race stint in 2026.

In 2025, Elliott recorded his first multi-win season in the NASCAR Cup Series since 2022, as he collected wins at his home track, EchoPark Speedway in Atlanta, and Kansas Speedway in the Fall. Elliott would finish the campaign with an eighth-place ranking in the NASCAR Cup Series championship standings.

Heading into the 2026 season, Elliott has amassed 358 career starts in the NASCAR Cup Series, and to date, he has 21 wins, 115 top-five finishes, and 190 top-10s. The son of NASCAR Hall of Famer Bill Elliott was the champion of the NASCAR Cup Series during the 2020 season.

VICENZA, Italy (BRAIN) — Former Crankbrothers CEO Gaspare Licata leads a group of private investors that acquired a majority interest in Extreme Racing Shox (EXT), a manufacturer of bike and motorsports suspension systems.

Licata, Crankbrothers CEO for 10 ½ years, left the brand last month and has been working in the bike industry since 2009. The death of EXT founder and technical director Franco Fratton in April convinced former owner Katia Persico that a new investment and experienced leadership team was needed. As a longtime friend of Fratton and Persico, Licata stepped in.

“I’ve admired EXT’s factory, engineering culture, and the people behind it for years,” Licata said. “This acquisition allows us to build on that foundation with the flexibility and focus that a privately led structure enables. The company has untapped potential in both the bicycle and motorsports categories, and I’m committed to honoring its heritage while pushing it to fulfil that potential.”

The investment will consolidate the partnership between existing shareholders and allow EXT to build on its engineering and legacy, according to EXT in announcing the news.

Under the new ownership, EXT plans to invest in new technologies, strengthen its global dealer and distributor relationships, and enhance supply chain capabilities. EXT will continue to serve as an R&D partner to leading motorsports racing teams and bring suspension solutions to market segments, including mountain bike, motocross, and e-moto.

“After Franco’s passing, it became clear the company needed partners who understood both our values and the technical depth of the brand,” Persico said. “While larger companies expressed interest, what mattered most to me was preserving EXT’s technical excellence and relationship-driven approach. Gaspare and his team share that philosophy, which is why this partnership made sense.”

When your dad spends three decades as a high-ranking executive in motorsports, and you then end up working your way into NASCAR’s premier series, claims of nepotism are bound to follow you around.

This has long been the case for Team Penske’s Austin Cindric, who, after winning the 2020 Xfinity Series and finishing second a year later, went full-time in the Cup Series with Roger Penske’s storied team.

Austin’s father, Tim, worked with what is now Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, an IndyCar staple, before taking over as Penske’s Team President in 2006.

Of course, this prompted some to suggest that Austin’s move to Penske in 2017, initially on a part-time basis, was influenced by Tim — something the now three-time Cup Series race-winner vehemently denied in a recently resurfaced interview with Frontstretch in 2019.

“I think it’s a double-edged sword. This is such a family sport. You’ve got the Elliotts, Blaneys, Earnhardts, all the Pettys, these are all people—even someone with a pretty similar situation to myself is Cole Custer. It’s a family sport, that’s where the passion is grown,” he admitted.

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“I’ve been lucky enough to grow up in the same house who finds the best drivers in the world to drive the best cars in the world. I’ve been able to learn from those drivers, from those experiences and from being around that my entire life, what I need to do to put myself in the best position, whether that be a Team Penske car or a Sports Car somewhere. That doesn’t come easily. The door isn’t opened for you.”

In fact, Austin, who recently made his Supercars Championship debut in Australia, insisted that Tim made a conscious effort not to get overly involved in his son’s career, doing his utmost “to stay as far away from my program as possible.”

“From the aspect that I’m his kid, but I’m here to do a job and be representative of all our sponsors,” Austin added. “I don’t take that lightly, I don’t think he does either. I can’t say that from a competition side we’ve interacted that much.

“I’ve got a great support system with guys like Travis Giesler and Mike Nelson on the NASCAR side. He’ll give me his two cents if I’ve done something wrong or whatever, but that relationship has been a fun dynamic.”

Any suggestions that Austin’s presence at Penske as of 2025 remain because of Tim are no longer valid, given that the elder Cindric was let go by the company in May, together with IndyCar general manager Kyle Moyer and IndyCar managing director Ron Ruzewski. This came after two of their IndyCar entries, those of Josef Newgarden and Will Power, “were found in violation of IndyCar rules” at the Indianapolis 500, as per the series.

“Nothing is more important than the integrity of our sport and our race teams,” Penske said in a statement. “We have had organizational failures during the last two years, and we had to make necessary changes. I apologize to our fans, our partners and our organization for letting them down.”

Now a free agent, Tim told Racer in November that he has used his firing as an opportunity to “catch up on life.”

“I’ve had some interesting inquiries within and outside of motorsport, but I haven’t committed anything yet to speak of. It’s just the way it is,” he said. “There’s certainly more to life than motorsport. I’m finding out that’s all I’ve done all my life. But I’m open minded to interesting inquiries within and outside of motorsport.”