Sources: O’Reilly Auto Parts in line to replace Xfinity as NASCAR’s second-series title sponsor…Dream-Storm draws sellout crowd in Vancouver…Spike Lee, ESPN confirm Kaepernick doc won’t air
O’Reilly Auto Parts title sponsored a NASCAR Cup Series race at Texas Motor Speedway in 2020 Chris Graythen/Getty Images
O’Reilly Auto Parts is in pole position to replace Xfinity as title sponsor of NASCAR’s second-tier series starting next year, according to sources, as the sanctioning body lands on an endemic brand to the sport to replace the telecommunications company. The deal has not yet been announced but could be as soon as this week when NASCAR is also expected to reveal its 2026 national series schedules. Terms have yet to be learned, but NASCAR went into the effort seeking $10M annually for rights fees plus a mid seven-figure commitment to activation that would take a brand’s per-annum spend to at least around $15M.
NASCAR earlier this year hired Klutch Sports Group in part to help sell this asset. In the end, NASCAR appears to have landed with a company that was already doing business in the sport in O’Reilly, which has been a radio sponsor on NASCAR and Speedway Motorsports’ owned channels for years. It has also been a race title sponsor at SM’s Texas Motor Speedway. But the company will now take on a much higher-profile role replacing Xfinity, which came on in 2015 as parent company NBCUniversal aligned with NASCAR again as a licensee of its media rights.
Xfinity had a 10-year deal originally but extended for an additional season in 2025 to give NASCAR added time to find a replacement. The company remains a major sponsor of NASCAR as one of the sport’s three premier partners and a sponsor of the 23XI Racing team. The publicly traded, Missouri-based O’Reilly is in need of a boost after missing analyst expectations in five of the last fiscal quarters, though it met expectations exactly with $0.78 in earnings per share during the most recent period. Out of 31 analysts tracking the stock, six have a Strong Buy rating 17 have a Buy and eight have a Hold, while none have an Underperform or Sell. It’s unclear if any agencies were involved in negotiating the deal.
The Storm beat the Dream 80-78 before a sellout crowd of 15,892 at Rogers Arena on Friday. NBAE via Getty Images
The Storm beat the Dream 80-78 before a sellout crowd of 15,892 at Rogers Arena on Friday in the WNBA’s first regular-season game outside of the U.S. Signs in the crowd read “Canada loves the WNBA” and “Everyone watches women’s sports.” Storm G Skylar Diggins said that the “atmosphere was ‘amazing.’” She added, “We talked about it in the locker room, it feeling like a playoff game, almost. But we definitely felt them rally behind us.” Toronto Tempo President Teresa Resch and GM Monica Wright Rogers were at the game and “had a special announcement for the crowd” as the expansion team will “play in Vancouver twice during their inaugural season” (Vancouver PROVINCE, 8/16).
In British Columbia, Anna Burns wrote it was “evident that the WNBA and its partners had invested a significant amount of effort into making this game a success.” From “events throughout the Lower Mainland the week leading up to the game, to fan experiences set up throughout the concourse, featuring interactive games, giveaways, photo opportunities, clinics, and merchandise” (SURREY NOW-LEADER, 8/16).
In Vancouver, Patrick Johnston wrote the city hosting the WNBA for more than just a one-off game “remains very much a dream.” NBA Canada Associate VP/Global Partnerships Cheryl Sebastian said that there are “no plans for now for future expansion” of the WNBA (Vancouver PROVINCE, 8/15).
Spike Lee said he “can’t talk about” why the multi-part documentary series about former NFLer Colin Kaepernick is not being released. Getty Images
Spike Lee’s multi-part documentary series for ESPN Films about former NFLer Colin Kaepernick will “not be released.” ESPN in a statement cited “certain creative differences” as the reason. Lee said, “It’s not coming out. That’s all I can say.” When asked why, Lee responded, “I can’t. I signed a nondisclosure. I can’t talk about it.” Production on the series began in 2022, and it was previously reported that the project “faced delays amid disagreements between Kaepernick and Lee over the direction of the film,” and that ESPN Chair Jimmy Pitaro was “open to allowing the filmmakers to shop it elsewhere” (REUTERS, 8/16).
The Big Ten has “considered an idea of a massive expansion of the College Football Playoff that would grow the postseason to 24 or 28 teams.” Getty Images
The Big Ten has “considered an idea of a massive expansion of the College Football Playoff that would grow the postseason to 24 or 28 teams,” according to sources. Sources said that the proposal “eliminates conference title games and offers a large number of auto bids for all four power leagues.” In the 28-team model, the Big Ten and SEC “would each get seven auto bids while the ACC and Big 12 would each receive five.” There would also be “two auto bids for the non-Power 4 conferences and two at-large teams.” The 28-team format “would put 20 playoff games on campus,” and the CFP committee “would seed the field and pick the at-large teams” (ESPN.com, 8/16).
The Power Four conference commissioners have “not had anything more than cursory discussions about the possibility of a massive postseason expansion,” and “nothing has been presented to any of the other FBS conferences or Notre Dame.” The Big Ten was “expected to send a slide deck with some details of the plan to the SEC” (THE ATHLETIC, 8/16).
Haslam Sports Group has been notified by the state of Ohio’s aviation administrator that a permit application for building a new stadium in suburban Brook Park near Cleveland Hopkins International Airport “was denied.” Browns
Haslam Sports Group has been notified by the state of Ohio’s aviation administrator that a permit application for building a new stadium in suburban Brook Park near Cleveland Hopkins International Airport “was denied.” This denial could have “serious repercussions in terms of timing, cost and viability” for the construction of a $3.6B enclosed stadium and proposed supportive development for the Browns. At its proposed location, the new stadium “extends up into this air navigation zone by 58 feet.” The Ohio Department of Transportation said that the Haslams can “resubmit for a new application with a shorter stadium and/or one built farther from the airport” (NEO-TRANS.blog, 8/15).
Meanwhile, the Browns’ federal lawsuit against the city of Cleveland over the planned move to Brook Park has “resumed after a brief pause.” U.S. District Judge David Ruiz on Friday “granted a joint request from both the team and city to restart arguments in the case.” Arguments “could stretch into November,” which could “cause timing issues with the team’s plans” for the new stadium. The Browns “hope to start construction early next year” (Cleveland PLAIN DEALER, 8/15).
Unrivaled could add two teams for the 2026 season while the WNBA and its players make little progress on labor negotiations. Getty Images
Unrivaled is discussing whether to add two teams this upcoming season, sources said, a move not entirely in direct response to WNBA labor negotiations but nonetheless a way for 12 more players to be paid if a work stoppage happens in 2026.
The 3-on-3 league — co-founded by the Lynx’s Napheesa Collier and the Liberty’s Breanna Stewart — played its inaugural season this past winter/spring with six teams and 36 players, all of whom had equity in the business and an average salary of roughly $220,000. Unrivaled was always planning to expand by Year 3, and even potentially overseas at some point, but expedited conversations about adding two teams in Year 2 have apparently caught the attention of the WNBA players union.
Sources said the WNBPA sees adding two teams as potential leverage in labor talks, although indications are Collier and Stewart would not grow Unrivaled to an eight-team league just as a negotiation ploy.
Instead, sources said the success of Year 1 — nearly breaking even largely due to a six-year, $100M media rights deal with TNT and $20M-plus in sponsorships– has led Unrivaled executives to move expansion up on their agenda, with indications they will decide within a month or so. If greenlit, it would likely mean a fourth night of games on Turner (as of now, it plays on Mondays, Fridays and Saturdays) and roughly 14 more games over the nine-week season. Unrivaled does not currently intend to lengthen its season, whether there is a WNBA work stoppage or not.
Read more >>>
LIV Golf’s event in Indianapolis this weekend is “poised to become the highest-attended for a U.S. stop in the three-year history of the tour.” Getty Images
LIV Golf’s event in Indianapolis this weekend is “poised to become the highest-attended for a U.S. stop in the three-year history of the tour.” Over 50,000 tickets “have been sold for the weekend, with Friday and Saturday general admission grounds passes selling out entirely, as well as tickets for some hospitality spaces.” LIV is “already planning a return for next year,” as it will “use its one-year option to return to The Club at Chatham Hills for its individual championship.” LIV EVP & Head of Events Ross Hallett said that he “believes Indianapolis could be a strong enough market for LIV to draw 20,000 to each day of the tournament — something no city on the U.S. leg of the tour has achieved” (INDIANAPOLIS BUSINESS JOURNAL, 8/16).
The K.C. Current-Orlando Pride match at CPKC Stadium on Saturday faced “more than three hours of a heat-related weather delay.” NWSL via Getty Images
The K.C. Current-Orlando Pride match at CPKC Stadium on Saturday faced “more than three hours of a heat-related weather delay.” The match was eventually played in front of a crowd that “appeared to be at half capacity, with stronger numbers in the venue before the initial start time was pushed back.” It also “lacked the edge that the previous matchup between the two teams had.” The National Weather Service “issued an extreme heat advisory for the area” 48 hours prior to kickoff. Attempts to play the game “within the national TV window on CBS fell short” (K.C. STAR, 8/16).
The match was put under the NWSL’s “Extreme Heat Policy,” which states that the league will “begin ‘Wet Bulb Globe Temperature’ measurements 60 minutes prior to kickoff from the center of the field.” The delay began “minutes before the scheduled kickoff” of 3pm CT and “continued — as the WBGT readings were read aloud nearly every 15 minutes — until roughly 4:30.” Around 4:45, the Current “informed those who had stuck around that the match wouldn’t start until roughly 6:20″ and that fans would be “granted reentry.” After Current MF Lo LaBonta addressed the crowd, fans at the sold-out match “left en masse, many to their cars to escape the heat” (K.C. STAR, 8/16).
Renderings released by Sacramento State in October 2024 showcased a “state-of-the-art stadium with a boosted capacity of up to 25,000 people.” Sacramento State
Sacramento State is “considering a plan to build its new Hornet Stadium at Cal Expo.” The Grandstand at Cal Expo facility is the “largest on Cal Expo’s property and was previously primarily used for horse racing.” The school previously announced plans for a new stadium that would be “built on the same footprint as the current Hornet Stadium.” Renderings released by the school in October 2024 showcased a “state-of-the-art stadium with a boosted capacity of up to 25,000 people.” These new stadium plans “come amid a push by Sacramento State to move to the FBS level.” Work on the new Cal Expo Hornet Stadium “could begin by 2027” (CBSNEWS.com, 8/16).
The Storm on Sunday will “unveil a statue” of former WNBAer Sue Bird at Climate Pledge Arena. Getty Images
The Storm today will “unveil a statue” of former WNBAer Sue Bird at Climate Pledge Arena, making her the “first WNBA player ever to be immortalized in bronze.” The unveiling will “kick off a day of festivities dedicated to Bird,” including a “fan fest, the Storm’s game against the Phoenix Mercury and a queer-centered afterparty.” The Storm will unveil the statue at 10am PT with a “free Sue Bird Fan Fest at noon full of activities, giveaways and tributes to Bird.” The first 7,500 fans to enter Climate Pledge Arena for today’s game at 3pm also will be “gifted a drawing of Bird by Seattle artist Keegan Hall.“ Washington State Ferries will “fly special ‘Forever Sue’ flags on all of its vessels over the weekend” and fans are “advised to keep their eyes peeled at the Space Needle, Lumen Field, T-Mobile Park and the Seattle Great Wheel” (SEATTLE TIMES, 8/16).
The Guardians inducted play-by-play announcer Tom Hamilton into the club’s HOF before Saturday’s game. Getty Images
The Guardians inducted play-by-play announcer Tom Hamilton into the club’s HOF before Saturday’s game. The “surprise induction came on ‘Tom Hamilton Night,’ in which he was honored as the 2025 Ford C. Frick winner for broadcasting excellence.” Saturday also was Tom Hamilton bobble-head night. The Guardians HOF is “reserved mostly for non-uniformed members of the organization.” Guardians owner Paul Dolan and his wife Karen “took part in the celebration” (Cleveland PLAIN DEALER, 8/16).
Speed Reads…
The D-backs are “planning to cut payroll in 2026″ after having a franchise-record $190M payroll this season. The club saved $17M in “salary at the trade deadline,” and have $70M “coming off the books after the season” (USA TODAY, 8/17).
UFC 319 was held before a sold out crowd of 20,023 at the United Center on Saturday. It became the highest-grossing event in United Center history with a gate of $11,014,682 (UFC).
Samuel Adams started brewing “Bregman’s Beer,” a “citrusy pale ale” named for Red Sox 3B Alex Bregman (BOSTON GLOBE, 8/16).
Quick Hits…
“I want that Super Bowl in Britain. I don’t care when it takes place but I want it announced while I’m ambassador” — British ambassador to the U.S. Peter Mandelson, on his push to bring the Super Bowl to the U.K. (London TIMES, 8/15).
“I would love to bring this bat out next year, probably, and use that, but I’ll probably come up with a couple more. I’ll try to make it a thing where I try to go for the best bat yearly” — A’s 3B Max Muncy, on his custom Mountain Dew Baja Blast themed bat, which he was not able to use during MLB Players’ Weekend as he is currently on the 10-day injured list (SACRAMENTO BEE, 8/16).
Weekend Hot Reads:
The WASHINGTON POST goes with, “Gambling on the WNBA is way up, as are the unintended consequences.” Despite “frustration among some players,” the WNBA is “courting gamblers more aggressively than ever.” Money wagered on the league “doubled at several top sportsbooks last season compared to the year before,” and has “continued to increase this season.” But as the league “faces significant growing pains, including a rash of abuse toward players,” the WNBA could be “especially vulnerable to some of the dangers that can accompany increased gambling.”
Also:
Social Scoop…
The Little League Classic this year involves two teams in tight races — the Mariners and the Mets. The event is always fun, a great experience for the Little Leaguers and the players, but there will be an extra layer of intensity tonight in Bowman Field.
This reminds me of the NCAA floating the idea of a 96-team basketball tournament in 2010 to make the move from 64 to 68 more palatable. Present a concept that is so terrible that the less-bad (but still bad) expansion alternatives are more acceptable.
An eyewitness to NASCAR legend Greg Biffle’s plane crash harrowingly claimed that “there is nobody alive” during a haunting 911 call.
On the morning of Dec. 18, a private jet owned by Biffle burst into flames upon attempting to make an emergency landing at Statesville Regional Airport in North Carolina. NASCAR confirmed that Biffle, along with his wife Cristina and their children Ryder and Emma, lost their lives in the crash, as did Dennis Dutton, his son Jack, and Craig Wadsworth.
The devastating news sent shockwaves through the racing community, with tributes pouring in from current and retired drivers alike, including Denny Hamlin and Richard Petty.
Moments after Biffle’s Cessna 550 Citation II erupted in a blazing fireball, a witness called first responders to inform them that the plane was “down and burning.” The individual described the scene as a “pretty big-sized fireball, a lot of black smoke,” before adding: “Whoever was on the plane probably didn’t make it. It’s a big fireball.”
When asked to elaborate on what occurred, the caller revealed that the aircraft was “fully engulfed” by flames. “I can see the tail section, but the rest of the plane…. Looks like a small private jet,” he said.
Sign up to our NASCAR newsletter here.
The witness expressed little confidence that any passengers on board the jet could’ve survived the crash, stating: “There is nobody alive. There’s no way they could survive it. Looks like it hit short of the runway. Here comes the fire engines.”
As of writing, the official cause of the plane crash that took the lives of Biffle, his family, and three other passengers remains undetermined by authorities. Federal investigators began probing the wreckage of the Cessna 550 Citation II on December 19.
The National Transportation Safety Board reported that the aircraft had taken off from Statesville Regional Airport bound for Florida but attempted to return about 15 minutes into the flight.
DON’T MISS:
A joint statement issued by the families of the victims read: “We are devastated by the loss of our loved ones. This tragedy has left all of our families heartbroken beyond words. Greg and Cristina were devoted parents and active philanthropists whose lives were centered around their young son Ryder and Greg’s daughter Emma (mother – Nicole Lunders). Emma was a wonderful human being with a kind soul who was loved by many people. Ryder was an active, curious and infinitely joyful child.
“Dennis Dutton and his son Jack were deeply loved as well, and their loss is felt by all who knew them. Craig Wadsworth was beloved by many in the NASCAR community and will be missed by those who knew him. Each of them meant everything to us, and their absence leaves an immeasurable void in our lives.”
Off the back of a much-improved 2025 campaign which yielded a comfortable fifth place in the Formula 1 world constructors’ standings, Williams is now a team that is looking up rather than over down.
Over the past 18 months the Grove-based squad harvested bountiful low-hanging fruit that was holding it back, and that meant that while its aerodynamic development has largely been focused on 2026 and beyond, it still found ways to improve its performance level with the FW47, guided by its experienced driver line-up of Alex Albon and Ferrari hire Carlos Sainz.
But while Williams’ trajectory has been likened to that of world champion McLaren three or four years ago, when the Woking-based squad was embarking on a similar rebuild, Vowles is also the first to admit Williams remains a work in progress and is not ready for life at the very top of F1 yet.
That’s why he sees 2026’s wholesale regulations changes as a big opportunity for Williams to take the next steps in its large-scale overhaul rather than the final exam of whether his team has succeeded.
“I think it’s harder within the current regulations set to be finding performance relative to others, when you’re constrained by perhaps a way of thinking or a construct you’ve had before, whereas 2026 really is just a clean sheet of paper, so you’re able to approach it a very different way,” Vowles explained to Motorsport.com in an exclusive interview.
“But I don’t think it’s an acid test. I think it’s just a continuation of the journey. I think, if anything, the opportunity to scrap a few things and start again gives us a bit of a leg up.”
Williams took two podiums with Carlos Sainz in Baku and Qatar as part of a much-improved 2025 campaign
Photo by: Andy Hone/ LAT Images via Getty Images
That journey has involved plenty of ups and downs, including the humiliation of not being able to field two cars in 2024’s Japanese Grand Prix due to a lack of spare chassis. At the time Williams was fighting to produce two cars that were on weight and on the same specification, an uncomfortable situation that it fully addressed for 2025.
It is just one public example of how its many behind-the-scenes changes have addressed some of the structural issues Vowles identified after joining from top team Mercedes, and the other is a – very limited – upgrade programme that showed the Grove factory was operating much more efficiently than before. But Vowles suggested the general lack of 2025 aero development was also an opportunity to focus on other areas, giving the team the freedom to use the 2025 season to experiment.
“We’ve only put a couple of weeks of aerodynamic development into the 2025 car during the year,” he said. “But what we’ve been working on instead is: ‘Do we have the right balance? Do we have the right way of working the tyres? Do we have the right way of communicating with the drivers? Do we have the right differential tools? All those are zero cost. They’re just about using a product in a different way to what we had before.
“Quite a bit of performance that was locked away has been coming out of that, and that’s what I’ve been focused on.
“It’s what I like about our sport. You constrain yourself in one way by not putting any more development in this car, but I give you the freedom every weekend to go out there and try something different. As long as it is backed up by logic and has a data-driven mechanism behind it, then I’m fine to support it and try it. And that’s what we’ve been doing, and it’s working. You could see across the year how, despite the car not changing, we were moving forward.”
More “honest” Williams ready for more change
That kind of approach is only possible within a transparent organisation. One of the biggest changes Vowles has had to make since taking over at Grove is stamping out the team’s previous blame culture and providing the “psychological safety” for departments to be brutally honest rather than fool itself.
“It’s very easy for you to produce a report that says I’ve added two tenths of performance this week through X, Y and Z – not validated, not backed up, not checked,” he explained.
Alex Albon, Williams
Photo by: Andrew Ferraro / LAT Images via Getty Images
“And actually, what we do now is very robust, peer reviewed checks on what performance we’re adding, how it’s adding, and it’s what I call honest, correct accounting. In aerodynamics, all too often you have something called drift, and there’s two ways to deal with drift. You can just go: ‘That’s our new benchmark’. Or you go: ‘No, I’ve lost a point, and I’m going to get that point back.’
“And we’re very good here at doing what I think is honest accounting because of the psychological safety and belief in the culture to do so.
“I’m giving you a lot of detail, but actually the biggest change is we have a culture that is ready for more. We know we’re not at a championship level yet, but that scrutiny we apply to ourselves allows us to be stronger.”
Any change is difficult at first, but the results Vowles’ approach has been yielding means the Williams’ organisation has become much more amenable to it.
“As an organisation the first change you make is hard, but then you become more agile and more accommodating to it as you see that the change is net beneficial,” he explained. “So I’d actually say globally, we’ve changed more in 2025 than we did in 2023 and 2024, but the business is also ready for it.
“And now we have a really interesting situation where the business is going: ‘Okay, what next? What else do we do? Let’s go.’ It’s great. And now we have to move faster than we did before.”
F1 2026 rules ‘in a good place’
Quite how that will pan out for Williams in 2026 is anyone’s guess right now, and it will likely take several races into the new campaign to have a clear picture of F1’s new world order.
James Vowles, Team Principal, Williams Racing
Photo by: Shameem Fahath / Motorsport Network
“This is just guesswork,” Vowles said. “But clearly, we won’t see the same gaps we had in 2025 where a few tenths separates a few cars. But conversely, it won’t be anywhere near 2014 where there’s like three and a half seconds, it’ll be somewhere between the two.
“That said, there’ll be a couple of teams who have now done a power unit for the first time, have done a car for the first time. It really is hard and competitive now. Let’s be completely blunt, that’s why we fell back to 10th for a period of time.
“I think the gaps will be a couple of seconds front to back, but I still think you’ll have competition at the sharp end, which is a good point. And the sport has understood that we need competition, so therefore we will close the regulations up in a way that will create that.”
He added: “I think the regulations are in a good place now. I’m sure we’re going to see overtaking, it just won’t be in the places you normally expect it to be, because it is an electrical energy chess game that you’ll be playing.
“But I think it’s worth saying the regulations from where they were when we were talking in Montreal in 2024 [when they were first revealed by the FIA] to where they are today are quite different, and it’s produced a much better package.”
Alex Bowman may not have stockpiled wins like his teammates Kyle Larson, Chase Elliott, or William Byron, but he has shown quite a consistency in both speed and progression across various types of tracks. His quantum leap into Hendrick Motorsports traces directly back to Dale Earnhardt Jr., who first spotted his potential.
In 2016, when Junior’s injuries sidelined him for an extended stretch, he pushed Bowman’s name forward to drive his No. 88 HMS machine. Bowman subsequently filled in for Jeff Gordon to secure his No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports seat. During a recent conversation with HOT ROD Pod, Bowman credited Dale Jr. for opening doors at Hendrick Motorsports, while acknowledging his good fortune.
His Cup Series tenure dates back to 2014, though his first campaign saw him piloting a No. 23 Toyota for BK Racing, a smaller outfit. The following season brought a shift to Tommy Baldwin Racing. Neither stint produced meaningful results, leaving Bowman searching for traction.
Reflecting on that watershed moment, Bowman recounted the sequence of events. “I qualified next to Dale at like Richmond, I think, and we were riding around the truck pre-race together, talking about I was trying to get in some good Xfinity cars at the end of that year and have some good races cuz running for small teams was definitely rough.”
“He had some openings at JRM the end of that year that I was able to get into. Kind of took off from there.” The stars aligned when Junior’s injury created an unexpected vacancy. “So obviously, crazy set of circumstances, with him getting hurt. I was driving the Sim for Hendrick at the time. Dale was a big supporter of mine and called me and kind of forced Hendrick to use me…”
“I feel like, because we all found out so late. But super fortunate to get to fill in for him and then share the car with some guy named Jeff Gordon for the rest of the year, which was wild to me. And somehow I’m still here.”
Bowman’s most recent Cup win came at the Chicago Street race in 2024, marking one and a half seasons since he last tasted victory. But across nine campaigns with HMS, he has missed the playoffs just once, in 2023, when a back injury sustained during a sprint car accident forced him to sit out three races.
Last season presented challenges as well. Though winless, the 32-year-old recovered a 13th-place finish in the final standings. His best performance last season came in Mexico, where he competed despite nursing injuries from a crash at Michigan International Speedway the previous weekend.
Racing at less than full strength in NASCAR’s inaugural Cup Series event in Mexico City, Bowman clawed from P29 on the grid to P4 at Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez, claiming his third top-five result of the year.
Gordon and the entire HMS operation maintain faith in Bowman’s abilities and ceiling. But only the upcoming season will bring answers to their confidence as Bowman adapts to the new Chevrolet body and higher horsepower.
The Chili Bowl Midget Nationals ended for one expected contender before it could even begin.
Buddy Kofoid has made the Championship Saturday main event five times in six attempts with Keith Kunz Motorsports but an illness is going to keep him away from the Tulsa Expo Center this week.
After winning 18 times in a 410 Sprint Car across numerous tours in 2025, and becoming the richest (in terms of winnings) driver in the discipline, Kofoid looked poised to challenge for a Golden Driller this week.
Instead, the No. 71W will not idle this week as Kunz told Motorsport.com at the Expo that there are ‘no plans’ to fill the seat despite making some calls when it became apparent that Kofoid couldn’t make it.
Kofoid has won prelims in 2022 and 2024. He finished second in the main event in 2024. He finished sixth in the main event last year. He is one of the most prolific drivers in the building.
Ultimately, it’s one less major contender for those hoping to lock in on Friday night.
Pretty standard day, but …
For everyone else, it was a largely procedural practice day, even if the track was not reflective of what it will be the rest of the week.
It was especially slick and tricky, as best articulated by USAC National Midget champion, and perennial contender Cannon McIntosh.
“You know, this track is very unique,” McIntosh said. “It’s small. We got the berm, which is, you don’t run a berm very often throughout the year, so just trying to time that right, you know.
“You can’t just go in there and just plow into it and that is a lot of people’s mistake is just going in there and hammering it. Everything has to be calculated and just trying to figure out the way the track is changing.
“You know, today was kind of strange in that the curb was kind of like a small ledge and then you could get above it as well. Just very, very different.”
In addition to the near moment above, it didn’t look procedural for Corey Day and Willie Kahne, who spent a good amount of time debriefing after the second session trying to make their car better than it was in 2025 after locking into the feature in 2024.
“You know, we wish we really knew,” Day said of the struggles last year. “We really don’t know. I think the track had a lot of grip in it last year compared to the year prior. Like, the curb was really thick and gripping. It would suck you in.
“Whereas, the year before it was kind of powdery and it would crumble and wasn’t completely that way. So, I think it’s like in the middle of both of those this year in practice day, but it could be way different come the prelim nights and all that. So we just are kind of trying to be ready for everything.”
Photo by: Bruce Nuttleman
Meanwhile, Nathan Crane rolled over and Ryan Bernal became the first flip of the week during the morning session.
Of Swindell Speedlab
Last year, in the pursuit of three consecutive Chili Bowl victories, Logan Seavey said he was ‘being annoying’ because every session included complaints about his throttle response. They won their prelim and finished seventh in the feature through it all.
At least on Sunday during practice, Seavey said they almost got it back, but wants a little more power put back into it.
Trial and error.
“I was pretty happy with it,” Seavey said. “We’ve changed a lot with our engines. We changed a lot last year because all I did was complain about how they throttled. The way they drive did not fit the way I wanted to drive the car. We changed a lot this year to try to help me out a little bit.
“We’re really close to where we need to be, I think. I’ve been really happy in both sessions.”
Swindell, the four-time race-winning driver said it’s a work in progress.
“We tried to do stuff to work on that more and what we did is better but they also kind of don’t run as clean as they should,” Swindell said. “It’s like, we calmed them down correctly, but it’s like we’re just not balancing something to offset the changes to get ‘em exactly right.”
Swindell has four cars this year with defending Wednesday winner Emerson Axsom, Jett Barnes and Kyle Cummins joining Seavey.
“So, we kind of swung at Emerson’s there at the end to go back to normal and it ran and then we kind of did half and half on Jett’s there (on) that last run to sort of see and I think it was okay,” he added. “So it’s like basically sitting around here trying to figure out if I’m gonna go all the way back to normal, go somewhere in between. Like Logan was happy, it just has like a little sputter crackle to it that’s not as clean as we would like it to be.
“But Logan almost asked for more motor basically today so I think we did the right thing. It’s just trying to find the kind of the happy medium to make sure it kind of takes off and does some things.”
Overall, this is where having four cars has helped the entire team.
“Today was is hectic, because we ran all four, and tomorrow we’re running three (with Race of Champions) but then it’s just one a night,” Swindell said. “So the prelim nights are not a big deal, and I can just babysit each one individually from there on out.
“Saturday, if you’re in good shape, you just throw them out there from how they were in their prelim. It’s just getting through these first two days of working on multiple cars each day.”
And, Swindell says he’s having fun, and that he really feels like a legitimate crew chief with this much volume.
“I needed my wife to go buy me an actual notebook,” he said with a laugh. “I had just been writing on cardboard and sheets of paper every time I needed to keep note of something today.”
Seavey says he likes having teammates too and it makes his car better.
“I feel like our car looks slightly different than everyone elses,” Seavey said. “So its weird to see it from the stand and watch our cars go around and the things I feel from inside the car.”
Meanwhile, quotes from Fred Vasseur suggest Ferrari are in no rush to take drastic measures in testing.
The 57-year-old points to the budget gap as a factor to consider when charting this year’s upgrade plan:
“If a team starts introducing four or five updates in the first races,” he told Gazzetta.
“Or if, for example, they have to send a new floor to a distant race like Japan or China – they’re burning through half their development budget at the start of the year.
“It will therefore be important to carefully evaluate step by step what to do, based on where we are.
“Whoever is ahead of everyone in Melbourne, at the first race, won’t necessarily have the winning car of the year.”
Fred Vasseur, Ferrari team principal, Ferrari Media Gallery.
Avoiding mistakes of the past
Ferrari know better than most teams about how deceptive the first races of the year can be. At the beginning of the 2022 regulations, for example, the Maranello team was flying high.
Two wins and one second place for Leclerc in the opening three rounds, alongside DNFs for Verstappen in Australia in Bahrain, painted a very positive picture for the season ahead.
Within a few months, however, Red Bull not only out-developed their Italian rivals, but also eliminated all reliability issues – whereas Ferrari suffered a series of devastating retirements in Spain and Baku.
Moreover, the last set of regulations showed the price of investing in the pursuit of a flawed concept.
Mercedes in 2022, Aston Martin in 2023 and even Red Bull in 2024 were headline examples of wasting resources on upgrades that were taking the car in the wrong direction.
Ferrari themselves faced this issue during the European leg of the 2024 season, with updates at the Spanish GP derailing the team’s progress that season.
Eager to avoid this fate over the next twelve months, Fred Vasseur has reason to exercise a measured approach. The question is whether the work fundamentals being developed at the factory in Maranello are strong enough to build upon.
AUGUSTA, Maine (WABI) – Those in Augusta this weekend was revving up their engines with all things motor sports related and beyond.
The 37th annual Northeast Motorsports Expo wrapped up Sunday at the Augusta Civic Center.
The event brings together many motor sport organizations as well as vendors from all over New England under a single roof. An award show also took place yesterday afternoon.
Motor vehicles highlighted this year included everything from short track and drag racing, go karts, dirt bikes and much more.
Organizer Stephen Perry says it’s also a great opportunity for fans to meet drivers before the start of this year’s motor sports season.
“At a race track it’s hard to get up close to talk to these drivers, because their doing their job that day. But here you can talk to them and ask them questions about their cars or a particular race that they’ve won. It’s a more laid-back atmosphere than at a racetrack,” says Perry.
In total, around 2,700 individuals from across New England were in attendance over the weekend.
