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NASCAR

NASCAR News Today: Thoughts on Michael McDowell leaving Front Row for Spire, the end of NASCAR RaceHub & lots of Australian motorsport links with the sport lately

by Sports Benches May 8, 2024

It’s been a huge week of NASCAR news and its silly season rumour mill so far where one driver will be jumping ship to another team going into next year while a major shake up amongst the media landscape is changing regarding its weekly magazine show and the Australian NASCAR connection extends even further where we could see another Supercars driver having a crack next month & one of the renowned TCR Australia manufacturers might be joining the sport in the next few years.

A huge hole to fill at Front Row Motorsports going into next year

Michael McDowell has been outstanding in the No.34 Ford at Front Row Motorsports over the last seven years, having turned from Top 20-25 into a occasional front row to Top 10-15 challenger that saw him win two races including two Playoffs opportunities off the back from the breakthrough 2021 Daytona 500 as well as the 2023 Indianapolis Grand Prix (road course).

Yes, all great things has to come to an end when he will leave FRM at the end of this season but he will be off to Spire Motorsports though to replace former FRM alumni Zane Smith in the No.71 Chevy from 2025 as this is a team who is also looking to improve their on-track presence with plenty of ambition by turning themselves into a Top-10 outfit.

I’m sure he still has a few more years left to offer going into the 40s by fulfilling their wish with the hope of more good Top 10-15 finishes and race wins before Michael calls a day. Who will replace him? It remains to be seen with Stewart-Haas still on the lookout to sell their two charters and then possibly merging with FRM to make up four Ford cars, so Ryan Preece could be staying after all rather than being given the flick this time in McDowell’s spot for the 34. I don’t know if some of the current sponsors will be joining ship with McDowell but I guess they are tied up with the team as sure Spire has their own $$$ to support three Cup cars & Preece would be the perfect replacement who has a great racing pedigree from the ground up. Yes, he might not be doing things too good when SHR is currently struggling but again he can get things done in a good race car.

FOX Sports ending NASCAR RaceHub next month once their first-half season coverage wraps up

It looks like there won’t be a dedicated daily NASCAR TV show for race fans to tune in on weeknights now ahead of the next TV rights deal next year that incorporates a greater focus on streaming as FOX Sports has today announced that they will be finishing up NASCAR RaceHub on Monday, June 11 after 15 years on the air. It first started back in 2009 when Speed Channel was around with Adam Alexander and Krista Voda.

Over the years, Alexander remained as the original co-host all along while several others have came in and go when Voda moved on after a few years & Speed became FS1 – such as the late Steve Byrnes (who sadly passed away in late 2014) & Danielle Trotta (2013-2016) along with Shannon Spake & Kaitlyn Vincie in recent years. It was also a show that welcomed regular guests both past and present including breaking news announcements, interviews, analysis and many more that included the weekly radioactive segment from each race of the season via the in-car radio by several teams.

Gotta say 6pm won’t the be the same for race fans when there’s no reliable source that is related to NASCAR to tune in on weeknights. But again, there will be several networks airing NASCAR over the next couple of years and with FOX only airing the first-half Cup races and still the entire Truck Series season, they don’t have any other choice but to shut it down when there’s NASCAR.com or other streaming-only NASCAR related shows and even podcasts to tune in online going forward at any time rather than being required to tune in at a certain time or else having to set it up on their DVRs to watch it later.

It doesn’t say whether or not if NASCAR RaceDay will be following RaceHub out the door but I guess it will be at the end of the NASCAR season in November with a brand new pre-show incorporating the network’s race day coverage from 2025. It seems that FOX NASCAR’s days has reached its tipping point, who may be able to celebrate its 30th anniversary come 2031 , but then after that, The CW or CBS in partnership with Amazon or TNT Sports will be looking to take their place for the first half season including the Truck Series package when the next round of TV rights come into market from 2032 & beyond.

A bit of Supercars/SpeedSeries NASCAR links popping up lately

And lastly but not least, here’s some bit of Supercars and SpeedSeries links with NASCAR that you need to know over the last week:

1. Current Supercars drivers’ leader at Red Bull Team Australia and inaugural 2019 TCR Australia champion Will Brown is set to earn his opportunity in NASCAR where he will be driving the partial No.33 Chevy Camaro ZL1 race car for Richard Childress Racing at Sonoma Raceway also early next month.
2. We could see Hyundai and even Honda joining NASCAR later this decade around 2026 or 2027 if the sport can add the hybrid element having seen the sport race with Toyota, Ford and Chevy over the last 11 years after Dodge left despite ending the 2012 season with Brad Keselowski as the champion for Team Penske at the time with no other team left to take their place.

It’s been a while since Brodie Kostecki, who had long-term ambitions to race NASCAR, fell out with Erebus Motorsport over the off-season that saw him sit out the first 1-2 races before he was able to race with them again as several sponsors walked out the door including Boost Mobile. It’s a shame that he won’t be back racing NASCARs any time soon at least in the short term. But that doesn’t mean another Supercars-NASCAR link isn’t all over other than Shane Van Gisbergen racing in the Xfinity Series full-time for Kaulig Racing when the Peter Adderton effect via his MobileX backing with RCR still remains strong by asking his Triple 8 replacement & former Erebus driver Will Brown to take his place at Sonoma, which is really good news.

There’s still a long way to go for Brown if he wants to hold on both his Supercars championship hopes and the potential to win the Bathurst 1000 later this year but if he wishes to race in NASCAR full-time at some point, I’m sure he will be given the right steps like SVG in order to become the next Supercars convert to thrive in the US for the right organization. I hope Brodie can get things back on track but let’s hope this off-season saga won’t hold back his NASCAR ambitions too much.

While we saw a number of Supercars drivers plying their trade in the US initially on a part-time basis including Cam Waters lately at Truck Series level for ThorSport Racing, here’s another SpeedSeries related link that could see one of the major players end up in NASCAR in the years to come if the sport is able to roll out the hybrid element to its race cars. Enter Hyundai into the fold who has a great history of motorsport over the last few years such as the World Rally Championship as well as touring cars that extends to SpeedSeries here via TCR Australia. Now the negotiations haven’t even started yet but Ed Laukes is saying this who used to be a senior executive for Toyota in North America & is a consultant for Joe Gibbs Racing.

I can imagine though with Hyundai’s modern approach to their motorsports program, they could really be a success in NASCAR by having a Sonata sedan onboard in Cup and Xfinity level while they can use the Santa Cruz pick up truck in the Truck Series if they like. Usually a team with manufacturer backing requires 3-4 cars but Trackhouse, Spire or Stewart-Haas potentially partnering up with Front Row would be the perfect landing spots should Hyundai’s desire to join the sport is serious. It’s still early days as we still have three makes currently on track (Toyota, Ford and Chevy) but the manufacturer talk isn’t going away anytime soon with the hope of a fourth one or even a fifth coming in to turn left sooner rather than later.

May 8, 2024 0 comment

Thoughts on Australian-American Leigh Diffey potentially replacing Rick Allen as NBC’s leading NASCAR commentator for their Cup races after the Olympics later this year

by Sports Benches March 13, 2024

Here’s another thing happening right now within the world of NASCAR and having heard about Dale Jr heading out the door from NBC lately to Amazon and TNT Sports after his contract has expired at the end of the 2023 season, we could see another change in the commentary box at NASCAR on NBC and Australia’s own Leigh Diffey could be back calling NASCAR races again since 2019 when Homestead last hosted the Championship 4 event under the channel’s additional Hot Pass coverage before it went to Phoenix. But this time he could be there more often on top of his current IndyCar duties towards the end of the 2024 season in Rick Allen’s place, who would call the first couple of races until the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, France starts in late July & then hand to Diffey after the Olympics is done. Although it seems Allen will still be there a bit longer by calling all second-tier Xfinity Series races this year regardless of what happens during NBC’s Cup days since it will be their last year covering series before it heads over to CW beginning from 2025-2031. It remains to be seen what the coverage will look like when they will be back onboard for another term but this time only on Cup race days for the last 14 races of the season down from 20. Same thing will apply with Fox who will always still cover the first half season races before Amazon and TNT Sports will take over the mid-season races but will only have Daytona 500 and All-Star practice & qualifying.

From a three-man ex-drivers booth experiment, a recently used four-man commentary team to a joint TV/radio coverage at road course events, having Diffey onboard to call the races as a lead announcer would be the next greatest thing to happen if that’s true where we will have a regular new voice from outside the US to reflect the sport’s fast growing International footprint. You can hear him right now on the main IndyCar broadcast for NBC alongside James Hinchcliffe & Townsend Bell via Stan Sport (Live & on-demand) & 9Go (highlights) here during every IndyCar race. He’s been there to make a name for himself firstly here with the V8s on Network Ten, then did a bit of World Rallying and World Superbikes for the BBC in the UK, but we all know he’s been the most successful at a place he now calls home even as a naturalised citizen in the United States of America – firstly with Fox Sports/Speed followed by NBC where he’s been there for over 10 years now. He’s got the chance to lead the Formula 1 races for the US audience before during the first couple of years before it went to ESPN/ABC as well as the Indianapolis 500, Supercross and IMSA Sportscars a few years later amongst other sports like Rugby Union, Bobsleigh/Luge & also Track and Field where he will be part of NBC’s Olympic team once again for Track & Field later this year.

Regarding Rick Allen, he hasn’t been bad who used to call the whole Truck Series season when Speed Channel existed at the time between 2003 and 2013 and he too deserved to make the step up into calling the higher level races at a network like NBC when they came back again to replace ESPN and ABC back in 2015 – with Mike Joy still not going anywhere at FOX for a little longer until he wishes to retire anytime he likes. But while he has some detractors along the way, lots of people wish Allen Bestwick was still calling the races even after ESPN left. Maybe it could be the perfect time to give Diffey a chance to shine alongside Steve Letarte and Jeff Burton instead of Allen going forward. When NBC successfully renewed the Premier League soccer rights a few years ago that will cover until the 2027-28 season, they replaced Arlo White with Peter Drury as the network’s main commentator while retaining Lee Dixon and Graeme Le Saux. I’m sure there won’t be much complications for Diffey to balance both IndyCar and NASCAR races like Drury does with the Premier League at both NBC & its Comcast sister company Sky Sports since the network will only be covering on race days at Cup level while still being able to call the Indy 500 should they renew IndyCar again once the current three-year contract is up at the end of the year. Watch this space as his old motorsport colleague Matt White said when we could see Leigh Diffey replace Rick Allen upstairs sooner rather than later.

March 13, 2024 0 comment

Motorsport NASCAR

William Byron puts Hendrick back into the Daytona 500 spotlight while Shane Van Gisbergen made his first US full season debut in the NASCAR Xfinity Series at the same time

by Sports Benches February 22, 2024

Gotta say that this year’s Daytona 500 edition (the race was held on Monday, not Sunday due to rainy weather) was about Ford v Chevy with Chase Elliott winning Stage 1 and Austin Cindric winning Stage 2 where we saw a few of The Big One wrecks not long after the race start and not long before the end of the race. At the end of the day, the winner belongs to William Byron in the No.24 Chevy Camaro from Hendrick Motorsports. He too had a great start who worked his way up to 2nd during the first half of the day, steered clear of caution at all costs including the last restart to stay in 1st as Cindric eventually lost control alongside fellow contender Ross Chastain on the last lap and the race is his to take after all with his first Daytona 500 win. It’s been 10 years since Hendrick last won a 500 with Dale Jr behind the wheel in the No.88 Chevy & double that back to nearly 20 when Jeff Gordon last brought the No.24 car into victory lane back in 2005. Let’s see if Byron can pull off the season championship & end Team Penske’s two-year dominance come November at Phoenix after he finished 4th at the season-finale race last year that saw him end up 3rd in the drivers’ standings behind Kyle Larson and eventual champ Ryan Blaney.

Meanwhile, shoutout to Corey LaJoie in 4th for Spire Motorsports with his best Daytona 500 finish as this team is tipped for big things this year following their huge off-season investments with the 3rd charter for Zane Smith and taking over Kyle Busch Motorsports in the Truck Series. Same goes to both Legacy Motor Club cars of John Hunter Nemechek and Erik Jones in 7th & 8th respectively as they are a Toyota team now and their next target is to push the No.42 and famous No.43 for higher honours up front for regular Top 7-10s every week going forward – having seen the No.43 long been under an American manufacturer for several decades. And also great to see Noah Gragson back this time in the No.10 Ford for Stewart-Haas Racing after he had to sit the 2nd half last year out due to an inappropriate social media activity. He didn’t do bad in 9th where there’s still a long way to go towards getting that struggling team out of the middle & into the front once again.

If that’s not enough even though someone was there at the 500 but only racing in the other categories, how about our Kiwi Shane Van Gisbergen on his first full US season debut weekend for Kaulig Racing after a decorated career here in Supercars? Well, things might not have been easy from the start where he dropped a few spots from 5th to somewhere outside the Top 10-15 before he suffered some damage from the crash not long before the halfway mark on Lap 37. But fortunately his race wasn’t over where most cautions went his way to regain track position other than the last yellow whilst was running Top 10 for another while in Stage 3 as he completed his first Xfinity Series race in 12th. Yes, there are things where he could’ve been better running the Top 5 and even up front if it wasn’t for the yellows or the mid-race damage. But it’s his first full season in the US after a long time here in Australia, having also raced in the main ARCA Series race on the same weekend. Despite an unfortunate result there on what has been a wreck-spinning race, he did enough to pass the rookie superspeedway test as long as he participated including the practice orientation ones per NASCAR rules. Now he will look to look to dominate up front by getting used to winning with unfinished business ahead for the next race at Atlanta Motor Speedway this weekend.

February 22, 2024 0 comment

Motorsport NASCAR

Team Penske Ford dominates the NASCAR Cup Series for another year at Phoenix this time by new Drivers’ Champion Ryan Blaney

by Sports Benches November 6, 2023

What an amazing finish to the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series season after 36 points-series races across nine months of the calendar year where the same Ford team has won another championship in Team Penske, but this time it’s Ryan Blaney who is now your new drivers’ champion for the first time at age 29. Great start by William Byron with his opening stage win but was inconsistent as the race goes on where failure to stay ahead up front was the one weakness that ultimately costed him the race & championship itself in 4th. Meanwhile, unlucky from Christopher Bell due to a brake issue before things went bad to worse after he made contact with the wall in Stage 2. Then Byron’s team-mate at Hendrick Kyle Larson may entered the fight late into the 3rd & final stage in a bid to add Championship win No.2, but he couldn’t defend & stay ahead of Blaney under pressure at the last restart in 3rd where he had to settle as runner-up on the final drivers’ points standings of 2023.

And last but not least, it’s the man of the hour Ryan Blaney who steered this No.12 Ford Mustang home that secured him his first major silverware of NASCAR, despite finishing 2nd in the race to Ross Chastain (Trackhouse). He may have started slow & steady from outside the Top 10 earlier on, but he gradually improved along the way towards the Top 2-3 places before Blaney locked out both Hendrick Chevy cars at the checkered flag. Roger Penske will be thrilled to see another championship-winning race car showing up at his race shop in Mooresville after Blaney’s team-mate Joey Logano won his 2nd Cup crown just one year ago in the sister No.22 team. Enjoy the 14-15 weeks of off-season before we go back all over again for the next NASCAR Cup Series season beginning with the 66th edition of the Daytona 500 on Sunday February 18th, 2024.

November 6, 2023 0 comment

Motorsport

Christopher Bell made a sensation at Charlotte Roval 400, champion eliminated

by Admin October 10, 2022

Christopher Bell scored an incredible victory at Charlotte Motor Speedway on Sunday. With this victory, Bell secured a place among the eight drivers who will continue the fight for the championship title. Bell was not the fastest on the track, but he took advantage of the incidents at the end of the race to take a sensational victory. Before this race, Bell was as much as 45 points below the zone where there were eight drivers potentially continuing the championship fight.

“Man, you’ve just got to be there at the end of these things,” “I keep watching all these races where the fastest car doesn’t always win. No secret that road courses have not been our strength this year”. “We were just there at the right time. We obviously weren’t in position to win (before taking tires). We rolled the dice, gambled, and it paid off for us.”

Kyle Larson, the guy who won the title last year won’t have a chance to repeat the feat of the previous season after making too many mistakes throughout the season. Quite rightly, he was very disappointed after this race.

“I just made way too many mistakes all year long,” Larson said. “Made another one today. Ultimately cost us an opportunity to go chase another championship.“Just extremely mad at myself. I let the team down a number of times this year, and let them down in a big way today.”

Larson lacked only 2 points to pass among the top 8 drivers, but Chase Briscoe was placed in his place as the last driver in the further stage. Throughout the season, Larson struggled to find the right rhythm in a vehicle that had undergone changes compared to the previous season. Last season was fascinating because he achieved as many as 10 victories while this season he recorded only 2 triumphs.

“It’s been tough,” Larson said. “I mean, there’s been no real rhythm to it for me and our team, but we fought hard all year to get better. And we’re gonna continue to fight, continue to work hard to be better for the rest of the season as well as be more prepared for next year.”

In the end, Austin Cindric and Daniel Suarez were left without a place in the top 8, as they also had accidents in this race. Briscoe was out of the top 20 after the restart on lap 111, but in the end he achieved a placement which guaranted him the top 8.

“Yeah, man, what a wild day,” Briscoe said. “It took every bit of it there at the end. To be easily in, then that debris caution comes out (on Lap 104). Still, I thought we had a really good shot of making it in. Get wrecked on the backstretch. Crazy at the end of these races, especially the road-course races, how much can change so quickly”.

Bell almost certainly would not have won if a whole series of incidents had not happened at the end of the race and with a good strategy he reached a big victory. Those developments helped him find his place among the top 8 drivers who continue to fight for the title next week at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

October 10, 2022 0 comment

Motorsport NASCAR

Watkins Glen: Larson scores second straight win, Raikkonen retires in Nascar debut

by Admin August 23, 2022

Kyle Larson claimed victory in a thrilling race at Watkins Glen International that was delayed several times due to bad weather. It was the second straight win for the defending Nascar Cup Series champion and his 18th career win overall. In a dramatic finish, Larson made a great maneuver to pass Hendrick Motorsports teammate Chase Elliott. Despite ultimately finishing the race in fourth place, Elliott finished the regular season of the Nascar championship in first place, which he secured by winning the first place after the first stage at Watkins Glen.

After the race, Larson commented on a key maneuver in the race: “I knew that was my only opportunity to get by him. I feel like our cars were pretty equal today. Had a lot of fun after the green-flag cycle trying to chase him down. Kind of burned my stuff up a little bit.” But the restarts kept me in it and kept our team in it. I’m proud of my guys. Good to get another win here at Watkins Glen and get some more bonus points going into the Playoffs, we haven’t had a lot here this year.” Elliot congratulated his teammate on the victory: “Congratulations to Kyle and everybody on the 5 team and at Hendrick Motorsports for getting the win.” AJ Allmendinger and Joey Logano finished the race ahead of Elliott.

The race at Watkins Glen was special because never before had a larger number of international drivers had the opportunity to compete in a single race within the Nascar Cup Series. At the aforementioned race, we had the opportunity to watch drivers from as many as seven countries. Most of the drivers are, quite logically, competitors from the USA. In addition, at Watkins Glen we had the opportunity to see drivers from Mexico, the Netherlands, Germany, Russia, Finland and England. This data shows that Nascar is becoming more and more popular outside the American continent from year to year. Of the international drivers at Watkins Glen, the best position was achieved by Daniel Suarez, who took fifth place.

The mentioned race, which is the penultimate in the regular part of the season, was marked by the debut of Kimi Raikkonen, the former world champion in F1. His debut performance in Nascar ended in ingloriously, although at one point the Finnish driver was among the top ten ranked drivers. Kimi started the race in the 27th position, and at one point he was occupying a high eighth position. Unfortunately, he ended the race prematurely by crashing into the guard rail. Regardless of the fact that he finished the race in the mentioned way, Raikkonen is satisfied with the new experience in his already rich racing career.

“Yeah, for sure, but it’s always hard to know especially now here like what states (of the pit) stop and you know the tire life on that,” he said. “I felt that we had very good speed and especially after the pit stops but maybe I was a bit too harsh on the tires on the one of the sets.”

The other internationals didn’t make a name for themselves at Watkins Glen either. The best place was achieved by the German driver, Mike Rockenfeller, who finished the race in 30th place. Dutchman Loris Hezemans was three positions lower. At the very back with Raikkonen were his former colleague from F1, Daniel Kvyat and the Englishman Kyle Tilley.

August 23, 2022 0 comment

Motorsport

IndyCar returns on free-to-air in Australia for the first time in 15 years, but only through one-hour highlights on 9Go

by Sports Benches February 27, 2022

It’s been a long time coming since an American motorsports series such as IndyCar were last shown on Free to Air in Australia in 2008 on the Seven Network, after these open-wheelers no longer race on the streets of Surfers Paradise in Gold Coast, Queensland.

There was also every race in Champ Car/IndyCar back then for the North American races other than the Gold Coast, having been tape-delayed on Tuesday mornings at 12 am/1 am either on Nine or Ten. Although both networks did cover the annual Indianapolis 500 race live through the 1990s and early 2000s.

Fifteen years on, the Nine Network brought it back this time as one-hour highlights of every race on Thursday 2-3 pm via their digital channel 9Go. It comes after their subscription streaming partner, Stan Sport, who recently snatched the Australian IndyCar TV rights off Fox Sports/Kayo, will air every practice, qualifying, and race, live without ads and on-demand.

And fans will not have to wait long now to subscribe and tune in to Stan Sport for tomorrow’s season-opener at a Street Circuit in St. Petersburg, Florida, 4 am AEDT.

We would’ve loved to see Nine simulcast the annual Indy 500 live with Stan Sport on 9Gem in late May, but then not many people here will stay up all night & watch it in the early hours of Monday AM. The only way Nine will air an IndyCar race live is if the IndyCars return for a weekend racing here like they did in the past, but someone local has to promote it where none of them are willing to take this step forward any time soon.

For now, it’s great to hear fellow Aussie Leigh Diffey commentating for host broadcaster NBC Sports throughout the 2022 IndyCar season, including the Indianapolis 500, both on Stan Sport and 9Go.

February 27, 2022 1 comment