Tag:

Team Penske

Motorsport

NASCAR News Today: Another title, Another year for Team Penske with No.22’s Joey Logano back on top to prize off team-mate Ryan Blaney with his 3rd Championship win

by Sports Benches

It’s been another golden championship season of Team Penske Fords ever since when the Next Gen Chassis era began three seasons ago. 

The driver of the day though belongs to Joey Logano who stole the Drivers’ Crown off his No.12 team-mate & last year’s champion Ryan Blaney following a really great battle between those two on a few occasions – including the final stage when 1-2 others may have crashed out – before Joey pulled off the winning move & stayed there just in time to clinch yet another silverware piece for his No.22 team. 

Again, it has to come down to one huge winner as Logano both had the fight and championship-winning experience to lock up for the 3rd time that goes back from 2018 to 2022 & now 2024. 

For Blaney, it’s never a good feeling being 2nd best but hey, he raced really well to defend his crown against his team-mate Logano. At the end of the day, it’s all about great racing that makes Team Penske the most successful Ford Cup team over the last few years, and sure Blaney will back in 12 months time to hopefully hoist his Drivers’ Championship title No.2 at this same Phoenix race track.

William Byron finished 3rd in the No.24 Chevy Camaro for Hendrick Motorsports where he wasn’t quite up to Team Penske’s standards for the ultimate prize when it comes to the consistency including late race restarts. But he had a fantastic season though where he always finishes Top 3, Top 5 as well as a few regular season wins here and there. 

If he can translate with wins into Playoffs time next year, then the best of Byron and the No.24 Hendrick team should be yet to come.

We also still haven’t heard much of Toyota when you compare to Penske and Hendrick when you got Tyler Reddick finishing 6th behind another consistent Top 5 finisher Christopher Bell from Gibbs as the 4th and final Championship 4 contender for the manufacturer’s satellite Cup team at 23XI Racing, with team-mate Bubba Wallace in 7th. It remains to be seen what will happen going into next year since 23XI is having a really tough time alongside Front Row Motorsports at court & unfortunately, it didn’t go their way as per judge ruling before the weekend.

It’s not just 23XI who is walking into unknown territory but one of their co-owners Denny Hamlin would most likely not be donning the FedEx colours anymore  next season & he too finished 11th for his No.11 Gibbs Toyota team after missing the Championship 4 cup for yet another year in season 2024. Whoever comes in to support Denny, let’s hope he can adjust his expectations so he doesn’t end up disappointed next time as he’s still yet to win a Drivers’ Championship at age 43.

I wish he can get a decent enough crew chief who has been there & done that before with winning championships, but all he can do is just win them all at Playoffs time if he can and we might finally see the best of Denny as a driver. If Justin Allgaier can do like he did as a finally first-time Xfinity Series Champion yesterday, then so could Denny no matter what happens. 

In the meantime, if you’re a big Penske fan, particularly for Joey, then today’s your lucky day! No doubt Penske will go on to be the 2020s version of Hendrick Motorsports if they keep on adding more and more championship titles every season as congrats to Joey once again with his 3rd Cup crown all coming from the same place of Arizona’s Phoenix Raceway. 

0 comment
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
Motorsport

NASCAR Race Today: Another late Team Penske Round of 8 win this time by No.12 Ford’s Ryan Blaney at Martinsville ahead of his season-title defense for next weekend

by Sports Benches

Yes, it’s that time of the year when eligible Playoff drivers who haven’t booked their Championship 4 ticket yet usually leave things to the last minute during the last Round of 8 Cup race. However for some when they were fortunate enough to get that golden ticket opportunity, it’s within good reason thanks to Ryan Blaney’s win today in the No.12 Ford Mustang for Team Penske at Martinsville Speedway. 

Now there’s going to be not one but two Team Penske cars alongside a 23XI Toyota (Tyler Reddick) and a Hendrick Chevy (William Byron) on what could be yet another golden Team Penske Championship year for the third straight time ahead of next weekend’s season-finale race at Phoenix Raceway.

You just couldn’t believe the time has come for Team Penske to dominate this three-week semis swing even though we haven’t heard much from them beforehand. But hey, they’ve been there and have done before with huge success and it would no surprise if either the defending champ Ryan Blaney or Joey Logano take home that championship trophy once the 2024 season is done.

First of all, Christopher Bell would’ve easily been the other last two favourites to book into Phoenix – provided if he can provide a good enough finish – as one of the championship front-runners like it was back in 2022 and 2023. But then he made an illegal wall move towards the end there on Byron (the actual Championship 4 contender instead) that got himself DQ’d and NASCAR fined him with a penalty there on the spot post-race. He’ll have to wait till next year now for his next championship opportunity as still plenty to offer in the No.20 Gibbs Toyota at age 30.

Also, feeling sorry there for experienced veteran Denny Hamlin who overcame yesterday’s crash to force his way back up through the field with a spare No.11 Toyota Camry in 6th – the best placed Toyota/Gibbs car today at Martinsville.

Unfortunately, it’s still not quite enough to book in his championship shot yet again for season 2024 when a win was still required that began with the Team Penske’s championship glory back in 2022. Yes, he also could’ve done it last weekend at Homestead if it wasn’t for that poor last restart & also if the last yellow didn’t come out when other eligible Championship 4 contenders already have better Playoff form than him it as seen with the Team Penske duo & even one or the other Toyota team-mates like Bell and his 23XI employee of course in Reddick.

Although there’s lots more to come from Denny as a co-owner for 23XI Racing with Reddick still in the fight, but as a driver, he really needs a big impact all along at Playoffs time next year like winning all these set of races if he wants to finally win the championship so badly.

What else? There’s also some Ford cars in and out of the Top 10 with Brad Keselowski who finished 9th in his co-owned No.6 Ford for RFK Racing as well as Noah Gragson 11th as the highest Stewart-Haas Ford finisher ahead of a few other team-mates down the Top 15 mark for his No.10 crew. And don’t forget New Zealand’s Shane Van Gisbergen in 12th for Kaulig Racing’s No.16 Chevy Cup team. Yes, I know Austin Dillon aka AD finished 7th for the No.3 Childress Chevy but he was there for the wrong reasons unfortunately when it comes to that late race radio drama.

And if I was going to choose a championship winner for next Monday’s season finale for Cup, it’s going to be a touch one for sure. Now based on regular season form then it would be William Byron; if not, going with Logano to get this done for a 3rd Drivers’ Championship.

0 comment
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
Motorsport

Tyler Reddick now step away to race for the NASCAR Cup season title after an unreal final lap pass win for 23XI at Homestead-Miami 

by Sports Benches

The second of the 2024 NASCAR semi-final races at Homestead-Miami saw a brand new & another bit surprising championship contender for the next fortnight’s finale at Phoenix Raceway as there’s only one to go before the “Final Four” line-up is sorted by the end of next Sunday’s Cup race (Monday AM in Australian time) at Martinsville Speedway.

The driver of the day belongs to Tyler Reddick, who was simply outstanding all afternoon including pole position the other day, having initially passed his boss Denny Hamlin on his way to Turn 1 following the last restart yellow and then Ryan Blaney during the last two corners before he managed shut Blaney down on time towards the checkered flag – what a day for Tyler and his No.45 23XI Racing team right there. 

Tough luck for both Blaney (Defending Champion in the No.12 Ford for Penske) and Hamlin (as a No.11 Gibbs Toyota driver) who fell just short in 2nd and 3rd respectively. Yes, good to see Denny in particular finish 3rd as the best Gibbs Toyota car ahead of always Top 5 finisher Christopher Bell in 4th while he was able to stop by to celebrate with his own driver post-race which was lovely to hear. 

However, it seems that Denny will really need a good race car once more to get out of this must win situation or else he will have it miss out yet again come Martinsville. Don’t have much confidence on him to pull off unfortunately unless all other five Playoff contenders drop out via luck such as a mechanical failure or a crash & Denny gets his way – remember he hasn’t won anything much for a while unlike the regular season leg including the past few Playoff race editions & also this “Paper Clip” short track record that goes way back to 2010 (15 years ago).

If I was going to choose the last two drivers to close off the last semi-final race, then it would be Bell who always does well in the Top 3-5 regardless of this next result & although that last pick looks like to be a very tough one, but maybe Kyle Larson in the 5 Hendrick Chevy will do it with the win as long as he doesn’t crash next weekend.

For now, go celebrate your drivers’ win Denny as Tyler is such a huge talent – who has won 2 x Xfinity Championships in the past – and sure he can make Championship 4 something special should he be the first driver to win one at Phoenix.

Who else other than a strong Top 3-4 Toyota afternoon at Homestead-Miami? There’s AJ Allmendinger in 8th for Kaulig’s 16 Chevy team (racing part-time there for now) and so does the new Rookie of the Year Carson Hocevar who finished 9th also in a Chevy for Spire’s 77 squad. 

And a few Stewart-Haas Racing Fords also filled in & out of the Top 10 when it comes to the next three spots like Ryan Preece (10th – No.41), Josh Berry (11th – No.4) & Chase Briscoe (12th – No.14). Yes, they may not have much time left as SHR are already out of any chances of a season title since Kevin Harvick last won it 10 years ago (2014) but a good Top 10-15 finish is at least a positive thing to hear if you closely follow SHR.

We’re going to miss them dearly at season’s end with Haas set to continue running on his own albeit on a smaller scale and Tony Stewart spending more time with his wife via their drag racing business in the NHRA together.

0 comment
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
Motorsport

NASCAR Race Results: Joey Logano bounces back from a lifeline thanks to Alex Bowman’s DQ to being in the running towards another Championship fight after his win at Las Vegas

by Sports Benches


Today’s NASCAR Cup race that began the first of the three semi-finals ended up with a huge twist on the road to Championship 4 Finale at Phoenix for next month & gotta say congrats to Joey Logano on becoming the first eligible Playoffs driver to book in that season-finale spot for the No.22 Penske Ford team following his unreal late move on Daniel Suarez to take home the race win with 6 laps left from Las Vegas. 

So gutted for Suarez there after leading the race for so long under green until a late yellow came out after Ty Gibbs spun out that late and he just couldn’t stop Logano& later Christopher Bell in his tracks before the race was over. But again not a bad result though to finish third for Trackhouse’s No.99 team (Chevy) just one week after being eliminated from the Round of 12 Playoffs as let’s hope we can see more of him in a bid to compete in the semi-finals for the first time late next year.

Meanwhile, Seven days ago Joey Logano thought he was out of the Playoffs running after the Charlotte Roval race but then a shock DQ from Alex Bowman in the No.48 Hendrick Chevy gave him a lifeline to keep his Championship hopes alive over Bowman’s ride height/underweight car failure. Now he’s in for a shot towards a possible 3rd Drivers’ Championship crown since his last triumph back in 2022, having first won it when Homestead-Miami had its last moments as a season-finale venue back in 2018.

Who knows? He could even make Roger Penske & the Blue Oval (Ford) something more legendary with yet another Cup crown for a three peat in season 2024 where Ryan Blaney (No.12 team) became a first time champion nearly a year ago.

1 down, 2 more races to go with Homestead in Miami around the cotner as there’s 3 more Championship 4 slots still left to fill – so all hope is not lost just yet.

You just couldn’t believe it can you? when there’s several drivers going out of control with spins and hits along the way including Tyler Reddick in the No.45 Toyota Camry for 23XI Racing while there’s another lot out there who managed to bounce back with redemption. It’s a shame that Tyler’s race unfortunately ended early when he tried to go around Chase Elliott on the outside line but then he was collected towards the front stretch that went airborne. He is now sitting below the Playoff cut-off line (6th) having always been inside the Top 4 prior to today thanks to this regular-season championship win from early last month.

Semi-Finals Playoff watch 

What else? Christopher Bell always a consistent front runner following his 2nd placed finish for the No.20 Toyota for Gibbs, he would love nothing more than a win though as he wants to treat every other race now as a Championship 4 finale. So does William Byron who is also on the same front running boat as Bell over in the No.24 Hendrick car for Chevy when he finished 4th but again, a win though would help him go to that next level which would hopefully be a season-ending win & also the championship title.

Even though Denny Hamlin finished not  bad in 8th in the other Gibbs Toyota for the No.11 team, he still needs a Top 3 finish upfront or even a win would do it if he wants to finally win his first championship title as a driver this year. 

He’s only 27 points behind the Playoffs bubble in 5th spot, so all eyes on Denny now if he can get that job done by usurping Bell as the best Gibbs driver – right now he’s sitting as 2nd best.

All other shoutouts

And finally here’s some more shoutouts where a few other drivers had a really good day off the back through their survival of the fittest by steering clear of yellows. It’s been a while from John Hunter Nemechek in the No.42 Toyota for Legacy Motor Club since New Hampshire back in July (8th) with a 9th-placed finish – still a long way to go before LMC can finally fulfil their full potential based on the recent personnel changes they’ve made by co-owner and 7 x Cup champion Jimmie Johnson.

Plus, there’s a few other Fords marking in between the Top 10-15 finishing spots on top of Logano’s unreal day for Team Penske. Chris Buescher finished 10th for the No.17 RFK Racing team, Corey LaJoie posting yet another Top 15 result once again in 14th just one month after that swap deal with Justin Haley (who moved the other direction to his former long-time No.7 Spire home) & he does not disappoint so far in the No.51 for Rick Ware Racing, and Harrison Burton steered the iconic No.21 Mustang home through the every end in 15th for Wood Brothers Racing.

0 comment
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
Motorsport

NASCAR Race Today: Another Chevy day this time with a different non-Playoffs driver by Ross Chastain at Kansas for Team Trackhouse

by Sports Benches

It’s been another Chevy day but also another non-Playoffs winner’s day this time by Ross Chastain (No.1 Chevy Camaro for Trackhouse) at Kansas Speedway. 

We haven’t heard much from him other than slow and steady starts earlier on but he wasn’t far from the Top 10 before the start of Stage 3 thanks to a number of yellows where things went his way such as his long-run form that got what he wanted at the end of the day including that winning move on Kyle Busch (No.8 Chevy for Richard Childress Racing) with 67 laps to go (out of 267). He does look like and race like a champion indeed as proven many times before having won the season finale race event at Phoenix last time around almost a year ago despite not being eligible for the Championship 4 but his next big opportunity will have to be in 2025 that provided he can win at least one regular event race or always be Top 10 for the first 25 + races.

Not only Chastain was outstanding, there was another non-playoffs driver who also had a great day too in none other than Martin Truex Jr (No.19 Toyota Camry for Joe Gibbs Racing). He always kept a great eye on the front runners thanks to his excellent start from 19th to 8th (both in Stages 1 & 2) & then 3rd behind Hendrick Motorsports’s William Byron. If it wasn’t for that speeding penalty, MTJ would’ve still been in the Playoffs hunt. All we could say that he’s doing the best he can to finish off his full-time Cup record on a high going into October & early November.

Who else? Reigning champion Ryan Blaney was the best lone Ford driver out there  to post a Top 10 after he finished 4th in the No.12 Ford Mustang for Team Penske. Meanwhile at the Spire Motorsports Chevy hub, Zane Smith also had a wonderful afternoon in the No.71 team thanks to his brilliant Stage 3 improvements after he finished 10th. 

Sure he won’t be short of suitors when it comes to Zane’s next Cup ride for 2025 as he’s getting there on-track with time & patience, so he can prove Trackhouse wrong at an organisation that he didn’t even race for them – not even once despite being under contract at the time until his mutual release a few weeks ago.

And last but not least, Corey LaJoie in 15th this time in the No.51 Ford for Rick Ware Racing since that recent driver swap last week, with Justin Haley going the other way into his now former spot at Spire – which is the No.7 team. He too is happy with the race car as reflected earlier during Stage 2 when he was in 20th at the time and as you can see with the Stage 3 yellows, Corey gained some more track position on his first race here for RWR. 

Yeah, things aren’t the same anymore when Spire chose to do things differently for next year by luring Haley back at this bright race shop. But we know he’s good at growing small teams with his experienced track record at Cup level & no doubt he will continue to help make more memories for Rick & Lisa Ware — even a first race win would be nice too for everyone working there including Corey himself.

Two more chances now for those Top 12 Playoff drivers still in the hunt as we’re going back on the high line in Talladega once again for the YellaWood 500 at 5am AEDT next Monday.

0 comment
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
Motorsport

NASCAR News Today: Joey Logano the first driver to make it into the Round of 12 with the win after a great day for Team Penske & the Blue Oval at Atlanta Motor Speedway

by Sports Benches

It was massive Ford (Mustang) & even Team Penske day to light up the opening 2024 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs race at Atlanta Motor Speedway where each of their three drivers won each stage (Ryan Blaney in Stage 1 for the No.12 followed by Austin Cindric in Stage 2 for the No.2) as today’s winner was all about Joey Logano in the No.22 side for Team Penske. 

It’s been a while since his last win in Nashville back in late June where he had a really top day upfront – mainly in the Top 5 – before more late cautions went his way to reach top spot, and there goes Joey Logano with his 2nd win of 2024 & also being the first driver now to advance into the second Round of 12 Playoffs. So nothing to worry about there until Kansas at the end of this month where he will either need to win again or stay consistent with his results up front on the road to the Championship 4 Finale as it’s party time for Joey & his No.22 Team Penske crew right now on the way home.

What else? Oh so close from Daniel Suarez there who finished 2nd in the No.99 Chevy Camaro for Trackhouse & he too loves racing at this track off the back of his early-round win back in late February. As long as he can stay consistently in the Top 5-10, then sure we will get to see more of him when it comes to the next round and even semi-finals round of Playoffs – keep your head up!

Meanwhile, Christopher Bell continues to be so good in the No.20 Toyota Camry for Joe Gibbs Racing as he finished 4th & is currently 2nd on drivers’ points behind reigning champ & 3rd-placed finisher in this 2nd Atlanta race Ryan Blaney. This is the man who has made it to the last two season-finale races and he would love to make his 3rd season-finale attempt being his championship-winning breakthrough at Cup level.

And hats off to a few others that got away with some good finishes just outside the Top 10 mark. We begin with Daniel Hemric in 11th for Kaulig Racing (Chevy), Justin Haley 12th for Rick Ware Racing (Ford), Ricky Stenhouse Jr. in 14th for JTG Daugherty Racing (Chevy) & don’t forget the Spire Motorsports Chevy duo of Corey LaJoie (No.7) and Carson Hocevar (No.77) who both came home in 15th and 16th respectively.

Next stop: Watkins Glen International where we will be going road course racing albeit in a slightly different time of the year next Monday rather than always August in New York as the Round of 16 is still up for grabs for some drivers if they really want to be in to win until the first cut-off ends with the Bristol Motor Speedway night race on Saturday 21st September 2024.

0 comment
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
Motorsport

NASCAR News Today: Thoughts on Austin Dillon stripped of his Playoffs eligibility despite keeping his controversial win from the Cook Out 400 weekend in Richmond 

by Sports Benches

So there we have it, after a long few days out from that Richmond race finish controversy, Austin Dillon of the No.3 Chevy Camaro for Richard Childress Racing – who intentionally wrecked both Team Penske Ford’s Joey Logano and then Joey Gibbs Racing Toyota’s Denny Hamlin following the final two turns for the race win – can keep his win but his Playoffs berth though will not count as a result of this investigation by NASCAR. 

RCR on the other hand is still furious about this decision with the plans of an appeal over the next coming days – good luck with that! But what RCR and No.3 of AD needs to do now is not make up any more shortcuts in order to cleanly win races next time with only three regular rounds to go. Should he win either one of the last three regular races, he will enter the post-season Playoffs with zero Playoff points meaning he will have to also win another Round of 16 races to keep his hopes alive.

Gotta say it’s being well said at last as this should’ve been taken action immediately after the race unlike post-race inspections with race cars. You can defend AD and RCR all you like when the No.3 crew would like him to spin and win that race and he did that to make this happen but then this shouldn’t be acceptable in the world of Motorsport at all including NASCAR, so again AD needs to now learn that lesson & not upset everyone in anyway like he did to both drivers at the overtime white flag.

Another party that is worth consider appealing is Joey Logano who verbally unleashed into AD post-race for intentionally spinning him out into the wall that ultimately cost Joey his race win where he finished down in 19th rather than a front row finish as hoped for the Blue Oval. He received a fine of $50,000 USD by NASCAR for his mis-conduct and it’s not fair on him to walk away empty handed that isn’t his own fault other than being so frustrated to see someone who wrecked him celebrate in victory lane at the same time. Maybe NASCAR should take away the penalty fee off Joey and not let RCR give a free pass appeal anymore after all this chaos that took them so long. 

Enough said and we move onto the next Cup race this weekend for the FireKeepers Casino 400 at Michigan International Speedway & this 3rd last regular season race is expected to be Rick Allen’s last as NBC’s NASCAR lead commentator, with Aussie Leigh Diffey to take over from next weekend’s Coke Zero Sugar 400 night race at Daytona International Speedway.

0 comment
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
Motorsport

NASCAR Race News from the weekend: Austin Dillon spins his way with the Cook Out 400 race win at Richmond Raceway in the No.3 Chevy for Richard Childress Racing

by Sports Benches

It may have been a dominant Toyota front row fest for the most part other than the Daniel Suarez Stage 2 win in the Trackhouse Chevy but look who’s back in victory lane? It’s Austin Dillon in the No.3 Chevy Camaro with the win for Richard Childress Racing following his race-winning bump past Turn 4 on both Team Penske’s Joey Logano & Joe Gibbs Racing’s Denny Hamlin towards the checkered flag on overtime when Ryan Preece spun out that led to a caution with two to go.

Now for some NASCAR fans, particularly for those who go for Logano & even Hamlin, this last lap restart on the run home was both good and bad. Well, the sport could’ve looked at this one a lot deeper other than post-race inspections but that’s stock car racing unfortunately unlike most other racing series we see on-track. First of all, good to see AD back in victory lane for the first time since the summer 2022 Daytona race with the same previous crew chief of Justin Alexander, who has been in and out of the No.3 pit box as time goes by until sometime earlier this year. Yet, he’s back for the third time now of asking to help turn his form around once again and yes it did work outwell with another lucky charm for him and Justin together like it was a few times before as AD wouldn’t be there to celebrate today or these past victories if it wasn’t for his best crew chief.

Gotta say that 2nd half performance after the first two stages within the Top 6-7 worked well in AD’s favour off the back of these important pit road adjustments beforehand that helped him make a brilliant charge on the front row. He rolled off the line from 6th aftern an excellent run in qualifying, having never looked out of place with a fast race car on his hands while he remained patient while others drop out all along to get what what he wants. RCR hasn’t been bad when it comes to submitting at least one of their cars over the last few years at Playoffs time & if Kyle Busch can at least win the last few regular season races for the other No.8 car, then no doubt they would be a decent threat up front to the other 3/4 car big teams.

Looking at the Toyotas, you gotta feel for them when these cars fired off really well with some promising signs across the first two stages. Then they had some of the problems happening when it comes to the long last stage with Martin Truex Jr. forced to pull due to mechanical issues while some lacked inconsistency on the long runs like Christopher Bell other than a good Denny day except his last lap overtime drama where he finished 2nd. Seeing four Toyota cars in the Top 6 ain’t bad though with Denny’s co-owned 23XI Racing team also having a great field day in 3rd & 4th thanks to the No.45 of Tyler Reddick & No.23 of Bubba Wallace as Toyota needs to continue making that firepower right going into the next Cup round at Michigan.

Meanwhile, the Ford cars also didn’t have a great day either when Joey Logano was unluckily spun out whilst trying to win with fellow Team Penske driver Ryan Blaney being the best driver there just outside the Top 10 in 11th & the rest of these drivers languishing towards the back end of the finish line. And last but not least, shoutout to Carson Hocevar, who finished 8th in the No.77 Chevy for Spire Motorsports. Now he might not have cracked these Top 5 finishes just yet since he went straight from Trucks but a few Top 10 finishes though ain’t bad and he’s even leading the Rookie standings by a small margin.

Three more regular rounds to go with Michigan, Daytona and Darlington to come as good to see NASCAR back following a long two-week Olympics break and we’re almost there to make up the last 16 drivers that will be competing in the 10 week Playoffs campaign for the NASCAR Cup Series Championship trophy starting early next month at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

0 comment
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
Motorsport

2024 24 Hours of Le Mans back on 9Go for the first two hours with a four way manufacturer Hypercar battle for outright 1st

by Sports Benches

The big Saturday night of sports isn’t done just yet off the back of the Super Rugby semi-finals weekend and the end of the Australian Swimming Olympic Trials where the Olympics might not have started in France just yet, but there’s an annual Endurance race going on right now in the 2024 24 Hours of Le Mans Endurance Race from Circuit De La Sarthe & it’s back on free-to-air 9Go for another year through the first two hours window. Glad to see Nine have the authentic sports logo watermark with the Olympic Rings on it which looks really nice, especially during an Olympic year like this. I hope they can keep on doing this by having the WWOS badge more often like they do to other sports by treating their free-to-air limited LIVE motorsports coverage better should they be back airing the World Endurance Championship and 24 Hours of Le Mans next year. It’s been a long time coming since Nine didn’t put the WWOS logo at all for their former SpeedSeries coverage including the previous 24 Hour of Le Mans race last year – despite wearing one before at times two years ago until Motorsport Australia re-took the SpeedSeries media rights off ARG that ended the mixed paywall/free experiment & Seven came back to air the races once again from earlier this year. Seven also didn’t have any issues when putting on their sports logo unlike Nine.

Looking at the race itself, it’s been a Ferrari race so far where one car has been leading up front over the first 30 mins-1 hour before another works Ferrari of the same Hypercar factory team got away with the lead after the leading car just couldn’t hold onto outright 1st on the outside. But don’t forget they’ve got greater competition from the US such as the No.31 Porsche Penske team as well as the No.3 Cadillac while we wouldn’t rule out Alpine as well with Mick Schumacher’s (one of the Alpine F1 frontrunners alongside Australia’s own Jack Doohan to replace Esteban Ocon for next season) No.36 running in between 10th-15th for Signatech. If you wish to watch the rest of the 24 Hour Endurance event, Stan Sport is the only place to see all along until the end of Sunday night. For new viewers, it’s a seven day free trial and if you like it, it will cost you $25 a month.

From there, you can also watch on-demand replays and highlights at any time as well as every other World Endurance Championship race LIVE uninterrupted without having to break away with an ad-break or two at all. Although you can watch IndyCar there in the meantime at least until the rest of this season, but keep an eye out for 2025 as they could end up on Foxtel/Kayo once again since the US rights have just changed hands recently where it’s now heading to FOX from NBC.

We also know Leigh Diffey, who called the 24 Hour of Le Mans for Eurosport last year, will be staying with NBC having called the Indianapolis 500 over the last seven years & he’s still expected to replace Rick Allen for their NASCAR Cup Series coverage as their main announcer after the Olympics is over with Track & Field. His first Cup race full-time would be straight after the network finishes its IndyCar tenure at Nashville while The CW will begin airing the Xfinity Series races relatively early at the same time during the Playoffs with Allen it before the network takes full control at least the next seven years going into 2025.

For now, it’s a Ferrari 1-2 up front (No.50 over No.83 a few mins ago) under wet weather going into the evening, then darkness and hopefully bright weather into the next day where both cars really want to win that one ultimate prize.

0 comment
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
Motorsport

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

by Sports Benches

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.

0 comment
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
  • 1
  • 2