Motorsports Racing News & Blog Articles

Want to win an easy bet? Just pick A.J. Allmendinger to win a NASCAR road course race.

Allmendinger dominated Saturday’s Xfinity Series event on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course, leading all but twenty laps from the pole to win for the third time in 2022. All three victories came on road courses with COTA and Portland being the other, while he now has eleven national series road victories to his name including two in the Cup Series (the second of which was the inaugural Cup race on the Indianapolis RC).

“God, I love this place,” remarked Allmendinger. “I knew Bowman was really good at the long runs, and so I tried to gap him as much as I could. God, I love Indy!”

A trio of Cup drivers hoped to challenge Allmendinger ahead of their race on Sunday, but Alex Bowman, Ross Chastain, and Chase Briscoe respectively finished a distant second, fourth, and fifth. Bowman was making his first Xfinity start since Michigan in 2018, while his last road race in the series was an eleventh at Mid-Ohio as a rookie in 2013.

“I probably was a little too nice on that last restart,” Bowman commented. “I knew he was going to be better than us firing off. At the end, we were definitely running him down, just not enough laps.”

It was the perfect Saturday for Jake Dennis at the London E-Prix, after the Brit claimed victory on home soil just like he did last season. The Avalanche Andretti FE Team driver was unbeatable during the entire day, after topping every single session on Saturday.

Dennis claimed somewhat of a quadruple crown on Saturday, after topping Free Practice Two, Qualifying, winning the Race and claiming the Fastest Lap. Stoffel Vandoorne was the only driver able to keep up with the British driver’s relentless pace, on a day Dennis called “perfect”.

The Brit spoke exclusively to The Checkered Flag after the race, where he summed up what was a day that “couldn’t have gone any better”.

“As far as Saturday’s go, that was perfect. Yeah, couldn’t have gone any better. You know, we’ve had such a such a clean day. No mistake from the team and myself, we delivered when we had the opportunity to and to execute the race the way we did was pretty special. It was like we had been doing it for years, so yeah, full kudos-off to the team on this one. They gave me a great car and I just had to deliver the laps when they mattered. Putting the qualifying laps in the race when it matters, so yeah.”

Dennis seemed capable of opening the gap to Vandoorne whenever he pleased, resulting in the Avalanche Andretti driver being untroubled for virtually the entire race. Dennis admitted that there was more pace in the car if needed, but that he was ultimately “controlling” the pace of the race.

Kevin Magnussen admits the Haas F1 Team have not been as competitive as they would have liked to have been this weekend at the Hungaroring, but he feels from thirteenth on the grid, he can fight for points on Sunday.

The Dane has been running with an updated package this weekend in Hungary, but as with any upgrade, it takes time to understand it and get the most out of it, but he felt he did as much as he could under the circumstances.

Magnussen says the car has been feeling better with heavy fuel this weekend, which give him hope he can advance from his grid slot and fight for a top ten finish on Sunday afternoon.

“You always want to make Q3 and it wasn’t one of our best qualifying sessions but it seems this weekend we’ve been a little bit less competitive,” said Magnussen.  “There’s a lot of work going into it but it’s one of those things that will take time to extract the most out of it.

“From P13, I think you can fight for points. The pace looked alright on the long run, certainly the car felt good in FP2 with high-fuel, if anything a little bit better than low-fuel.

49 races.

That’s how long it’s been since Alexander Rossi last won a race in the NTT IndyCar Series at Road America in 2019. Today, that drought finally came to an end, as Rossi won the Gallagher Grand Prix.

Rossi started the race on the outside of the front row, and was in the right position to take advantage of a heartbreaking engine failure for his teammate Colton Herta, and cruise to victory lane. Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing‘s rookie Christian Lundgaard dazzled with his first career podium in second place, and Will Power took the championship lead with his third place finish.

“It’s a relief, man,” Rossi said in victory lane. “It’s been so many things for so long, and I do feel for Colton [Herta], I do, but I’m happy.”

“Thankfully something came our way.”

Max Verstappen endured a tough Q3 during Qualifying for the Hungarian Grand Prix on Saturday as the Oracle Red Bull Racing driver could only set the tenth fastest time following a suspected issue with his power unit.

Verstappen had shown extremely strong pace throughout Qualifying up until then and believed he had what it took to take pole position, but on leaving the pits for his final attack lap on fresh tyres, he found he did not have the power needed even to contend.

As other drivers attacked and improved their own times, the defending World Champion slipped to the bottom of the top ten and will have a lot of work to do on Sunday if he is to fight for a podium finish at the Hungaroring.

“I don’t know exactly what happened, I drove out of the pits and there was no release and no power in the car, we couldn’t fix it,” said Verstappen.  “We tried everything we could whilst out on the track, I‘ll have a chat with the Team and I hope that everything is fixable.

“It’s frustrating to start in P10 tomorrow after such a positive qualifying, we looked competitive and we had good pace.

Valtteri Bottas admitted it was positive to see Alfa Romeo F1 Team ORLEN return to the top ten in Qualifying after setting the eighth fastest time on Saturday afternoon at the Hungaroring.

The Finn had been uncharacteristically outside of the top ten in the past few events after being a regular inside Q3 during his time racing for the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team, but Bottas was delighted to be back where he feels Alfa Romeo belong.

“It is positive to be back in Q3, we finally got everything together and the results show for it,” said Bottas.  “It has been a while since we have been there and it’s good to be where we feel we belong.

“We were closer to Alpine than we thought, which is a positive, and it seems we made a bit of progress since the last race.”

Bottas does not feel the race pace of those at the front of the midfield is that different and starting inside the top ten gives him a good chance of returning to the points for the first time since the Canadian Grand Prix.

Lando Norris was delighted with his performance throughout Qualifying for the Hungarian Grand Prix as the British racer qualified fourth on the grid for Sunday’s race.

The McLaren F1 Team racer showed good speed throughout the three segments of Qualifying at the Hungaroring and was less than four-tenths of a second away from the pole time set by George Russell, but he felt he did as much as he could with the MCL36.

Starting from the second row of the grid on Sunday, Norris hopes to be able to at least maintain his position and maybe capitalise on mistakes or issues for those ahead to fight for his second podium finish of the 2022 FIA Formula 1 World Championship season.

“A very good position, I wouldn’t have said we expected to be P4 but I’ll take it!” said Norris.  “Very good job by the team, ahead of the guys we want to be ahead of.

“It was a good lap, so I’m happy with it. I don’t think it could have been much better, position-wise, so happy with today and we’ll try to keep it up for tomorrow.”

In 2019, Grant Enfinger won the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series regular season championship only to be eliminated from the playoffs after just one round. Three years later, it only took one race for him to clinch a spot in the Round of 8.

Enfinger survived a chaotic ending to Friday’s TSport 200 at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park to win his first race of 2022 and the first NASCAR national series event at the track since 2011. Multiple late wrecks slowed the race also bought Enfinger time to move through the order after crew chief Jeff Hensley elected to change four tyres; on newer tyres than his peers and receiving enough breaks due to the cautions, Enfinger passed regular season champ Zane Smith on the final lap for the victory.

“Well, we’re finally moving forward at all! This is my first win since [Martinsville],” said Enfinger. “[We had a] terrible [regular season], not because of these guys behind me, you know we’ve just been a little off as an organisation. […] We’ve been working so hard because we’ve been sucking. It hurts to say it, but we have had a terrible season to this point.

“We had a great #23 Champion Power Equipment Chevrolet all day. It felt like every time we got to the lead, the caution came out. It put Hensley in a bad spot, but I knew from experience to just trust his gut. I couldn’t keep my mouth shut every time I kept trying to edge him on, but I had one of my Pop Pop’s Bible verses in there, so it’s a pretty special night and I’m definitely very, very thankful.

“For four years, [Hensley and I] rode the roller coaster together. We’ve been in the lows, we missed the playoffs in our first year together, but we haven’t missed it since. We’ve had some success together, he’s a racer and I’m a racer, and neither of us are very smart, but we put it together tonight.”

Carlos Sainz Jr. saw George Russell deny him a second pole position of the season in the dying moment of Qualifying for the Hungarian Grand Prix on Saturday, and the Spaniard admitted he could have done better when it mattered on his final push lap.

The Scuderia Ferrari driver felt he left time on the table and paid the price as Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team’s Russell put together a great lap to take top spot by 0.044 seconds.

Despite losing out on pole, Sainz feels Ferrari have a strong chance of a big result on Sunday at the Hungaroring, with the pace of his F1-75 appearing fast throughout the weekend, and this coupled with the fact the two Oracle Red Bull Racing drivers will start tenth and eleventh.

“I’m not very happy with the final result as I feel I could have done a better lap on the final attempt,” said Sainz.  “However, I prefer to focus on the positives: we are in a good position for tomorrow, I’ve been comfortable in the car all weekend and we keep making steps in the right direction.

“I’m confident we can carry the good pace of Friday into the race, so we’ll definitely go for it. Congrats to George on his first pole. He did a very good lap today and I look forward to the battle tomorrow.”

Esteban Ocon says the BWT Alpine F1 Team can be pleased with their efforts during Qualifying for the Hungarian Grand Prix as they locked out row three of the grid for Sunday’s race.

The Frenchman, the surprise winner of this event twelve months ago, felt it was a solid result at the Hungaroring for a team that has made ‘really good improvements’ to its car across the weekend and gave him a chance of fighting for a place high up the grid.

“I’m pleased with today’s Qualifying as it’s a very solid result, so thanks to the team for their hard work in making some really good improvements over the course of the weekend,” said Ocon.  

“We’ve equalled our best Qualifying result of the year, so we’re definitely satisfied with our performance.”

Ocon says the job on Sunday is to get ahead of McLaren F1 Team’s Lando Norris after the Briton managed to out-qualify them in fourth, as the two teams battle it out for fourth place in the Constructors’ Championship.

George Russell admitted he was feeling ‘over the moon’ after securing his maiden FIA Formula 1 World Championship pole position at the end of a gripping Qualifying session at the Hungaroring on Saturday.

The Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team driver had not looked a contender for top spot after relatively difficult practice sessions on Friday and Saturday, but he found the pace in his W13 when it mattered as he snatched pole away from Carlos Sainz Jr.

Russell admitted he does not fully understand how Mercedes were able to turn around their fortunes in Qualifying, but he will have the honour of leading the field away off the grid on Sunday afternoon for the first time.

“I’m over the moon and absolutely buzzing,” said Russell.  “Yesterday was disastrous for us and probably the worst Friday of the season.

“The team was working so hard last night and we were able to make a big step forward. In Formula 1 there are so many fine margins and when you get in that perfect window, your car will just fly, which we managed to do in today’s conditions.

Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team’s George Russell took pole position at the Hungarian Grand Prix, beating out the favourites of Scuderia Ferrari with an incredible lap in the session’s final seconds. 

Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz will join Russell on the front row, with team-mate Charles Leclerc just behind in third. Lando Norris showed his hand with a fourth place finish, while the Constructors’ leaders of Red Bull Racing encountered obstacles that saw them all the way down in tenth and eleventh after an exciting saturday session.

Q1: Mercedes shows their pace while Vettel, AlphaTauri and Williams are left in the cold

The wet conditions of Free Practice Three may not have rolled over to Qualifying, but the cold temperatures continued to play a role as the drivers began their battle for grid position at the Hungaroring. The track was reported to be twenty degrees cooler than on Friday, which played a big role in the session. 

Red Bull and Mercedes rose to the top of the timing sheet in the first minutes, while the Ferraris, which had proven to be quick in practice, held off from joining the action until later in Q1. Norris showed his potential early on in the session, splitting the Red Bulls in second place.

Once Ferrari got out on track, they found themselves near the top by their second flying laps, with Sainz in second and Leclerc in third with about six minutes to go.

Stoffel Vandoorne continues to not put a foot out of line this season, as the Drivers’ Championship leader extended his lead after a brilliant second-place finish at the London E-Prix.

The Belgian driver had a solid Saturday at the ExCeL Centre, after claiming a second-place start for the first race of the weekend. Vandoorne converted his second-place start into a second-place finish, where he couldn’t quite get the better of race winner Jake Dennis. The Mercedes-EQ Formula E Team driver finished comfortably in second, with his team-mate Nyck de Vries rounding off the podium.

Whilst Vandoorne claimed his tenth consecutive points finish of the season, his title rivals faltered. Mitch Evans was the only one of the three other title contenders to finish in the points; however, the New Zealander could only salvage sixth. Edoardo Mortara and Jean-Éric Vergne finished outside the points, putting the pair almost out of realistic title contention.

Vandoorne was actually the only top-four driver in the standings to make it into the Qualifying duels, something he may be hoping will repeat itself on Sunday.

Following the race, Vandoorne spoke exclusively to The Checkered Flag, where he discussed the race and revealed that he “maximised everything”.

Jake Dennis led from start to finish at the London E-Prix, to claim a superb home victory. Stoffel Vandoorne claimed second to seriously extend his Drivers’ Championship lead, with only Mitch Evans managing to finish in the points from the chasing three drivers in the title-fight.

As the lights went out there was immediate drama, as Sam Bird was spun-round on the exit of Turn Two, causing chaos behind. Bodywork flew everywhere as the Brit was forced into an instant retirement, whilst title challenger Edoardo Mortara was forced into the pits for a new front-wing.

Mortara returned to the circuit no where near the next nearest car, replays showed that it was the Swiss driver who tagged Bird, after being sandwiched.

At the front they remained as they were, with Dennis leading from Vandoorne and Nyck de Vries. Elsewhere, the DS Techeetah duo made contact not once but twice, with António Félix Da Costa clearly having no intention of supporting his team-mates championship bid.

Sérgio Sette Câmara was a man a mission in the opening ten minutes, after performing an incredible move on De Vries at Turn One, moving the Brazilian up to third. Bird’s bodywork remained on the circuit bizarrely, with the amount of debris on the track soon increasing, as Oliver Rowland lost a huge chunk of carbon fibre down the main-straight.

Joel Granfors closed the gap to Luke Browning in the GB3 Championship title race with a win in Race 1 at Silverstone on Saturday afternoon.

All three Hitech GP cars were disqualified from Qualifying for a technical infringement, meaning Championship leader Browning started all three races from the back.

Granfors and Callum Voisin went side-by-side through Maggotts and Becketts, while Bryce Aron was launched over the exit kerb at Abbey as he got past Mikkel Grundtvig.

Browning made up an incredible ten positions on the opening lap, sitting in P11 halfway through Lap 2 from P23 on the grid.

Zak Taylor went around the outside of Cian Shields at Brooklands and finished it off into Luffield, but Shields kept it pinned as he ran wide through Copse and built the gap by running off-track.