Motorsports Racing News & Blog Articles

A pair of drivers entered the free agent market on Friday when Alpha Prime Racing and Mike Harmon Racing respectively announced Andy Lally and Kyle Weatherman will not drive for them in the 2022 NASCAR Xfinity Series.

Lally, a sports car veteran in IMSA, joined Alpha Prime Racing‘s #44 as a road course ringer for the six such races on the 2022 Xfinity calendar. Owing to his background, all of his NASCAR starts since being named the 2011 Cup Series Rookie of the Year have come at road circuits (he officially recorded seven DNQs on ovals in 2021, though he was merely a placeholder name on Our Motorsports’ #03 while that entry was being locked out of races without qualifying). In eighteen career Xfinity starts, he has nine top tens with a best finish of fifth on four occasions.

“I owe a massive thank you to Alpha Prime Racing, specifically to Caesar Bacarella and Tommy Joe Martins for allowing me to jump on a unique opportunity,” read a statement from Lally. “I can’t say enough about how gracious they were in both understanding my position, as well as encouraging me to take the step that may help my future the most. It was a great show of friendship, sportsmanship, and a great testament to their character.

“I was very much looking forward to the chance to run with the 44 crew and I believe they have a great program filled with a ton of potential in 2022 and beyond. I wish them luck!

“I will be able to share details of my new opportunity shortly. Beyond opportunities to race, I will also be working with the team in capacities beyond the cockpit, and it is an opportunity simply too good to miss. I’m extremely excited for the future.”

Spencer Boyd will rock a new number for the 2022 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series season. On Friday, Young’s Motorsports announced Boyd will move from the #20 to the #12 Chevrolet Silverado.

After a brief mercenary stint and running the full 2018 Xfinity Series calendar, Boyd joined Young’s for much of the 2019 Truck season. That year, he scored his and Young’s first NASCAR victory at Talladega. In 2021, he ran all but the Knoxville race and finished twenty-fourth in points with a single top ten at Talladega. Boyd also has experience in the Cup Series.

“I’m excited every year to get back to the track and this year is no exception,” commented Boyd. “My schedule last season was jammed packed with seat time so I could get some different perspectives on my driving style. Pickle (crew chief Ryan London) and I are going to take what was learned in those laps and build on them with this #12 team. They work their butts off each week and I’m going to make them proud.”

The #12 was previously piloted by Tate Fogleman, who has signed with On Point Motorsports for 2022. Coincidentally, Fogleman’s maiden NASCAR triumph also came at Talladega in October.

“Spencer has earned the #12 ride, plain and simple,” team head Tyler Young said. “He works harder than any driver out there and I said last year that he is part of our growth strategy, so it’s great to be able to make that step with him.”

Danilo Petrucci might not be racing in MotoGP in 2022 and have his eyes on a switch to MotoAmerica, but he can probably add rally raiding to his list of series to consider for the future. A penalty levied on Toby Price enabled Petrucci to win the fifth stage of the Dakar Rally, making him the first MotoGP alumnus to win a stage in the legendary event.

Riding the #90 for Tech3 KTM Factory Racing, Petrucci recorded a time of three hours, twenty-three minutes, and forty-six seconds in Stage #5, which was cut short as active medical aircraft were in the area. Fellow KTM rider Price completed the stage ahead of him by four minutes and fourteen seconds, but the two-time Rally winner was slapped with a six-minute time penalty after speeding in disallowed areas. This consequently relegated Price to fourth at 3:25:32.

Petrucci is contesting his maiden Dakar Rally. It has been a tumultuous effort for the Italian, who broke his ankle a month before the race and nearly tested positive for COVID-19 the night before the opening stage until it turned out to be a false positive. After finishing with the thirteenth-fastest time in the first stage and running in the top five for much of the second, an electrical issue ended his Stage #2 after 114 km; unable to contact his team after losing his cell phone and passport, he had to use a flare to signal for an airlift out. He was able to continue after using the “joker”, a waiver that allows retired competitors to rejoin the race, though it effectively eliminated him from overall contention as it came with an eleven-hour penalty.

In spite of the setback, Petrucci rebounded to complete the third and fourth stages in twenty-second and fifteenth, respectively.

“I started crying and I cannot believe it,” said an emotional Petrucci. “My father used to give me a present, video tapes from MotoGP and from Dakar, and every day, when I was coming back from school, I was looking always at these video tapes rolling, rolling, rolling. When I grew up, maybe too much for MotoGP, then I started to believe that maybe Dakar. I wanted to race in MotoGP, then when my body (was) not possible anymore to be competitve, I said, ‘Okay, we’ll try the Dakar.’

NASCAR has entrusted Brad Moran with being the Cup Series‘ new managing director, the sanctioning body announced Thursday. Moran was previously in the same position for the Camping World Truck Series, and that slot will be filled by Xfinity Series assistant director Seth Kramlich.

“Brad and Seth both share a racer’s mentality, and will bring knowledge, passion and strong relationships to these important roles,” said NASCAR Senior Vice President of Competition Scott Miller. Moran and Kramlich will both report to Miller. “We look forward to their leadership as they continue to help bring the best racing to our fans at both the NASCAR Cup Series and NASCAR Camping World Truck Series levels.”

Moran joined NASCAR in 2008 after previously running what is now the NASCAR Pinty’s Series in Canada in the same capacity and owning Barrie Speedway. He took over as the Truck Series managing director in 2016.

“The entire competition team is incredibly strong at the NASCAR Cup Series level, and I look forward to helping them grow the series at this exciting time in our sport,” Moran said. “As we introduce the Next Gen car and continue to promote the outstanding talent and personalities at NASCAR’s top level, I’m honoured to help shepherd the series alongside this experienced group of teammates.”

He succeeds Jay Fabian as the head honcho for NASCAR’s top series. Fabian, who had worked in the position since 2019 and for NASCAR since 2016, stepped away from his post in August when he was facing two felony and a misdemeanour count for animal cruelty. His trial is scheduled for 7 February.

It has been a long and even controversial free agency period for Matt DiBenedetto, but he has found a new home in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series. On Thursday, Rackley WAR announced DiBenedetto will drive the #25 Chevrolet Silverado for the full 2022 season.

“We are honored to have Matt DiBenedetto join Rackley WAR full-time for the 2022 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series season driving the #25 Chevrolet,” said team co-owner Curtis Sutton. “We feel that by teaming Matt up with experienced crew chief Chad Kendrick, we will be competing for multiple wins and be competitive at all race tracks. I truly believe that the NASCAR Truck Series is the most exciting, and I am looking forward to getting the season started.”

DiBenedetto spent the last seven years racing full-time in the Cup Series, including the last two with Wood Brothers Racing. After making the playoffs in 2020, he placed eighteenth in points with nine top tens, three top fives, and a best finish of fourth at Kansas in the spring. Prior to the 2021 season, WBR announced then-reigning Xfinity Series champion Austin Cindric would replace DiBenedetto in the #21 (Harrison Burton would ultimately fill the seat as Cindric moves to ally Team Penske). Nevertheless, the announcement left DiBenedetto out of a ride.

The 30-year-old was a fan favourite during his early career as he hung around in start-and-park and underpowered Cup and Xfinity Series rides before breaking through with a sixth-place finish in the 2016 spring Bristol race for perennial backmarker BK Racing. His ascension from such teams before finally reaching the legendary WBR #21 saw moments such as driving a Reddit-sponsored car in the 2017 All-Star Race and frequenting the website, nearly winning the 2019 Bristol Night Race days after his employer Leavine Family Racing announced his departure at season’s end, and winning the 2021 All-Star fan vote.

However, DiBenedetto’s final year with WBR was also marred by controversy, which some fans suggested may have impacted or been a byproduct of his impending free agency. In October, he commented that he hoped to join a team that would allow him to freely comment on religion and politics, prompting many to point out his views are far from controversial in the industry. A month later, he drew backlash when he tweeted about Kyle Busch’s usage of an ableist slur that resulted in Busch attending sensitivity training, which DiBenedetto defended as a joke before briefly deactivating his account and accusing Twitter users of oversensitivity via Instagram video. His final race for WBR at Phoenix saw him interact with Benny Johnson of conservative organisation Turning Point USA, which culminated in him uttering the right-wing phrase “Let’s Go Brandon”, a euphemism to criticise United States President Joe Biden that spawned from the Talladega Xfinity race (race winner Brandon Brown, the ‘Brandon’ in question, has since been in rocky waters due to matters relating to the phrase) and was condemned by NASCAR president Steve Phelps. DiBenedetto eventually apologised for the gesture.

For 2022, Alpha Prime Racing will be a two-car operation. On Wednesday, with 45 days before the NASCAR Xfinity Series season opener at Daytona, the team announced the introduction of a #45 car to complement the #44 running the full schedule. The following day, APR revealed Sage Karam as one of the second car’s drivers and that it will indeed run the full schedule.

Known as Martins Motorsports until the end of the 2021 season, Alpha Prime is primarily owned by Tommy Joe Martins and his family. The current incarnation began in 2020 with Martins racing full-time in the #44, and he finished the next two seasons twenty-second in points with a best finish of tenth at Texas the first year. For 2021, the team was reformed into APR with the addition of Caesar Bacarella to the ownership group, while the #44 will be shared by multiple drivers including the two owners, Rajah Carruth, Ryan Ellis, and Andy Lally.

The news indicates the return of the #45 to the Xfinity Series for the first time since 2018 when Josh Bilicki ran the full schedule for JP Motorsports. Prior to that year, it was last used by Petty Enterprises for Kyle Petty and his late son Adam, and such was also the case at the Cup Series until 23XI Racing revived the number with Petty’s blessing for Kurt Busch this upcoming season. Niece Motorsports fields the #45 for Lawless Alan in the Camping World Truck Series, meaning the #45 will be used in all three national series for the first time since 2000 when Petty held it in Cup and Xfinity while SS-Green Light Racing did so in Trucks.

Karam, a veteran of the NTT IndyCar Series and Nitro Rallycross NEXT competitor, began dabbling in NASCAR last year when he ran four Xfinity races and a Truck Series event for Jordan Anderson Racing. He scored his first career NASCAR top twenty when he finished sixteenth at Bristol in the Xfinity Series.

“I’m extremely grateful for the opportunities that 2021 provided and am equally as excited to join Alpha Prime Racing for 2022,” said Karam. “I can’t thank Tommy Joe Martins enough for his trust and confidence heading into this season. I welcome the opportunity to learn from him and his team and look forward to competing against some of the toughest competition in motorsports.”

Ryan Preece might not be racing full-time in a NASCAR national series in 2022, but he will still be a very busy driver. On Thursday, Stewart-Haas Racing announced Preece has joined the organisation as its reserve and simulator driver, which will also include making occasional starts in the Cup, Xfinity, and Camping World Truck Series for the team and its allies.

He will drive two races in Cup, three in Xfinity, and seven in Trucks. SHR did not reveal which team will field him in the first two series, though the Cup starts will not come with said team as it is at the four-car limit; SHR’s Cup partners include Rick Ware Racing and Live Fast Motorsports. Although SHR has an Xfinity programme that fields the #98 for Riley Herbst, its Cup drivers Chase Briscoe and Kevin Harvick ran Xfinity races in 2021 for B.J. McLeod Motorsports, whose namesake co-owns Live Fast, which places that team in the list of potential suitors for Preece’s starts there. RSS Racing also has a technical alliance with SHR. In the Trucks, David Gilliland Racing will field a truck for him.

“This is a unique setup, but I feel like it provides me with the best opportunity to win races and contribute to a championship-caliber team while expanding my racing experience,” said Preece. “I’m a racer, and Stewart-Haas Racing is a team built by racers. They measure success by wins. Whether I’m in the simulator, in one of their cars, or in a Ford Mustang or Ford F-150 for another team, I’m here to help SHR and Ford win.”

Preece spent the last three seasons in the Cup Series with JTG Daugherty Racing, scoring nine top tens and two top fives. His 2021 campaign saw four top tens, a best race finish of fourth at the Daytona fall race, and a twenty-seventh-place points finish. However, questions surrounded his #37 car as the team had sold its charter and he did not have sufficient sponsorship to run all thirty-six races. Although the #37 ultimately ran every race, the writing on the wall of his departure grew more apparent before the team formally announced it would only retain team-mate Ricky Stenhouse Jr. in the flagship #47 for 2022.

Despite the news, Preece seemed almost destined to move to the Ford camp. In June, he won in his Truck début for David Gilliland Racing at Nashville Superspeedway, the first Truck race there in a decade.

Hillspeed have announced their first signing for the 2022 GB3 Championship, with Canadian F1600 champion Nick Gilkes stepping up.

Also winning the Ontario F1600 Championship last year, Gilkes tested with the Derbyshire outfit at Silverstone in November, impressing in the outgoing Tatuus BF3-020, an evolution of the F4-016.

That was his first taste of slicks-and-wings machinery, with GB3 introducing an upgraded power and aero package for 2022 with the MSV-022.

He started racing in Barbados, before entering the karting scene in Canada once his family returned there.

The impressive performances began to pile up, winning the 2016 Goodwood Kartways Novice Club title and the Pfaff Kartsport Cup in 2018.

When the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach‘s newest contract is set to expire, the city will be gearing up for the 2028 Summer Olympics. On Tuesday, the Long Beach City Council unanimously voted in favour of a five-year extension that will retain the beloved NTT IndyCar Series street race through the 2028 season. Prior to the vote, the contract—signed between the city and the Grand Prix Association of Long Beach (GPALB)—was last approved in December 2017 and ran through 2023.

“The Grand Prix has always been a very strong community event and this agreement just amplifies the unique relationship with the City of Long Beach going forward,” stated GPALB president Jim Michaelian.

As part of the deal, the Grand Prix Association will have a say in the street circuit’s development. For example, if the city or an interested company wishes to build upon a location that is part of the race course during the Grand Prix weekend, the GPALB would need to be notified. One particular area of note is the “Elephant Lot”, a portion of land that is mainly used for grandstands and additional paddocks on race day, but has been entertained for development such as sports stadiums. While the California Coastal Commission holds the final say on what to do with the lot as it is in the CCC’s designated coastal zones, the GPALB will also be involved in any dialogue.

The association is also on the hook for any damage to the streets used as the racing surface, as well as any fees related to organising the event. Due to the 2020 race being cancelled by COVID-19, the Press-Telegram reported the GPALB will pay $94,749 over five years with zero interest.

“We’ll be consulted from the very beginning of any project, which is important, because in the past without that requirement a developer could have come with a plan that didn’t afford us an opportunity for discussion or input or anything,” Michaelian told the Long Beach Post in December.

Formula 1 CEO Stefano Domenicali says he is disappointed that there is very little interest in bringing a Grand Prix back to Germany, despite the presence of the likes of Sebastian Vettel, Mick Schumacher and the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team on the grid.

There was not a race on the calendar in 2021, nor is there one planned for 2022, with the last race to be held in Germany the Eifel Grand Prix at the Nürburgring in 2020, a race that was added late in the day as Formula 1 pushed for more races in a heavily COVID-19 affected season.

Formula 1 was extremely popular in Germany back in the 1990s when Michael Schumacher was dominating, and between 1999 and 2007, the country held two races, one at the Nürburgring and the other at the Hockenheimring.

The two circuits also alternated hosting a race between 2008 and 2014 before the Nürburgring dropped out, while the Hockenheimring hosted races in 2016 and 2018 before it too stopped.

Domenicali says it is important for the traditional Grand Prix countries to maintain their prescence on the Formula 1 calendar, and he says he will be happy to see Germany resume its place on the schedule should a venue become interested again in playing host.

Pierre Gasly feels Yuki Tsunoda did not expect to struggle as much as he did during his rookie season in Formula 1, but the depth of talent and ability in the sport would have made it hard for any driver coming in.

Tsunoda endured a tough baptism of fire in 2021, scoring only thirty-two points compared to the one hundred and ten of his Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda team-mate Gasly, although he ended the season with his best finish with fourth in the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

Gasly believes Tsunoda did learn some things just be observing what he did behind the wheel and adapted his approach as a result, but going against the likes of Sebastian Vettel, Fernando Alonso and Kimi Räikkönen was always going to be tricky for the Japanese racer.

“It’s difficult because it takes so much energy focusing on your own thing,” Gasly is quoted as saying by GPFans.  “I think listening from what Yuki says, he learned quite a lot from looking at the data, seeing the way I work with the team, and just seeing my approach.

“I think he probably didn’t expect to struggle that much, from what he says, coming into Formula 1.  The level in F1 at the moment in the midfield, it’s really hard.

Nikita Mazepin feels ready to fight amongst the midfield pack in 2022 after an often-frustrating 2021 Formula 1 season left him floundering at the back of the pack without any real chance of scoring points.

The Uralkali Haas F1 Team driver was one of only two full-time drivers not to break into the top ten last year, with the other being team-mate Mick Schumacher.

But Haas put all their focus into the development of their 2022 challenger rather than any effort into the 2021 machine, meaning Mazepin was always destined for struggles. 

But despite this, he enjoyed a few good on-track battles during the year, and he hopes for more on a more frequent basis this year, should his team give him the car to do so.

“Of course I am. I feel 100% ready,” Mazepin is quoted as saying by Motorsport.com.  “I had a few good battles this year with some faster cars and I felt comfortable.  For me, mainly fighting with people, I need to know exactly where my rear wing ends and where the front wing ends, so I know exactly how to position my car next to them.

Laurent Mekies says it would be ‘naïve’ of Scuderia Ferrari to assume they will close the gap to the leading teams in 2022 despite the introduction of new aerodynamic and tyre regulations aimed at closing up the field.

The 2022 season will see cars looking significantly different compared to what was seen on track in 2021, whilst the tyres will switch from the traditional thirteen inch to eighteen inch.

No one knows how close the field will be this year, with teams yet to have revealed their 2022 machines, but the drastic change in aerodynamic regulations meant teams switched their attention to them earlier than normal, meaning very little development was done on the 2021 cars.

Mekies, the Sporting Director at Ferrari, says that whilst his team have focused their efforts on their 2022 car early, it is no guarantee that they will be any closer to the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team or Red Bull Racing, even if their rivals were forced to focus more on the 2021 cars than they would have liked to.

Third placed Ferrari finished two hundred and sixty two points behind Red Bull and two hundred and ninety points behind Mercedes in 2021, and whilst Mekies says the aim is to close the gap and return the Maranello-based team to the front of the grid, he is not taking anything for granted.

The 2022 Dakar Rally is off and running, though a scary incident preceded the historic desert race when on Thursday, 29 December, buggy driver Philippe Boutron and five others were caught in an explosion that destroyed their vehicle. Although the others were unharmed, Boutron suffered serious leg injuries that resulted in surgery.

The vehicle was a support truck owned by French outfit Sodicars Racing, for whom Boutron was scheduled to drive the #260 buggy in his ninth Rally. Boutron was driving the truck at the time, and he was accompanied by his navigator Mayuel Barbet, Philippe Raud and his son Maxime, Thierry Richard, and Joël Pailly. The Rauds are pilots of the #294 car while Richard is in the #276, both entries also fielded by Sodicars. Pailly is a crew member and friend of Boutron.

The explosion occurred outside the Hotel Donatello in Jeddah, where the team was staying ahead of the race, while the truck was on its way to scrutineering; Dakar Rally director David Castera told France Télévisions that a hole was blown through the driver’s seat where Boutron had been sitting. Its cause is currently unknown, though the Makkah regional police released a statement saying “preliminary investigations revealed that there was no criminal suspicion in the accident.”

Barbet argues otherwise, claiming it was a bomb attack. In his testimony, Barbet explains the blast happened after the truck had travelled 500 metres from its starting point at the hotel. Once the vehicle caught fire, Boutron asked him to pull him from his seat as he could not feel his legs; upon extracting his driver, Barbet applied a tourniquet to stymie blood loss until medical services arrived approximately twenty minutes later. The French Ministry of Foreign Affairs also did not rule out the possibility of terrorism, and urged French citizens in Saudi Arabia to exercise “maximum vigilance.”

Boutron underwent surgery at a local military hospital, and will eventually be repatriated back to France and continue further treatment at the Hôpital d’instruction des armées Percy in Clamart. Barbet and Pailly departed Saudi Arabia on Monday to head back to Paris.

Antonio Giovinazzi expects the start of his career in the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship to be difficult as he adjusts to life in the all-electric series after leaving Formula 1 at the end of 2021.

The Italian lost his ride with Alfa Romeo Racing ORLEN after three years with the Hinwil-based squad and will race for Dragon/Penske Autosport in Formula 2 in 2022.

Giovinazzi feels Formula E will be a very different challenge to what he has been used to, with 2022 the first time he has raced in an all-electric championship in a career where he has raced in various single seater categories as well as sportscars.

“I think if you go from F1 to maybe Indycar or, I don’t know, from LMP1, in the end you feel maybe less speed, less grip but it’s the same style of driving,” Giovinazzi is quoted as saying by GPFans.

“The issue I’ve got in Formula E is that it’s a completely different sport. Obviously it’s the braking, no downforce, no sounds, heavy cars. It will be so different and unfortunately, I got only two days before race one but it’s a challenge.