NASCAR news

[HossC]

Now onto the race. Unusually for Australia, it was a wet race. Two of the rookies went out early with Isack Hadjar hitting the wall on the formation lap and Jack Doohan doing the same at turn 5 on the opening lap.

After a dry line appeared on the circuit, the drivers briefly switched to dry tires, but fresh rain forced them back onto the intermediate tires. Ferrari gambled on staying out with Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc leading for a lap, but ultimately it was the wrong decision as they had to swap tires anyway. Nearly all of the drivers had some kind of off track incident or spin, and only 14 of the 20 starters saw the checkered flag. Once Lando Norris had regained the lead he went on to win, but Max Verstappen was less than a second behind at the end. They were followed home by the Mercedeses of George Russell and Andrea Kimi Antonelli, and the Williams of Alex Albon. Oscar Piastri managed to recover from his spin to overtake Lewis Hamilton on the last lap and finish ninth.

That leaves McLaren and Mercedes tied at the top of the Constructors' Championship with Red Bull in third. With all the incidents, the highlights are 13 minutes long this week - you can watch them here.

Only a week to wait for the next race in China.

[Spike]

Josh Berry gave the Wood Brothers their 101st win at Las Vegas today, they are also celebrating their 75th anniversary in NASCAR racing. 

[HossC]

RIP to former F1 boss Eddie Jordan who died this morning at the age of 76. After selling his team, he later appeared as a TV pundit and also became an occasional presenter on Top Gear. Full story here and an obituary here.

[HossC]

After a learning weekend at his first Grand Prix for Ferrari in Australia, Lewis Hamilton has put his car on pole for tomorrow's sprint race, three places ahead of his team mate Charles Leclerc. Max Verstappen brought his Red Bull home very close behind, but his team mate Liam Lawson starts at the back. In third place on the grid is McLaren's Oscar Piastri. His team mate Lando Norris went wide on a fast lap which could've challenged for pole, and he starts in sixth. If you include the Mercedeses of George Russell and Andrea Kimi Antonelli in fifth and seventh, the top four teams look pretty closely matched this year, which should make for some good racing.

[Hobie Hartkins]

Lewis Hamilton .....any kin to Denny??

Edited March 21 by Hobie Hartkins
wrong name

[Garrett Duke]

3 hours ago, Hobie Hartkins said:

Lewis Hamilton .....any kin to Denny??

Denny Hamlin?

[HossC]

20 hours ago, Garrett Duke said:

Denny Hamlin?

I was wondering the same thing.

[HossC]

In the F1 sprint race, Lewis Hamilton converted his pole position to his first win for Ferrari. Oscar Piastri passed Max Verstappen for second, and George Russell passed Charles Leclerc for fourth. That's four different teams in the top four places.

Sometimes the sprint races can be a little processional, with drivers not wanting to take too many risks with their cars a few hours before qualifying for the main race, but there was a good bit of overtaking in the midfield today. The highlights are here.

[HossC]

Qualifying for tomorrow's race favored McLaren. Oscar Piastri took his first F1 main race pole (he's previously had a couple of sprint poles), with team mate Lando Norris again making a mistake on his fastest lap to qualify in third. They were split by George Russell in second. Max Verstappen got pushed back to fourth, followed by the Ferraris of Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc. Rookies Isack Hadjar and Andrea Kimi Antonelli took seventh and eighth. Let's hope that Isack makes it round to the start this week. The highlights are here.

[HossC]

The main race turned out to be less exciting than the sprint race. Oscar Piastri held his lead at the start and team mate Lando Norris got past George Russell. Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc passed Max Verstappen, but Charles lost the end of his front wing hitting Lewis at the first corner. Weirdly, the damage seemed to make his car faster.

Most of the cars only made one pit stop, although Lewis tried a second when he was being caught by Max. He only lost one place trying it, and he'd have lost that anyway. Max also passed Charles before the end. At the checkered flag, Oscar and Lando took a 1-2 for McLaren with George in third. Max was fourth ahead of the Ferraris, although team mate Liam Lawson had another disappointing race and finished 15th. Completing the top ten were Esteban Ocon (Haas), Andrea Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes), Alex Albon (Williams) and Oliver Bearman (Haas) who made some good overtakes to move up from 17th to 10th to claim the final point. Fernando Alonso was the only retiree from the race. His brake issues meant he's yet to finish a main race this year. The 8-minute highlights are here.

Lando now leads the Drivers' Championship on 44 points, but there's only two points between the next three with Max (36), George (35) and Oscar (34). Both McLarens have scored well so far, so they have a good lead over Mercedes in the Constructors' Championship, but there's only a point between Red Bull and Ferrari in third and fourth.

The next race is the Japanese Grand Prix in two weeks.

[HossC]

Some time after I wrote the review above, the result was changed. Lewis Hamilton was disqualified for having one of his skid blocks below the required thickness, and both Charles Leclerc and Alpine's Pierre Gasly were disqualified for having underweight cars. That promotes Lance Stroll (Aston Martin) and Carlos Sainz (Williams) into the top ten. With Ferrari losing points and Williams gaining points, they now both have 17 points in the Constructors' Championship.

[RogerDuke]

One of dirt bike racing's biggest stars, Haiden Deegan was arrested for street racing. He is 19.

[HossC]

On 2/24/2025 at 2:18 PM, Spike said:

Dodge is rumored to be returning to NASCAR. First in the truck series in 2026 with the Ram 1500 then the following year with the Charger coupe in Cup and Xfinity series. It is unknown if they will go with a V8 or make a race engine with the new i6 engine. 

I watched this video on the new Charger EV last night. The overall view is that it's too expensive and too heavy (and possibly too big), but there will be regular gas engines in the future (at least a V6, maybe a V8). Doug thought it had some good features, but the comments were less kind (made by people who presumably haven't even seen it let alone driven it yet). There's a nice picture of the 2-door version in orange at about 4 minute in.

 

[RogerDuke]

Looks more like an old Camero than a new Charger. An EV? I guess the Charger has a charger. 

[HossC]

I mentioned in my F1 reviews that Max Verstappen's Red Bull team mate Liam Lawson had made a poor start to the season (qualified 18th in Australia, crashed out, qualified last for both races in China, finished 14th and 12th), but I don't think anyone expected him to be dropped so quickly. Red Bull have decided to demote him to their second team, Racing Bulls, and promote Yuki Tsunoda to the top team for the next race in Japan. Last year, Max won the Drivers' Championship, but Red Bull only came third in the Constructors' Championship because his team mate, Sergio Perez, had a relatively bad season.

Read the full story here.

[Spike]

22 hours ago, HossC said:

I watched this video on the new Charger EV last night. The overall view is that it's too expensive and too heavy (and possibly too big), but there will be regular gas engines in the future (at least a V6, maybe a V8). Doug thought it had some good features, but the comments were less kind (made by people who presumably haven't even seen it let alone driven it yet). There's a nice picture of the 2-door version in orange at about 4 minute in.

 

It will soon be powered by the Hemi V8 again. Stellantis will be making the 5.7, 6.4 and hellcat V8s in Ann arbor Michigan. Sales of the electric Charger have been abysmal and it seems the guys in charge of Dodge don't think the hurricane 6 engine won't do much better for Charger sales so they're working on getting the V8 back under the hood. 

I seen a video the other day on YouTube where the Charger was raced against the Mustang dark horse. Next to the mustang the charger looked huge. It didn't do all that well either. Between the 2 guys one definitely has raced cars before and knew how to drive as he won the race in both cars. 1st race he was in the Charger and didn't really blow the mustang away as you'd expect from an electric car. 2nd race he was in the Mustang, while off the line the charger was ahead he eventually caught up and passed the Charger. 

In other news Camaro could be coming back. GM reps confirmed Chevy will be the car for V8 Supercars and NASCAR and they confirmed it wouldn't be a Corvette. 

[Hobie Hartkins]

In other news Camaro could be coming back. GM reps confirmed Chevy will be the car for V8 Supercars and NASCAR and they confirmed it wouldn't be a Corvette.

 

YES!!! Thanks for this info! I always thought they were messing up by getting rid of it!