NASCAR news

[HossC]

I'll write my F1 race report later when I have more time, but I just wanted to post a quick congratulations to ex-F1 driver Robert Kubica. He had what Rosco would call "a horrendous crash" at the 2007 Canadian Grand Prix (see video below), and nearly died when a barrier penetrated the cabin of his rally car in 2011. Yesterday, he won the Le Mans 24 Hours in a privately entered Ferrari 499P alongside co-drivers Yifei Ye and Phil Hanson. They were just over 14 seconds ahead of the second placed Porsche.

 

[HossC]

Now back to the 2025 Canadian Grand Prix.

Most of the top 10 got off the grid in formation, but Kimi Antonelli was able to overtake championship leader Oscar Piastri on the first lap. A few laps later, Lando Norris picked up a few places. Positions were also swapped further down the field. Tires were wearing more quickly than expected, so Max Verstappen was the first of the leaders to make a pit stop.

The commentary mentioned that Lewis Hamilton had picked up damage around lap 13 which cost him an estimated half a second a lap. It was only today that I read that he'd hit a groundhog. As a well-known animal lover, Lewis was said to be "devastated" about the death of the animal.

Despite the pit stops, the leaders stayed in roughly the same order until around lap 62 (of 70) when Lando caught his team mate Oscar. After a few laps of the gap getting closer and closer (and both drivers catching Kimi in third), Lando went for an ill-judged overtake on the start/finish straight, lost his front wing and crashed into the wall. With only four laps to go to clear the debris, the race finished behind the safety car (because there's no refuelling, they can't extend the race like NASCAR does).

George Russell added his name and the Mercedes team to the list of 2025 winners, and Max picked up some useful points in second. In third, Kimi became the third youngest driver to take an F1 podium. Oscar increased his lead to 22 points by finishing fourth, while both Ferraris scored points in fifth and sixth with Charles Leclerc ahead of Lewis.

You can see the race highlights here.

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

[RogerDuke]

On 6/16/2025 at 8:50 AM, HossC said:

I'll write my F1 race report later when I have more time, but I just wanted to post a quick congratulations to ex-F1 driver Robert Kubica. He had what Rosco would call "a horrendous crash" at the 2007 Canadian Grand Prix (see video below), and nearly died when a barrier penetrated the cabin of his rally car in 2011. Yesterday, he won the Le Mans 24 Hours in a privately entered Ferrari 499P alongside co-drivers Yifei Ye and Phil Hanson. They were just over 14 seconds ahead of the second placed Porsche.

 

Wow! What luck it was that when he went back on the track he went in between the cars. 

As Rosco says "That would have kilt an ordinary man." 

There was at least one time that he said it would have kilt 10 ordinary men. 

[HossC]

16 hours ago, RogerDuke said:

Wow! What luck it was that when he went back on the track he went in between the cars. 

As Rosco says "That would have kilt an ordinary man." 

There was at least one time that he said it would have kilt 10 ordinary men. 

The F1 cars have a very strong safety cell around the drivers. Robert suffered far worse injuries in his rally crash even though it was at a lower speed. You can read more about the rally accident here.

[HossC]

All the F1 teams have to let their reserve drivers take part in a certain number of practice sessions each year, and this weekend McLaren will give Irish driver Alex Dunne a go in Lando Norris' car in FP1. Alex, who is currently leading the Formula 2 championship, is the first Irishman to drive in F1 for 22 years.

[RogerDuke]

21 hours ago, HossC said:

All the F1 teams have to let their reserve drivers take part in a certain number of practice sessions each year, and this weekend McLaren will give Irish driver Alex Dunne a go in Lando Norris' car in FP1. Alex, who is currently leading the Formula 2 championship, is the first Irishman to drive in F1 for 22 years.

Does he wear a green helmet and safety suit?

[HossC]

29 minutes ago, RogerDuke said:

Does he wear a green helmet and safety suit?

To be honest, I don't follow Formula 2, so I only heard about Alex when he was mentioned on the radio earlier this week. Most of the pictures I've seen show him in a papaya orange race suit which is McLaren's color.

Speaking of orange, it's currently looking like one of the McLaren drivers will be F1 world champion this year. The champion has the choice to race with their regular number or "1" on their car, so we could still see an orange #1 car next year (I think "01" would be too much to ask).

[HossC]

Alex Dunne had a promising first outing in an F1 car at a race weekend. He was only taking part in the first practice session (FP1), but managed to avoid the barriers and finish in fourth place less than a tenth of a second behind his team mate, championship leader Oscar Piastri. He described it as the "Best day of my life". He's due to get another go at the Austin Grand Prix.

[HossC]

After crashing out at the last race in Canada, Lando Norris was quickest in all three qualifying sessions today and took pole by over half a second. Ferrari's Charles Leclerc took the other front row position ahead of Oscar Piastri and Lewis Hamilton. Canadian winner George Russell will start fifth, while Max Verstappen had to abort his second run and will start seventh.

The rumors this weekend say that Mercedes are talking to Max Verstappen, possibly to replace George Russell next year. Max is under contract with Red Bull until 2028, but it's believed that he has an out if certain performance targets aren't met.

[HossC]

In the Austrian Grand Prix, Carlos Sainz Jnr's Williams broke down on the grid, so only 19 cars started the race. Oscar Piastri started third, but got ahead of Charles Leclerc at the first bend and spent most of the first stint right on Lando Norris' rear wing and even briefly overtook once. Canadian Grand Prix winner George Russell got past Lewis Hamilton at the start, but Hamilton retook the place be the end of the first lap. Max Verstappen was hit by Kimi Antonelli on the first lap, ending both of their races. Max's team mate, Yuki Tsunoda got a 10-second penalty later in the race for causing a collision and was the last car running at the end, so no points for Red Bull at their home track, the Red Bull Ring.

It was also a bad day for Williams as their other car driven by Alex Albon had to retire from a top 10 position after 17 laps. The pit stops gave Lando a bit of breathing space at the front, but there were some good battles behind. After the second pit stops, Oscar was catching Lando, but Lando managed to hang on to the lead through the back markers and took the win for a McLaren 1-2. Oscar's lead in the drivers' championship is now down to 15 points. Ferrari finished third and fourth, and overtook Mercedes in the constructors' championship. Liam Lawson scored his best F1 finish in sixth. Liam had a bad start to the season at Red Bull and got demoted to their junior team RB (Racing Bulls). He now has two more points than Yuki Tsunoda who replaced him! Gabriel Bortoleto also had a great result scoring his first F1 points in eighth in his Sauber.

You can see the race highlights here.

Next week it's the British Grand Prix at Silverstone. It's the only race of the year that gets shown live here on free-to-air TV, but the weather will determine if I stay in to watch it live.

[Garrett Duke]

Thank you for the updates, Hoss. It's great to read about the other types of car races and what's going on with them.

NASCAR Cup Series raced last night in Atlanta. As has been the norm lately, sadly I didn't get to watch it as I don't have the channel it was on. But I am excited to report that Chase Elliott ended his 44 race winless streak at his hometown in Atlanta last night!!! 

I'm sorry for the lack of details, that's the one that struck out to me. HA

Analysis: Elliott, Hendrick punch another playoff ticket | NASCAR

NASCAR Cup Series at Atlanta Motor Speedway Live Leaderboard, Results, & Updates

Elliott wins wild, action-packed Cup race at Atlanta | NASCAR

[RogerDuke]

Chase Elliott! Thanks for the report Garrett. 

He's good but nearly as fast as these racers in the middle of the Moonshine 400 right now. 

[HossC]

13 hours ago, Garrett Duke said:

Thank you for the updates, Hoss. It's great to read about the other types of car races and what's going on with them.

Thanks, Garrett. I hope you get time to watch the highlights videos that I link to. They're only about 8 minutes long, and probably make a lot more sense than my reviews.

That's good news that Chase Elliot got a win at the weekend.

[RogerDuke]

6 hours ago, HossC said:

Thanks, Garrett. I hope you get time to watch the highlights videos that I link to. They're only about 8 minutes long, and probably make a lot more sense than my reviews.

That's good news that Chase Elliot got a win at the weekend.

The races are so long and there is always so much to do I usually only watch highlights. Depending on what I am doing I usually keep an eye on sporting events on TV and just watch the end of them live. Except for pro dirt bikes. Can't get enough of those. I'd love to see Miz Tisdale race those guys. She'd make them look like snails with racing decals. 

[Garrett Duke]

On 6/30/2025 at 7:42 AM, HossC said:

Thanks, Garrett. I hope you get time to watch the highlights videos that I link to. They're only about 8 minutes long, and probably make a lot more sense than my reviews.

That's good news that Chase Elliot got a win at the weekend.

Oooo I'll have to push play. I bet they are great too. 

[HossC]

It looked like being a shoot-out between Oscar Piastri and Lewis Hamilton for pole in tomorrow's British Grand Prix, but Lewis lost a small amount of time at the end of his final fast lap. Then, against the odds, Max Verstappen put his Red Bull on pole right at the end of the session. Red Bull have gambled on a low downforce setup giving them speed on the straights, but less grip in the bends. That might give them trouble in the race if it rains. Lewis starts in fifth at his home race, ahead of his team mate Charles Leclerc, but behind Max, Oscar, Lando Norris and George Russell. That's still three Brits in the top five.

You can watch the highlights here.

[RogerDuke]

Anybody going to see the Brad Pitt F1 movie? 

[HossC]

I'm hoping to see it later this week.

[HossC]

I'm not sure that the 8-minute highlights will do justice to today's British Grand Prix. There had been rain before the race leaving most of the track wet. Franco Colapinto was due to start from the pits after crashing yesterday, but in the end he didn't make it, leaving 19 cars on the grid. They all started the formation lap on the intermediate tires, but several cars peeled into the pits before the start to gamble of slick tires.

Max Verstappen kept the lead at the start, but it was soon clear that Red Bull's low downforce setup wasn't going to work so well in the wet conditions. Behind them, Liam Lawson got hit by Esteban Ocon on the first lap and Gabriel Bortoleto spun off on slick tires on lap 4. Oscar Piastri took the lead on lap 8. A couple of laps later, the rain began to fall. All the leaders pitted for new intermediate tires, and although Lando Norris had just passed Max on the track, a slow pit stop for Lando saw the positions swap back. The rain then got worse, bringing out the first full safety car. Another safety car came out when Isack Hadjar hit the back of Kimi Antonelli's car. If you watch the video below, you'll see that the visibility was close to zero. Kimi had to retire his car a few laps later.

At the end of the second safety car we had the most controversial call of the race. Leading the pack and controlling their speed, Oscar accelerated and then braked trying to warm his tires. Max thought he was starting to push and briefly passed him, which is not allowed behind the safety car. Oscar was deemed to have driven erratically and given a 10-second penalty, which the commentators and his team thought was harsh. At the next corner, Max spun his car and slipped to 9th and then 10th.

With about 8 laps to go and the track drying, the drivers finally switched to slick tires. Lewis Hamilton had been getting faster as the circuit dried, but in the end he could only make it back to fourth place. Lando became the 13th British winner of the British Grand Prix ahead of team mate Oscar. The result of the day and driver of the day was Kick Sauber's Nico Hulkenberg in third. He started 19th and last on the grid and claimed his first podium finish in 239 race starts. After his spin. Max eventually climbed back to finish fifth.

Lando is now only 8 points behind Oscar in the drivers' championship, while McLaren look to have an unassailable lead in the constructors' championship with another 43 points today. Ferrari, Red Bull and Mercedes each only had one scoring driver with 12, 10 and 1 points respectively.

You can see the highlights here. It's now three weeks until the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa.