All posts by Motorsports Tribune

HOMESTEAD, Fla. – The Mazda Road to Indy Presented by Cooper Tires Spring Training Open Test concluded this afternoon at Homestead-Miami Speedway with 15 Indy Lights Presented by Cooper Tires drivers strutting their stuff in preparation for next week’s season-opening races some 200 miles or so to the northwest on the Streets of St. Petersburg, Fla. A total of 1271 laps were logged during the course of six and a half hours of testing. Rookie Colton Herta, the youngest driver in the field at just 16, emerged with early braggingRead More

HOMESTEAD, Fla. – Emerging stars Anthony Martin and Oliver Askew confirmed their promise today at Homestead-Miami Speedway, posting the fastest laps respectively in the Pro Mazda Championship Presented by Cooper Tires and Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship Powered by Mazda, both of which wrapped up two days of testing on the 2.21-mile South Florida road course. Askew, 20, from Jupiter, Fla., who was quickest in all three USF2000 sessions yesterday, headed the timing charts in two of today’s three sessions aboard the No. 3 Cape Motorsports Tatuus-Mazda USF-17. He took advantageRead More

HOMESTEAD, Fla. – Day Two of Mazda Road to Indy Presented by Cooper Tires Spring Training saw a total of 28 drivers – representing the first two rungs on the acclaimed open-wheel racing development ladder – in action on the 2.21-mile Homestead-Miami Speedway road course. The Mazda Road to Indy Presented by Cooper Tires offers scholarships at every level to assist talented young drivers to progress all the way from the grassroots of the sport to the Verizon IndyCar Series and the Indianapolis 500. The Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship PoweredRead More

HOMESTEAD, Fla. – Judging by the opening day of Mazda Road to Indy Presented by Cooper Tires Spring Training at Homestead-Miami Speedway, the competition this year in Indy Lights Presented by Cooper Tires is going to be intense. A dozen of the 15 contenders expected to challenge for a Mazda Scholarship valued at $1 million to secure entry into at least three Verizon IndyCar Series races in 2018, including the Indianapolis 500, took the opportunity to test on the 1.485-mile oval. After six and a half hours of running, noRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – His car damaged in a wreck on the backstretch and held together with tape, Kurt Busch grabbed the lead on the final lap of the 59th Daytona 500 on Sunday and took the checkered flag in the Great American Race as a capstone to a checkered career that has trended upward since Busch joined Stewart-Haas Racing in 2014. In a race that featured the first test of a new three-stage race format in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series—and featuredRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – For Ryan Reed, there’s magic in the air at the Birthplace of Speed. Reed went to Victory Lane at Daytona International Speedway in February 2015 and hadn’t won since—until Saturday night, when he held off Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series veteran Kasey Kahne in overtime to claim victory in the Powershares QQQ 300 NASCAR XFINITY Series season opener. With the race going four laps past its scheduled distance of 120 laps, and with the series running NASCAR’s new three-stage eventRead More

By Brian Eberly, Contributing Writer A new entitlement sponsor for the Cup Series, competition enhancements and the return of Dale Earnhardt Jr. to the track are just a few of the major story lines heading into the Daytona 500. Motorsports Tribune spoke with Chicagoland Speedway President Scott Paddock to discuss his thoughts heading into Sunday’s Great American Race. New Entitlement Sponsor In January, Monster Energy became just the third company to serve as the entitlement sponsor in NASCAR premier series history, replacing Sprint. “I think it’s exciting for the industryRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – In the space of 100 laps, Kaz Grala went from youngest NASCAR national series pole winner at Daytona International Speedway to youngest NASCAR national series race winner at Daytona. What happened between the first green flag and the checkers, however, could fill volumes. Miraculously, Grala slipped through a wild wreck on the backstretch on the final lap of Friday night’s NextEra Energy Resources 250 to win the first NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race contested in stages under NASCAR’s newRead More

Teams and drivers from all three levels of the acclaimed Mazda Road to Indy Presented by Cooper Tires will converge next week at Homestead-Miami Speedway in South Florida for an official Spring Training test. The four-day outing will comprise over six hours of testing for Indy Lights Presented by Cooper Tires competitors on the 1.5-mile oval on Monday, February 27, followed by two days of running on the 2.21-mile road course for the Pro Mazda Championship Presented by Cooper Tires and the Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship Powered by Mazda, thenRead More

By Brian Eberly, Contributing Writer Austin Theriault added a victory at Daytona International Speedway to his racing resume on Saturday , winning the ARCA Racing Series season-opener over Terry Jones. Theriault got a push in the draft from the No. 77 Ford of Dalton Sargeant with eight laps to go, making the high line work just enough to pass Jones at the iconic 2.5-mile superspeedway to take the win  in the Lucas Oil Complete Engine Treatment 200 Driven by General Tire. The caution flew for the third multi-car wreck ofRead More