By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor

(NASCAR)  Kyle Larson’s ninth win of the NASCAR Cup season was far more than just another trophy in his growing collection as he hurtles into the final three races of the year, the favorite to win the championship. It was a tribute win.

Before the race, car owner Rick Hendrick telephoned Larson to mention that the race was being run on the 17^th anniversary of the death of his son, Ricky Hendrick IV, in a plane crash on the way to a race. Ricky had a brief career in the truck series, where he won his first race at the Kansas Speedway twenty years ago this year, and in the then-Busch Series—NASCAR’s second-tier series.

Larson’s number and the design of his car’s paint job (seen here at Indianapolis in August) has been a tribute to Ricky Hendrick for most of the season.  He started from the pole at Kansas, led 130 of the 267 laps in the race, and finished 3.6 seconds ahead of teammate Chase Elliott.  It’s his third straight win and the second time this year he has won three in a row. Two three-race winning streaks in a single season has not happened in NASCAR since Dale Earnhardt, Sr., did it 34 years ago.

The race was a struggle for the eight driver in this semi-final round, leaving the determination of who will be the final four running for the Cup to be decided at the shortest track on the schedule. Martinsville is a .526-mile track, the only track still used by NASCAR since its beginning in 1948.  It’s the only track with a concrete surface on the turns (banked at only twelve degrees) and asphalt on the straights.

Five of the eight drivers had issues that juggled the points and point to a possible wild scramble at Martinsville.

The most costly mishap was Austin Dillon’s collision with Ryan Blaney that sent Blaney into the wall with 44 laps left.  Blaney had been a solid second in the point standings going into the race. But the crash ended his day and he goes to Martinsville fifth, one point below the cutline.

He is one point behind Kyle Busch who hit the wall twice and blowing a tire late. He was still running at the end, six laps down, but picked up enough stage points to hold fourth place, one up on Blaney.

Brad Keselowski and Martin Truex, Jr., went into Kansas 7^th and 6^th, respectively in the points but got together and both had to pit with flat tires shortly after.  The two have swapped position in the points with Truex three points out of fourth and Keselowski six points back.

Joey Logano wen to Kansas 40 points below the cutline, managed to keep the fenders on the car and gained 14 points. But he still needs to win at Martinsville to make the final four.

Larson, Elliott, and Denny Hamlin go to Martinsville with solid margins above the cutline. But the “paper clip,” as the track is called leads to a lot of bumping and rubbing seven drivers trying to fill the last three slots for the season finale.

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Our adopted Missourian, Clint Bowyer, will be climbing back into his fire suit and helmet later today to run some test laps in NASCAR’s Next Gen car.  He and Dale Earnhardt, Jr., will test the car at the quarter-mile Bowman Gray Stadium in Salem, North Carolina.

The track is the same length as the special asphalt track that will be laid down around the football field inside the Los Angeles Coliseum—where the Rose Bowl is played and where the 1984 Summer Olympic Games were held. NASCAR plans to run its pre-season Clash there on February 6, the first time the event will have been held away from the Daytona International Speedway since NASCAR created the race in 1979. The event will be the first competitive event for the Next Gen car.

Bowyer, a native of Emporia, Kansas who often raced on Missouri tracks as he built the career that put him at NASCAR’s top level for sixteen years, is part of the FOX broadcasting team that will do the first half of the 2022 season and Earnhardt is part of the NBC broadcasting team that will cover the second half of the season.

(FORMULA 1)—Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton went into the United States Grand Prix at the Circuit of the Americas in Texas just three points apart and the season dwindling down.  They leave with Verstappen up by a dozen.

Hamilton, starting from pole, edged Verstappen going into the first turn but gave up the lead in the first round of pit stops and came out nine seconds back. He closed to within a second of Verstappen but could get no closer and finished 1.3-seconds back.

Verstappen’s eighth win of the year ends a five-race win streak for Hamilton at the Circuit of the Americas and makes his run to a record eighth F1 title an uphill fight in the five remaining races of 2021.

(INDYCAR)—Another European driver on track to move up to Formula 1 will race, instead, in INDYCAR.  Rahal-Letterman-Lanigan Tacing has signed Danish driver Christian Lundgaard to a multi-year contract.  Lundgaard is the FIA Formula 2 champion. He was impressive in the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course in his first INDYCAR start in August.  He qualified fourth with limited experience on the course and finished twelfth despite dealing with a bout of food poisoning. He will run both road and oval races.

He’s 20 and has come up through a Renault program designed to train young drivers to compete in Formula One. He’ll join Graham Rahal and Jack Harvey on the three-car team.

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Arrow McLaren SP is considering adding a third car to its lineup for 2022 and has given another European driver a little seat time.  Nico Hulkenberg, who has 179 F1 starts and a LeMans overall victory to his credit, was scheduled to turn laps yesterday at the Barber Motorsports Park in Alabama.  Hulkenberg, who is 34, says he has no “current plans” to move to INDYCAR but he was “pleased to try out an Indy car and see what it’s all about.”

AMSP says it’s focusing on its two car setup for now with Pato O’Ward and Felix Rosenqvist but it will continue evaluating adding a third car in the future.

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(Photo credits: Racing Reference.com; Bob Priddy)

By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor.

Two landmark achievements in big-time car racing during the weekend and one big step forward.

(INDYCAR)—Chip Ganassi Racing, which is shutting down its NASCAR operation at the end of the year after 22 years without a championship, has racked up its 14^th INDYCAR championship with a driver in only his second year in the series.

24-year old Alex Palou (he pronounced it pal-LOE) is the first Spanish driver to win a championship in the history of American open-wheel racing. He did it in only his second year in the series, posting three wins and finishes in the top three positions in half of the series’ sixteen 2021 races.  He was leading the Indianapolis 500 with one lap left when he was passed by Helio Castroneves and trailed Castroneves across the finish line by less than one-half second.

Palou had served notice in the first INDYCAR race of the year when he won the season opener at Barber Motorsports Park. He picked up other wins at Elkhart Lake and at Portland.  All he had to do in the final race at Long Beach was stay out of trouble.  He finished fourth behind race-winner Colton Herta (who closed out the year with two straight victories), Josef Newgarden, and defending champion and teammate Scott Dixon.

His closest competitor going into the final race, Pato O’Ward, dropped out with a broken drive shaft and finished next to last. O’Ward was trying to become the first Mexican INDYCAR champion.

Palou, O’Ward, and Herta lead a vanguard of young drivers likely to dominate INDYCAR for the next decade or more.  O’Ward is 22 and Herta, a three-time winner this year, is 21.

(NASCAR)—Denny Hamlin, winless in the first 26 races this year, already has won twice in the first four races of the 10-race championship runoff.  His win at Las Vegas locks him into the round of eight that will go on for the title after two more races.

Victory is a relief for Hamlin, who said afterward, “I’m so happy to not have to worry about the next two weeks.”  Next weekend’s race is at Talladega, where high-speed drafting and anticipated major crashes are considered inevitable, making unpredictability one of the hallmarks of the race.  The last race in this playoff segment will be on the Charlotte road course.

Hamlin dominated the race at Las Vegas, leading more than half of the laps including the last 39. He withstood a charge by last year’s NASCAR champion, Chase Elliott, beating him to the line by about four-tenths of a second. Kyle Busch, Martin Truex Jr., and Ryan Blaney competed the top five.

Four of the present twelve title contenders will be eliminated from the chase after Talladega and Charlotte. On the outside looking in after Las Vegas are William Byron, Kevin Harvick, Alex Bowman and Christopher Bell.

(FORMULA 1)—Lewis Hamilton has become the first driver in Formula 1 history to win 100 grand prix races.  His win puts him back atop the leader board in the points standings by two points over Max Verstappen.  Hamilton finished almost a minute ahead of Vertappen, his closest challenger in his effort to win a record eighth championship. The two will fight for the title in the remaining seven races.

Sir Lewis Hamilton, it is, broke Michael Schumacher’s once-untouchable record of 91 F1 victories last year.  The superiority of the two drivers is reflected in the fact that Ayrton Senna is third on the win list with “only” 51.  Hamilton has run 281 F1 races, winning 100 and finishing in the top three 176 times.

(Photo credits:  Bob Priddy and Formula 1)

By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor

(INDYCAR/NASCAR)—A good start, a couple of dream endings, and a closing controversy for the tripleheader at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway last weekend.

An INDYCAR race on the track’s 14-turn, 2.439-mile road course, immediately followed by a race by NASCAR’s second-tier drivers (the Xfinity series) and then less than 24 hours later, another race on the same circuit by NASCAR’s Cup competitors.

Will Power picked up his first win of the season, holding off the field in two late-race re-starts to finish 1.1 seconds ahead of Romain Grosjean, who was the runnerup in the May race on the Indianapolis road course. Power’s victory was the 40^th of his career, putting him in a tie for fifth-most INDYCAR wins. Thirty-eight of those wins have come for Team Penske.

The competition was intense throughout the race with 269 on-track passes (changes of position during pit stops not counted), 190 of them for position.  The 269 on-track passes set a new record for the road course and the 190 passes for position tied a record set on the IMS road course three years ago.

Points leader Alex Palou, who started sixth, had a disastrous end of his day with an engine failure than left him 27^th in the 28-car field.  Pole-sitter Pato O’Ward led the first 15 laps and finished fifth.  Scott Dixon, who went into the race third in points struggled from a poor starting position and could do no better than 17^th.

Nonetheless, Palou’s lead over O’Ward and Dixon has shrunk to just 21 over O’Ward and 34 over Dixon with four races left in the schedule.

INDYCAR runs its last race on an oval next Saturday, the last chance Midwesterners will have to see the cars and drivers this year.  The evening race at Gateway Motorsports Park across the river from St. Louis precedes two weeks off before INDYCAR wraps up its season with three races on the west coast.

INDYCAR President Jay Frye told your correspondent Monday morning that the tight schedule between the open-wheel race and the Xfinity race gave the Speedway little time to clear all the INDYCAR gear out of the pits and to get the Xfinity pit boxes installed.  The goal was thirty minutes, he said. It took 33.  Frye says the track will work on eliminating that three-minute delay.

Speedway and INDYCAR series owner Roger Penske wound up with a two-fer for the day when Austin Cindric drove a Penske car to victory in the 150-mile race on the road course. Cindric is the son of the President of Team Penske. It’s his fifth win of the year, 13^th of his career. But this win was at Indianapolis, an event he called, “amazing,” continuing, “I can’t even put into words what this means.”

Pole-sitter A. J. Almendinger was second for the second straight road-course race.  But his Cinderella moment would come a day later.

The Sunday Cup race was the first Indianapolis road course race for the Cup cars and it came within six laps of being hotly-contested leading up to a breakthrough win for one of NASCAR’s top drivers who is still grasping for his first win of the year.

Eleven drivers led at least one lap with Kyle Larson and Denny Hamlin combining for 55 of the scheduled 82 laps.  But six laps from the end, a disintegrating trackside curb led to crashes, caution flags and two red-flag race stoppages that consumed an hour and 24 minutes in all.  Hamlin took the lead from Larson with seven laps left and held him off through two re-starts before being spun out of the competition by Chase Briscoe.

A. J. Almendinger was the beneficiary of the crashes and carnage, avoiding all the trouble to hold off Ryan Blaney for the 94^th and 95^th laps.

The crashes triggered by the deteriorating curb in turn number six drew quick criticism from some drivers, although the same curbs had survived the Xfinity race last year, the INDYCAR races, and Saturday’s Xfinity race, as well as practice and qualification laps.  The troublesome curb was finally removed from the course for the last few laps.

NASCAR’s competition vice-president Scott Miller said after the race that the curbing had been installed at the request of several drivers before last year’s Xfiniity race “because that section (of the track) was way too fast.”

Miller said the curbing was the same style of curbing that has been used since the road-course was re-arranged seven years ago.  “We looked at that curb between every session; we looked at it at night and in the morning and there was no indication…that there was really anything wrong with that curbing.”  He called the delamination of it “a little bit of a surprise for us.”

Almendinger is a full-time Xfinity driver for Kaulig Racing, which fields a Cup car for a limited number of races. His win came in his fourth Cup race of the year.  It does not qualify him for one of the sixteen playoff spots for the championship because he’s not a full-time driver in NASCAR’s premier series. The win is the first Cup win for Kaulig.

The win at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway was particularly emotional for Almendinger, who drove for Penske in the 2013 Indianapolis 500.

He had the lead with seventy laps left when a seatbelt clasp came loose and he had to make a pit stop to get it fixed. He finished seventh, about four seconds behind Tony Kanaan, who set a speed record for the 500 that stood until this year..

Hamlin, who won seven times last year, remains winless this year. He wound up 23^rd in the race but has enough points to be in the playoffs. However, his end-of-race disaster coupled with Kyle Larson’s third-place finish leaves Hamlin 22 points behind Larson for the regular season points championship and the bonus playoff points that go with it.

NASCAR has two races left before the 16-driver shootout field is set.

(Photo Credits: Rick Gevers, Bob Priddy)

Both of the major auto racing bodies won’t return to the track until NBC has time for something other than the Olympics. But that doesn’t mean wheels have not been turning. Several drivers from both bodies are looking the next steps in their careers.

Trackhouse Racing co-owner Justin Marks (Trackhouse made headlines a few weeks ago by buying Chip Ganassi’s NASCAR operation) doesn’t seem to lack ambition. A few days ago he told Sirius XM’s Dave Moody he’s interested in fielding a car in the Indianapolis 500.  “I don’t think there’s anything that’s off the table.” He says he’s already had some discussions about how to do that.

Former NASCAR champion Jimmie Johnson, who’s been racing on INDYCAR road courses this year, will see how he likes driving one of those cars on an oval later this month, perhaps at Homestead-Miami Speedway. He’d love to drive in the Indianapolis 500 next year. He says he might not run the full INDYCAR schedule next year if the overall test goes well. He’d use the time to prepare for the 500. The last NASCAR driver to run the 500 was Kurt Busch, who finished sixth in 2014.  Busch is still active on the NASCAR circuit although the sale of the Ganassi operation has left him unsure of what seat he’ll be in next year.

Another driver seeing what it’s like to turn laps only turning left is Romain Grosjean, who moved to INDYCAR from Formula 1 this year.  He ran 168 laps at Worldwide Technology Raceway, across the river from St. Louis, a few days ago and learned oval racing is harder than it might seem. “Everyone who thinks it’s easy to run ovals is absolutely mistaken,” he said afterwards, also admitting he enjoyed the experience.  He was about a half-second of the day’s fast time on the 1.25-mile track posted by oval veteran Colton Herta.

Ed Carpenter is courting F1 driver Nico Hulkenberg but the discussions are in the very preliminary stage.  Hulkenberg is a test driver for Aston Martin. He’s 33, a veteran of 179 starts but has never had a podium finish. His last full season was 2019 when he drove for Renault. This isn’t Hulkenberg’s first day with INDYCAR.  He talked with Ganassi when he saw himself being dropped by Renault and maintains an interest in INDYCAR.  He seems to be a fit for Ed Carpenter Racing because Carpenter runs only on the ovals. This year, Conor Daly has driven the car on road courses. Carpenter tells Racer he thinks Hulkenberg is interested at least in running an INDYCAR test.

And finally—The BC39 midget race on the quarter-mile infield dirt track at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway is Thursday, August 19.  Crossing over from 3700-pound NASCAR vehicles to run midgets on dirt will be defending NASCAR champ Chase Elliott, who has run less than a handful of midget race before, and Conor Daly, a regular INDYCAR driver who has competed in the first two BC39 races and has midget experience beyond that.

NASCAR and INDYCAR return to action next Sunday. NASCAR is on the road course at Watkins Glen. INDYCAR races on the streets of Nashville.

(FORMULA 1)—A surprise winner at the Grand Prix of Hungary last weekend—Estaban Ocon, driving for Alpine-Renault, got his first F1victory but chaos during and after the race altered the final finish and the points standings.

Sebastian Vettel, driving for Aston Martin, finished second but was disqualified when race officials could not take a required fuel sample from his car. His team is appealing the ruling.

The DQ moved Lewis Hamilton to second place and expanded his points lead to eight over Max Verstappen.

The chaos began on the first turn of the first lap—a six-car mash-up triggered when Hamilton teammate Valtteri Botas late-braked and rear-ended Lando Norris who hit Verstappen. Verstappen’s damaged car was repaired during the red-flag period caused by the crash but he was able to climb back only to ninth.

F1 takes its usual summer break for most of August. Its next race Will be August 29, the Belgian Grand Prix.

(ROBIN)—A different kind of “crossing over” is facing one of the sport’s greatest reporters.  A lot of racing fans have seen Robin Miller on various racing television shows or doing pit-walks before races on television.  He’s been one of the greats in reporting on INDYCAR for decades.  Robin is dealing with cancer and leukemia and has penned a sort of farewell for Racer magazine, where he’s been a columnist for about ten years. Before that he covered racing for the Indianapolis Star for more than thirty years.

A couple of years ago, several past winners of the Indianapolis 500 gathered in the Media Center to honor Miller for 50 years of covering the Speedway. Among them where two of his favorites: Mario Andretti and A. J. Foyt.

This is part of what he has written for readers of Racer:

Facing your mortality isn’t something to think about every day or dwell on, because you’re alive and death isn’t in your daily mindset.

But when cancer and leukemia decide to gang up on you then everything changes, and you are suddenly lining up in a heat race with The Grim Reaper. Might be a 50-lapper, could be an enduro or you might get lucky and run for a year or two.

My situation is pretty cut and dried. There is no cure for my illness but it can be treated, and I’ve spent lots of hours at the clinic in Greenwood, Indiana with an awesome staff of doctors and nurses.

The outpouring of good wishes, prayers, positive thoughts and support from RACER nation is beyond humbling. I never dreamed that a guy who writes stories about race drivers could impact people’s lives and instill so much passion. I’ve had the greatest life anyone can imagine, and I’ve been lucky enough to share it with the fans.

Jim Hurtubise befriends me when I’m 17 and stealing beer for him at sprint car races, I’m stooging on his Indy 500 crew in 1968, then I’m covering USAC and IndyCar by 1969 for The Indianapolis Star, I’m working on Bill Finley’s pit crew by 1971 and driving him crazy by 1972, I’ve got a Formula Ford from Andy Granatelli thanks to my friendship with Art Pollard. I’m writing a weekly column about USAC by 1974 and a year later I’ve become the fourth Bettenhausen brother because I bought Merle’s midget…

. It was a great time, pounding up and down the highway with Timmy Coffeen, Bobby Grim Jr. and Tony Lee Bettenhausen. We didn’t have any money, but damn what an experience as we ran Little Springfield, Terre Haute, Kokomo, Eldora and some bullrings that were pretty sketchy but always an adventure.

Yet it was my job that gave me such an entrée into IndyCar history and such an education.

I idolized Herk, Parnelli, A.J., Rutherford, Mario, Gurney, the Unsers and Johncock and by the mid-1970s I was pals with all of them and it was the golden age of racing for my money. They were the modern-day gladiators and revered universally…

I almost died two weeks ago with a nasty infection and fever but my little sister, her best friend and a neighbor saved my life and rushed me to the hospital where three nurses also came to my rescue. I’ve put on 10 pounds and got my appetite back after three months, and my goal is to get to the triple-header at the Brickyard next month.

But I have to tell you about the amazing people who have stepped up with generosity that’s immeasurable.

Randy Bernard sent my sister an American Express gold card and said I wasn’t allowed to pay anything in the way of bills. Indianapolis Colts owner Jimmy Irsay did something that can’t even be imagined, but showed how big his heart is and it’s beyond humbling. Ditto for 1970 Indiana Mr. Basketball David Shepherd, whose generosity is off the chart. A.J. has called several times asking if I needed financial help and The Gas Man (Tom Sneva) has offered whatever I need. My best buds Steve Shunck, Larry Schmalfeldt, Feeno, Billy Shepherd, Davey Shep, Ralf Frey, Billy Benner, David Benner, Larry Walker, Bob Grim, John Mandlebaum, Al Freedman and Monk Palmore bring me lunch, dinner and hours of great conversation and they’ve rebuilt my condo, installed an electric staircase, built my sister a bed and kept me company daily. Nobody has more good friends than I do and I’m so… the word “lucky” isn’t appropriate. It’s beyond comprehension.

And my sister Diane has been here three months and I cannot begin to explain what an angel she’s been. I’d be lost without her mothering and nursing skills, along with her best friends Terri, Susie and Riney.

I don’t know what the future holds, but I’m at peace with whatever happens, be it a year or six months or six weeks or six hours. My plan is to move to Phoenix later this year because I want to watch the nephews and niece grow up and just peacefully pass on surrounded by my family, whenever it’s time…

But he says his first goal is to make it to the INDYCAR/NASCAR tripleheader at the Speedway later this month.

(Photo Credits: Grosjean–Chris Owens, IMS; Andretti, Miller, Foyt—Bob Priddy)

Chase Elliott confirmed he’s this generation’s king of the road courses.  A long-time NASCAR owner’s exit raises issues of other exits ahead, a big team gets a big win, and a big name gets a new deal.

(NASCAR)—Chase Elliott led 24 of the last 25 laps at Road America last weekend to wrap up his seventh career road-racing victory.  Only Jeff Gordon with nine and Tony Stewart with eight have more victories when turning the steering wheel right as well as left.

The win on the four-mile long road course at Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin was even more impressive because Elliott started 34^th in the field of forty. He climbed to tenth in the first sixteen-lap stage, and was a front-row starter for the third stage.

It’s the seventh win in the last eight Cup races for Hendrick Motorsports (eight of the last nine if you throw in the All-Star race) and the tenth in this year’s twenty points-paying races.  Kyle Busch, who interrupted the recent Hendrick domination last week, came home third behind Christopher Bell. Both drive for Hendrick’s top competitor, Joe Gibbs Racing.

Atlanta is the next designation for NASCAR, next weekend.

(THE END OF THE NASCAR ROAD)—Last week’s sale of Chip Ganassi Racing to Justin Marks’ Trackhouse Racing surprised just about everybody, including Ganassi, and raises questions about how much longer the major owner-names that have dominated the sport for decades will hang around.

Ganassi says he had no plans to sell his operations until Marks talked him into it.  Marks gets the whole Ganassi kit and caboodle for 2022. But more investment will be necessary before Daytona next year.  The cars that Ganassi is running this year won’t be used next year as NASCAR switches to its Next Gen car that is designed to be cheaper to build and run and to look more like the cars we see on the streets.  It appears that at least one of the two drivers now with Ganassi will not be retained—either Kurt Busch or Ross Chastain.  Trackhouse already fields a car for Daniel Suarez and will keep him next year.  Busch said at Elkhart Lake last weekend that he already is talking with Trackhouse about staying with the team.  His contract with Ganassi ends at the end of this year.  There have been reports that Busch also is being considered for a possible second car by 23XI racing, the Denny Hamlin/Michael Jordan team that runs Bubba Wallace now. The team, however, has only one charter this year.  Marks has said both Busch and Chastain are “under consideration” for the second Trackhouse car next year.

The Ganassi sale is a dramatic reminder that “Next Gen” might not only apply to cars.  Last year’s creation of 23XI Racing by Jordan and Hamlin was a first step in reshaping NASCAR ownerships with younger faces.  Hamlin, who will be 41 in November, is winless this year, and is running out of time to win a Cup championship, has followed Tony Stewart, 50, into transitioning from driver to owner (although not to owner-driver).  Stewart took half ownership in Haas Racing in 2008 and Stewart-Haas has four drivers in CUP this year: Kevin Harvick, Aric Almirola, Chase Briscoe and Cole Custer. None has won a race this year and Harvick is the only one in position to make the playoff field—which will be set after only six more races.

Other top drivers are, or might be, moving into top positions in major teams.  Jeff Gordon’s move to Vice-Chairman of Hendrick Motorsports positions him to be in an ownership position when Rich Hendrick, who will turn 72 this month, decides to step away.

Brad Keselowski is rumored to be ready to leave Penske Racing as a driver and move to Roush-Fenway Racing with an ownership stake.  Jack Roush, who is 79, sold half of his team to Fenway Sports Group in 2007. He handles the competition operations while Geoff Smith is President of the company and handles business activities.  Roush once had five teams in Cup (including Missourians Carl Edwards and Jamie McMurray at the same time), but was ordered by NASCAR to cut his group to four. RFR went down to three teams for 2012 and has only two drivers this year—Ryan Newman and Ricky Stenhouse, Jr.  Newman is out of playoff contention and Stenhouse ranks 19^th in points. The playoffs only include 16 drivers.

Penske Racing is still headed by Roger Penske, who is 84 and has become the owner of the INDYCAR series and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.  Tim Cindric is the President of the racing segment of the giant Penske Corporation. It appears the Penske NASCAR Cup operation will lose Keselowski at the end of the year and championship crew chief Todd Gordon, who is retiring after more than a decade on the pit box. Team Penske has 128 Cup wins but only two this year, one each by Keselowski and by Joey Logano.

A couple of other owners are no longer spring chickens: Joe Gibbs, who will be 81 before the end of the year, and Richard Childress, who already is 76.  Richard Childress Racing has 109 Cup wins in 48 years but only four since Kevin Havick won four times in 2013.

Unmentioned so far as a possible future big-name owner in the top series is Dale Earnhardt, Jr., whose JR Motorsports has met success in the second-tier series.  Earnhardt, who will be 47 this fall, has indicated he would like to move up but the economics behind purchasing a Cup franchise are problematic.

(INDYCAR)—Team Penske finally has won an INDYCAR race in 2021. Josef Newgarden dominated the race at Mid-Ohio but had to fend off a furious challenge in the last few laps from Ganassi’s Marcus Ericcson.  The victory was one day after the fiftieth anniversary of Penske’s first win in Indy cars—Mark Donohue won the Pocono 500 on July 3, 1971.

Newgarden won by about nine-tenths of a second. He started from the pole and led all but seven of the 80 laps.  He had started P1 in the previous two races but had lost the leads in the last three laps of both previous races. Points leader Alex Palou, an Ericcson teammate was third and another Ganassi teammate, Scott Dixon was fourth, giving Ganassi three of the top four finishing positions for the race.

It’s the first INDYCAR win for Penske since the last race of the 2020 season.

Palou’s podium finish expanded his points lead over Pato O’Ward to 39 points. Dixon, the defending and six-time series champion is running third in points, 56 back.

Newgarden, credits the “real magic” of the inter-team working relationships for his success at Mid-Ohio, and as a two-time series champion. In a Forbes magazine interview, he says, “We cultivate a culture where we feel we have the best of the best with the ability to focus—good or bad in the past races—we are constantly focusing forward on the next task.”

The Forbes article (https://www.forbes.com/sites/maurybrown/2021/07/02/on-50th-anniversary-of-first-indycar-win-roger-penske-reflects-on-success-at-the-track-and-in-business/?sh=521e57d329d0) is with Penske and focuses on his successes on the track and in his private business.

In the article, Penske says his father’s advice has been his guiding philosophy: “Effort equal results.”  He also says in the article, “Teamwork, technology, communication, precision, and performance under pressure are all keys to winning on the track and they are critically important to building a successful business and delivering for our customers.”

And retirement does not seem to be in his vocabulary.

(FORMULA 1)—-Max Verstappen extends Red Bull Racing’s winning streak to five, its longest winning streak since 2013.  Verstappen won the Grand Prix of Austria, starting on pole, and coming home 18 seconds ahead of Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas. Lando Norris took his McLaren to third ahead of Lewis Hamilton, who drops farther behind Verstappen as he chases his record eighth F1 title.

It was  landmark victory for Verstappen, who has dominated F1 lately. Formula One’s Lawrence Barretto observes that the race is the first time in his career that Verstappen has startaed first, led every lap, and posted the fastest lap of the race. He has led 142 consecutive laps in picking up his third straight win, his fifth of the year. He now leads Hamilton by 32 points. Hamilton has three wins. Carlos Sainz is the only other winner on the circuit this year. It’s the fifth straight win for his engine manufacturer, Honda, which has not seen a winning streak this long since Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost took the first eleven races in 1988 for McLaren.

Just before the race, Mercedes announced it had signed a contract extension with Hamilton that will keep him with the team through the 2023 season.  He has won six of his seven championships with Mercedes.

F1 moves on to Silverstone and the GP of Britain on July 18.