- NASCAR made some updates to the series rule books Friday. Most notably, Rule 8.3.2 states that "...the driver's hand may not be used to redirect air in any manner including but not limited to touching the window net, blocking air from entering the cockpit, redirecting air from the window [and more]." If anyone is found to do so, they will lose their time. The rule applies to all tracks, even
though the tactic was most likely to be used at Daytona, Talladega and Atlanta.
In recent years, blocking air between the window net and the A-pillar has become popular as a way to make the car slightly more aerodynamic. The most blatant attempt to do so came in 2024 when Joey Logano qualified using a webbed glove to even further block the air. That resulted in a hefty
fine.
- The Asian Le Mans Series wrapped up the 2025-26 season this past weekend at the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi. It was a rough-and-tumble eight hours of racing.
Race No. 1 on Saturday saw CrowdStrike Racing by APR's Louis Deletraz take the lead with 30
minutes to go when Algarve Pro Racing's Tom Dillmann made his final pit stop. From there, Deletraz was able to hold on to take the win with Malthe Jakobsen and George Kurtz, the trio's third straight win.
The margin of victory was 2.029 seconds over Algarve Pro Racing's John Falb, Matthias Kaiser and Sami Meguetounif. RD Limited's James Allen, Fred Poordad and Tristan Vautier
were third, then DKR Engineering's Mathias Beche, Alexander Mattschull and Griffin Peebles. Dillmann, Michael Jensen and Enzo Trulli had to settle for fifth.
The Cetilar Racing No. 47 of Antonio Fuoco, Roberto Lacorte and Charles Milesi finished 11th after failing to fully recover from a spin. That gave CrowdStrike Racing by APR a full-race advantage in the points.
In LMP3, Inter Europol Competition's Alexander Bukhantsov, Chun Ting Chou and Henry Cubides won on the road. However, the front damper cover on the Ligier JS P325-Toyota flew off during the race and caused a virtual safety car period. The team was told that they would have to replace it before the race and did not do so.
CLX Motorsports lodged a protest after the race on this issue. Nearly five hours after the race, the Inter Europol entry was
disqualified due to the car running outside of homologation without the damper cover.
As a result, CLX Motorsport's Alexander Jacoby, Paul Lanchere and Kevin Rabin inherited the class victory. The margin of victory was 24.747 seconds over Forestier Racing by VPS' Nick Adcock,, Lucas Fecury and Luciano Morano. R-ACE
GP's Fabien Michal, Pierre-Alexandre Provost and Zack Scoular were third, followed by Team Virage's Aditya Patel, Vic Stevens and Romain Vozniak. 23Events Racing's Ibrahim Badawy, Matus Ryba and Terrence Woodward were fifth.
In GT, GetSpeed's No. 9 Mercedes dominated much of the race until they suffered an engine failure. When that happened, Team WRT's No. 69 BMW picked up the
slack. The trio of Dan Harper, Anthony McIntosh and Parker Thompson held on to take the victory.
The margin of victory was 6.85 seconds over teammates Augusto Farfus, Gabriele Piana and Rinat Salikhov. Kessel Racing's Ferrari for Dustin Blattner, Chris Lulham and Dennis Marschall were third, then Origine Motorsport's Porsche for Laurin Heinrich, Bo Yuan and Hongye Li. QMMF by GetSpeed's Mercedes for Abdulla
Ali Al-Khelaifi, Ghanim Salah Al-Maadheed and Lucas Auer were fifth.
Race No. 2 Sunday was marred by a huge crash 39 minutes in involving Jensen and Kessel Racing's Memo Gidley. The two of them collided and spun hard into the Armco barrier, resulting in a 70-minute red flag for barrier repairs. Both Jensen and Gidley walked away from the crash, but both cars were heavily
damaged.
The race ultimately came down to fuel mileage. Peebles was able to save enough fuel to bring home the overall victory for DKR Engineering along with Beche and Mattschull.
The margin of victory was 11.532 seconds over Inter Europol Competition's Bijoy Garg,
Giorgio Kolovos and Nolan Siegel. High Class Racing's Theodor Jensen, Gustavo Menezes and Jens Reno Moller were third, then Falb, Kaiser and Meguetounif. United Autosports' Paul di Resta, Phil Fayer and Ben Hanley were fifth.
Deletraz, Jakobsen and Kurtz finished eighth Sunday. That was enough to win the LMP2 championship by 28 points over Fuoco, Milesi and Lacorte. CrowdStrike
Racing by APR will have an automatic entry into the LMP2 class at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
In LMP3, CLX Motorsport was looking for the weekend sweep. However, contact between Rabin and R-ACE GP's Provost resulted in Rabin spinning into the wall with 45 minutes to go, ending the day for the No. 17 team.
Despite the crash, the trio of Rabin, Jacoby and Lanchere were able to hold on to win the LMP3 championship by 10 points over Bukhantsov and Chou. Ryba and Woodward were another five points back in third.
The Rabin-Provost crash elevated 23Events Racing's Matteo Quintarelli into the class lead. From there, he was
able to hold on to take the victory with teammates Isaac Barashi and Louis Stern.
The 23Events team won by 41.906 seconds over Bukhantsov, Chou and Cubides. Badawy, Ryba and Woodward were third, then High Class Racing's Philip Lindberg, Callum Voisin and Tim Whale. Bretton Racing's Haydn Chance, Theo Micouris and Jacek Zielonka were a lap down in fifth.
In GT, GetSpeed's No. 9 Mercedes dominated early on, but the Manthey Racing No. 10 Porsche moved up to the front in the middle of the race. Unfortunately, the re-drawn minimum drive-time rules in the wake of the red flag threw the race upside-down late.
Loek Hartog in the Manthey
Porsche was forced to exit the car with five minutes to go in favor of Klaus Bachler because of this. Ecurie Ecosse Blackthorn's Kobe Pauwels had to pull through the pits to reset his drive-time, but did not have to stop for a driver change. That ended up being the difference as Pauwels took the lead with three laps to go and held on to win with Jonny Adam and Giacomo Petrobelli in 14th overall.
The margin of victory was 8.989 seconds over GetSpeed's Anthony Bartone, Steve Jans and Fabian Schiller. Hartog, Bachler and Antares Au fell to third after their late driver change, while AF Corse's Darren Leung, Simon Mann and Alessio Rovera were fourth. Teammates Sean Galael, Davide Rigon and Charles-Henri Samani were fifth.
The interruptions
and a post-red flag wavearound allowed the GT class to stay ahead of the LMP3 cars for the vast majority of the race. Ecurie Ecosse Blackthorn ended up 14.618 seconds ahead of the LMP3 winner at the finish. The top 10 GT cars were ahead of the second-place LMP3 entry from Inter Europol Competition at the finish.
In the points, Kessel Racing's Blattner, Lulham and Blattner
finished ninth in class Sunday. That was more than enough to give them the GT championship and the last automatic entry to Le Mans.
Their championship margin was 24 points over a tie for second between Team WRT's McIntosh and Thompson and Manthey Racing's Au and Hartog. Team WRT claims the tiebreaker by virtue of their victory in Race No. 1 on Saturday. GetSpeed's Bartone and
Schiller were another point back in fourth.
- In World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series action, Friday night's action at Volusia Speedway Park saw Buddy Kofoid start second and sweep into the lead on the first lap. As the race went on, defending series champion David Gravel moved up to second and started pressuring him. However, Kofoid was able to hold on to take the
win.
Gravel was .931 seconds back at the finish in second, followed by Carson Macedo. Anthony Macri was fourth and Logan Schuchart fifth.
Saturday night saw Macri start in fourth and drive around Brian Brown to take the lead on lap 7. Like Friday night, Gravel had no intention of making it
easy.
On the final lap, Gravel made his move for the lead with a slide job. Macri was able to get a good enough run to overcome the slide and hold on for the win. The triumph earned Macri $20,000 and the Big Gator trophy as the top World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series driver at the Federated Auto Parts DIRTcar Nationals.
Macri beat Gravel to the line by .455 seconds. Macedo was third, then Kofoid and Brown.
Through three races, Kofoid, Macri and Gravel are all tied for the lead with 382 points. Macedo is four points back, followed by Schuchart.