- William Howell, also known as "Rowdy," along with his wife Blakely,
were killed Tuesday in a crash in Florida. Howell, who had just married Blakely on Nov. 21, was traveling to Florida on his honeymoon. Howell was a tire carrier for Alex Bowman's No. 88 team. We at Frontstretch send our condolences to the Howell family and to Hendrick Motorsports.
- MP Motorsports' Felipe Drugovich won Saturday's FIA Formula 2 Championship Feature Race at the Bahrain International Circuit. Callum Ilott was second, then Jehan Daruvala. Points leader Mick Schumacher was fourth, while Nikita Mazepin was
fifth.
- Sunday's Sprint race saw PREMA Racing's Robert Shwartzman claim his fourth victory of the season. Mazepin was second, followed by Louis Deletraz, Marcus Armstrong and Guanyu Zhou.
With Schumacher finishing seventh in the Sprint race, he will enter the final weekend of the season with a 14-point lead over Ilott. Mazepin is third, 43 points back. They are the only drivers still in championship contention, and Mazepin's chances are near impossible to pull
off.
- Team Kunimitsu's Tadasuke Makino and Naoki Yamamoto won both Sunday's Takanokono Hotel Fuji 300k and the Autobacs SuperGT GT500 championship after Ryo Hirakawa ran out of fuel exiting the final turn. Yamamoto only led the run to the finish to claim victory in a caution-free race in which 11
different teams entered the final race with a shot at the title (seven of whom could have won it by winning the race). It's a fitting farewell to their longtime sponsor, Raybrig, an automotive lighting brand that is being discontinued.
Hirakawa and Kenta Yamashita had to settle for second, followed by Tom's Sacha Fenestraz and Yuhi Sekiguchi. Bertrand Baguette and Koudai Tsukakoshi were fourth in their Honda, while Tomoki Nojiri and Nirei Fukuzumi were fifth.
In GT300, Saitama Toyopet Green Brave's Hiroki Yoshida and Kohta Kawaai scored a dominant victory in their Toyota Supra despite going the full race on one set of tires. Due to the placement of the overall leaders, they ended up on a lap of their own (they were ahead by roughly 42 seconds at the
time of the white flag).
Kondo Racing's Joao Paulo de Oliveira and Kiyoto Fujinami finished a distant second to win the GT300 championship. De Oliveira made good use of his Nissan GT-R to run down the Mercedes-AMG GT3 of Leon Pyramid Racing's Naoya Gamou and took the position with seven laps to go to win the title.
INGING Racing's Toyota GT86 of Kazuto Kotaka and Ryohei Sakaguchi ended up third, followed by Gamou and Togo Suganami. D'station Racing's Tomonobo Fujii and Takuro Shinohara finished fifth in their Aston Martin. The whole race was streamed live by The Race on their YouTube channel with English commentary. It is a good watch.
- NASCAR Hall of Fame broadcaster Ken Squier was moved to a rehabilitation facility Saturday after spending a week at Copley Hospital in Morrisville, Vt., fighting COVID-19. Doctors believe that Squier will recover from the virus. SiriusXM NASCAR
Radio's Dave Moody, with the permission of the Squier family, has been posting updates on Twitter. Stay tuned for additional updates.
- NASCAR Cup Series champion Chase Elliott announced
Wednesday that he will make his midget debut in January's Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Nationals. He will be racing a No. 9 midget sponsored by Dia-Edge Rock Tools.
- Morgan Shepherd Racing Ventures announced last week that Morgan Shepherd has been diagnosed with with the early signs of Parkinson's
Disease. The 79-year old driver did not compete in a NASCAR race in 2020 as a driver for the first time in over 50 years. He still hopes to return to the track as a car owner in 2021.
- The National Motorsports Press Association (NMPA) announced Friday that Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Steve Kinser will be inducted in the NMPA Hall of Fame at Darlington Raceway as part of the Class of 2021 after being voted in by the minimum amount of NMPA membership. Their
induction ceremony will be delayed to 2022 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
