AVONDALE, Ariz. Joe Gibbs Racings Christopher Bell undoubtedly starts the NASCAR Cup Series two-race Western Swing as the driver to beat.

The 30-year-old is the defending winner of Sundays Shriners Childrens 500 at Phoenix Raceway and has won two of the first three series races this year, including the last two.

A victory Saturday would make Bell the first driver to win three consecutive races in the Next Gen car era. His dominance extends beyond 2025he leads all drivers with 10 top-five and 12 top-10 finishes in the last 15 races dating back to August. No other driver has more than seven top fives in that span.

I dont really have a message to send to any of them, but its nice to be able to capitalize on race wins, Bell said after winning last week in Austin, Texas. Last year, there were so many race wins that got away whenever I had the fastest car. The last two weeks at Atlanta and here, I kind of won without the fastest car, so its really nice to get those back that I lost last year.

Im excited about whats to come. We have high expectations, high hopes, and goals for this year. Frankly, the last couple of years being at Joe Gibbs Racing in this No. 20 car, I havent been living up to the standards that I hold for myself. Our goal going into 2025 is to do that, or my goal is to do that for myself. I know Adam Stevens feels the same way. He believes were capable of a lot of great things. We havent done that yet in the NASCAR Cup Series season. Maybe 2025 will be the year.

There is no doubt that Bells JGR teammates are hoping his early season success becomes contagious. Three-time Daytona 500 winner and perennial championship contender Denny Hamlin sits 17th in points. The driver of the No. 11 Toyota started this race from the pole last year and has a pair of wins in the desert (2012, 2019).

Chase Briscoe, who earned the Daytona 500 pole in his first start for JGR, is ranked 15th after the No. 19 team won a penalty appeal from NASCAR this week. Ty Gibbs, who won the 2023 NASCAR Xfinity Series championship at Phoenix, is 36th in the standings and is still searching for his first top-10 of the season.

Despite Bells strong start, Daytona 500 winner William Byron leads the Cup Series standings entering Phoenix, holding a two-point lead over Team Penskes Ryan Blaney, who won the series championship at Phoenix two years ago.

Last years regular-season champion, 23XI Racings Tyler Reddick, is third in the standings, five points behind Byron. Bell and Hendrick Motorsports Chase Elliott are both 21 points back.

Eight different drivers have earned top-10 finishes in two of the first three races, but no one has placed in the top 10 in all three. Byron, Reddick, and Bell are the only drivers with two top-five finishes.

While the season has already produced a repeat winner, competition has been intense, with a series-record 125 lead changes in the first three races.

Two-time series champion Kyle Busch has emerged as a frontrunner after a difficult 2024 season. He led late in last weeks road course race and has two top-10 finishes this year. His 55 laps led in the No. 8 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet rank fourth this season, a positive sign after missing the playoffs and failing to win a race for the first time in 20 years.

Busch leads all active drivers in laps led at Phoenix (1,190) and pole positions (four) at the one-mile desert track.

I would like to think were ahead of the game there, Busch said. Were in a better spot or in a better position. We had some good hires over the offseasonsome good engineers and some good people from other teamsto kind of up our performance. Anytime you do that and you chase good people, thats what youre going for, right? Youre going for the performance that they can bring to the table. So fresh ideas, different things, and whatnot.

Theyre not going to outwork us, thats for sure, Busch added. But I think the next test is definitely going to be the next two weeksgoing to Phoenix, the short track, a place where we have struggled latelyto see how we can turn that program around.

Team Penskes Joey Logano leads all drivers with 126 laps led this season but has yet to post a top-10 finish. His teammate Austin Cindric has led 106 laps but has just one top-10 result. Wood Brothers Racings Josh Berry has led 56 laps but is still searching for a top-10 finish.

Beyond Bells quest for history, British driver Katherine Legge will make her NASCAR Cup Series start, becoming just the eighth woman to start a race in the modern era (since 1972) and the first since Danica Patrick in the 2018 Daytona 500.

Legge will drive the No. 78 Live Fast Motorsports Chevrolet, replacing regular driver B.J. McLeod for the weekend. The 44-year-old has prior stock car experience, most recently competing in the ARCA season opener at Daytona. She also has five NASCAR Xfinity Series starts, dating back to her 2018 debut at Mid-Ohio.

A veteran of open-wheel and sports car racing, Legge has raced two full IndyCar seasons (2006-07) and made four Indianapolis 500 starts, with a best finish of 22nd in 2012. She has more than 100 IMSA starts, earning four class wins and 18 podiums from 2007-2024. She made her Chili Bowl Nationals debut this year and is the first female driver inducted into the Long Beach Motorsports Hall of Fame.

MERRILL, Mich. On May 2 the Ohio CAT Great Lakes Super Sprints Presented by PERFIT & ARP season will begin at Limaland Motorsports Park.

When it does, Kobe Allison will look to build off his best career seasons in 2023 and 2024, hoping to win a race this season. To do so, Allison knows there are areas of his race night that need to improve.

Allisons stats in 360 Sprint Car racing go back to 2018 with the former National Racing Alliance Sprint Invaders and the Great Lakes Super Sprints.

Since that time, his stat lines read like the build-up of a dramatic novel, with each year showing improvement and better finishes. From three top 10 finishes in 2018, to his first top five in 2019, a write-off year in 2020, two top 10 finishes in 2021, back in the top five in 2022, and his best statistical season in 2023 with 12 top 10s and three top five finishes.

During arguably the most competitive GLSS season to date in 2024, Allison still racked up five top 10s and a top five finish.

The 2025 season is about taking all theyve learned and built and getting to victory lane. The native of Lima, Ohio is committed to the full Ohio CAT Great Lakes Super Sprints schedule, with eyes on select events outside of the Ohio region

Man, finally secure an A-Main win, Allison said of his goals for this year. We have came so close too many times. We know if we can improve our qualifying efforts and keep the car in one peace, weve got a shot. We kick ourselves in the foot with too many poor qualifying efforts and then chase our tail for the rest of the night.

That first career win isnt the only thing on Allisons mind heading into this season.

We have to keep the car in one piece, Allison remarked. This is a long season and to stay in it for a title you have to first finish all the A-Mains.

CONCORD, N.C.  At the end of the 2024 season, Drake Troutman was looking for a chance.

The former DIRTcar UMP Modified standout had what he needed to get up and down the road with his own No. 7 late model team, but he was still in search of an opportunity to become a legitimate contender on the national stage. Then came the call from G.R. Smith.

Last year, I ran my own deal strictly off sponsorship and I couldnt continue to do that anymore, Troutman said. That was one of those deals where we just tried to get through last year to turn some heads and hopefully get a ride. Im really fortunate that G.R. reached out to me and gave me this awesome opportunity.

I dont really have an option but to make it a long-term relationship. Now that were in this deal together, I feel like Im a really loyal person and I like to have things long-term. I dont like to be hopping around. Me and G.R. have been clicking really good together, hes been awesome to work with and hes given me everything I need to go out and compete on a national level.

Once the deal was done, Smith and Troutman set their sights on a MD3 Rookie of the Year Award run with the World of Outlaws Late Models, which kicked off at Floridas Volusia Speedway Park.

Finishes of sixth and 15th at DIRTcar Sunshine Nationals made it seem like Troutman was on the right track, giving him reason for optimism going into Federated Auto Parts DIRTcar Nationals.

The six-night stretch didnt start off how the No. 22* team were hoping, though. Troutman missed the feature on Mondays opening night of DIRTcar Late Model competition and failed to crack the top 10 in the next four nights.

Entering Saturdays finale, Troutmans only goal was to bring the car home in one piece and move on to the next stop on tour. But as the night progressed, he realized he was capable of much more than that.

We sucked so bad all week, every year I go down there, I dont know what I need to do to be better, Troutman said. I was pretty frustrated. We just kind of threw the kitchen sink at it the last night and it all worked out.

A solid qualifying run put Troutman on the pole of his heat race. After leading all eight laps of that contest to make the Redraw, Troutman pulled the top spot for the 50-lap main event.

The Hyndman, Pa., native quickly pulled out to a five-second advantage over the field, and it looked like Troutman had one hand on his first World of Outlaws trophy. The only problem? The driver trailing him was Jonathan Davenport, whod finished second in three of his last four World of Outlaws starts and already won at Volusia earlier in the week.

Superman made quick work of the gap between he and Troutman and passed him with 11 to go to add another Gator to his trophy case. While the win may have slipped through Troutmans fingers, his runner-up against one of the toughest fields the World of Outlaws face all season proved to the rest of the world what he knew from the start the Team22 Motorsports squad could be a contender against the best.

The track was more to my liking that night, Im not really good whenever its wide open, stand on it and pray to God it turns, Troutman said. As soon as you get done qualifying, thats going to tell you how your night goes for the most part. Especially on a track like that, it can be pretty hard to pass sometimes, and the air plays a huge factor in that place. I knew after qualifying we could win the heat race, and if you start up front, youve got a pretty good shot. At that point, its up to you and making sure everything on the car stays together.

After ending the week on a high note, the teams focus shifted toward preparing for the spring slate of racing, which begins next weekend at Smoky Mountain Speedway  with the Tennessee Tipoff. But in the break between events, Troutman has been getting up to speed at several tracks hell return to later in the year with the Outlaws, including Swainsboro Raceway, which hosts The Most Powerful Late Models on the Planet on March 21-22.

In his Swainsboro debut with the Spring Nationals Series, Troutman instantly became the class of the field by claiming the feature pole. He settled into second behind Team22 teammate Chris Madden.

It was one of the better race tracks weve raced on all year, Troutman said. Im excited to go back there, I thought it raced really well. The track guys did a good job of prepping the track there before the Feature to give us a good, racey race track. I think weve got a pretty good car there, Ive just got to do better behind the wheel. I mean, I knocked the left-front out on Lap 15 or so, that stuffs on me that I need to eliminate.

One night later, Troutman laid down another top-15 showing in his first trip to Senoia Raceway, which will welcome the World of Outlaws for the Billy Clanton Classic on Sept. 13. This weekend, Troutman plans to head to Boothill Speedway in Louisiana to get some laps with the COMP Cams Super Dirt Series ahead of the $50,000-to-win Bayou Classic with the World of Outlaws, Oct. 10-11.

From there, Troutman will head back north to Tennessee for his second trip to the newly-reconfigured Smoky Mountain.

That was a pretty fun race track too, Troutman said. Its all about going to these places and building notebooks. Thats going to be a newer challenge for us this year, we havent really raced at a whole lot of the Outlaw tracks. But in the long run it makes us better, and were excited.

The Cadillac Formula 1 Team has officially been approved for the 2026 Formula 1 world championship season.

The FIA and Formula 1 Management made the announcement on Friday that the Cadillac operation will become the 11th team on the grid, fielding a pair of cars under the TWG Motorsports banner.

As we said in November, the commitment by General Motors to bring a Cadillac team to Formula 1 was an important and positive demonstration of the evolution of our sport, said F-1 CEO Stefano Domenicali. I want to thank GM and TWG for their constructive engagement over many months and look forward to welcoming the team on the grid from 2026 for what will be another exciting year for Formula 1.

Since the bid to join Formula 1 was announced in January 2023, TWG Motorsports has assembled an experienced team of over 300 people working on aerodynamics, chassis and component development, software and vehicle dynamics simulation. Development work to join the grid in 2026 has continued at pace with operational wind-tunnel models, parts production and performance testing strongly underway. The team has operations in Indianapolis, Indiana; Charlotte, North Carolina; Warren, Michigan; and Silverstone, England.

For the past year, we have worked hand in hand with GM, to lay a robust foundation for an extraordinary F-1 entry, said TWG Motorsports CEO Dan Towriss. Now, with 2026 in our sights after todays final approval from the FIA and Formula 1, were accelerating our efforts expanding our facilities, refining cutting-edge technologies and continuing to assemble top-tier talent.

Were thrilled the Cadillac Formula 1 Team is official, as the team has been accelerating its work, said GM President Mark Reuss. Were incredibly grateful for the support from the FIA and Formula One Management leadership for us and for our collaboration with TWG. The excitement only grows as we get closer to showcasing GMs engineering expertise on the prestigious global stage of F1.

HAMILTON, Ohio The International Hot Rod Assn has acquired seven legendary drag racing facilities, the series announced Friday.

This move, made by IHRA owner Darryl Cuttell, reinforces its commitment to expanding the sport and delivering world-class racing experiences.

Tracks

• National Trail Raceway (Ohio)
• Maryland International Raceway (Md.)
• Milan Dragway (Mich.)
• Dragway 42 (Ohio)
• Darlington Dragway (S.C.)
• Kil-Kare Raceway (Ohio)

I am proud to announce that the International Hot Rod Association is purchasing seven legendary racing facilities as of today, said Cuttell. This is just the beginning of growing IHRA into a global leader in sports and entertainment.

Expanding Beyond the Track: New Partnerships & IHRA TV

In addition to acquiring these historic venues, IHRA is actively expanding its event portfolio and partnerships.

The IHRA has also agreed in principle to purchasing, hosting, and partnering with some of the most successful and popular racing series in the entire world, Cuttell stated. These events will combine music, entertainment, and All-American family fun!

To further elevate the fan experience, IHRA is also launching IHRA TV, a groundbreaking digital platform that will bring an extensive lineup of motorsports action to audiences worldwide.

The International Hot Rod Association will also launch IHRA TV, which will not only bring more live drag racing content to the fans but also feature a diverse lineup of racing series on snow, water, dirtanywhere you find horsepower and competition, Cuttell added.

With this major expansion, IHRA is revolutionizing motorsports by integrating competition, entertainment and media innovation, to create unparalleled experiences for both racers and fans.

We look forward to revolutionizing racing and the continued growth of a legendary company, Cuttell said. As we head into the future, we are committed to making drag racing fun again!