After taking a break for the Olympics the previous weekend, NASCAR will return to action at Richmond on August 11.
Quick facts: Kyle Larson, the 2021 Cup Series winner, was able to “Kiss The Bricks” at Indianapolis following his victory on July 21. After the race at Richmond, there are four races left in NASCAR’s regular season: Michigan, Daytona, and Darlington. With 2,043 points, Larson is 15 points ahead of Denny Hamlin in the NASCAR standings. William Byron, Larson’s Henrick Motorsports teammate, is fourth, followed by Christopher Bell in third place. Corey Lajoie has not had a good break since he made his departure from Spire Motorsports known. His successor is yet unknown. Last year, Lajoie agreed to a multi-year contract agreement with Spire.
The Xfinity Series won’t race until August 17 at Michigan after two more off weekends.
Quick facts: Before the month-long break, Stewart-Haas Racing won the previous two Xfinity races, giving them a lot of momentum. On July 13, Cole Custer triumphed in Pocono, snapping the winless streak he has been experiencing this season. On July 20, Riley Herbst, a teammate, triumphed at Indianapolis Raceway Park. Custer still has a 55-point advantage over Justin Allgaier in the series. The Xfinity regular season consists of six more events. Daytona, Darlington, Atlanta, Watkins Glen, and Bristol follow Michigan. On September 28, the 12-driver playoff gets underway in Kansas.
Quick Facts: The playoffs begin at the Milwaukee Mile on August 25 and Richmond is the last race of the regular season. Corey Heim trails Christian Eckes in the driver standings by 50 points, despite Eckes having three wins this season to Heim’s five. Through victories, five drivers—Eckes, Heim, Nick Sanchez, Ty Majeski, and Rajah Caruth—have secured postseason positions. Tyler Ankrum and Grant Enfinger are the other two drivers that have enough points to guarantee their seats.
The most recent race: George Russell, a Mercedes teammate, was disqualified for crossing the line first for an underweight car, and Lewis Hamilton won the Belgian Grand Prix on Sunday. Mercedes said that the staff had made a “genuine error.” Even though Hamilton had nearly passed Russell for the lead in the last few laps, the former series champion had managed to hold off Russell. Oscar Piastri was promoted to second place after finishing third behind Russell and Hamilton. After being disqualified, Charles Leclerc, who had been in fourth place, was now in third.
Quick facts: After Russell’s DQ, series leader Max Verstappen moved from fifth to fourth place, but he was unable to take home the podium. Since winning his seventh and final match of the season in Spain on June 23, Verstappen has not triumphed. Verstappen leads McLaren driver Lando Norris by 76 points going into Belgium, indicating that his drought has not hurt his prospects of winning the title. Leclerc is 97 points behind Verstappen in third place. Two weeks prior, Hamilton had secured his 200th career top-three finish in Hungary. He then celebrated his record-breaking 105th Formula One victory.
With its concluding race on July 21, IndyCar will return in mid-August, likewise taking a break for the Olympics.
Quick facts: The IndyCar season has five races left. The series visits the World Wide Technology Raceway outside of St. Louis in two weeks, then travels to Portland, Oregon, and then to the Milwaukee Mile for two races before concluding on September 15 at the Nashville Superspeedway. Will Power is down by 49 points to Alex Palou. Four points behind Power in third place is Scott Dixon.
Drag racing at the NHRA
The premier series in drag racing will take the next two weeks off before making a comeback at the NHRA Nationals in Brainerd, Minnesota.
Last event: On July 28, at Sonoma, California, Bob Tasca III won in Funny Car and Antron Brown won in Top Fuel.
Quick facts: Brown won the NASCAR Cup Series drivers championship three times, first over Tony Stewart in the playoffs and then over Brittany Force in the quarterfinals. After her father, 16-time Funny Car champion John Force, recovered from his tragic June 23 accident in Virginia and was moved to a more convenient location to finish his recuperation, Force returned to the racetrack. … In the Top Fuel race, Doug Kalitta leads Shawn Langdon by 125 points, while Austin Prock leads Tasca by 211 points in the Funny Car standings.
OUTLAWS’ WORLD
Previous events: On Saturday and Sunday, David Gravel won the 100th and 101st sprint car titles respectively, after winning the weekend events in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, and Weedsport, New York. On Friday night in Pennsylvania, Gravel lost to T.J. Stutts and missed his first opportunity at triple digits. He would go on to take the lead in the next two races.
Quick facts: Gravel was the eighth driver in the World of Outlaws to reach