Motorsports News by David Vodden
The National Hot Rod Association [NHRA] ran in Maryland last weekend where Shawn Langdon beat Doug Kalitta by .002 seconds in the top fuel dragster final. It was close! Austin Prock returned to the winner’s circle for the first time this year beating Jack Beckman to the line with a 3.956 elapsed time for the 1000-foot run. His speed through the traps was 324.20 miles per hour. Greg Anderson took the win in his Hendrick Chevrolet Pro Stock, beating Dallas Glenn in the final. It was Anderson’s 114th final win in the class. Angie Smith won for the first time in four years beating Ryan Oehler with a 6.683 ET at 201.52 miles per hour in the pro stock motorcycle class. Angie’s husband, Matt Smith, was in the hospital where he was calling the shots for his wife. Langdon leads Kalitta in the top fuel points after fourteen meets. Leah Pruett, aka Leah Stewart, is third in that championship point battle. Her famous husband, Tony Stewart is fourth. Ron Capps leads the top fuel funny car points over J. R. Todd, Austin Prock and Matt Hagan. The NHRA races in New England this weekend.
The Indy car race on the narrow streets of Detroit saw Honda hand GM their lunch with Alex Palou winning over Kyle Kirkwood and Graham Rahal. Pato O’Ward was fourth in the first Chevy-powered IndyCar. Palou scored his fourth win in eight races this year making his win percentage 50%. He has won twenty-three out of 106 Indy car races over the last three years, resulting in a win percentage of about 23%. Wow! The Indy cars race this weekend in St Louis. This will be a night race starting at 7pm our time.
Kyle Larson won Monday night’s High Limit sprint car race in Iowa. Larson has won a few sprint car races since his abominable performance doing the Indy/CUP race double in 2025. You can see what doing the double was like for the California kid on PRIME television in a special called, “Larson VS. the Double. It covers both attempts and clearly shows the strain the failed effort put on Larson. He has not won a NASCAR CUP race since that last Indy 500-Charlotte NASCAR CUP series weekend. A major rain delay caused the Nashville NASCAR race to start after 9pm in Nashville and finish on Monday morning. Once again, it was very painful for the fans, television viewers, and the race teams. Terrible! Denny Hamlin won the race after starting on the pole, getting black flagged for jumping the start and then battling his teammates, Chris Bell and Chase Briscoe in a last lap, three-wide showdown. Both Briscoe and Bell messed up in ways that made it possible for the veteran Hamlin to win. Bell finished second followed by Briscoe, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., and Shane Van Gisbergen. Tyler Reddick, Chase Elliott, Ryan Blaney, Zane Smith, and Carson Hocevar completed the top ten. Kyle Larson was running in the top five all night until the last lap when he ran over debris, got a flat tire, and finished 23rd. Larson’s continued bad luck and a crash involving Reddick were missed in the PRIME television coverage on the last lap as far as I could tell.
Justin Allgaier won the O’Reily race on Saturday beating youngster Brent Crews in a good race. William Sawalich came third with Sam Mayer, Brandon Jones and Corey Day completing the top five. Layne Riggs passed Rajah Caruth on the last lap to win the NASCAR Craftsman truck series race. Chandler Smith, Ross Chastain, and Tyler Ankrum followed.
Week after week the truck and O’Reilly series races are more entertaining than the CUP races. The races are shorter; there is no obvious dominant team or marque and the appearance of CUP series drivers in the fields periodically adds drama. Toyota totally dominates the CUP series. The top regular season champion has already been determined, and the races are too long. Steve Latarde’s non-stop dribble last Saturday night and Adam Alexander’s performance on CW make the CUP series third in NASCAR racing entertainment. Only the truck and CUP NASCAR cars race this weekend at the Michigan Speedway. The show will be at nearby Sonoma on June 26-28.
Silver Dollar Speedway hosts races this Saturday night as part of the Dave Tarter Memorial featuring the NARC King of the West series for winged sprint cars and dwarf cars. Thunderhill Park will offer action both Saturday and Sunday at the 5250 Hwy 162 venue.
Tributes to Kyle Busch following his untimely death from sepsis caused by pneumonia were replete at all levels of the sport. His early death was sad, unexpected and unnecessary. His larger-than-life personality will be sorely missed.