Andretti Global’s Louis Foster put his all-important stamp on the Indy NXT victory, storming from flag to flag from the pole position for all 65 laps to win the ultimate race of the season at Nashville Superspeedway.
The Briton was untouchable despite late pressure to carry off Abel Motorsports rookie Yuven Sundaramoorthy by 0.3071s on the 1.33-mile oval. The performance marked Foster’s tenth profession win, eight of which have come this season, during which he has also recorded 13 top-five finishes, 14 top-10 finishes, six pole positions and led 362 laps in 640 total in 14 races.
HMD Motorsports rookie Caio Collet finished third, Andretti Global’s James Roe was fourth and Andretti Cape rookie Salvador de Alba Jr. rounded out the highest five.
Race
Foster began from pole position after qualifying was interrupted resulting from rain and the grid was set to points. Abel needed to relinquish his second starting position after returning to the pit lane in the course of the pace laps resulting from a steering problem, returning before the green flag but being relegated to the back of the grid.
Foster got off to a clean start with rookie Collet second. Foster prolonged his result in 1.7147s on lap 10.
Meanwhile, Myles Rowe and Callum Hedge had a detailed fight for sixth place. The pair had a wheel-to-wheel moment after which touched going into Turn 1 as Rowe went to the surface. Rowe continued but Hedge was forced to pit.
The gap on the front continued to grow as Foster maintained a 2.0328s deficit over Collet on the halfway stage. However, there was a change in second place as Sundaramoorthy passed Collet.
By lap 40 Foster had a lead of three.1744 seconds over Sundaramoorthy, with Collet third and Roe fourth.
Abel bravely fought his way through the pack and moved as much as ninth place on lap 40, but was 20 seconds behind Foster.
The caution got here out with 14 laps to go after Chadwick tried to pass the overtaken automobile of Jack William Miller, however the two made contact at Turn 1, causing the previous to almost hit the wall before happening the within and thru the grass on the infield. She returned to the pits with suspension damage but was out of the race.
Foster led the sector to a restart with seven laps remaining and jumped out of the race, weaving up and down the track to forestall being towed by Sundaramoorthy.
The battle for victory was on with three laps to go, with Sundaramoorthy just behind Foster's gearbox and Collet a distant third, 1.7 seconds behind.
Despite the pressure in a while, Foster managed to take care of the lead and take the victory in his final Indy NXT event.
The World Rally Championship has chosen three female drivers from its inaugural Women’s Development Programme to receive fully funded entry to the Central Europe Rally.
Lyssia Baudet (Belgium, 21), Claire Schonborn (Germany, 25) and Suvi Jyrkiainen (Finland, 24) were chosen from a bunch of 15 finalists who were chosen from a wide selection of applications from around the globe.
Now, from 17-20 October, they may drive a Ford Fiesta Rally3 built by M-Sport within the penultimate round of the WRC season.
The trio was chosen by a committee consisting of Peter Thul (sporting director of WRC Promoter), Burcu Cetinkaya (rally driver and FIA Chairwoman for Women in Motorsport), Pernilla Solberg (chairwoman of the FIA WRC Commission, former rally driver), Maciej Woda (managing director of M-Sport Polska) and Isolde Holderied (FIA World Rally Champion in 1994-95).
The decision was made after 15 candidates took part in an intensive three-day training in Poland, during which they were assessed by a panel of experts.
Drivers were assessed on their driving skills on asphalt and gravel, how they handled media interviews, their ability to take driving notes, their physical fitness and their knowledge of mechanics.
Following next month's Central Europe Rally, stewards will award one in every of three drivers a full season in next 12 months's Junior World Rally Championship.
Schonborn, who made her debut within the Opel Electric Rally Cup this 12 months, said: “I didn’t think anyone would notice me, I’m speechless, it’s like a dream.
Claire Schonborn (left), Lyssia Baudet (middle) and Suvi Jyrkiainen (right)
Photo: WRC
“There are so many girls with so much experience in rallying, so the level was really high. I didn't think I would be chosen out of three girls, so yes, I'm so happy.”
Former racing driver and current rally driver, Baudet added: “It’s amazing, I feel like I’m dreaming but I know it’s just the beginning of the adventure and I have a lot of work to do but I’m ready for it and I’m very grateful.”
“I would like to congratulate the other candidates, the level was very high. It was an amazing opportunity for all of us.”
“I was happy with the ride all day, but I wasn't sure if the other things would be enough, but I'm really happy. It's really amazing, I can't imagine myself in the WRC, but maybe you know that will come to me in a few days,” said Jyrkiainen, who finished second within the 2023 Finish Rally Championship Ladies Cup.
“For us, in the end, it was very difficult to make a choice. We of course hope that it was the right choice, we will see in the next stage of the process at the Central European Rally,” said Thul.
“Each of the finalists was unique. We know their CVs, a number of the girls don’t have any experience, they don’t ride gravel in any respect and so they really surprised us.
“Everyone performed fantastically, I even have to say that each single one in every of them was the correct alternative out of the 15 chosen.
“But now we’ve a WRC event and it’s a really difficult asphalt rally with changeable weather conditions in Germany, the Czech Republic and Austria. But this training camp here in Poland offers quite a lot of road surfaces, so I feel they will probably be well prepared.
“They will conduct tests before the event, we will also build a professional structure together with M-Sport Polska, and then we hope that these three competitors will become true ambassadors for women in motorsport.”
Porsche has revealed that there will likely be changes to the 963 LMDh driver lineups within the World Endurance Championship and IMSA SportsCar Championship next season.
The planned changes to the two-car programmes of the Porsche Penske Motorsport teams in each series is not going to be radical and are expected to be announced before the tip of the present WEC campaign, in Bahrain in early November, as reported.
PPM managing director Jonathan Diuguid told Motorsport.com that the motive force line-ups for the 2025 season will likely be “not significantly different” to this 12 months’s.
“All options are on the table and we are getting closer. Hopefully we will be able to hear some news before the end of the WEC season,” he said.
Porsche LMDh program manager Urs Kuratle echoed Diuguid’s position.
“There will be changes and we are close to making an announcement before the end of the season,” he said.
“The lineups won't be the same as this year, but we're not 100% ready yet, we're only 99%.”
Asked if it might be possible to perform a driver reshuffle between the 4 963 LMDh PPMs, as was the case in 2024, Kuratle replied: “That’s a part of the missing 1%.
It looks like there could also be at the very least one recent player within the PPM lineup.
Andlauer could possibly be within the running for a move to Porsche Penske in 2025
Photo: JEP / Motorsport Images
Julien Andlauer, who has signed with Porsche, is prone to fight for a seat in one in all the team’s cars within the WEC Hypercar or IMSA GTP class next 12 months, having impressed on the wheel of the Proton Competition 963 within the WEC this 12 months.
One possibility is that he will likely be placed on the IMSA roster instead of Dane Cameron.
Porsche can be known to have considered reducing the WEC line-up to field two drivers in each automobile within the six-hour races, much like what Cadillac did this 12 months.
If Porsche were to take such a step, PPM would invite drivers from its IMSA program to the longer WEC races, including the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
With just eight drivers on this scenario, PPM can have one less driver should Porsche resolve to field three factory cars at Le Mans again.
Porsche needs to be free to decide on this route, as a proposed rule change requiring each Hypercar to seat three people has apparently been rejected by the manufacturers.
In September, in the course of the WEC race in Austin, Diuguid revealed that Porsche was against any rule changes.
The only change to the PPM roster this season was the swap of Cameron and Matt Campbell between championships.
Cameron moved from WEC to IMSA, where he was partnered by Felipe Nasr, while Campbell modified direction and joined Frederic Makowiecki and Michael Christensen.
Nick Tandy and Mathieu Jaminet proceed their partnership in IMSA, while Andre Lotterer, Kevin Estre and Laurens Vanthoor remain together within the WEC and at the moment are well on target to win the Hypercar Drivers’ Championship.
Porsche has revealed that there will likely be changes to the 963 LMDh driver lineups within the World Endurance Championship and IMSA SportsCar Championship next season.
The planned changes to the two-car programmes of the Porsche Penske Motorsport teams in each series is not going to be radical and are expected to be announced before the top of the present WEC campaign, in Bahrain in early November, as reported.
PPM managing director Jonathan Diuguid told Motorsport.com that the driving force line-ups for the 2025 season will likely be “not significantly different” to this 12 months’s.
“All options are on the table and we are getting closer. Hopefully we will be able to hear some news before the end of the WEC season,” he said.
Porsche LMDh program manager Urs Kuratle echoed Diuguid’s position.
“There will be changes and we are close to making an announcement before the end of the season,” he said.
“The lineups won't be the same as this year, but we're not 100% ready yet, we're only 99%.”
Asked if it could be possible to perform a driver reshuffle between the 4 963 LMDh PPMs, as was the case in 2024, Kuratle replied: “That’s a part of the missing 1%.
It looks like there could also be at the least one recent player within the PPM lineup.
Andlauer may very well be within the running for a move to Porsche Penske in 2025
Photo: JEP / Motorsport Images
Julien Andlauer, who has signed with Porsche, is more likely to fight for a seat in one among the team’s cars within the WEC Hypercar or IMSA GTP class next 12 months, having impressed on the wheel of the Proton Competition 963 within the WEC this 12 months.
One possibility is that he will likely be placed on the IMSA roster instead of Dane Cameron.
Porsche can also be known to have considered reducing the WEC line-up to field two drivers in each automobile within the six-hour races, much like what Cadillac did this 12 months.
If Porsche were to take such a step, PPM would invite drivers from its IMSA program to the longer WEC races, including the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
With just eight drivers on this scenario, PPM could have one less driver should Porsche resolve to field three factory cars at Le Mans again.
Porsche needs to be free to decide on this route, as a proposed rule change requiring each Hypercar to seat three people has apparently been rejected by the manufacturers.
In September, through the WEC race in Austin, Diuguid revealed that Porsche was against any rule changes.
The only change to the PPM roster this season was the swap of Cameron and Matt Campbell between championships.
Cameron moved from WEC to IMSA, where he was partnered by Felipe Nasr, while Campbell modified direction and joined Frederic Makowiecki and Michael Christensen.
Nick Tandy and Mathieu Jaminet proceed their partnership in IMSA, while Andre Lotterer, Kevin Estre and Laurens Vanthoor remain together within the WEC and at the moment are well on track to win the Hypercar Drivers’ Championship.
Toyota will join the Supercars grid in 2026, announcing on Wednesday that it should partner with Walkinshaw Andretti United to race its GR Supra within the series.
Four Japanese coupes shall be on the grid, two from WAU, which currently fields a pair of Ford Mustangs for Chaz Mostert and Ryan Wood, and two from a team to be announced soon.
Toyota, long the market leader in Australia, has committed to a five-year entry into the category, meaning it should race against Mustangs and Chevrolet Camaros until at the least 2030.
Work on the brand new automobile is already underway at Toyota Australia’s Melbourne base. The automobile shall be powered by an engine based on the 2UR-GSE – an all-aluminium, four-cylinder V8 – as an alternative of the inline-six engine fitted to road-going Supra models.
“At Toyota we have been toying with the idea of competing in Supercars for over 20 years and now, with the right car, the right team and a very strong partnership with the Supercars Championship, the time is definitely right,” said Sean Hanley, Vice President, Sales and Marketing, Toyota Australia.
“This is truly a historic moment. Our GR brand and performance cars are built on the knowledge we gain from competing in top-level motorsport, and our participation in the Supercars Championship will cement this connection and give us the opportunity to showcase the excitement of TOYOTA GAZOO Racing to a broad audience of passionate fans.”
Supercars CEO Shane Howard said the Toyota announcement was an “incredible honour”.
WAU will turn out to be Toyota's homologation team, very like Dick Johnson Racing does with Ford and Triple Eights does with Chevrolet.
Chaz Mostert, Walkinshaw Andretti United Ford Mustang GT
Photo: Edge Photographics
The Walkinshaw Group is already working with Toyota to convert US-built Tundra pickups to right-hand drive at its Melbourne base.
“Announcing our future with Toyota Australia, which will enter the Supercars Championship from 2026, is a fantastic honour and privilege for everyone at Walkinshaw Andretti United,” said team principal Ryan Walkinshaw.
“We have established a fantastic partnership with Toyota Australia through the Walkinshaw Group and we are delighted to extend this to Walkinshaw Andretti United – we look forward to sharing in the success together in 2026 and beyond.”
The introduction of Toyota implies that Supercars can have greater than two manufacturers for the primary time since 2019.
Volvo joined the sector for 3 seasons, from 2014 to 2017, while Nissan competed with Altima sedans from 2013 to 2019. Mercedes-Benz also appeared on the grid as a customer, and Erebus Motorsport raced a pair of E-Class sedans from 2013 to 2015.
Toyota already competes within the Supercars Championship through the Toyota GR Cup Australia racing series, which features 86 sports cars. Toyota also competes within the Australian Rally Championship with the Neal Bates Motorsport team.
If you watched the PlayStation 5 Pro reveal last week, you almost certainly heard quite a lot of impressive things concerning the latest console's capabilities, Gran Turismo 7 — briefly — used to differentiate them.
Following the reveal, Sony began providing higher-quality video to some media outlets to permit for more direct evaluation of the visuals than YouTube’s live stream attributable to the compression of such video. Renowned graphics and tech expert channel Digital Foundry was amongst those in a position to get their hands on the ProRes files to take a better have a look at them — literally.
In a video with founder and technology editor Richard Leadbetter, producer Alex Battaglia, and associate Oliver Mackenzie, DF analyzed the footage and shared their tackle the whole game within the presentation, including: GT7.
Digital Foundry's evaluation of Gran Turismo 7 graphics on PlayStation 5 Pro 18
GT7 in reality, it has its own pretty high benchmark to hit, running at 4K60 — even when it does occasionally drop to 60, reminiscent of on the left-hand turn before the tunnel in Trial Mountain — on the usual PlayStation 5 model.
The biggest feature mentioned within the PS5 reveal video is the addition of real-time ray tracing on the track during races. The 4K ProRes footage reveals a bit about how Polyphony Digital has approached this for the improved PS5 Pro that we’re expecting soon.
In the evaluation, DF estimates that ray-traced reflections — which allow you to see cars reflected off one another — are a few quarter of the resolution, or around 1080p. However, it is a fairly demanding process, and plainly the general resolution drops to what DF calls 1188p, while maintaining a frame rate of 60 fps.
That's about 55% of the resolution of ordinary 4K (2160p), and that's where PlayStation's latest Spectral Super Resolution, or PSSR, is available in. This upscaling technology boosts the resolution back to 4K, even though it's obviously not as sharp as native 4K.
While it's not an ideal implementation — Mackenzie noted that the ray tracing falls apart a bit in some cases — the team seems impressed with how the interiors, and specifically the varied interior materials, work with the real-time ray tracing so as to add to the immersion. This compares favorably to the way in which the consequences appear in Forza MotorsportFor example.
One thing the team hasn’t seen yet is an 8K version of the sport, which is what outlets mentioned at Sony Interactive Entertainment’s US HQ in San Mateo, where you can check out the PS5 Pro for yourself. We expect to listen to more on that soon.
Two mistakes by a “nervous” Nico Hulkenberg on the finish line helped Formula 1 rookie drivers Franco Colapinto and Oliver Bearman, in addition to Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton, suffer unexpected incidents at the tip of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
By maintaining a high pace and using the medium tyres within the opening stage of the race on Sunday, Hulkenberg eventually received a team order to pass temporary team-mate Bearman, and his impressive tyre management on the hard tyres later within the race saw him split the pair of Williamses who had began on the front and battle for tenth place.
However, on lap 48, Hulkenberg clipped the approach wall to Turn 15 and after feeling he had a puncture, which Haas couldn’t see of their data, and a few doubts in regards to the engine mode at that stage, a general lack of momentum saw Colapinto lose the lead again together with his Williams within the lead at Turn 3 on the next lap.
In the identical spot, just after Perez and Sainz's crash, Hulkenberg didn’t react in time to the green flag just behind the collision and was attacked by Hamilton and Bearman.
Watch: McLaren In Charge – Azerbaijan F1 GP Analysis
The incident with the wall ultimately cost Haas eighth place, given what happened between Perez and Sainz and the highest ten places they lost, although Bearman managed to secure the ultimate point by overtaking Hulkenberg.
At this point, Komatsu told Autosport/Motorsport.com that “after [the] yellow, [Hulkenberg] he hit something that upset him and the yellow driver ended the race before turn three.
“He said something like, ‘it should have been a safety car’, just completely nervous, and then Hamilton and Ollie just went through.”
Asked if Haas was surprised that race officials took so long to activate the virtual safety automobile, or even when the team thought the race can be stopped, Komatsu replied: “I thought it would be red.”
“But honestly, it’s the same mistake Nico made. I was like, ‘This should be red.’ It was like, ‘Yeah, it should be, but whatever I think it should be doesn’t matter, we just have to fucking focus on what’s in front of us.’”
“Nico thinks it should be a safety car. Yes, fine, but now I'm just focused on [was the better thing to do].”
Speaking to the media crew afterwards, Hulkenberg alluded to how “everything that could go wrong did go wrong” in those incidents, “and we lost everything.”
“It was very disappointing and frustrating,” he added. “Unfortunately, we have to take it as it is, wipe our mouths and move on in a few days.”
He later said that the race on the track he hated “actually went better than I expected” as he “managed to find the rhythm and the pace, which I'm very happy and pleased with” – considering Bearman beat him by 0.223s and three places in qualifying in Baku.
“The crash at the end caught me by surprise,” Hulkenberg explained. “For me it was a security automobile, even a red flag, because there was real carnage on the straight.
“Instead there was a green flag, I lost positions there and unfortunately I lost the result.
“The whole track was covered in rubble and I went over an enormous section that I couldn’t see because there was a automobile in front of me.
“It was a crazy last two laps, but unfortunately not in our favor.”
As the tip of Stewart-Haas Racing approached, nobody expected the four-car team to have a automotive within the playoff race. Then Chase Briscoe pulled off a formidable upset within the regular-season finale, winning the coveted Southern 500. It completely modified the outlook for the organization and its 320-plus employees, who now face an uncertain future.
“One of my guys said recently, ‘If we don’t win this race, everybody’s counting down the days until the end of the season.’ They’re so excited now, and we’re just counting down the days until the next race. It’s changed the whole atmosphere in the shop, the morale, people are excited again, and that’s something we haven’t had as a company in a few years, so it’s cool to be the guy who can bring that to the shop,” Briscoe said in his weekly team review.
Race Winner Chase Briscoe, Stewart-Haas Racing, Ford Mustang
Photo: Danny Hansen / NKP / Motorsport Images
The SHR driver wasn’t the favourite entering the playoffs, but he “knew we could win” — even before Darlington. His title possibilities gave the impression to be quickly dashed after crashing in the primary playoff race and ending last, scoring only one point in Atlanta. But once more, Briscoe and the No. 14 Ford proved they shouldn’t be underestimated. He got here back stronger than ever at Watkins Glen, scoring 12 stage points and ending higher than some other playoff driver, ending sixth. In fact, he managed to avoid all the difficulty that got here his way on the track last Sunday, crossing the finish line because the only playoff driver in the highest 10.
He entered Watkins Glen at the underside of the standings, 21 points behind, and facing a tricky climb. But in a single race he passed five drivers, including the likes of Martin Truex Jr. and Denny Hamlin. That performance put him back over the cutoff line, six points ahead of Bristol. Now the Darlington winner takes that confidence to Bristol as he tries to advance to Round 12.
“The confidence that comes with it, knowing that if we can win the Southern 500, why can't we win this week at Bristol? I definitely feel like our team as a whole has a lot more confidence. We're walking around with more confidence. We just feel better about it. And to do it the way we did, beating Kyle Larson, beating Kyle Busch, it's not like we were lucky to win. We were literally running in the top three from mile one to mile 500. It just all comes together to having a lot of confidence and I definitely feel like we have it now.”
“There’s something different in the air” in Bristol
They march forward with confidence and self-assurance, seeking to overcome adversity and provides SHR a fairytale ending. Four drivers can be eliminated from the title race this weekend at the long-lasting short track, and as was the case at Watkins Glen, avoiding chaos can be key.
“Going into Bristol, it’s an elimination race — and really, any elimination race, whether it’s Bristol or the next round or for us, like Darlington — you just know you have to do everything perfectly,” Briscoe said. “You can’t have any big mistakes, you possibly can’t have a foul night on pit road and you possibly can’t make an enormous mistake on the race track.
“At the end of the day, you probably won't win every single heat, even if you do everything perfectly. But if you do everything perfectly that night, you can go to bed and hang your hat on the fact that you did everything you could and the points just weren't enough. I think that's the most important thing in a heat — not eliminating yourself and just putting together the best night you can from start to finish.”
Corey LaJoie, Spire Motorsports, NEGU Chevrolet Camaro, Harrison Burton, Wood Brothers Racing, Motorcraft / Quick Lane Ford Mustang, Joey Logano, Team Penske, Shell Pennzoil Ford Mustang, Ty Dillon, Spire Motorsports, Gainbridge Chevrolet Camaro, Ryan Newman, Rick Ware Racing, Biohaven/Jacob Co. Ford Mustang, Justin Haley, Kaulig Racing, Mountain Dew Chevrolet Camaro, JJ Yeley, Rick Ware Racing, Steakhouse Elite Burgers Ford Mustang, Chase Briscoe, Stewart-Haas Racing, Rush Truck Centers / Cummins Ford Mustang, Kevin Harvick, Stewart-Haas Racing , GEARWRENCH Ford Mustang
Photo: Lesley Ann Miller / Motorsport Images
There's never a shortage of pleasure at Bristol Motor Speedway, but the stress mounts even higher on Saturday night when the floodlights flare up within the early morning hours.
“…There’s a different feeling in the air, a different intensity, and that makes the Bristol Night Race even more fun,” Briscoe added. He’s never won a Cup race at BMS, but he’s finished every race he’s entered, which is an accomplishment in itself. Briscoe finished 1,991 of a possible 2,000 laps on the action-packed half-mile within the Cup Series. He’s no stranger to Victory Lane at Bristol either, having won there within the Xfinity Series in 2020. Still, he’s not one to take the volatile short track calmly.
“I feel like Bristol is one of those places where you never feel like you’ve got it covered, not by any means,” he cautioned. “I’ve been able to get the speed there in the past. An Xfinity car and a Cup car definitely race very differently at Bristol. But I feel like I’ve always had the speed at Bristol, I just haven’t been able to put the whole race together, especially on the Cup side. I’ve definitely struggled to get a good result, even when we had the speed. Physically, it’s probably the most demanding race of the year. But I feel like it’s one of my favorite race tracks that we go to. I always look forward to going there and having a great time when I’m there. I just have to find that little bit more. I feel like I’ve got 90 percent of it, I just have to find that other 10 percent.”
Watch: Briscoe celebrates winning the crown after clinching the Southern 500 and a playoff spot
Nothing to lose and the whole lot to realize
Briscoe has the X-factor which means it's over for the team. Furniture Row Racing nearly won the Cup title last 12 months, and GMS Racing got here very near claiming the 2023 Truck Series title before closing its doors. It's not unusual for a race team to perform at its best because the clock ticks toward midnight.
“No other team can match what we’re going through, and no other team has the same excitement that we have, so I think that’s what makes us so scary,” Briscoe said. “We have a lot on our shoulders and there’s a lot of pride in that. We’re just a special racing team right now. And every other team in the playoffs is trying to figure out how to make four cars fast in the playoffs. Hendrick has four cars in the playoffs, JGR has four cars in the playoffs, our place has four cars, but only one of them is in the playoffs, so all the focus is on the 14th car, and I think that makes it a little easier for us.”
“The remaining four-car teams have to focus on all four cars and give it their all on the race track every week,” Briscoe explained.
“And even on the racetrack, everyone will be fighting each other, not giving each other a break. I have three teammates who will do everything they can to help me on the racetrack, and they can race each other a little harder than they would race me. And even with the race cars, we can take the best of the best from each race car, staff, whatever it is, and apply it to our car. So I definitely think there's an advantage to being in the situation we're in compared to them.”
This 12 months can be Briscoe’s second playoff appearance. He entered the identical elimination race nine points below the cutoff in 2022. Yet he advanced, reaching the Round of 8 this 12 months. Back then, and particularly now, many considered him an outsider, however the 29-year-old doesn’t see it that way.
“I don’t consider myself an outsider,” he said. “Some people might write us off, but I and our whole race team feel like we can win it all. It’s probably crazy for a guy who didn’t look like he was going to be in it, but the way we look at it is, if we win the Southern 500, we probably win every race of the season. It’s probably the hardest race to win on the schedule, and the biggest thing for us was that we all thought we could win, but we didn’t know we could win. And now we know we can win, and to do it the way we did, there’s a confidence and a momentum that comes with it that’s unique and I don’t think any other race team can match right now.”
Colton Herta can have a simple task staying motivated throughout the IndyAutomotive offseason after winning last Sunday within the 2024 season finale at Nashville Superspeedway.
The impressive move that brought the 24-year-old Herta the gift of luck and triumph got here after a late pass on Arrow McLaren’s Pato O’Ward with five laps to go. The pair battled it out and as they reached the lapped automotive of Sting Ray Robb, O’Ward – the race leader – soared high while Herta dived low and had enough momentum to get on the within O’Ward before passing him for the lead on the straight.
It was not only Herta’s ninth profession victory, but in addition his first on the oval track, helping him to second place overall within the championship, a career-best result.
“Throughout the race I had to overtake my rivals coming out of the corners,” said Herta.
“I was able to get down the middle to get out of the corners and get off the power really well. We had a lapped car and there was enough space between us to get low and pass (O'Ward). I'm just happy. The Gainbridge Group 1001 Honda was so quick all weekend. We couldn't show it in qualifying but we knew we had a hot rod in the race today. It's been an incredible year. Second place in the championship is incredible but it gives us something to aim for in 2025.”
Colton Herta, Andretti Global with Curb-Agajanian Honda, podium, guitar, Alex Palou, Chip Ganassi Racing Honda
Photo: Michael L. Levitt / Motorsport Images
Herta finishes the yr with two wins, a career-high six podiums, 10 top-five finishes and three poles in 17 races. Uniquely, his only other oval win also got here against O'Ward within the 2018 Indy NXT season within the Freedom 100 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. It was also Andretti Autosport's first oval win since 2018 against Alexander Rossi at Pocono Raceway.
“It was time,” Herta said. “I believe there have been persistently when I assumed we could have won or must have won, and plenty of things happened that prevented us from doing so. Fortunately, today every part went well.
“I think it was in the form of a little move to catch up with Pato. I think from my perspective it was a really exciting race to finish it like that in the last few laps so I was fighting with Pato and then Josef (Newgarden) was close to fighting with Pato. No, it was a great race.”
When asked if the performance was a preview of next yr, Herta answered truthfully.
“I hope so,” Herta said. “We could have done a whole lot of things to win the championship this yr. I believe we’ll give it some thought, take a look at it within the off-season.
“It hurts a bit when you think about winning the last race and he didn’t have a particularly strong performance, so we could have made up a lot of points today if we needed to in the championship fight.”
Wayne Taylor said the prospect to guide his team to the 24 Hours of Le Mans played a key role in his return to Cadillac for the IMSA SportsCar Championship.
He described the prospect of Wayne Taylor Racing competing in the highest round of the Endurance World Championship for the primary time as “one of the factors” behind last week’s decision to maneuver from Acura to Cadillac.
“The chance to compete at Le Mans was a big part of the change because Acura had indicated they had no plans to compete at that race, and that is a key part of Cadillac’s program,” Taylor told Motorsport.com.
“For Cadillac, it's a truly global program: WEC and Le Mans are the number one priorities. But America is important because that's where most of the cars are sold, so we'll have two cars in IMSA.”
Taylor has never made any secret of his ambition to take the team he founded for the 2007 season to Le Mans and attempt to copy the team’s successes at North America’s premier enduro races – the 24 Hours of Daytona, the 12 Hours of Sebring and the Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta.
The return to Cadillac, with which WTR won the Daytona IMSA championship 3 times in 4 years (2017-2020), gives the team the chance to race at Le Mans, because the General Motors brand also competes within the WEC with its V-Series.R LMDh automobile.
#10 Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti Acura ARX-06: Ricky Taylor, Filipe Albuquerque
Photo: Jake Galstad / Motorsport Images
WEC regulations allow a manufacturer competing within the Hypercar class to enter additional cars within the 24 Hours: prior to now two years, Chip Ganassi Racing has entered an extra Cadillac along with its full-season World Championship automobile, while Action Express Racing has also entered one automobile.
Taylor explained that he hopes WTR shall be present on the race, which he has driven in 13 times, next 12 months.
“I'm an eternal optimist, so I expect to be there until someone tells me otherwise,” Taylor said. “Jota can have two cars within the WEC [when it takes over the factory programme from Ganassi] and we hope that Caddy can have two more such examples to his credit at Le Mans.”
If that happens, it’s likely WTR will get one and Action Express the opposite, Taylor suggested.
WTR has been with Andretti Global since last 12 months, and Taylor described his return to Cadillac as “coming home.”
He has been with Cadillac parent GM since 1991, when he won a race within the IMSA Chevrolet Intrepid GTP program, then scored a one-two at Daytona and Sebring in 1996 within the Oldsmobile-powered Riley & Scott MkIII World Sports Car. He then became a partner in British organization 3GR, which masterminded the Cadillac Northstar LMP program at Le Mans and the American Le Mans Series in 2001-02.
“If you think about it, I drove for a lot of GM brands: Chevrolet, Oldsmobile Aurora, Pontiac and Cadillac,” Taylor said.
“It's been a very long relationship and the way they've accepted me again is amazing. I really feel like they're embracing me.”
Taylor said he was excited to be working again with Dallara, Cadillac’s partner in the event of the LMDh model.
He worked with the Italian constructor within the international Grand-Am Daytona Prototype and IMSA Daytona Prototype races, and previously raced the Ferrari 333SP WSC, co-built by Dallara, for the Momo/Doran and Risi Competizione teams in IMSA in 1995 and 1998-1999.
“It brought us back to Dallara, which I think is really significant,” Taylor said. “They built us a DP in 2008, and of course I know Giampaolo [Dallara] from the times of 333SP.”
Cadillac announced last week that WTR is returning to its lineup as a part of the expansion of IMSA’s V-Series.R program from two to a few units: WTR will field two within the GTP division, while Action Express will field one.
WTR was called Wayne Taylor Racing without the “with Andretti” suffix it had been using since last 12 months, though the statement mentioned a partnership with Andretti Global.
Taylor explained that it is a “historic event” resulting from the long relationship between WTR and GM and that no decision has been made yet on the team’s name for next 12 months.
The drivers for the 2025 WTR IMSA race will likely be announced after the IMSA Petit Le Mans race in October.
C. Collar HMD Motorsports 
J. Pierson HMD Motorsports 
J. Chadwick Global 
