The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
A week of bizarre, shocking developments in auto racing
NASCAR successfully waved the checkered flag on its opening event of the year just before the heavy rains began to drench Los Angeles.
That NASCAR crammed the two-day Clash at the Coliseum into a compelling one-day show capped a frenzied week in global motorsports. So many crazy things happened in a one-week span that Lewis Hamilton’s shocking decision to leave Mercedes for Ferrari in 2025 was just one of a frenzy of headlines as February arrived.
The week all started with a dead dog and a 24-hour IMSA sports car race that wasn’t exactly 24 hours. It ended seven days later with NASCAR — aware a life-threatening storm was headed toward Southern California — tore up the schedule and rushed its way through two races in one night.
Even then it wasn’t over: Monday, energy drink giant Red Bull said it has launched an internal investigation into Formula One team principal Christian Horner over allegations of inappropriate behavior toward a team employee.
Rolex 24 drama
It began with the IMSA race that opened the American racing season on Jan. 27-28. A pace car filled with guests at Daytona International Speedway crashed hours before the race, injuring at least two passengers. Word was also spreading that Devlin de Francesco’s golden retriever puppy was struck and killed in the driver/owner motorhome lot by team owner Chip Ganassi.
De Francesco was distraught just as a 24-hour race was to begin. Thus began four days of bickering between the Ganassi and de Francesco camps that resulted in Ganassi making a ”generous donation to the Indianapolis
Humane Society.”
Team Penske won the race for the first time since 1969 and 86-year-old Roger Penske, on the timing stand, “was crying, I swear. For like 10 minutes, too,” said an incredulous Josef Newgarden, the reigning Indianapolis 500 winner. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”
But wait! The race wasn’t really 24 hours. IMSA later acknowledged a timing error and the race fell short of completion by 1 minute, 35.277 seconds. Tom Blomqvist, seeking his third consecutive Rolex, probably wasn’t going to catch Felipe
Nasr in the Porsche even given one more lap , but stranger things have happened.
Formula One furor
F1 has been wild three weeks before preseason testing even begins.
The rejection letter to Michael Andretti reeked of elitism and looked down at the American effort from not only one of the most iconic family names in motorsports, but also General Motors, one of the largest automakers in the world.
F1, among other things, said it did not believe Andretti would be a competitive team; that the Andretti name does not bring the value to the series that Michael Andretti believes it will; and that getting on the grid in the next two years would be a challenge Andretti has never faced before.
It was condescending and Andretti Cadillac is taking its time to consider its next steps. Legal action has not been ruled out.
Then came Hamilton’s decision to inform Mercedes over breakfast at team principal Toto Wolff ’s house that the seventime champion was in his final season and that Ferrari was his next stop. Pass the scones, Toto?
Hamilton won six of his championships with Mercedes, but clearly doesn’t believe a record-breaking eighth can be captured with the Silver Arrows.
Nimble NASCAR
NASCAR took its exhibition Clash back to Los Angeles for the third consecutive year. It was bad luck that a dangerous storm was headed directly for Southern California, and NASCAR adapted unlike anything done in its 75-year history.
It turned a two-day event into one day in which both the Cup Series and NASCAR Mexico Series raced Saturday, the day NASCAR had at first decided wouldn’t include fans before reversing itself. Those who showed Saturday got in for free to see the entire event, with Denny Hamlin winning the Clash for the fourth time and Daniel Suarez winning the Mexico Series race.
Hamlin now goes to Daytona International Speedway in search of a fourth Daytona 500 victory in the Feb. 18 seasonopening race.
“This thing was just going to snowball,” Hamlin said of the hurried race date change. “This was the only option to get this thing in, and I’m happy that NASCAR made unprecedented changes to make sure that the fans at least saw a race.”