On Thursday at Phoenix Raceway, Tyler Reddick began one of the biggest weekends of his career: his first true shot at a NASCAR Cup Series championship. Forty drivers showed up to Phoenix, yet all but the Championship Four — Reddick, William Byron, and past Cup champions Joey Logano and Ryan Blaney — were eliminated from title contention. The highest Champ Four finisher in the race on Sunday would win the title.
Reddick’s title hunt came at the end of a tense week. He was the only Toyota left, since his 23XI team owner, Denny Hamlin, got eliminated on points at Martinsville Speedway, and his manufacturer teammate, Christopher Bell, was in the Championship Four for 27 minutes before getting removed for a safety violation. Byron took his place, despite allegations of race manipulation in favor of both of them. All the while, 23XI was in court with NASCAR, leaving the team’s future in jeopardy.
After doing race promotion all afternoon, Reddick walked over to me for an interview about the championship. We got derailed, as we usually do, and spent 10 minutes talking about JDM cars instead. I ask about his season, he tells me about a recent meme he saw that said movie critics use “slow burn” when they mean “boring” (I saw it too), and I eventually get to my last interview question.
“Don’t jinx yourself,” I said. “But how do you feel about Sunday?”
Advertisement
Reddick sat back, exhaled, and visibly relaxed.
“Really good,” he responded. “I feel really good about it.”
The making of a champion(ship contender)
NASCAR’s modern championship format for all of its national series (Cup, Xfinity and Truck) is an elimination playoff. In the Cup Series, the playoffs begin with 16 drivers. They span 10 races and four rounds; the first three elimination rounds have three races each, and the final round comes down to four drivers and one race. For this year, that race is Phoenix, and the highest finisher from the Championship Four there wins the title. A win in one round automatically sends a driver to the next, and the other spots are filled by points.
Reddick made the eight-driver round this year and wrecked himself in its first race in Las Vegas. It tanked his points position and almost killed his chance at the title. But these days, Reddick told me he’s better at separating his home life from his performance on track.
Advertisement
“I feel like when I was a lot younger, I wouldn’t turn that off,” Reddick said. “If it was something bad, I would drag that back home or back to the bus. Over time, I’ve gotten better about being at peace with what has happened, good or bad. I move along and allow myself to be present with my family.
“There is a point at which you can overthink yourself to death and not change anything, especially when it’s something negative. It’s important to learn from it and acknowledge it, but if you dwell on it, I just don’t think it’s healthy.”
Champion Tyler Reddick, Richard Childress Racing, Chevrolet Camaro TAME the BEAST
Photo by: Matthew T. Thacker / NKP / Motorsport Images
But remember, Reddick is a two-time champ in the second-tier Xfinity Series, securing both by winning at one of his best tracks: the 1.5-mile Homestead-Miami Speedway oval. While Xfinity isn’t the Cup Series, the experience brought him into this weekend well prepared.
Advertisement
“It feels so similar to when I did this when I was racing in Xfinity,” Reddick told me. “I know it’s the Cup Series. I’m racing against Cup champions. It’s at Phoenix instead of Homestead. But just the feeling, the mindset, where I’m at internally going into it, all feels very aligned with those other Championship Four appearances. It just kind of came naturally.”
Modern NASCAR: Win and you’re in
Reddick knew he had to win the next race at Homestead-Miami to make the Championship Four. He was third with two laps to go. Ahead were Hamlin and Blaney, both in the same situation: If they won, they automatically qualified for the Championship Four.
On the last lap, Reddick slid by Hamlin in the low lane in Turns 1 and 2, then catapulted past Blaney in the high lane in Turns 3 and 4 to win. His last-lap speed defied logic, and It was a finish for the history books. But during it, Reddick’s mind was on another plane.
“I just … I ended up there,” Reddick said. “I don’t know how to explain it. People talk about getting in the zone, and it felt like one of those types of things where you lock in, it happens, it’s over, and you’re like: ‘What just happened?’ That’s what it felt like, where time’s moving so fast, but at the same time, it’s not moving. It’s really trippy stuff.”
Advertisement
Race winner Tyler Reddick, 23XI Racing, The Beast Killer Sunrise Toyota Camry
Photo by: NASCAR Media
Reddick told me the hardest part of the NASCAR playoffs is on display once the field is down to eight drivers. Three playoff contenders won all three races in the Round of Eight, leaving one spot to qualify for the Championship Four on points. That final spot became such a dogfight that, a week later in Phoenix, everyone was still red-hot from the controversy.
“It’s hard to win in the Cup Series, and it pretty much was something you had to do to give yourself a decent shot at being here,” Reddick says. “You look at how William [Byron], Denny [Hamlin], and Bell performed at these races we had, and they were very, very strong. Kyle [Larson], you look at all the playoff points he had, right? You’d think, ‘Okay, he’s good to go all the way through.’
“But in the Round of Eight, it can get out of your control so fast if you don’t win.”
Advertisement
The win gave 23XI an extra week to prepare for Phoenix. After Homestead, Reddick thought about the big picture: his chance at a career-defining first Cup championship.
“I allowed myself to think about it, take it in,” Reddick says. “I absorbed that information, to then be ready to focus back in on what I need to do on the preparation side. It all felt like it happened really naturally. I didn’t have to force myself to think about this or not think about that. Everything’s just kind of falling in place. It feels as it should.”
Other factors in Phoenix: The car, strategy, and pit performance
But a championship is about more than a driver’s mindset; it’s also about the team and car. I asked Reddick’s crew chief, Billy Scott, what this weekend is like for him. He kept it practical.
“Normally, we only go through tech [inspection by the NASCAR officials] one time,” Scott said. “Our cars are basically impounded, which means there are very limited adjustments we can make throughout the weekend. We go through a 20-minute practice session right into qualifying, then it’s overnight until the race.
Advertisement
“This weekend, since it is the final playoff race, we go through tech when we get here, but the cars are not impounded yet. It’s just for us to get a read on where everything is. Then, we have a full practice session: 50 minutes, multiple sets of tires, and you can pretty much change anything on the car that you want to or have time to. It’s just a lot more time in the garage, a lot more opportunity to adjust on stuff, and more trips to tech.”
Scott prefers a shorter weekend format. It rewards 23XI’s pre-race preparation, he said, and it gives others less time “to science things out” based on practice speeds. But in Phoenix, 23XI had three cars in the lab: Reddick’s No. 45, Wallace’s No. 23, and Hamlin’s No. 11.
JR Houston, a friend of mine and an engineer on Wallace’s car, told me the primary goal for 23XI at Phoenix was a championship. To do that, all three cars arrived with similar setups, letting the team work as a hive mind on adjustments and driving techniques for Reddick.
“I would say 90% of our weekend is focused on making sure they’re getting everything they need,” Houston said. “If we find something that makes the car faster, we tell them about it, then we both get faster. If they get everything they need, we are going to perform well, and vice versa.”
Advertisement
Tyler Reddick, 23XI Racing, The Beast Unleashed Toyota Camry
Photo by: Matthew T. Thacker / NKP / Motorsport Images
NASCAR teams use off-track time to debrief, discuss adjustments, and analyze data. A lot of data comes from a system called SMT, which shows graphs and animations of the speed, revs, shifting, braking, throttle, steering, delta time, and driving line run by any car. Each weekend, Reddick’s team can see where other cars gain and lose time relative to him, and other teams can see the same for Reddick.
But the car’s speed is only part of the race. Another is pit road, where teams of five change tires and add fuel in the 8- to 10-second range. A pit-crew member’s sole job is going as fast as possible, and before the race, they spray sticky traction compounds in their pit boxes to help drivers launch.
Pit road itself is like a long, nose-to-tail parking lot, with a few empty spots. Teams choose pit boxes in order of performance, and pitting near empty spots causes less stress.
Advertisement
“The biggest thing for us is having an opening,” Scott tells me. “If you have an opening on the way out, you control your own destiny the most. And as long as you’re running in front of the car [pitted] behind you, it should make it to where it’s easy to get on and off pit road.”
Scott is also responsible for race strategy, which can change depending on car performance and the timing of cautions. NASCAR teams can take two tires, four tires, no tires, scuff tires, new tires — a bunch of combinations — during a race. They can also pit early or late, depending on how it’ll impact speed and track position when they exit pit road.
The season finale in Phoenix is 312 laps, and Cup cars can run 95 laps on a tank of fuel. A “short run” in the Cup car at Phoenix maxes out at about 30 laps due to tire degradation: Tires wear more harshly during that time, then plateau and degrade much more slowly for the long run to 95.
“It’s important to have long-run speed,” Scott told me. “If you’ve got that, you’ll be okay.”
Advertisement
The ups and downs of championship weekend
On Friday, Reddick ran the 21st-fastest lap in practice — the fourth of four championship cars. Blaney led, Byron ran fourth, and Logano ninth. Hamlin and Wallace, in similar cars to Reddick, ran eighth and 11th, respectively. They spent the night working to close the gap.
“Throughout practice, if the driver’s fighting a certain handling condition, we’ll mark down laps,” Houston told me. “When we debrief, we’re not sitting there looking through 60 laps of data. We’re looking for this very specific example of when they did something either similar or different and how it affected their corner.
“In practice, Bubba was a little more comfortable with the car. We debriefed for an hour about how the cars felt different, and because they’re so similar, we know that it’s the drivers making the difference. By being similar, we can teach each other.”
The next day, Reddick clocked 10th in qualifying — a massive improvement. Logano qualified second, Byron eighth, and Blaney 17th.
Advertisement
“We know what we need to work on, and we’ve been talking about it and coming up with a plan for Sunday,” Reddick told the media after qualifying. “I have a good sense of what I need to be focused on, and how we as a team need to keep up with the race car. But obviously, we have to wait and see how the race goes.”
On Sunday’s pre-race grid, minutes before the cars rolled off pit road, Reddick’s friends and family hugged him and wished him luck. That’s normal in NASCAR: Drivers are swarmed, with no time alone, until they step into the car.
Reddick fired off 10th, then spent the first part of the race there. He was strategically aggressive on restarts, and his pit stops were consistent all day. By normal standards, it was a great performance. But by championship standards, Reddick lacked the long-run speed the other Championship Four cars had.
There were only four cautions in the race: one for an early wreck, two planned ones for stage breaks, and one for a crash on lap 251 of 312. The final green-flag run lasted more than 50 laps, and during it, Blaney charged from several seconds behind his teammate, Logano, to Logano’s back bumper. Logano held Blaney off to win a third Cup championship, while Byron finished third in the race and Reddick sixth.
Advertisement
On a normal day, sixth is great. In the championship, it’s not enough.
“We did all that we could, I think,” Reddick told the media in a post-race press conference. “But it’s tough when they just get further and further away over time. We put up a good fight. We didn’t make any mistakes that took ourselves out of it. We fought as hard as we could. We made the car better throughout the day. We did what we needed to do.
“Unfortunately, we just didn’t quite have the speed or restarts we needed to get ahead and hold those guys up, or really put up a fight there at the very end.”
William Byron, Hendrick Motorsports, Joey Logano, Team Penske, Ryan Blaney, Team Penske, Tyler Reddick, 23XI Racing
Photo by: NASCAR Media
Advertisement
Reddick stepped off the press-conference stage, walked by, and gave me a half-smile that says: “I tried my best.” I nodded — “I know you did” — and remembered what he told me about the championship on Thursday.
“You just have to come to terms with it, whatever the outcome,” Reddick said. “If you win the championship, it’s a great thing. But there’s a three-in-four chance that it doesn’t happen, and you have to be able to come to terms with that. I think you can do that if you go into this weekend knowing you’ve prepped all you can prep, covered all your bases, and made sure all the details are where they need to be.
“Yes, it’s hard to walk away from a weekend if it doesn’t work out. But it’ll allow us to digest it better knowing that we have no regrets. We did everything that we could do to win it.”
Read Also:
Tony Stewart has spent the past couple of years training himself to drive a car that goes from 0 to 330 mph in a matter of seconds.
He’ll admit that it took him a while for his brain to process information as quickly as required in a dragster. Does that mean he can process everything quickly, now?
He’s not sure. Ask the three-time NASCAR Cup Series champion about processing changing diapers, and he laughs about what his next challenge in the upcoming days.
“I’m trying to find every and any way I can to get out of having to change diapers,” Stewart said in an interview a few weeks ago. “But my wife is a very strong-willed woman, and she has assured me that I am not, under any circumstances, getting out of these responsibilities as a father and a parent.
Advertisement
“And I don’t blame her. It’s part of it.”
Stewart’s wife, Leah, is due in the next couple of weeks and the pending birth is the most exciting thing in the life of the NASCAR Hall of Fame driver. When they decided they wanted to start a family, Leah opted to step out of her top fuel car and Stewart, still a relative newbie in the drag racing world, stepped in.
It hasn’t been easy. Like any competitor, Stewart wants to consistently vie for wins. But he has embraced this new racing life. His NASCAR racing days in the rear-view mirror, Stewart has found joy in the challenge of competing in a totally new discipline where the car goes from 0 to 100 mph in 60 feet on its way to a top speed of 334 mph.
“The car is going down the race track, and your brain’s behind it going, ‘Wait a minute, what’s going on? And how do I get caught up?’” Stewart said. “But like anything else — if you want to lift weights, you’ve got to work up to it. Your brain has the ability to do exactly the same thing. It is caught up now in the car.
Advertisement
“I know what the car is doing. If it moves, I know where it’s at. I know what to do to respond to it, but it took a while for my brain to get used to processing information as fast as it’s happening in a dragster.”
Heading into this weekend’s National Hot Rod Association season finale at the Pomona (Calif.) Dragstrip, Stewart sits 10th in the standings, having failed to advance out of the first round in 10 of 19 events this year. He has made the finals once, with his best finish a runner-up at Sonoma. He is a candidate for Rookie of the Year, but the season hasn’t gone as well as he wished.
“I’d like to say it’s going great,” Stewart said. “But it’s been a struggle this year. … . It was a big learning curve for me as a driver, for the team and the crew to tune the car to sit there and figure out how to make the car run better and perform the way that they need to perform.”
Stewart spent one year racing a top alcohol dragster and this year moved to the top fuel category. He has three victories in the top alcohol division.
Advertisement
“I thought at the beginning of the season that I, beyond a shadow of a doubt, was going to be the weak link of the team,” Stewart said. “I felt like the team was going to be better suited to win rounds and try to win races than I was going to be capable of at that time.
“Luckily, I’ve got a great wife that’s a great teacher, and I got up to speed fairly quickly on what I need to do as a driver to drive the car. We’ve just struggled.”
For Stewart, it’s the mindset that is the biggest difference between his former racing life and current one. He was used to 3.5-hour races. Now he does races in 3.5 seconds.
“I’d say on the sprint car and the NASCAR side of things. the driver usually ends up being 70 percent of the equation of the success of it,” Stewart said. “That’s because of what they do with their hands and feet in the car, and where they’re lifting and how they’re driving the race car.
Advertisement
“They can manipulate the race car a little bit to a certain degree and make up for what it’s not doing that they need it to do. The NHRA side is opposite of that. It’s 70 percent of the tuners and 30 percent the drivers, There’s nothing I can do as a driver to make it go faster, but there’s about 20 ways every run that I can screw it up and slow it down or cause something catastrophic with the engine.”
Among the challenges were a change in chassis specs that no one knew how they would impact the performance. And then there was something else.
“Obviously, you know, not having Leah in the car and adding a driver that’s a little heavier in the race car, we knew that would be a factor to some degree, just not sure how big of a factor that was going to be,” Stewart said.
Stewart doesn’t know whether he will run in place of his wife at the start of next season. The NHRA has adopted rules for how points would be allocated if a driver uses a substitute driver for part of a season because of a driver’s pregnancy or fertility treatment. Those rules would allow, in certain situations, for the points earned by the replacement driver to go to the primary driver’s season total.
Advertisement
“Obviously I’m not a woman, and I have no idea what childbirth is like and what it takes to recover from that,” Stewart said. “I’m learning more and reading more about it, and it’s not an easy journey to get back to the forum before you get pregnant.
“We’re still trying to figure that out, but it’s ultimately going to be Leah’s decision. The reason I’m driving the car this year is because I’m just the replacement driver. I’ve told everyone, I’ll drive the car until she’s ready to come back. It is ultimately her race car and her race team, and when she wants to get back in that car, it’s going to be sitting there for her.”
Bob Pockrass covers NASCAR for FOX Sports. He has spent decades covering motorsports, including over 30 Daytona 500s, with stints at ESPN, Sporting News, NASCAR Scene magazine and The (Daytona Beach) News-Journal. Follow him on Twitter @bobpockrass.
Advertisement
Get more from NASCAR Cup SeriesFollow your favorites to get information about games, news and more
But given the iconic race’s place in F1 has come under question in recent years, is this the right move for the series? Our writers give their input.
There’s enough room in the calendar for one weekend where the thrill isn’t the race – but it has its own charm – Alex Kalinauckas
One of the best things about Formula 1 is that it’s a broad church. The Monaco GP sums this up well.
It’s a track from a bygone era, which deserves considerable recollection and respect. It’s where the excesses of the modern iteration of the championship (such as the huge team motorhomes) must be crammed into a small space. This also applies to car size, with the lengthy modern machines even more of a challenge for the drivers to thread through the principality’s barriers. This is by far the best thing about Monaco.
Advertisement
Yes, it can come at the cost of a processional race in dry conditions, but everything that pre-dates a sunny Sunday on the riviera is still an essential part of excelling in grand prix racing. Qualifying speed is a massive part of the overall test for success for drivers, which in Monaco is hyper-focused by the track’s compact nature.
The thrill of Monaco qualifying is up there with the best that F1 can offer. Around all the heartbreak and eventual joy for home hero Charles Leclerc in this challenge in recent years, the 2023 event stands out most vividly in this regard. Max Verstappen‘s stunning third sector ended up being the only thing standing between a first Aston Martin F1 win ever and a 33rd for Fernando Alonso.
Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing RB19
Photo by: Erik Junius
It was a lap for the ages – at a time when on other ‘normal’ circuits the opposition couldn’t get close. Monaco’s layout negates any particular power or aerodynamic design efficiency prowess. A year on, Verstappen having to push so hard to compete with the reinvigorated Ferrari and McLaren squads led to him hitting the wall and losing his victory shot.
Advertisement
Monaco is famously a ‘sunny afternoon for shady people’. Yet given the alternative these days would be another identikit street track in a different city or a runoff-heavy Tilkedrome – both things that induce similar angst at the heart of this discussion – that shade is only coming from people who can’t accept that the specifics of Monaco are a price worth paying for one weekend in 24. Plus, if it’s a wet affair, it’s also an instant classic.
And then there’s the list of F1 legends to have won in Monaco. With many more to come, they deserve to be given the opportunity to shine at this intrinsic challenge of grand prix racing and put their names alongside those who previously starred on the streets of Monte Carlo.
Monaco is not what it once was – the jewel in the F1 crown – Mark Mann-Bryans
The challenge of qualifying for the Monaco Grand Prix is indeed a unique one – but since when should the result of a Formula 1 race be determined over one lap on a Saturday afternoon?
The current cars, for starters, are too big and too wide to promote any tangible sense of a battle for position that is not decided by undercuts or timely safety cars.
Advertisement
Research conducted earlier this year found that, after the first lap, on-track overtakes at Monaco for the past decade totalled 101 – there were 99 at the 2023 Las Vegas Grand Prix alone.
Is a race or a circuit defined solely by the number of overtaking opportunities? Of course not, but at a time when more fresh eyes are tuning in than ever before, there has to be something more than the annual procession around world-famous casinos.
Charles Leclerc, Ferrari SF-24, Oscar Piastri, McLaren MCL38
Photo by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images
Purists love Monaco for the blurry footage of their all-time favourites putting in sublime drives against the odds, at a time when nothing summed up the grit and glamour of F1 dovetailing like a Sunday in Monte Carlo.
Advertisement
Even off-track things have changed. The VIP guestlist for Monaco is now firmly underneath the likes of Miami and Las Vegas on the clipboard. Getting inside the velvet rope is much more important at those American races than in the principality.
Business is still conducted on the yachts moored in the harbour, of course, but that clientele, too, is finding new homes.
Saudi Arabia, Singapore and once again, Miami (there is a reason F1’s owners pick these places…) are where contracts get signed, handshakes are made, and deals are done.
Monaco will forever have its rightful place in F1 lore, but sadly it has now become stale. Ironically, it has been overtaken.
Advertisement
Monaco’s history is intrinsically tied to its grand prix – Stuart Codling
The Monaco Grand Prix epitomises the principality it calls home: tiny but fiercely independent, and as indomitable as the rocks upon which it perches. In the centuries since Francesco Grimaldi sneaked into the castle disguised as a Franciscan monk, then opened the doors to an invasion force led by his cousin (an origin story depicted in the Monegasque coat of arms), foreign powers have squabbled repeatedly over this small but strategically useful spot.
Likewise, the grand prix has weathered assaults on its status.
Juan Manuel Fangio, Alfa Romeo 158, leads Bob Gerard, ERA A
Photo by: Motorsport Images
Monaco’s land border is just 3.7 miles long, although reclamation projects and modern architecture have enabled it to expand outwards into the sea as well as upwards and downwards. The rocks which once sheltered pirates now enclose a bewildering network of subterranean road and rail tunnels.
Advertisement
Against this tapestry of continuous transformation, both geographically and demographically – two-thirds of the population are ‘foreigners’ – the grand prix acts as a fundamental connection between Monaco’s past and present. When the race was first held in 1929, the principality’s chief source of income was casino receipts. While gambling remains an industry and a tourist draw, Monaco’s post-war reputation as a dissolute Nazi hangout required the ruling family to make a course correction in which the grand prix played a central role.
Putting Monaco on the map was the point of hosting a grand prix in the first place. The Automobile Club de Monaco craved recognition from the Association Internationale des Automobile-Clubs Reconnus (the forerunner of the FIA) but this wasn’t forthcoming: the Monte Carlo Rally, which had been held since 1911, stopped short of the border. To be accredited as a national sporting body the ACM would have to stage a race on sovereign territory.
Antony Noghes, son of the ACM’s founder, duly walked the narrow streets until he alighted on a potential route which, by and large, remains the same to this day.
“This skirted the port,” Noghes said later, “passing along the quay and the Boulevard Albert Premier, climbed the hill of Monte Carlo, then passed round the Place du Casino, took the downhill zigzag near Monte Carlo Station to get back approximately to sea level and from there, along the Boulevard Louis II and the Tir aux Pigeons tunnel, the course came back to the port quayside.
Advertisement
“Today the roads comprising this circuit look as though they were made for the purpose.”
Graham Hill, BRM P261
Photo by: Sutton Images
Despite the unpromisingly narrow layout, dirt-surfaced and crisscrossed by tramlines, the first events proved successful because Noghes attracted a high-quality international field. Post-war, though, Monaco was tainted by its association with the Vichy regime and by society scandal: Princess Charlotte, the heir presumptive, had divorced her husband and taken several lovers including her doctor and a notorious jewel thief, Rene Girier. Casino receipts were down 90%.
Upon acceding to the throne in 1949 – the year the Monaco Grand Prix had to be cancelled because the state coffers were running on empty – Charlotte’s son Rainier III set about rebuilding Monaco’s economy and reputation, diversifying into tourism and the attraction of foreign tax exiles. Hosting a prestigious international motor race would make Monaco a destination again.
Advertisement
And, barring a few financial issues in the early 1950s and the small matter of a bug going round in the early 2020s, the Monaco Grand Prix has been central to the principality’s success trajectory ever since.
Marc Marquez believes it would be impossible for him to replicate the success he enjoyed during his peak years at Honda when he joins the factory Ducati team in MotoGP next season.
For the first time since 2019, Marquez will be racing what is expected to be the best bike on the MotoGP grid, as he teams up with two-time champion Francesco Bagnaia at Ducati in 2025.
The Desmosedici has been in a class of its own this year, winning 18 of the 19 grands prix held so far. Only Maverick Vinales’ triumph on an Aprilia in the Americas GP prevented Ducati from completing a clean sweep.
Marquez has adapted well to the Ducati after spending 11 years on the Honda RC213V, winning three grands prix on last year’s GP23 bike and taking the fight to the latest spec bikes of Bagnaia, Enea Bastianini and Pramac’s Jorge Martin.
Advertisement
The Spaniard’s results are particularly impressive considering the other three riders racing the GP23 scored just two podiums between them, with VR46’s Fabio di Giannantonio the highest-placed rider among the trio in eighth, five spots behind Marquez.
While he will finally get parity of equipment with Bagnaia next year, Marquez doesn’t think it would mean he will be able to enjoy the same success as he did in 2019, when he won 12 races en route to his sixth premier class title.
“Well, it was a year that I had not found myself in my sporting career and I hope not to find myself again, but it may happen, because it may happen. A year of looking for answers,” he said of 2024.
Marc Marquez, Gresini Racing
Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
Advertisement
“I had a lot of questions in my head and it was a year of looking for answers. I have been finding them in a positive way because the main question was, am I still competitive enough to be in MotoGP? So that was yes, I’m still competitive.
“Logically it will be impossible to be the dominator like in 2019. Why? Because life happens for all of us who are here, the ones who are coming but we will try to keep that line as flat as possible to keep a high level in MotoGP and to stay competitive.”
Marquez’s impending move to Ducati has raised expectations from him, given how his success in the mid-to-late 2010s put him among the list of all-time greats in motorcycle racing.
But the current Gresini rider isn’t concerned by the weight of expectations on his shoulders, pointing out how fans assumed he will be a genuine title contender in 2024.
Advertisement
“Yes, there were also people who, when I announced that I was going to Gresini, said that I was going to be a winner all year. Then I said no,” he replied.
“And there were people who at Le Mans [and] Montmelo who said I would fight for the title. I said I’d like to say yes.”
Marquez remained in mathematical contention for the title for much of the year, even as Bagnaia and Martin were a step clear of the rest of the pack on their factory-spec GP24s.
The 31-year-old admitted that he himself thought that he had a chance to win the title, but by September it was clear to him that the championship was out of his reach.
Advertisement
“Obviously. I got to thinking because mathematically I had a chance, but then when I arrived at Mugello, Assen, I had the answer and my doubts were cleared and I said ‘I can’t, I can’t make it this year’,” he explained.
“Next year we’ll see, I have to do the pre-season and from there, before Thailand…”
Read Also:
Marquez has previously stated that he is joining Ducati to learn from Bagnaia, who he believes will be the benchmark in the team.
Advertisement
But while playing down his chances for 2025, Marquez knows that he has to target the championship straight away as he returns to a factory team after a year on a satellite bike.
Asked if there will be no excuses at Ducati next year, he said: “No, no, I have the two best bullets in the next two years. I have the bike that has won the past years with the team that has won.
“Well, we will see this year, but at the end, it is the factory team. Then we’ll see, but for me, I don’t have to prove anything.
“For me, it’s about continuing to be competitive in MotoGP and to be fighting for those three positions.
Advertisement
“First, it will be the goal, logically, out of the corner of my eye, we’ll have to look at the title because we are obliged in a factory team to look at the title to see where we are.”
Jenson Button will remain with the British Jota squad in the World Endurance Championship on its graduation to the factory ranks with Cadillac next season.
The 2009 Formula 1 world champion will move over with Jota from Porsche to Cadillac to drive one of two V-Series LMDhs to be fielded by the team in the Hypercar class.
A second full season in the WEC for 44-year-old Button was confirmed on Thursday when the full driver roster was announced for the Cadillac Hertz Team Jota entries.
Will Stevens and Norman Nato have joined Button in switching from Jota’s two-car squad of customer Porsche 963 LMDhs.
Advertisement
Earl Bamber and Alex Lynn will continue with Cadillac at Jota in the WEC after two years racing the General Motors brand’s solo Hypercar entry run by Chip Ganassi Racing
Sebastien Bourdais also makes the move from Ganassi, with which he has been a full-season regular in the IMSA SportsCar Championship since 2022 after calling time on his IndyCar career.
Cadillac Racing driver line up
Photo by: Richard Prince
He is switching series having raced alongside Bamber and Lynn in the Qatar and Bahrain WEC rounds at the beginning and end of this year’s campaign.
Advertisement
It will be the first full-time programme outside of North America for the Frenchman since his season and a half in F1 with Toro Rosso in 2008-09.
Bourdais will not remain with Cadillac in IMSA’s GTP class next year, but will stay in the series after signing a deal with Tower Motorsport to race in the LMP2 division.
Cadillac and Jota have yet to reveal the driver combinations for its two WEC entries, which will retain the #12 and #38 race numbers from the Porsche programme.
Bamber will also be competing for Cadillac in IMSA next year with Action Express Racing, but it is expected that the Jota programme will take precedence on the clash between the Spa and Laguna Seca races in May and at the Le Mans 24 Hours should the American team contest the WEC double-points round for a third year in succession.
Advertisement
Button was widely expected to stay with Jota having revealed at the start of the season that he saw his time in Hypercar as a two-year venture.
Button said: “I’m delighted to be continuing my journey with Hertz Team Jota as they form their new partnership with such an iconic brand as Cadillac.
“Racing with Jota this season has been such a privilege as they’re a team steeped in success in endurance racing and an operation I’ve long admired.
Advertisement
“Those achievements and hard work have now led to this exciting next chapter seeing them partner with Cadillac, a marque which has already impressed with what it has achieved to date in both WEC and IMSA.
#38 Hertz Team Jota Porsche 963: Jenson Button, Philip Hanson, Oliver Rasmussen
Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images
“The driver line-up is pretty impressive: we bring our collective experience of working with the Cadillac platform and the experience of working with Jota together.
“We have all the ingredients for a great season ahead.”
Advertisement
Jota director David Clark stated: “Cadillac’s pedigree in motorsport speaks for itself, and with these six drivers we will be in a strong position to challenge for race wins.”
Bourdais, 45, said he was “thankful to be part of this new adventure”, adding: “It’s a known quantity with the car and the GM people, so it’s cool to be able to continue there.”
Stevens, who took victory in the #12 Jota Porsche in last May’s WEC round at Spa, is continuing a relationship that stretches back to 2016.
The Briton has been a fixture with the team since winning the WEC P2 crown in 2022, saying: “I’ve made no secret of my intention to be with Jota for the long haul and to do this with Cadillac makes it even more special.”
Advertisement
Cadillac is upscaling its WEC assault this season in line with a new rule mandating two-car entries for manufacturer teams competing in Hypercar.
Ganassi fielded only one car in the WEC in 2023 and 2024: its two-car IMSA assault of 2022 with the DPi-V.R Daytona Prototype international was effectively split in half at the start of the Hypercar era, with one car racing in the world championship and one in North America.
It unilaterally announced in March that its relationship with Cadillac would come to an end at the conclusion of this year’s WEC and IMSA campaigns.
Ganassi ran Bamber and Lynn as a duo in the six-hour WEC races this year, but Jota always intended to stick with three drivers on its switch to Cadillac.
Advertisement
Team boss Sam Hignett has stressed the importance of racing with the same line-up as at Le Mans in all WEC events.
Jota will shake down its V-Series.R chassis at the Anneau du Rhin circuit close to the German border in northern France next week.
Read Also:
Chip Ganassi Racing IndyCar drivers past and present will bolster the line-up of Meyer Shank Racing’s Acura GTP crew for the Daytona 24 Hours and subsequent IMSA SportsCar Championship enduros.
Reigning IndyCar champion Alex Palou and his Ganassi team-mate Scott Dixon will contest the five races that comprise the Michelin Endurance Cup with MSR, while MSR IndyCar racer Felix Rosenqvist will be a Daytona-only addition.
Dixon and Rosenqvist will join Tom Blomqvist and Colin Braun, who won the first race of the new GTP era at Daytona in 2023 with MSR, while Palou will partner Renger van der Zande and Nick Yelloly at Sebring, Watkins Glen, Indianapolis and Petit Le Mans.
MSR returns to IMSA in 2025 after sitting out the 2024 campaign while Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti ran two works Acura ARX-06s.
Advertisement
But with WTR/Andretti switching to Cadillac, to take over from Chip Ganassi Racing as the GM brand’s factory squad in IMSA, it opened the door for MSR to return to the brand it won the 2022 IMSA DPi crown with.
Dixon and Palou both use engines from Acura’s sister brand Honda in IndyCar, facilitating their switch from Ganassi’s now-defunct Cadillac GTP programme along with van der Zande.
Palou made his Le Mans debut with a Ganassi-run Cadillac V-Series.R last year, finishing seventh, and also joined its roster for his second appearance at Daytona.
#60 Meyer Shank Racing w/ Curb Agajanian Acura ARX-06: Tom Blomqvist, Colin Braun, Helio Castroneves
Photo by: Michael L. Levitt / Motorsport Images
Advertisement
Dixon won on his final outing for Cadillac at Petit Le Mans, and has three previous wins to his name at Daytona in 2006, 2015 and 2020; the latter coming alongside van der Zande.
Rosenqvist was previously Dixon’s IndyCar team-mate at Ganassi in 2019-20, before spending three years at Arrow McLaren then joining MSR in 2024. He has three previous starts at Daytona, the Swede’s two most recent appearances coming in LMP2 machinery.
Palou was set to take the IndyCar seat vacated by Rosenqvist at Arrow McLaren for 2024, but elected to stay with Ganassi and duly won his third title.
“It just made sense for Felix to join us at the 24,” said team boss Michael Shank, whose team has won at Daytona in 2012, 2022 and 2023.
Advertisement
“He’s really proved himself on the IndyCar side of things and I think he can be a big asset to us in IMSA.
“It’s a no-brainer that Scott knows what he’s doing in the IMSA endurance events and it’s really cool to finally have him come onboard after all these years.
“Alex is another one who knows what it takes in the GTP category and of course he’s coming off of a big high in IndyCar.”
Penske Entertainment has announced the purchase of the Grand Prix Association of Long Beach — acquired from longtime owner Gerald R. Forsythe. The historic Grand Prix of Long Beach, the longest running street race based in Southern California, now joins the likes of the IndyCar Series, Indianapolis Motor Speedway and Detroit Grand Prix as part of the portfolio of brands under Penske Entertainment, a subsidiary of Penske Corporation.
Next year will mark the 50th edition of the historic event, with special programming planned to mark the occasion. The race will return to network television, with FOX set to broadcast the event Sunday, April 13.
“We’re incredibly proud to be the new stewards of this cherished and iconic event,” said Roger Penske.
“This is the most historic and prestigious street circuit race in North America, and we’re excited to work with (Grand Prix of Long Beach CEO) Jim Michaelian and his great team in Long Beach to ensure continued success and growth over the long term. This race and its loyal fans matter so much to everyone across the IndyCar community, and we’re looking forward to a very special 50th anniversary celebration this April, as well.”
Advertisement
Michaelian extended his thoughts on the significance of Penske taking over the event.
“As we prepare to celebrate a truly remarkable milestone, the 50th anniversary of this amazing event, it’s fitting that we have such exciting and important news to share about its future,” said Michaelian.
“Roger and the team at Penske Entertainment understand the special history and unique qualities that give us such a strong foundation and will be ideal partners as we continue to deliver an exceptional race weekend for our fans moving forward. I also want to acknowledge the significant contribution that the previous owners, Jerry Forsythe and the late Kevin Kalkhoven, made to the success of our event over the past 19 years.”
According to the press release, Penske Entertainment “plans to invest in bolstering and enhancing the experience for race fans, sponsors and hospitality customers.” It is already heavily involved in the promotions at various IndyCar events held at Iowa Speedway, the Milwaukee Mile and the Grand Prix of Arlington set for 2026
Advertisement
“This is a major race weekend, not just on our calendar but across the motorsport landscape,” Penske Entertainment President & CEO Mark Miles said. “We’re committed to preserving the core attributes that make it best in class while also working on some exciting and bold initiatives to make its future even bigger and brighter.”
The 1.968-mile circuit, which wraps around the Long Beach Convention and Entertainment Center, typically hosts crowds over 190,000 people across its three-day weekend. Additionally, the Grand Prix Foundation of Long Beach, a charity organization, has donated more than $4.2 million to those in need within the Long Beach community.
“The Grand Prix is an incredibly vital and vibrant asset for our community and an annual event that drives commerce, attracts tourism and elevates cultural connectivity across our city,” said Long Beach Mayor Rex Richardson.
“Penske Entertainment will be a committed and energetic partner for the future that seeks to preserve and enhance this event’s rich history and strong legacy. We’re looking forward to a great working relationship that benefits everyone who calls Long Beach home.”
Tony Stewart
You must be logged in to post a comment Login