BLANEY COMMANDS CRACKER BARREL 400 AT NASHVILLE

Ryan Blaney, driver of the #12 Menards/Cardell Cabinetry Ford, celebrates in victory lane after winning NASCAR Cup Series Cracker Barrel 400 at Nashville Superspeedway. NASCAR photo

NASHVILLE (June 1, 2025) – Ryan Blaney claimed his first victory of the 2025 season June 1 night in the Cracker Barrel 400 at Nashville Superspeedway. The 2023 NASCAR Cup Series champion led a commanding, race-best 139 of the 300 laps to finally secure that all-important Playoff position. 

Blaney has come so close this season to hoisting a trophy only to have random racing bad luck break his heart and challenge his resolve. But Sunday, the sport’s popular 31-year-old, third-generation racer ultimately drove his No. 12 Team Penske Ford to a 2.830-second win over 22-year-old Spire Motorsports’ Carson Hocevar in a 103-lap green flag run that closed out the race. 

Blaney was so thrilled to take the win, he climbed on top of his Ford, raised his arms in triumph and then jumped off the car and ran up and into the track’s front grandstands to claim the checkered flag before handing it off to an excited young fan. 

“I never gave up hope that’s for sure,’’ said Blaney, whose victory puts all three drivers of the reigning champion Penske team into the 2025 Playoffs. “We’ve had adversity, and this hasn’t really been a good year for us in terms of good fortune, but the 12-boys are awesome. They stick with it no matter how it goes.” 
Hocevar’s runner-up finish ties a career-best effort turned in at Atlanta in February. 

“It just proves how strong this group is to go from the disappointment last week,” said Hocevar, who looked strong and led laps at Charlotte Motor Speedway last Sunday only to retire early with mechanical problems. 
Joe Gibbs Racing’s Denny Hamlin, who won the opening stage and led 79 laps, finished third despite his helmet hose and hydration system issues. Blaney’s Penske teammate Joey Logano finished fourth with current NASCAR Cup Series championship leader, Hendrick Motorsports’ William Byron rounding out the top-five. 

“Just couldn’t run with the 12 there in the super long run, after 40 laps I could maintain with him, but after that he’d just pull away and stretch it on us,’’ said Hamlin, whose fiancé Jordan is expecting to deliver the couple’s third child at any time. 

Logano, the defending race winner also led laps but ultimately wasn’t able to challenge at the end giving up positions to Hocevar and Hamlin. 

23XI Racing’s Bubba Wallace, Legacy Motor Club’s Erik Jones, Hendrick Motorsports’ Kyle Larson, 23XI Racing’s Tyler Reddick and JGR’s Christopher Bell rounded out the top-10. The effort marked a particularly significant comeback for Larson, who started 28th on the grid and was involved in an incident on lap 115. 
The NASCAR Cup Series returns to action next Sunday afternoon in the Firekeeper’s Casino 400 at Michigan International Speedway (2 p.m. ET, Amazon Prime, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Reddick is the defending winner at the two-mile speedway – traditionally one of the drivers’ favorite venues on the schedule. 

B. FORCE, TODD, ANDERSON WIN AT NHRA NEW ENGLAND NATIONALS

EPPING, N.H. (June 1, 2025) – Top Fuel’s Brittany Force picked up her first victory of the season, making a pair of 340-mph runs on Sunday at New England Dragway and defeating points leader Tony Stewart in the final round of the 12th annual NHRA New England Nationals.

J.R. Todd (Funny Car) and Greg Anderson (Pro Stock) also won the seventh of 20 races during the 2025 NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series season.

Force went 3.694-seconds at 340.39 mph in the finals in her 12,000-horsepower Monster Energy dragster to track down Stewart, who has now advanced to five straight final rounds. He left the starting line first and went 3.720 at 329.91, but Force caught him at the finish line to win for the first time in 2025 and 18th time in her career.

It ties her with Shirley Muldowney for the most wins by a female in Top Fuel history and comes a year after her father, legendary Funny Car driver John Force, won in Epping. It was his last win before an explosive crash two weeks later in Richmond.

To get to the finals, Force knocked off Clay Millican, Shawn Reed and No. 1 qualifier Doug Kalitta, going a whopping 3.681 at a track-record 341.42 in the semifinals, just off her world-record blast of 341.59 from last month in Charlotte.

“This is just a big one. The last time I stood in the winner’s circle with him was here and I wanted to win for him,” Force said. “This one is dedicated to him and everything he’s done over the last year. It’s been really tough and we’re so proud of him, and I’m just happy to have him out here. I need him out here with me. I knew we would get back to this winner’s circle and I’m so proud of all these guys.

Funny Car’s Todd returned to the winner’s circle for the first time since the season-opener in 2024, defeating rookie Spencer Hyde in the final round with a standout run of 3.888 at 332.43 in his 12,000-horsepower DHL Toyota GR Supra. It’s the 22nd career victory for the former world champion and this one came at an ideal time, snapping a 25-race winless streak.

This one took some impressive work, too, as Todd and his team suffered an engine explosion during the final qualifying session on Saturday. But they bounced back in stellar fashion, as crew chief Dickie Venables won for the first time since joining Todd’s team in the off-season.

“I’m just glad we got that win out of the way for Dickie’s sake,” Todd said. “I’m not saying there was pressure, but when you hire a guy of that caliber, people expect you to win.”

In Pro Stock, fans witnessed the first final-round matchup between longtime rivals between Greg Anderson and Erica Enders in 2025, and it was the reigning world champion Anderson who put together a classic performance, going 6.469 at 212.19 to set the track E.T. record at the perfect time in his HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro.

It was a rebound weekend for Enders, but there’s still no stopping KB Titan Racing at the moment, as Anderson rolled to his third win of the season and 109th in his terrific career.

Anderson and teammate Dallas Glenn have won every event this year and that continued on Sunday, as Anderson defeated Kenny Delco, Dave Connolly and Matt Hartford to reach the final round.

“I got lucky a couple times today,” Anderson said. “It takes a lot of luck to win one of these things. We finally made a great run in the final.”

Enders reached the final round for the first time this season but was denied her 50th national event win. She knocked off Deric Kramer, Cory Reed and Aaron Stanfield to advance to the finals, moving from 14th to ninth in points.

The NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series returns to action June 6-8 with the 24th annual Super Grip NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals at Bristol Dragway in Bristol, Tenn.

TRI-CITIES WATER FOLLIES CELEBRATE 60 YEARS HOSTING 2025 APBA GOLD CUP

From H1

Unlimited hydroplanes will battle for the American Power Boat Association Gold Cup, July 25-27 on the Columbia River. Tri Cities Water Follies photo

TRI-CITIES, Wash. — The 60th edition of the Tri-City Water Follies unlimited hydroplane race will have a special birthday present in honor of the event.

Hosting the APBA Gold Cup in the backyard of so many H1 teams, July 25-27 on the speedy Columbia River course.

“For Water Follies in Tri-Cities to be this year’s host of the Gold Cup means a lot to this region of the country,” Mike Denslow, Chairman of the Board of H1 Unlimited, said in an news release. “We know it will be a great battle and wonderful way to celebrate their 60th season of hydroplane racing.”

The Tri Cities race will mark the midpoint of the 2025 H1 Unlimited season that begins, June 6-8, Guntersville Lake Hydrofest in Guntersville, Alabama. Racing continues at Madison, Indiana, July 4-6 before the annual “Western swing.”

Following Tri Cities comes the final two events, August 1-3, Seattle Seafair and September 12-14, the San Diego Bayfair Cup.

RIDDLE CAPTURES 3RD ANNUAL WENATCHEE 200

From Racing America

Owen Riddle from Naches, Wash. added the Wenatchee 200 and $25,000 first place money to his long resume of racing accomplishments, May 31. Shari Garber photo

WENATCHEE, Wash. (May 31, 2025) — Owen Riddle added the Wenatchee 200 presented by Plumb Perfect to his resume and took home more than $25,000 on Saturday night at Wenatchee Valley Super Oval.
Riddle has won many of the top Late Model races on the West Coast, including three Apple Cups, three Montana 200 victories, as well as wins in the Summer Showdown and Chilly Willy.

Riddle took the lead on lap 75, giving him the top spot at the race’s halfway break. While Kasey Kleyn closed in during the final laps, no one would wrestle the advantage away from Riddle during the race’s second half.
The veteran driver set fast time in qualifying, but a four-car invert placed Riddle on the outside of row two to start the race. Riddle dropped back to fifth in the opening laps, but soon worked his way forward and eventually took the lead from Jan Evans.

“You know, I didn’t want to start where we started,” said Riddle. “We kind of tried to bide our time there. Just be smart, took what it gave us.”

While Riddle controlled the second half as he hoped, Kleyn and Kole Raz grew larger in his mirror at the end of the race. The top three nearly finished within a half-second of each other after 200 laps.

“I was just trying to be smart, not doing anything dumb in there, slip a tire,” said Riddle. “I was getting lapped traffic. I knew Kasey was coming. To be honest with you, I was getting ready to give a bumper or something like that. I just kept hitting my marks and did the best we could to keep away from him.”

Kleyn held off Raz for second, taking that spot from him with 31 laps to go. It was a hard-fought runner-up finish, with the 2024 Northwest Super Late Model Series champion wishing he had more speed on restarts to truly challenge for the win.

“Overall, I’m happy,” said Kleyn. “We had no motor in this car on Wednesday, blew it up. To put one in there, come out, finish second with a chance to win it, we fell a little short. We were so close, and we were running them down fast at the end.”

Raz finished third, Haeden Plybon was fourth, with Alan Cress rounding out the top five.