NASCAR playoffs roll on to Las Vegas, Formula 1 back in action with US Grand Prix in Texas

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NASCAR playoffs roll on to Las Vegas, Formula 1 back in action with US Grand Prix in Texas

2024-10-15 23:42 Last Updated At：23:51

All Times Eastern

South Point 400.

Site: Las Vegas, Nevada.

Schedule: Saturday, practice, 4:35 p.m.; qualifying, 5:20 p.m., Sunday, race, 2:30 p.m. (NBC)

Track: Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Race distance: 267 laps, 400.5 miles.

Last year: Kyle Larson became the first driver to advance to the championship four when he won at Las Vegas. Larson outraced fellow playoff driver Christopher Bell to the line for the victory. Non-playoff drivers Kyle Busch, Brad Keselowski and Ross Chastain rounded out the top five.

Last race: Larson closed the playoff's round of 12 this past week with a win at Charlotte's Roval. It was a satisfying triumph for Larson, who had hoped to complete the Indy 500-Coca-Cola 600 double last May before rain in Charlotte prevented him from turning any NASCAR laps. So Larson dominated on the way to his series-best sixth win on the season. Bell was second, followed by William Byron, Austin Cindric and Chase Elliott.

Fast facts: There was drama after The Roval when Hendrick Motorsports driver Alex Bowman's car was found to be under weight in post-race inspection and disqualified. The ruling left the No. 48 car out of the playoffs and the only one of the four Hendrick drivers not advancing to the round of eight. ... Larson leads the playoff standings with Bell right behind. Regular-season champion Tyler Reddick is third and William Byron fourth. ... The drivers currently on the wrong side of the cutline are defending champion Ryan Blaney, Denny Hamlin, Chase Elliott and two-time champ Joey Logano, who was on the outside until Bowman's disqualification put him back in the playoffs. ... After Las Vegas, the round of eight goes to Homestead-Miami and Martinsville before the final four playoff survivors race for it all in Phoenix next month. ... Larson has won three of the past seven Cup Series races at Las Vegas, including the past two — last October and last March.

Next race: Oct. 27, Homestead, Florida.

Online: http://www.nascar.com

Ambetter Health 302.

Site: Las Vegas, Nevada

Schedule: Friday, practice, 6:35 p.m.; qualifying, 7:10 p.m.; Saturday, race, 7:30 p.m. (CW)

Track: Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Race distance: 201 laps, 301.5 miles.

Last year: Hometown driver Riley Herbst won his first career Xfinity race by nearly 15 seconds in a dominating performance. It almost doubled the previous mark at the track of 8.4 seconds in 2002 when now broadcaster Jeff Burton took the event. Herbst led 103 of 201 in winning for the first time in his 139 career races at the time. Hunter Nemechek was second and eventual Xfinity Series champions Cole Custer was third.

Last race: Sam Mayer won on The Roval at Charlotte Motor Speedway in a controversial overtime finish that allowed Mayer to advance in the Xfinity Series playoffs. It came at the expense of Parker Kligerman, who was denied his first career Xfinity Series victory in regulation by a NASCAR scoring call and eliminated from the playoff field. NASCAR ruled Kligerman did not take the white flag when the caution came out and instead called for the two-lap overtime. Mayer moved past Kligerman to win this event for a second straight year.

Fast facts: Xfinity is down to the round of eight with three more races left at Las Vegas, Homestead-Miami and Martinsville to determine the championship four. ... Justin Allgaier leads the series by seven points over defending champion Custer. Austin Hill and Chandler Smith also head into the round of eight among the top four. ... Those racers looking to move up are Mayer, Jesse Love, AJ Allmendinger and Sammy Smith. ... Hill, Mayer and Shane van Gisbergen have three victories apiece to lead the series.

Next race: Oct. 26, Homestead, Florida.

Online: http://www.nascar.com

Last race: Grant Enfinger won the Love’s RV Stop 225 playoff race at Talladega to automatically qualify for the championship finale at Phoenix on Nov. 8. The Alabama native led 34 of 85 laps in his Chevy, including the final nine after a restart before another caution on the final lap. Enfinger won the second stage to earn his first win this season, his 11th career and second at his home track. Playoff driver Taylor Gray was second with Daniel Dye third despite contact with Tyler Ankrum that caused a multicar wreck that brought the final yellow.

Fast Facts: Enfinger’s win was the first for his CR7 Motorsports team and first by a playoff driver in nine Talladega races. … Three more spots are at stake over the next two races of the round of eight. Corey Heim (3,077 points) finished 11th and leads Christian Eckes by one with Ty Majeski 25 back and Rajah Caruth 30 behind. … The series will take a three-week break before resuming at Homestead-Miami Speedway. ... The trucks run at Martinsville on Nov. 1 and Phoenix Nov. 8 to conclude the season.

Next race: Oct. 26, Homestead, Florida.

Online: http://www.nascar.com

Pirelli United States Grand Prix.

Site: Austin, Texas.

Schedule: Friday, practice, 1:30 p.m.; Saturday, qualifying, 6 p.m. , Sunday, race, 3 p.m. (ESPN)

Track: Circuit of the Americas.

Race distance: 56 laps, 191.633 miles.

Last year: Max Verstappen won his 50th career Formula 1 race when he worked through the field after starting sixth and held off Lewis Hamilton over the final laps. Hamilton's second-place finish was wiped out three hours after the race when he and sixth-place finisher Charles Leclerc were disqualified for rule violations with the skid blocks under their cars. It was Verstappen's third straight victory in Austin.

Last race: Lando Norris chipped seven points from Max Verstappen’s lead with a dominating victory at the Singapore Grand Prix from the pole on Sept. 22. It was Norris’ third career victory, all coming this season.

Fast facts: The once unstoppable Verstappen is now only 52 points ahead of Norris with six races left. ... The series moves to Mexico and Brazil the next two weeks, then takes another extended break before resuming in Las Vegas in late November. ... U.S. Grand Prix officials say that Verstappen's extended winless streak — he has not won since Spain in June — has improved ticket sales for this week's race. ... It is Verstappen's longest winless stretch since 2020. ... Leclerc is third in the driver standings, 86 points behind Verstappen.

Next race: Oct. 27, Mexico City, Mexico.

Online: http://www.formula1.com

Last race: Alex Palou claimed his second consecutive IndyCar championship and third in four years at Nashville Superspeedway. Challenger Will Power’s seatbelt came loose minutes into the season-deciding finale. Colton Herta won the Music City Grand Prix for his first career victory on an oval and second win of the season for Andretti Global.

Next race: March 2, 2025, St. Petersburg, Florida.

Online: http://www.indycar.com

Last event: Justin Ashley took the Top Fuel points lead, holding off Clay Millican in the final round to win the Texas NHRA Fall Nationals. It was the fourth win of the season for Ashley and the 15th of his career. Matt Hagan took the Funny Car title in Texas for a second straight year. He defeated veteran hot-rodder Ron Capps in the finals.

Fast facts: The series takes a week off before going to Las Vegas. After two more off weeks, the series concludes with the NHRA Finals in Pomona, California. ... Ashley's Top Fuel victory in Dallas gave him a 44-point lead over Antron Brown. Shawn Langdon is third, Steve Torrance fourth and Tony Schumacher fifth. ... Austin Prock has a 147-point lead over John Force in Funny Car. Force continues his recovery from a horrific racing accident in Virginia this past June, but Jack Beckman is subbing for Force for the final eight events. Beckman had to pull out of last week's finals in Dallas when he woke with vertigo-like symptoms.

Next event: Oct. 31-Nov. 3, Las Vegas.

Online: http://www.nhra.com

Federated Auto Parts, Joliet, Illinois, Friday-Saturday.

Last events: Donny Schatz broke away from Carson Macedo and Buddy Kofoid, who had combined to win 12 of the previous 15 races, on a restart and drove away over the last 10 laps to win the Keystone Showdown. Schatz won for the fifth time this year and the 316th time in his career. Macedo held on for second and Kofoid took third. It was Kofoid's 12th trip to the podium in the past 14 events.

Fast facts: David Gravel finished ninth in Abbottsville, Pennsylvania, and saw his lead over Macedo cut to 72 points with three stops left. ... The series goes to West Memphis, Arkansas, for two races after Joliet, then closes with four days in Concord, North Carolina, for The World Finals.

Next events: Oct. 25-26, Joliet, Illinois.

Online: http://worldofoutlaws.com/sprintcars

AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing

Lowriding is more than just cars. It's about family and culture for Mexican Americans

2024-10-15 23:44 Last Updated At：23:50

CHICAGO (AP) — For Luis Martinez, competing in lowriding bike and car competitions is about more than glory and bragging rights. The lowrider clubs in the Chicago area have become like one big family and a source of mutual support.

“It just starts with the metal,” said Martinez, who got his introduction to lowrider culture when his mother took him to a flea market. He had his first bike when he was 12.

“To me, it’s about expressing my art and what I can do with my own hands,” Martinez told The Associated Press as he polished a shiny red bike at his home in Mishawaka, Indiana.

A movement of expression with origins in Mexican American and Chicano communities, lowriding is an aspect of Latino history in the U.S. in which people show their pride, honor family and uplift culture. But misrepresentation of the culture in entertainment and media has often associated the lowriding’s “low and slow” motto with gang culture.

Still, decades since its emergence, and as the Hispanic U.S. population increases, lowriding has experienced a boom, as evidenced by an increase in car shows and conventions nationwide.

Lowriding involves the customization of a vehicle — from the tires to the sound system — with vivid designs and colors. Unlike hot rods or muscle cars, which are often modified to have big tires and move at high speeds, the lowrider community modified the cars and bikes to go “low and slow,” said Alberto Pulido, the chair of the Ethnic Studies department at the University of San Diego.

“It was a way to speak to an identity, a presence and it was done with few resources,” said Pulido, who also directed the award-winning documentary, “Lowriding: Everything Comes From the Streets.”

“Our community didn’t have a lot of money,” he said. “They might have had a little bit expendable income to buy a car but then they were kind of on their own to create their vehicles. We call that Chicano ingenuity.”

According to Pulido, lowriding originated in the Southwest, although there are disputes about where exactly it first appeared. Pulido said lowriders in Los Angeles would like to make the claim they were the first, while those in San Diego want their undeniable influence in the culture acknowledged.

The culture can be traced to post-World War II, when veterans were coming home with an expendable income. And with the growth of highways and freeways in California, people wanted to modify their vehicles, Pulido said.

Today, conventions attract enthusiasts from all over the U.S. Last month, what was once a small showcase with only 40 lowriders at Lincoln Park in El Paso, Texas, grew to over 300 lowriders from clubs across the U.S.

Hector Gonzalez, of the Lincoln Park Conservation Committee, said the car clubs help members travel to all the showcases in the nation. In the ’70s and ’80s, lowrider clubs became a representation of the community and offered mutual aid such as ride-sharing and food donations when the local government could not or would not, Gonzalez said.

“It is something that gets passed on from generation to generation,” said Gonzalez, who, like most lowriders, was introduced to the community with a bike at the young age of 13. He has passed on his love for lowriding to his own children, nephews and cousins

“Kids grow up seeing the cars, they pick it up and they carry on the tradition,” Gonzalez said.

Lauren Pacheco, co-founder and co-curator of the Slow and Low Chicago Low Rider Festival, described lowriding as a global, multibillion-dollar phenomenon of self-expression and innovation.

“It’s a marvel of mechanical innovation,” Pacheco said. “It is the beautiful artistry in the creative practice of muralism, storytelling and upholstery.”

Within the last decade, lowrider conventions have grown so much that they’ve made their way to Japan. In Nagoya, Japanese lowriders have modified their cars, created clubs and even come to events at Chicano Park in San Diego.

Appreciation for lowriding has increased in recent years, enthusiasts say. But that was not always the case.

In the beginning, lowriding was associated with harmful stereotypes about Latinos as gangsters, Pulido said. Because the culture involved predominantly Latino participants, lowriding became racialized and that overshadowed the artistic and community service aspects of the movement.

The 1979 thriller-drama “Boulevard Nights” also helped to perpetuate the lowriders as gangsters trope. The film’s main character, Raymond Avila, played by Richard Yñiguez tried to avoid getting lured into the violent street gangs of East Los Angeles. Lowriding vehicles and the lowrider “cholo” aesthetic was featured throughout the film.

While the perception of lowriding has since gotten better, Pulido said he has been to lowriding car shows where police immediately show up.

Martinez, the Indiana lowrider, said lowriding misconceptions grew in the Chicago area because the community members were tattooed in ways often associated with gang affiliation. Pacheco said the Chicago festival works to dispel those misconceptions.

“We really try not to create a space that glamorizes or romanticizes gang culture,” she said. “It’s really a celebration of creativity and innovation and family.”

Gonzalez, the Texas lowriding showcase organizer, said the culture’s focus on wheels, hydraulic systems and accessories, has helped lowriding become a booming industry.

In El Paso, people have opened small businesses orientated to the lowriding community. In the last couple of years, at least 25 new businesses opened, including body shops, upholstery shops and apparel shops, Gonzalez said.

“It has become a mainstream business,” he said. “Back in the 70s and 80s, it was more of a local thing. Everybody helping each other do things on their own. Now there’s just all kinds of opportunities to purchase things and have things done to your vehicle.”

Originally from Dallas, Texas, Martinez said he would buy the parts he needed from a man in his neighborhood, who would buy in bulk from Lowrider magazine. He said the unfortunate thing about lowriding becoming so big is parts are now mass produced from China instead of being Mexican made.

But lowriding is not just about the often pricey task of modifying cars, Pulido said. It is about building a community that is always there for each other, throughout generations, he said.

“We have grandparents that are lowriders and then their kids and their grandkids are in tune already,” Pulido said.

It's a legacy that Sonia Gomez wants for her 8-year-old son, Daniel Marquez. His late father, Alberto Marquez, had been a member of a Chicago area lowrider club. Too young to drive the car left to him by his father, Daniel has a lowriding bike that is more of a memorial to his dad.

“The bike is what he’s doing to build it up,” Gomez said.

The family will do an ofrenda, a display often associated with Mexican Dia de los Muertos celebrations, when local lowriding festivals are held. As part of the ofrenda, Daniel takes an image he has with his father on a lowriding bike and places it next to his actual bike, which he named “Wishing on a Star.”

“We would either go on a (lowriding) cruise with my uncle, or we would go to actual car shows,” Daniel recently recalled, while sitting at the driver's seat of his dad's lowriding car parked in the driveway of their home in Frankfort, Illinois.

“My mom would be there,” he said pointing to the passenger seat. “And I'd be back there all squished.”

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