Darlington Raceway officials have announced that seasoned NASCAR executive Josh Harris will become the next president of the Track Too Tough to Tame. Harris is currently Darlington Raceway's vice president, business operations, with more than a decade of experience within the NASCAR industry.

“There's nobody more ready and capable to lead Darlington Raceway than Josh Harris,” said Chip Wile, NASCAR's Senior Vice President, Chief Track Properties Officer and Darlington Raceway's president from 2013-2016. “Josh has a wealth of experience, a steady hand and deep relationship­s that will continue growing this historic venue's leadership and legacy within the region and our sport.  Darlington holds a very special place in my heart and I am excited how Josh is going to continue to push it forward.”

Harris, a native of Harrisville, Mississippi, began his NASCAR career in 2012 as Talladega Superspeedway's director of ticketing. He ascended to the roles of NASCAR's Southeast Region vice president of ticketing & guest services, and Southeast Region vice president of client & event experience. Both of those roles allowed Harris to make positive impacts on Daytona International Speedway, Homestead-Miami Speedway and Talladega, while also gaining valuable experience that has prepared him to lead Darlington Raceway.

Prior to joining NASCAR, Harris was the manager of business development and ticketing for IMG Tickets in South Florida. He holds a Masters of Sports Administration from the University of Miami and a Bachelor of Business Administration from Mississippi State University.
"It is an incredible honor to have the opportunity to lead Darlington Raceway, which has a legacy of great leadership from the likes of Jim Hunter to Chip Wile and Kerry Tharp," Harris said. "This track is a beloved South Carolina and NASCAR institution, and I look forward to working alongside our devoted staff and passionate fans to continue growing its relevance and impact as one of the sport's crown jewels."

In January, Harris succeeds Darlington Raceway President Kerry Tharp, who is retiring after nearly eight years at the helm.

"Josh Harris is the right person to lead Darlington Raceway. This is one of the most historic racetracks in motorsports and I am certain it will be in great hands," Tharp said. "Josh has already proven himself as a tremendous leader in NASCAR. He is tireless, passionate, strategic, and ready to lead the Track Too Tough to Tame into its next era of success."

For more information, visit darlingtonraceway.com.

Longhorn Chassis, the dirt late model chassis manufacturer based in China Grove, North Carolina, has reached a multi-year agreement with Sheppard Riggs Racing and team co-owner/driver Brandon Sheppard.

Sheppard's No. B5 will now be based out of the Longhorn Chassis's headquarters. The team will split operations in both North Carolina and Sheppard's home shop in Berlin, Illinois, throughout the dirt late model season.

"…I couldn't be happier to be another solid piece in helping make our cars faster week in and week out, not just for our own program, but the entire Longhorn customer base," said Sheppard.

Brandon Sheppard, Scott Riggs and the newly formed Sheppard Riggs Racing first debuted its Longhorn Chassis build at the beginning of the season. The partnership aims to provide continuous improvement and enhanced brand visibility for Longhorn, the company said.

For more information, visit longhornchassis.com.

Lotus has brought history back to life with the world premiere of the Type 66 – and confirmed the track-only car will go into production.

This unique project was unveiled at ‘The Quail, A Motorsport Gathering’ as part of Monterey Car Week in California. Truly exotic in its design execution, the Type 66 is a new, ultra-exclusive, low-volume car from Lotus. It brings to life a ‘lost Lotus’ drawing board program from the brand’s world-renowned motorsport heritage, combining it with today’s state-of-the-art racing technology and components.

The Type 66 has been launched in Lotus’ 75th anniversary year and is testament to the brand's desire to reimagine the best elements of its heritage, updating them in the most exhilarating way possible.

With his eyes on the high-profile and commercially lucrative Can-Am Series, Lotus founder Colin Chapman tasked Team Lotus draughtsman Geoff Ferris to launch the Type 66 project to evaluate how Lotus design principles could be applied to this exciting category. Chapman’s primary focus on Formula 1 meant the innovative project never went beyond technical drawings and scale models. In a fitting tribute to the brand’s illustrious racing pedigree and heritage, Lotus has proudly fulfilled the original vision 53 years after the designer first put pen to paper.

Only 10 examples of this ‘rediscovered and reimagined’ Lotus V8 will be built. It’s a total selected to commemorate the number of races the Type 66 would have competed in during the 1970 season.

For more information, visit LotusCars.com.

Highlighted by a special 70th anniversary of the world’s biggest drag race, the Dodge Power Brokers NHRA U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis, and the 55th annual NHRA Gatornationals in Gainesville to open the season, as well as a return to Phoenix, NHRA officials have announced the 2024 NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series schedule.

As previously announced, the NHRA will open its season at legendary Gainesville Raceway on March 7-10. NHRA is also set to return to Phoenix for the 39th annual NHRA Arizona Nationals on April 5-7, and the 2024 NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series will include 21 races at standout facilities across the country. 

As the NHRA looks to expand its track network across the NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series, NHRA is in the closing stages of the selection process for two of the 21 events. Those locations and races – which will take place June 21-23 and July 12-14 – will be announced in the coming weeks.

Along with the return of the NHRA Arizona Nationals, the NHRA will again be back at Route 66 Raceway on May 17-19 for the 24th annual Gerber Collision & Glass Route 66 NHRA Nationals presented by Peak Performance. The Chicago race hosted its first NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series race since 2019 this year and will return in 2024 as one of many exciting events taking place during the upcoming season.

For more information, visit NHRA.com.

Temecula, California-based EngineLabs, a resource for high-performance engine technology, has announced the Engine Build Giveaway, which will include a special SEMA Show feature event leading up to the PRI Show, December 7-9, in downtown Indianapolis.

The giveaway engine is a Whipple supercharged 426 cubic-inch Gen III HEMI, slated to make 1,200 HP. The engine will be built in real-time at the PRI Show by renowned builders Late Model Engines with support from presenting sponsor Summit Racing Equipment. 

"We are extremely excited to be working with Late Model Engines and Summit Racing once again to build an engine on the PRI Show floor," said Greg Acosta, editor of EngineLabs. "While we're sticking with our friends (LME) for the build, we're shaking things up this year by building a Gen-III HEMI with a Whipple twin-screw supercharger. That's three totally different engine combinations with three totally different power adders in three years, for anyone keeping score." 

Once live, entries for the giveaway will be accepted online at enginelabsgiveaway.com. In addition, each initial entry received at the trade shows will earn participants $5 Summit Bucks for use online at SummitRacing.com. 

"Summit Racing Equipment is pleased to once again partner with Power Automedia in this engine giveaway. The iconic HEMI is the perfect powerplant for this big horsepower build, and we look forward to watching it all come together live at PRI," explained Al Noe, Summit Racing Equipment's chief marketing officer. "Summit Racing Equipment carries a full range of parts and accessories for the Gen 3 HEMI, which includes our Summit Racing Pro HEMI performance parts. We look forward to meeting the winner and being a trusted source for parts, installation tools and anything else needed to maintain the engine for years to come." 

The winner will be announced in April 2024. To stay up to date with the giveaway, follow along at EngineLabs.com and the Power + Performance YouTube channel for content on the build, dyno test and giveaway.

Looking beyond the 2024 Chili Bowl Nationals, in order to give teams time to adapt their cars to the recently announced spec updates for Midget Chassis across all major sanctioning bodies starting in 2024, the 2025 Chili Bowl Nationals will adopt the same baseline standard for all midget chassis that compete at the Tulsa Expo Raceway.

These new chassis standards will take effect in 2024 for USAC, Xtreme Outlaw and Badger Midget. These series will offer sonic testing on current frames to verify tube thickness for the remainder of the 2023 season and the upcoming off-season.

Again, these standards will not be enforced at Tulsa Expo Raceway until the 2025 Chili Bowl Nationals.

For more information, visit ChiliBowl.com.

The Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) and Extreme E have signed an agreement setting out a framework to create the first-ever hydrogen off-road racing world championship named Extreme H.

The series will become classified as an FIA championship beginning in 2025 and an FIA world championship in 2026 [if both parties meet unspecified requirements in the agreement].

Extreme H would join the company of just seven other official FIA World Championships, which include the FIA Formula One World Championship, FIA World Rally Championship, FIA World Rallycross Championship, FIA World Endurance Championship, FIA Karting World Championship, FIA World Rally-Raid Championship and ABB FIA Formula E World Championship. 

In addition, the pathway outlines that Extreme E, currently classified as an FIA international series, would be recognized as an FIA championship in 2024. Extreme E is the international off-road racing series that uses spec silhouette electric SUVs to race in remote parts of the world, and has been pivotal in the launch of Extreme H.

In related news, the Extreme H prototype is expected to launch later this year, ahead of the first season in 2025.

For more information, visit Extreme-E.com.

iRacing and the FIA announced the latest step in their collaboration centered around Formula 4: the iRacing FIA F4 Esports Regional Tour. Coming to iRacing for Season 4 in September, the new series adapts the regionally based real-world FIA F4 format to iRacing’s member base of hundreds of thousands of sim racers across the globe, pitting them in weekly challenges in limited time slots against the top other open-wheel racers from their region. 
 
Nikolas Tombazis, FIA Single-Seater Director, added, "It is great to see that the collaboration between the FIA and iRacing is continuing to develop. The iRacing FIA F4 Esports Regional Tour will bring virtual and real-world racing even closer together, and encourage the global development of new talents through close competition, which is exactly what Formula 4 Championships are doing."
 
The iRacing FIA F4 Esports Regional Tour follows iRacing and the FIA’s announcement of an official licensing agreement for Formula 4 in May 2023. The series will be broken up into four regions—two European regions, Americas, and Asia/Pacific. Each region features a diverse selection of tracks that are local and relevant to each region’s geography. Races will take place on Wednesdays and Thursdays at 7, 9, and 11 PM in time zones appropriate for each region, making it easy for users to run the events in their respective regions. While all iRacers are eligible to run in any region’s event, the servers will always be set to the most appropriate iRacing server for each region—for example, Asia/Pacific region events will run on iRacing’s Sydney-based servers.

For more information, visit iRacing.com.

(Left image, from left to right) PRI Sr. Director of Federal Government Affairs Eric Snyder, DeatschWerks Vice President of Sales Mike Deatsch, U.S. Senator Markwayne Mullin (R-OK), DeatschWerks President and Founder David Deatsch, and DeatschWerks Technical Director Matt Patrick outside of the 36,000-square-foot DeatschWerks headquarters in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. (Right image) David Deatsch, left, and Sen. Mullin, right, discussed the company's high-performance electronic injection (EFI) fuel systems and components.

With Congress out of session for the month of August, U.S. Senator Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) used the time away from Washington, D.C., to visit with his constituents throughout Oklahoma. Earlier this week, Sen. Mullin visited DeatschWerks, a SEMA and PRI member, at the company's 36,000-square-foot headquarters in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. As Co-Chair of the Congressional Automotive Performance and Motorsports Caucus, Sen. Mullin enjoyed learning about the DeatschWerks' high-performance electronic fuel injection (EFI) fuel system solutions and speaking with the company's leadership and employees during his visit.  

"Sen. Mullin is an incredible advocate for automotive enthusiasts, racers, and over a million men and women who work in the specialty automotive aftermarket," said Eric Snyder, PRI Senior Director of Federal Government Affairs. "We thank Sen. Mullin for his leadership on legislation to protect the specialty automotive aftermarket, for being a stalwart ally of the industry, and for his leadership on key issues that impact our member companies and enthusiasts. SEMA and PRI appreciate the Senator visiting DeatschWerks to learn more about their business and meet their team."

Sen. Mullin is a longtime supporter of the specialty automotive aftermarket, a former competitive rock crawler, and an automotive enthusiast with a vehicle collection that includes a '67 Shelby Cobra, '72 Chevy C-10 and a '21 Shelby GT 500. While a political career was never a part of his plans, Sen. Mullin ran for the U.S. House of Representatives in Oklahoma's 2nd Congressional District in 2012 in response to government overreach that threatened his business. During his five terms in the House, Sen. Mullin advocated for simplifying regulations on small businesses and helped to lead the fight to provide certainty to racers and motorsports parts businesses surrounding the conversion of street vehicles into race cars. 

For more information, contact Tiffany Cipoletti at tiffanyc@sema.org. 

NASCAR has announced several partnerships with betting companies, including nVenue. The multi-year partnership with nVenue will develop in-race micro-betting markets and predictive content for race fans nationwide. As part of the agreement, NASCAR will work with nVenue, an innovative micro-betting technology company, as an official micro-betting data and technology provider.

As an official micro-betting partner, nVenue will collaborate directly with the league to design and develop in-race odds for delivery to NASCAR fans via sportsbooks and operators. Unlike traditional betting markets focused on the end-of-race outcome, in-race markets will include unique betting windows such as stage results, qualifying, pit road betting opportunities, and more. nVenue will leverage official live racetrack data along with historical race data points to generate predictions and odds for each race and driver. These newly developed betting opportunities present thousands of additional ways for fans to engage throughout a single race.

NASCAR, FanDuel Announce Multi-Year Partnership

NASCAR and FanDuel, the premier online gaming company in North America, have announced a multi-year partnership that makes FanDuel an Authorized Gaming Operator of NASCAR. As an Authorized Gaming Operator, FanDuel has been granted the rights to use certain NASCAR marks and will collaborate with NASCAR to create and promote engaging betting experiences, including odds integration into NASCAR's fantasy platform.

NASCAR entered legal sports wagering in September 2020 when it became the first league to partner with the American Gaming Association. FanDuel is currently available in 19 states that offer mobile sports betting, including Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia and Wyoming.

In addition, FanDuel has brought on NASCAR on FOX Analyst and racing icon Clint Bowyer as a FanDuel Ambassador. 

NASCAR and Sportradar Announce Long Term Global Partnership Extension, Adding Betting Data Rights

NASCAR and Sportradar have announced a four-year extension of their long-term media data rights partnership, which now includes official betting data. This expanded agreement will result in Sportradar fueling not only NASCAR's digital media partners with live timing and scoring data, but also driving the continued growth of betting on the sport.

As an official data partner of NASCAR, Sportradar provides the fast, accurate and reliable data the media and betting industries rely on across the sanctioning body's three national series: the NASCAR Cup Series, NASCAR Xfinity Series and NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series, totaling 97 races annually.

Since 2015, NASCAR and Sportradar have agreed to several contract extensions related to media data rights. Additionally, in April 2022 the two organizations entered into a separate multi-year integrity services agreement.

For more information, visit nascar.com.