The racing season is pretty much over for a majority of racing. However, one major series still has action and season ending championships to decide. The last NHRA event of the 2023 season is November 9 through the 12 in California. If you want to see some great side-by-side excitement one more time, be sure to watch! Lucas Oil is a huge backer of the NHRA! You can watch the action on Fox Sports, or on Fox Sports 1 or 2.
Louisville's Ben Rhodes is still celebrating. "What a night" he told us after winning the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Championship at Phoenix. It is his second truck series title. Ben also won in 2021 and was runner-up last year. He is among only a handful of racing greats who have earned more than one truck series championship. And yes, Ben's post-race media session was festive like the last time he took home the top trophy. Congrats to the Holy Cross High School star and ThorSport Racing. Yes, many drivers, owners, and critics have blasted several truck drivers at Phoenix for some wild and frantic racing. It cost a couple of the Championship 4 drivers a shot at the title. The emotional racing wrecked trucks. Phoenix is a short track. When it is the last race and drivers want the title, or to win a race, sometimes, being a nice driver, gets tossed out the door. By the way, there were nearly 30 laps in overtime after many green-white-checkered restarts. Too bad NASCAR started the race at 10:00 pm Eastern Time. That needs to change. There are more TV ratings on the east coast and Midwest compared to the west coast and last minute walk up ticket sales.
Team Penske now has back-to back titles! Joey Logano won the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series Title. This year, his teammate, Ryan Blaney claimed the big prize. He held off late charges by William Byron and Kyle Larson. Blaney just had a faster car. It is his first Cup Series championship. Another playoff driver, Christopher Bell had equipment issues and was never a factor. We have to applaud another Top-10 effort by former Cup champion Kevin Harvick at Phoenix. It is his 21st consecutive top-10 at the track. Harvick is retiring from full-time regular NASCAR racing. He goes to the FOX broadcast booth in 2024. He'll also race in the CARS Tour, which he is part-owner. It is a short track series. Don't be surprised if he doesn't battle in the Tony Stewart owned SRX tour as well. What a career for Harvick!
NASCAR Xfinity driver Cole Custer battled John Hunter Nemechek, Justin Allgaier, and Sam Mayer on a late race green-white-checker restart to take his first NASCAR Championship. Custer was calm and sure of himself as he surged ahead of the other Xfinity Championship drivers to earn the victory and 2023 title. His owner is Columbus, Indiana's Tony Stewart. Custer is a former Cup driver. He's set to be back in the Xfinity series in 2024. If he has another similar year, he'll no doubt be sought after by Cup teams. He has won in that series at the Kentucky Speedway in a four-way duel to the finish in 2020.
This reminder, there is still time to win some great driver autographs! Our Lucas Oil/KMS Giveaway continues! Be sure to check out the KMS Giveaway page!
Kentuckiana Motorsports has continued to provide racing coverage for more than two decades. It started with a half hour program and specials on cable, then a major television channel, and as media has transformed, online and social media. Lucas Oil has been a huge part of it. They support local and grass roots. Always have. We remind you to make sure your car, truck, motorcycle, boat, other vehicles, and lawn equipment are all running efficiently. Think Lucas Oil Products this winter! They do so much for racing communities across America. Other sponsors of KMS include PNC Bank (Sponsor of Scott Dixon's Indy Car Series Car), Sportsdrome Speedway (Celebrating more than 75 years of Racing!), locally owned Bright Pest Control and Bright Retail in Louisville, (Offering Do-It-Yourself Professional Pest Products with a retail store), and Knox Ford in Radcliff, Kentucky) (It also has a sister dealership, Tri-County Ford in Oldham County, KY). KMS friends also include: VoiceTel Kentucky (Offering telephone service for low as $25.00 a line per month), Temco Roofing, Jim Ellis/Attorney-At-Law, ICA Dumpsters, Kentucky Raceway Ministries, Nimlok Kentucky, Dynamic Healthcare, Lyndon Mower Repair, and Kentucky Medicare Plans (Serving Kentucky and Southern Indiana with Health and Medicare plans). We also thank our media connections in all series, NASCAR and with NASCAR Media, Indy Car, Monster Jam, ARCA, and NHRA for helping us bring the sport to the fans!
