INDYCAR has confirmed the establishment of a charter system across the NTT INDYCAR SERIES. In total, owners of 10 teams have accepted charters for 25 entries competing in North America’s premier open-wheel racing series, beginning immediately. This is the first charter system to be introduced in the history of the NTT INDYCAR SERIES. A chartered entry is guaranteed a starting position on the grid at all NTT INDYCAR SERIES races, excluding the Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge. An entry also must be chartered to qualify for the annual NTT INDYCAR SERIES Leaders Circle program – an annual award program that compensates the 22 top finishers in the prior year’s NTT INDYCAR SERIES championship. The terms of the initial, long-term charter agreements are committed through the end of 2031. Chartered 2025 INDYCAR Teams NTT INDYCAR SERIES Team Entries A.J. Foyt Enterprises 2 Andretti Global 3 Arrow McLaren 3 Chip Ganassi Racing 3 Dale Coyne Racing 2 Ed Carpenter Racing 2 Juncos Hollinger Racing 2 Meyer Shank Racing 2 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing 3 Team Penske 3 Charters were extended to team owners based on full-time entries over the previous two seasons, with a maximum of three awarded per team. Hope it all works better than the NASCAR system. Kyle Larson, the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series champion, who recently compared his skills to triple F1 World Champion Max Verstappen, could get behind the wheel of a Formula 1 car himself in the near-future. Speaking on [Kevin] Harvick’s ‘Happy Hour’ podcast on Fox Sports, Zak Brown revealed that “we’ve been chatting about it. Kyle, as you can imagine, definitely wants to do it in-between our schedule, which goes from February to December, and NASCAR’s schedule, which is February to November. Finding that window — we did that with Jimmie Johnson and Fernando [Alonso] in Bahrain with Hendrick Motorsports. That must have been about four, five years ago and that was a lot of fun. I’d love to see Kyle in an F1 car. It is something that we’ve discussed and something I think will happen down the road.” *** The next edition of the biggest sprint car race in the East comes to Williams Grove Speedway when the 62nd annual Weis Markets National Open presented by Safe Fruit is slated for Friday and Saturday, October 4 and 5. Sanctioned by the World of Outlaws Sprint Cars Series, the two-day affair will find all eyes focused on the Mechanicsburg oval and marked increases in the two-day purses. Slated for October 4, the Weis Markets National Open presented by Sage Fruit Preliminary will feature a 25-lap main paying $12,000 to the winner on Friday night with $1,200 on the table just to make the show out of a total purse worth $60,500. Then on Saturday, October 5, the 2024 40-lap Champion Weis Markets National Open presented by Sage Fruit will continue the tradition of posting the biggest winner’s share in the history of the oval at $75,000 to take the win. Saturday’s full purse is worth nearly $192,000 in total including a cool $2,500 just to start. Second place on Saturday will be worth $30,000 with third paying $15,000, fourth set at $10,000 and fifth coming in at $7,500. Adult general admission for October 4 is set at $40 with youth ages 13 – 20 priced at $20. Adult admission for October 5 is $50 with youth priced at $20. Kids ages 12 and under are always admitted for FREE at Williams Grove Speedway. *** GEICO will end its premier partnership with NASCAR after this season, marking the first time the racing circuit will lose one of the top-tier partners from the system it started in 2020. The Berkshire Hathaway-owned insurer has been involved in the sport since at least 2009, and it became the official insurance of NASCAR in 2019 before stepping up to the premier partner level in 2020. That year, NASCAR began using an IOC- or NCAA-like sponsor model for its Cup Series instead of the single title sponsor model it had employed since 1971. The current spend of GEICO is unclear but the company was paying NASCAR low seven figures annually for the official insurance category rights in 2019, so it’s costs are likely at least at that level now. The company also formerly had a full-season team deal with now-defunct Germain Racing that ended after 2020 and it dropped a title sponsorship of a Monster Energy Supercross team that year. Since then, the company has gone through several major changes in its marketing department, including bringing on Damon Burrell as CMO and making changes with the external agencies it uses. *** Journalist John Newby tells us. Bubba Wallace is sticking with 23XI Racing for the foreseeable future after signing a contract extension. According to the NASCAR Cup Series team, this deal is for multiple years. Wallace will continue to drive the No. 23 Toyota Camry XSE while working alongside teammate Tyler Reddick. Wallace, 30, was the first driver signed by Michael Jordan and Denny Hamlin when they joined forces to create 23XI Racing. The Alabama native drove the No. 23 Toyota during the inaugural season in 2021, and he won the fall race at Talladega Superspeedway. Wallace has since added another win to his resume, which he secured at Kansas Speedway in the fall of 2022. He then made the playoffs for the first time last season, reaching the Round of 12 in the process. Wallace missed the playoffs this season, but he matched his career-best marks of one pole win, 10 top-10 finishes, and five top-fives. He still has eight races remaining that he can use to surpass these stats. Rules and entry forms for racers planning to compete in the 2025 Indoor Auto Racing “Concrete” Series are now available on the series website: www.indoorautoracing.com. *** The Concrete Series will feature TQ Midgets, Champ Karts, and Slingshots in Ironton Global-sponsored events at the PPL Center in Allentown, PA, on January 3rd and 4th. The Dirt 600 Sprints will also join these classes at Atlantic City’s historic Boardwalk Hall for the 23rd Annual NAPA Auto Parts Weekend on January 31st and February 1st, 2025. Details regarding rules and entry forms for the 600 Sprints racing on a clay surface during the East Coast Indoor Dirt Nationals at CURE Insurance Arena in Trenton, NJ, on February 21st and 22nd will be released at a later date. *** Significant incentives and rule changes have been implemented for the 600 Sprint division in Atlantic City. To attract more racers, Len Sammons Productions will guarantee the Atlantic City 600cc Sprint winner an 11th starting spot in the East Coast Indoor Dirt Nationals A-Main event, scheduled for Saturday, February 22, at CURE Insurance Arena. Rules for the 600 Sprints have been modified to encourage a larger turnout from competitors who typically race on dirt surfaces. To honor the series’ roots, the 2025 rules for the 600cc Sprint division have been relaxed to promote competition and creativity. Key changes include allowing any readily available “dirt” Hoosier Tire and eliminating seat, dash, and offset rules. Tickets for the Indoor Auto Racing events in Atlantic City will go on sale on Friday, October 4th, and on October 18th for the races in Allentown. Tickets for all Indoor Series events this year will be available through Ticketmaster. For more information, please visit www.indoorautoracing.com. *** For fans of Formula 1 racing, “FORMULA 1 CAR BY CAR: 2000–09,” by Peter Higham, is now available in the U.S. Evro Publishing’s decade-by-decade series covering all Formula 1 cars and teams moves into the new millennium. The first half of the decade brought the strongest domination in F1’s history from Michael Schumacher and Ferrari, with five consecutive drivers’ and constructors’ titles. Then came a changing of the guard when young new stars — Fernando Alonso, Kimi Räikkönen, Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button — claimed championships. Teams also reshuffled in the decade’s second half, as Renault and McLaren prospered again, and newcomers like Brawn and Red Bull came through, although major manufacturers such as Toyota and Jaguar always struggled. As ever, the cars became faster and technology moved on apace, such that regulations had to be tightened to rein them in, bringing smaller engines in 2006 and considerable aerodynamic constraint in 2009. F1 extended its worldwide reach with new races in Bahrain, China, Singapore and Abu Dhabi. Key Topics: • Year-by-year treatment explores each season in fascinating depth, running through the teams — and their various cars — in championship order. • Ferrari: Michael Schumacher finally delivered Ferrari’s first drivers’ title for 21 years in 2000 and reigned supreme for four more years, culminating with an unprecedented 13 wins in 2004; another title followed in 2007 for Kimi Räikkönen. • Renault: after taking over Benetton, Renault broke Ferrari’s grip when, in 2005, Fernando Alonso became the youngest champion the sport had seen, and repeated his success the following year. • McLaren-Mercedes: the team won races throughout the decade but 2008 was the big season with Lewis Hamilton’s title, a year after ‘Spygate’ inflicted a record $100 million fine and exclusion from the constructors’ championship. • Brawn: arising from the ashes of Honda’s withdrawal, Ross Brawn’s eponymous team was a one-year wonder that gave the decade a feel-good finale when Jenson Button became champion. • Other winning makes picking up crumbs were Williams-BMW, Honda, BMW Sauber, Toro Rosso-Ferrari and Red Bull-Renault. This authoritative and comprehensively illustrated book, which contains over 350 color photos from the world’s best Formula 1 photo archive, shows every type of car that raced during the decade, presenting a comprehensive survey. Evro Publishing books are distributed in North America by Quarto Publishing Group USA. Books can be ordered from Quarto by email: [email protected]; phone number: 800-328-0590; or website: www.quartoknows.com Please use the relevant ISBN number when ordering. *** GRANDVIEW SPEEDWAY offers their final racing event of the season. Friday, October 18 – Outlaw Racing Series Enduro, Outlaw Racing Series Vintage, Slingshots, Xcel 600 Modifieds – 6 pm (Halloween party prior to races). —— Ernie Saxton is an auto racing contributor for MediaNews Group. He co-founded the Eastern Motorsports Press Association, served as public relations director for Grandview Speedway for 47 years, and is in multiple halls of fame for his promotion and journalism related to the sport. He has announced races at more than 100 tracks, and he is the only person to have announced a race at Madison Square Garden. Email him at [email protected].