BRASELTON, Ga. Thomas Annunziata continued his strong start to the season, earning his second-straight CUBE 3 Architecture TA2 Series victory in the Mission Foods Road Atlanta SpeedTour at Road Atlanta.

Annunziata started on the pole and led from flag to flag in his No. 90 Gazoo Racing/Nitro Motorsports Toyota Camry, spearheading a podium-sweeping 1-2-3 finish for Nitro Motorsports and leading a 1-2 finish for the new Toyota Camry.

The event aired live on SPEED SPORT 1. 

After setting a new track record and winning the pole in qualifying, Annunziata took the green flag and pulled ahead to an immediate lead. Behind him, second-place starter Julian DaCosta (No. 30 Nitro Motorsports Ford Mustang) and third-place starter Tyler Gonzalez (No. 10 Mobil 1/Nitro Motorsports Toyota Camry) were side-by-side, drag racing through the esses before Gonzalez took over second place in Turn 7. The field was slowed by the conclusion of the first lap for a car in the wall, with racing resuming on lap five.

Annunziata led Gonzalez, DaCosta, three-time champion Rafa Matos (No. 57 Concord American Flagpole/SHR Chevrolet Camaro) and Boris Said Jr. (No. 60 Nitro Motorsports Ford Mustang) across the line on the restart, and he and Gonzalez began to distance themselves from the rest of the top five. The two battled each other until lap 10, when the safety car was deployed for a caution period to clean up several on-track incidents, including one involving fifth-place Said Jr. and seventh-place Mike Skeen (No. 2 Guthries Garage Chevrolet), which allowed Sam Corry (No. 70 Nitro Motorsports Ford Mustang) to enter the top five.

The green flag waved once again on lap 15 and Gonzalez fought hard on Annunziatas tail. On lap 17, Matos put two wheels off the racing surface, allowing Corry to pass him for the fourth position. By lap 20, Annunziata began to open up a lead over Gonzalez, gapping him by a second and a half. A long green-flag run ensued, and when racing was slowed on lap 30, Annunziata had a nearly four-second advantage over his teammate.

The restart on lap 33 was excellent for Gonzalez, but the double yellow was displayed on lap 34 for a car stuck in Turn 10. Gonzalez was able to do it again when racing resumed on lap 37, hanging tightly on Annunziatas rear bumper. The following lap, he looked poised to challenge for the lead, but Gonzalez made his first mistake of the race, putting two wheels off the track and slightly slowing his progress. With two laps remaining, Gonzalez was unable make the pass, and Annunziata took the checkered flag. Annunziata was followed by Nitro Motorsports teammates Gonzalez, DaCosta, and Corry, with Silver Hare Racings Matos crossing the finish line fifth.

After the race, a post-race penalty for avoidable contact was assessed to Sam Corry, relegating him to the 14th position. With Matos promoted to fourth, Tristan McKee (No. 28 Spire Gainbridge/SLR-M1 Chevrolet Camaro) became the final car to finish in the top five.

The race was good from start to finish, said Annunziata on the podium. I was a little worried there in the beginning. I didnt have the greatest short-run pace, and I thought Gonzalez was going to have something for me there. We started to eke it out, and I felt really good. I mean, its an amazing way to introduce Toyota to the CUBE 3 Architecture TA2 Series, which is super, super cool. Thank you to everyone at Nitro Motorsports, Michael Brallier, Ronnie Otto, and Nick Tucker for giving me such an amazing opportunity and allowing me to drive these race cars.

Its the first time weve ever had a Nitro Motorsports 1-2-3 finish, which is super cool. Thats all down to having such a talented group of people behind us and talented drivers such as Tyler Gonzalez and Julian DaCosta. Congrats to them as well. Gonzalez kept me honest there at the end. I thought I was going to potentially lose it there. That was scary; I didnt like that. Thank you to Chipoys and everyone here at Road Atlanta.

THERMAL, Calif. In a race that ran green flag from start to finish, nobody could keep Alex Palou from the checkered flag.

Palou passed Pato OWard with 10 laps to go and drove to his 13th career IndyCar Series victory in The Thermal Club IndyCar Grand Prix Sunday. It was Palous second-straight victory to start the IndyCar Series season and already had a 39-point lead in the championship standings.

Palou is the first back-to-back IndyCar Series champion since Dario Franchitti won three-straight championships from 2009-11. Sundays win was the first time an IndyCar Series driver has won back-to-back races since Scott Dixon opened the Pandemic-delayed 2020 season with three straight victories.

We cannot wait to get our third win a row, Palou said, referring to the April 13 50th Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach. Palou has never finished out of the top five in that race but has never won the famed street race in Southern California.

As for Sundays race at The Thermal Club, Palou started third and followed the two Arrow McLaren drivers including pole-winner OWard and Christian Lundgaard for much of the race. OWard led 51 laps in the 65-lap race, but Palou waited until the right time to make his move.

On Lap 49, Palou came into the pits and put on a new set of softer Firestone Reds. When he left pit lane, he was once again in third place behind Lundgaard.

Two laps later, the race leader pitted and OWards crew put on a set of the harder Firestone Black primary tires.

OWard was able to maintain the lead during that pit stop sequence as Palou and Lundgaard had the best battle of the race for second position.

The two drivers went through four-straight corners using crossover moves that swapped positions. Palou had the tire advantage and Lundgaard could not hold him off.

That put Palou second, but he was 11 seconds behind OWard as the race leader on Lap 51.

By Lap 52, OWards lead was cut to 2.4 seconds.

One lap later, Palou passed OWard for the lead entering Turn 7 and never looked back.

I knew I was going to catch him, for sure, Palou said. I didnt know if I was going to be able to pass him once I caught him. It just depended on the tires.

I couldnt push way too hard to get fast to him because then, once I was going to get to him, I would have no more tires to finish the race, so I had to be a little bit patient at the beginning.

I knew we were going to get to him. The question was if I was going to be able to overtake him and then pull away a little bit or not. So, everything worked out perfectly today.

Palous No. 28 DHL Honda finished 10.184 seconds ahead of OWards No. 5 Chevrolet at the checkered flag.

Obviously we were the car that had everything to lose because we were starting on pole, OWard said. We led 51 laps, it kind of sucks to lose it there at the end.

We need to keep pushing. We obviously werent perfect. There is obviously something that we could have done better in order to give it more of a proper fight to the 10 car.

Both OWard and Lundgaard said they were having overheating issues with the hybrid unit. Combine that with the tire strategy and it played in Palous favor.

Obviously here its probably one of the most helpful areas where the hybrid is of good use because of those very stop-and-go corners and long straightaways, OWard explained. In race trim, if youre asking me if I would have won that race if I didnt have those issues, the answer is still no.

So, for the second straight race, it was Palou who stole the show, and this time, he went back-to-back.

Even to win the first race of the year at St. Pete, it felt amazing, Palou said. You always go through a weekend wanting to win, never expecting to win, but maybe expecting to fight.

There is always so much stuff that needs to go right in order to win an IndyCar race all the pit stops, your tire mileage, also fuel mileage. Theres so much stuff that needs to go right that its tough to get it.

Its amazing to start with a double win this season, so yeah. Super happy.

HOMESTEAD, Fla. Kyle Larson, proved himself the weekends most dominant driver at Homestead-Miami Speedway winning two of the three national series races, capping off the extraordinary three-day performance with a victory in Sundays Straight Talk Wireless 400 NASCAR Cup Series race.

Larson was able to seize upon a miscue by his Hendrick Motorsports teammate, Alex Bowman, who put his pole-winning No. 48 Chevrolet in the outside retaining wall with six laps remaining Sunday. That contact allowed Larsons No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet to pass him for the race lead and jet off to a 1.205-second win the 32-year-old Californians first series trophy of the year.

I knew me coming towards those guys they were going to start moving around and making mistakes and I felt like if I could just keep pressure on Alex [Bowman], he may make a mistake and he caught the wall there and I got around him easier than I expected to, the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series champion Larson said. Still had to work hard though. My balance in clean air was really loose just like those guys were. Hats off to the whole team.

Bowman, who started from pole position, led 43 laps and was obviously disappointed even in a second-place outcome, coming so close to his first victory of the year.

Guess I choked that one away for sure, Bowman said, revealing he actually hit the wall harder the lap before he got passed. Just kind of burned myself up. Saw the 5 [Larson] coming, so I moved around a little bit.

Man, I hate that for this Ally 48 group they deserve better than that. Just a couple mistakes there. Felt like we were okay all day there.

23XI Racings Bubba Wallace finished third, leading a season high 56 laps in the No. 23 Toyota. Joe Gibbs Racings Chase Briscoe finished fourth in the No. 19 Toyota the afternoon proving to be season best finishes for Larson, Bowman, Wallace and Briscoe.

JGRs Denny Hamlin rounded out the top-five finishing order and won Stage 2 his 15 laps out front are most on the year for him.

The days most dominant driver was Team Penskes Ryan Blaney, whose No. 12 Ford led a race best 124 laps, only to suffer an engine failure with 60 laps remaining. A huge blast of smoke burst out of the car as it slowed abruptly onto the frontstretch from a top-five position.

He ended up 36th of the 37 cars, the 2023 season champion suffering his third straight DNF of the year.

I didnt have any warning, said Blaney, a runner-up in the previous two Homestead races. When I got back to wide open down the front, that was all she wrote. Just stinks. Really fast Ford Mustang, led a lot of laps, lost a little bit of track position with stuff on pit road, but got back to third and it was a great race between me, Bubba and Larson. Im sure Denny [Hamlin] was going to get back into it, it was going to be quite a battle in the last 60 laps or so.

Just didnt really work out for us. Well continue to keep fighting. I appreciate the 12 guys for giving me just a hot rod today, an incredibly, incredibly fast race car today. Well keep our head up. Just one of those things where it isnt really going our way right now. But the good news is were bringing fast cars and thats all you can ask for.

Roush Fenway Keselowski Racings Chris Buescher rallied to a sixth-place finish, followed by Kaulig Racings A.J. Allmendinger, 23XI Racings Tyler Reddick, RFKs Ryan Preece and Spire Motorsports Justin Haley.

With the win Larson moved into second place in the NASCAR Cup Series championship standings, 36 points behind Hendrick teammate, Daytona 500 winner William Byron. Bowman is now third in the championship, 39 points back. The fourth member of the team, Chase Elliott finished 18th and is sixth in the standings

The promising start to the season a strong confidence-builder for all the drivers.

Had to keep plugging away, proud of myself, proud of the team, just a lot of gritty hard work there today between damage on pit road, qualifying bad, bad restarts all that stuff, said Larson, whose 30 career wins are now second only to NASCAR Hall of Famers Jeff Gordon (93) and Jimmie Johnson (83) among Hendrick drivers.

Just super pumped, Larson said. One of the coolest wins I think of my Cup career just because of all the heartbreak here, the heartbreak yesterday. Just kept my head down and kept digging.

The heartbreak Larson referred to was his 2-for-3 showing in his three-peat attempt. He won Fridays NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race and suffered a gut-wrenching near-miss in Saturdays NASCAR Xfinity Series race an afternoon where he led the most laps only to get tapped from behind in an overtime restart and finish fourth.

Larson will attempt the three-race sweep at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway in April, hoping to equal the work of two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Kyle Busch who is the only driver in history to win all three national series races on the same weekend and he did it twice, ironically accomplishing the feat at Bristol in 2010 and 2017.

In the latter part of Sundays NASCAR Cup Series race at Homestead-Miami Speedway, Bubba Wallace looked to be in position to get back to victory lane for the first time since 2022.

Wallace, who led the second-most laps on the day (56), was in control. However, following the expiration of Ryan Blaneys engine with 60 laps to go, another restart was upcoming, allowing for challengers to enter the picture again.

While the driver of the No. 23 23XI Racing Toyota sprung back into the lead on the restart, he began to get reeled in by polesitter Alex Bowman, who made the pass for the lead with 33 laps to go.

Wallace would surrender third to eventual race winner Kyle Larson.

As he reflected on his best finish of the season, Wallace was left wondering if he pushed his car too early in the final stint of the race.

Yeah, I need to look back (at it), but all-in-all, what a day, Wallace said. Finally got us a good finish! But we need to go back and look at if I burned my stuff up to start there (final stint). I thought I got into a rhythm early, but that was a longer run there so thought our capability fell away.

I got into the fence there and that allowed him (Alex Bowman) to get beside me and then just capability from then on wasnt there. Hate that I messed up, but I came over the radio and said I havent been in many situations like that to give away a race so a lot to learn today. I cant even hang my head over that finish.

Proud of the effort in race six. Weve had fast cars, just nothing to show for it (yet). But, here we are. Got our Columbia Sportswear Toyota Camry XSE a top-three finish, so a good day.

It was Wallaces second top-10 finish of the season. The other was a ninth-place result at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

PHOENIX Top Fuels Shawn Langdon won for a second straight year at Firebird Motorsports Park on Sunday, powering past Kalitta Motorsports teammate Doug Kalitta in the final round in front of a sellout crowd at the 40th annual NHRA Arizona Nationals.

Paul Lee (Funny Car) and Greg Anderson (Pro Stock) also won the second of 20 races during the 2025 NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series season. It was the second straight sellout this weekend in Phoenix, as fans packed Firebird Motorsports Park.

Langdon put together the quickest run of eliminations in the championship round, going 3.724-seconds at 330.39 mph in his 11,000-horsepower Kalitta Air Careers dragster to get past Kalittas 3.770 at 325.53. It was the second straight final round for Langdon to open 2025, as he defeated Scott Palmer, Justin Ashley and Brittany Force earlier in the day before picking up his 20th career win and first this season.

Hes now made the final round in Phoenix three straight years and enjoyed another stellar weekend at the facility, winning the Mission #2Fast2Tasty Challenge on Saturday and following it up with Sundays victory, also putting him in the points lead.

Running [Alan Johnson, crew chief] and Doug in the final, we know what theyre capable of, and the run they made in the semis [3.76], and the one we made go only going 3.83, we knew we had to step up, so we kind of threw the kitchen sink at it, Langdon said. (Crew chief) Brian Husen has turned this whole team into a bunch of superstars. All the guys have done such a fantastic job and have made no mistakes.

Brian said, Im trying to get this thing build low 3.70s and, I was like, OK, Ill try to be .050-something Tree and it should be a good race, and it was. Its kind of neat when everything plan comes together, right?

Kalitta reached the final round for the 120th time in his standout career, as the No. 1 qualifier defeated Travis Shumake and Jasmine Salinas to reach the championship round.

Funny Car

In Funny Car, Paul Lee became the 96th different Funny Car winner in NHRA history on Sunday with his first career victory, defeating reigning world champion Austin Prock with a run of 4.030 at 313.22 in his 11,000-horsepower McLeod/FTI Performance Dodge Charger SRT. It was a remarkable performance from Lee, who defeated a slew of standouts to earn his first career win in the category.

After qualifying fifth, Lee took down Gainesville winner Chad Green, Blake Alexander and Bob Tasca, running an impressive 3.964 at 319.82 to reach the final round. Prock drove into smoke, while Lee made a clean run en route to the victory. It led to a memorable celebration, as Lee continues to make massive strides in the loaded Funny Car ranks.

Twenty-one years ago was the last time I won a Wally in Englishtown, N.J., at my home track in Top Alcohol Funny Car and Ive dreaming of someday standing here with a nitro Funny Car Wally, Lee said. I love driving a nitro Funny Cars. Its all Ive ever wanted to do since I was 13 years old. A lot of people dont realize this is a lifetime of work, its not just overnight.

Its a special day. We lost Eric Medlin on this day [in 2007], and we have a team prayer every Sunday, and John [Medlen, Erics father] leads us and today, he asked for Eric to watch out for us. You know something, our whole pit was calm all day, we just had a feeling that Eric was watching over us. I know its a funny feeling. It was just we were calm all day. Nobody was excited. Everybody did their job. It was a long time coming, but its well worth it.

Prock advanced to the final round for the first time this season and the 21st in his career after defeating Buddy Hull, Matt Hagan and John Force Racing teammate Jack Beckman.

Pro Stock

In one of the wildest Pro Stock final rounds in recent memory, Greg Anderson picked up his second straight Phoenix win when Dallas Glenn went red in the final round. Anderson, the reigning world champ, barely moved off the starting line as his car had its own trouble, lost power and didnt even make it to half-track.

But it was still a victory for Anderson in his HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro, as the all-time wins leader in Pro Stock earned his 107th career victory and fourth overall at Firebird Motorsports Park. To reach the final round for the second straight race, Anderson got past Fernando Cuadra Jr., Eric Latino and Aaron Stanfield, setting up the third straight Anderson-Glenn showdown dating back to last years NHRA Finals.

This one was easily the strangest, but Anderson will gladly take the win and the points lead after defeating his KB Titan Racing teammate.

Im still trying to figure out how the heck I won, Anderson said. When you go into a final against Dallas, you know hes going to be double .00 (reaction time) and youre just on edge trying to leave the starting line. I saw some sort of flash of light, and I let the clutch out and red-light, but obviously that flash of light was Dallass red light coming on first, so he red-lighted before I did under the first or worst.

My car made it about a foot and it shut right off and now Im going to have to sit in front of the grandstands and want to sink underneath the seat, because I just red lighted, and you just threw the race away and I wondered why Dallas didnt go by me? I reached up and Im trying to restart the car, and it wont start. Something went wrong. I dont know if the ignition blew out on it or what happened, but I red-lighted and somehow Dallas did something worse than I did. So crazy final round, but, like they say, a win is a win.

Glenn, who won the opener in Gainesville, defeated David Cuadra, Greg Stanfield and No. 1 qualifier Matt Hartford to reach the final round for the 29th time in his career.

The NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series returns to action March 27-30 with the 65th annual Lucas Oil NHRA Winternationals at In-N-Out Burger Pomona Dragstrip.