Weekend Recap: May 14 - 15

NASCAR
"Air Kurt" Wins a Nail-Biter

Kurt Busch and Michael Jordan team up for Team 23XI Racing’s first victory of the season, capturing the AdventHealth 400 at Kansas Speedway!
 
“Air Kurt,” as the media’s calling him (based on the No. 45 Air Jordan sneaker-shod Toyota Camry), topped Kyle Larson in a banger of a finish – literally – at Kansas, putting the Toyota on top of the NASCAR podium for the first time in 2022. The win was Busch’s 34th of his Cup career, and his first win for Jordan’s 23XI team (2nd win in 23XI team history, co-owned by NASCAR great Denny Hamlin).
 
“I felt like I had to play like the GOAT,” said Busch on racing to today’s win, in reference to Michael Jordan’s "Greatest of All Time" ability on the court.
 
After dropping from first to third on the final lap of pit stops, Busch made his way back around brother Kyle and then around Larson, who he roughed up a bit in Turns 1 and 2 with eight laps to go. As the two navigated around the lapped car of J.J. Yeley, Busch ran Larson tight to the outside wall, and then drove away after Larson brushed it – running unchallenged through the checkers.

The win for Kurt Busch was his first in 33 starts at Kansas, also marking the ninth consecutive season where he’s won at least one race. And prior to Sunday’s main event, Busch had nailed the top time in the Final Practice session for the AdventHealth 400, clocking a blistering 175.564 mph lap on the 1.5-mile tri-oval.
 

NASCAR takes a regular-season break this next weekend, heading to Texas for the All-Star race, before returning to action for the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway, on May 29th.

NHRA
Brittany Wins AGAIN!!!!

Monster Energy’s Brittany Force raced to her third victory of the 2022 National Hot Rod Association Top Fuel season at the Virginia NHRA Nationals at Virginia Motorsports Park on Sunday, besting world champion Steve Torrance, 3.770 to 3.781, and extending her points lead over Top Fuel 2nd place Mike Salinas.
 
“This is our best season yet,” said Force. “To already have three wins under our belt is something we've never done before, and it's pretty cool to do it out here at Virginia. I've never won here before.  No. 1 qualifiers they've never seem to do well for us, so you have that in the back of your head, and then first round when we blow the tires off the thing I was not feeling confident about the rest of the day but David Grubnic (Force’s crew chief) turned that car around, and we were consistent, .77, .78, and .77 in the final.”

The win for Force was her 14th career win, which ties here with the legendary Don “The Snake” Prudhomme and Gary Ormsby.

Leading up to the Virginia NHRA Nationals, Force had won the Last Vegas Four-Wide Nationals and scored back-to-back wins at the Houston Spring Nationals.

FIM SPEEDWAY

Monster Energy’s Frederick "Freddy" Lindgren raced his way into the FIM Speedway Polish GP finals, and an eventual 3rd place podium finish, in front of a packed, 50,000-strong, PGE Narodowy Stadium – home of the Polish National Football Team in downtown Warsaw.
 
Lindgren, who made the final showdown by virtue of a semifinal transfer, ahead of fellow Monster Energy race Pawel Przedpelski in the opening semifinal race. In the second semifinal, Monster Energy’s Tai Woffinden, who races for Poland’s WTS Wroclaw team in the Polish Speedway League, was unable to make the final showdown – leaving Warsaw without any countrymen (along with Przedpelski) to root for in the finals.
 
After two rounds of FIM Speedway Lindgren (5th) and Woffinden (10th) are the only Monster Energy-backed racers in the top ten in the overall standings.