Chelsea DeNofa won the Formula Drift drivers’ championship, Riley Herbst won the first race of his NASCAR Xfinity Series career in front of his hometown fans and Donny Schatz made a pass on the final lap to win Saturday’s feature in the World of Outlaws series.
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FORD PERFORMANCE HIGHLIGHTS: DeNofa Wins Formula Drift Championship
Oct 17, 2023
<2 MIN READ
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Chelsea DeNofa won the drivers’ championship, while teammate James Deane had a podium finish in the last round of Formula Drift for 2023.
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Chelsea DeNofa won the drivers’ championship, while teammate James Deane had a podium finish in the last round of Formula Drift for 2023.
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The RTR drift team secured the Auto Manufacturer Championship for Ford, with enough of a lead to earn the Auto Cup one round before the finals. -
Deane, who finished third on the day, completed his inaugural season in a Ford Mustang with a fifth-place overall points finish. -
He suffered a crash during his last practice session, resulting in the vehicle becoming airborne. The RTR team was able to repair the car back to a competitive state. -
The championship is Ford’s third in Formula Drift after Vaughn Gittin Jr. won titles in 2010 and 2020. -
DeNofa announced Thursday his departure from Formula Drift, citing his interest in other future projects. -
RTR finished the season with five wins and seven total podiums in eight rounds this year. -
Riley Herbst won the first race of his NASCAR Xfinity Series career in front of his hometown fans in Las Vegas. -
Herbst dominated the latter stages of the race, as he won the second stage and led 96 of the final 97 laps, winning by 14.959 seconds. -
Cole Custer (third), who won the first stage, gave Ford a pair of drivers in the top three. -
Herbst and Custer combined to lead 165 of 201 laps. -
Custer now sits fourth in the Round of 8 standings, 15 points ahead of fifth-place Chandler Smith with two races remaining in the elimination round. -
The Round of 8 continues on Saturday at Homestead-Miami Speedway. -
Donny Schatz propelled his Tony Stewart Racing FPS 410 Ford-powered machine to his fourth points win of the season Saturday at Lakeside Speedway in Kansas City. -
Schatz, who started second in the 25-lap feature, sat third with eight laps remaining, but took advantage of lap traffic to close the gap. -
He was second at the white flag and undercut leader David Gravel, who was stuck behind a lapped car, for his third career win at Lakeside. -
It also marked Schatz’s 311th career victory and his first since July, snapping a 26-race winless streak. -
Friday night’s scheduled race at 81 Speedway (Park City, Kansas) was canceled due to dangerous winds in the area. -
The series now heads to Devil’s Bowl Speedway (Mesquite, Texas) beginning Friday for the penultimate event of the championship. -
Brad Keselowski had the fastest Ford, finishing fourth in the NASCAR Cup Series in Las Vegas. -
He led five times for 38 laps, finishing third in Stage 1 and fifth in Stage 2. -
Ryan Blaney finished sixth, but following the race was disqualified by NASCAR because the left-front shock did not meet the overall specified length. He officially finished 36th. -
Chris Buescher battled poor track position the last half of the race but rallied to finish 11th. -
Blaney and Buescher remain below the cut line with two races remaining in the Round of 8. -
Buescher ranks seventh and is 23 points behind the final transfer spot, while Blaney (eighth) is 56 points out. -
The NASCAR Cup Series continues its Round of 8 on Sunday at Homestead-Miami Speedway. -
Tim Wilkerson was the top-placing Ford Mustang in the NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series at Texas, advancing to the semifinals. -
Bob Tasca III made the quickest run Friday night in the Funny Car class since the opening race of the 2018 season (3.822 ET / 335.55 mph). It broke the track ET class record and earned him the top qualifying position for the seventh time this year. -
Tasca, who held the playoff points lead for the first time in his career entering the weekend, followed that up by posting a personal best 338.57 mph final qualifying run Saturday. -
Wilkerson and Tasca dueled in the quarterfinals, and while Tasca got the starting advantage off the line, Wilkerson pulled away and recorded his quickest pass of the year (3.866 ET / 327.58 mph). -
Tasca currently holds the runner-up spot in the Countdown to the Championship; Chad Green (seventh) and Wilkerson (eighth) round out the top 10. -
The series heads to The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway Oct. 26-29 for the penultimate event of the year. -
The KohR Mustang GT4 of Bob Michaelian and Luca Mars scored a manufacturer-best fourth-place finish in Friday afternoon’s two-hour IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge season finale at Road Atlanta. -
Michaelian started behind the wheel and maintained a mid-pack pace, but pit strategy helped race-finisher Mars into fifth and enabled him to gain one more position before the finish. -
That ended a day which saw KohR improve 22 positions (17 in class) during the race. Michaelian and Mars tied for 16th, while Chad McCumbee was 20th. -
Nani Roma ranks 10th overall after two of five stages of Rally du Maroc action in the Ranger T1+. -
Roma placed 12th in Ford, M-Sport & Neil Woolridge Racing’s first-ever competitive stage, and stayed consistent, finishing 12th in the second stage. -
Action from Rally du Maroc continues through Wednesday. -
Broncos sit in third, fourth and sixth in the 4x4 class after two days at Rebelle Rally. Bronco Sport leads the crossover class with the Mustang Mach-E Rally currently in third. -
The Rebelle Rally ends Saturday.
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