logo
Texas Karma? NASCAR driver's car catches fire soon after flashing 'Horns Down'

Texas Karma? NASCAR driver's car catches fire soon after flashing 'Horns Down'

USA Today07-05-2025

Texas Karma? NASCAR driver's car catches fire soon after flashing 'Horns Down'
The proliferation of 'Horns Down' has made it to NASCAR. At this weekend's NASCAR race at the Texas Motor Speedway in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, Ohio State Denny Hamlin flashed 'Horns Down,' but his day didn't turn out like he'd have hoped.
An ardent Ohio State Buckeyes fan, Hamlin tried to troll Texas fans at the race with the 'Horns Down' gesture during driver introductions for the Wurth 400. Of course, defending national champion Ohio State knocked Texas out of the college football playoffs in the Cotton Bowl semifinal. The two programs meet again to open the 2025 season at the Horseshoe in Columbus on Aug. 30.
But it didn't take long for Hamlin to get served some Texas karma. In lap 75, Hamlin's car suffered an engine blowout that caused his car to burst into flames. Hamlin knew he tested fate.
'Texas got me back,' Hamlin said during his Actions Detrimental podcast. 'That didn't last long for me. Eventually, the karma caught up pretty quickly.'
The engine problem knocked Hamlin out of the race, who had a bad day overall. The Buckeyes fan also missed a pit stop under caution due to miscommunication on the radio, pitted a second time to pit only to get penalized for speeding. Then his car caught fire.
Hamlin might think twice before he decides to throw out 'Horns Down' again.

Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

NASCAR goes south of the border to grow fan base with its 1st Cup Series race in Mexico City
NASCAR goes south of the border to grow fan base with its 1st Cup Series race in Mexico City

Washington Post

time19 minutes ago

  • Washington Post

NASCAR goes south of the border to grow fan base with its 1st Cup Series race in Mexico City

NASCAR's first international Cup Series race of the modern era is all about the eyeballs, specifically new fans in the Mexico City market. NASCAR will be on the track Friday for the first of three days of racing at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodríguez, one of the most popular stops on the Formula 1 calendar and Ben Kennedy's newest project. The great-grandson of NASCAR founder Bill France Sr., Kennedy has taken the family business beyond its comfortable confines before. Kennedy in 2022 moved the preseason exhibition Clash from its longtime home at Daytona International Speedway in Florida to a temporary track built inside Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum . Kennedy this year moved the Clash to The Madhouse — the historic Bowman Gray Stadium, which had last hosted a Cup race in 1971, in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. NASCAR under Kennedy also returned to North Wilkesboro Speedway in North Carolina for the first time since 1977 when the All-Star race was moved there three years ago. He allowed dirt at Bristol Motor Speedway, a hybrid road course and oval at Charlotte Motor Speedway, alongside his biggest undertaking: NASCAR's first street race, held in downtown Chicago. He also had his eyes set on expanding internationally, which will come Sunday with the first points-paying international race in the Cup Series since 1958. It is only third time in 77 years that NASCAR's top series will run an event that counts in the championship outside the United States. The last two times were in Canada; the Cup Series also has held exhibitions in Japan and Australia. 'Our biggest opportunity to grow as a sport is international,' Kennedy said when he announced Mexico City was replacing one of the two races on the schedule allocated to Richmond International Raceway. 'The U.S. is always going to be our mainstay and our next opportunity was to expand internationally,' he said. 'We said we've wanted to do this for a long time, but also needed to make sure it was the right time, the right partners and the right location. Mexico City checked every box. To be in one of the biggest cities globally — over 20 million people that live in the city — is a massive opportunity for us to bring the sport.' The weekend includes the second-tier Xfinity Series and the NASCAR Mexico Series. It's a strong return to a market that devours the entire F1 weekend ticket package within an hour of them becoming available. Mexicans have proven to be rabid motorsports fans but haven't gotten a chance to see NASCAR's big names since 2008, the final year of a four-year run of Xfinity races. Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin and Martin Truex Jr. were winners during the four-year stretch. Daniel Suarez, the former Xfinity champion and native of Monterrey, is NASCAR's face of the event. He raced the circuit 13 times with a different layout in the NASCAR Mexico Series, and three of Suarez's starts were wins. 'I'm super excited for the event. I'm super excited to live the moment because the first time is going to only happen once,' Suarez said. 'I'm really trying to be as present as possible, enjoy the moment and try to execute the best possible weekend that we can. We know that we are capable of winning the race, but that's not the goal. The goal is the execution of the entire weekend, and hopefully the win is the result of the execution part.' The planning that has gone into Mexico City, one of 38 events on the Cup schedule, began about a year ago. NASCAR has worked on myriad details, beginning with how to get nearly 200 trucks hauling race cars and equipment from Michigan International Speedway into Mexico City. NASCAR official Tom Bryant has spearheaded the organizational logistics and made multiple trips to the border crossing in Laredo, Texas, to meet with customs officials from both nations. The drive from Michigan to Mexico City is about 40 hours, not including the tedious customs crossing, where all the equipment and tools on every NASCAR hauler must be documented on an exhaustive manifest. Cup Series teams cars were scheduled for a Monday night arrival at Laredo, with crossing scheduled for Tuesday and arrival at the track on Thursday. 'It's been a ton of coordination moving lots of people and lots of stuff safely and efficiently across a great distance and an international border,' Bryant said on the 'Hauler Talk' NASCAR podcast. 'There is a lot to it, but the key to it is you just have to define the problem. We've got to get these people and these things from this point to that point within a certain time period,' he said. 'How do we do it in a way that's going to best position us to be ready to go to work as soon as we hit the ground down there? Because this is a pretty tight window.' ___ AP auto racing:

NASCAR goes south of the border to grow fan base with its 1st Cup Series race in Mexico City

time35 minutes ago

NASCAR goes south of the border to grow fan base with its 1st Cup Series race in Mexico City

NASCAR's first international Cup Series race of the modern era is all about the eyeballs, specifically new fans in the Mexico City market. NASCAR will be on the track Friday for the first of three days of racing at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodríguez, one of the most popular stops on the Formula 1 calendar and Ben Kennedy's newest project. The great-grandson of NASCAR founder Bill France Sr., Kennedy has taken the family business beyond its comfortable confines before. Kennedy in 2022 moved the preseason exhibition Clash from its longtime home at Daytona International Speedway in Florida to a temporary track built inside Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Kennedy this year moved the Clash to The Madhouse — the historic Bowman Gray Stadium, which had last hosted a Cup race in 1971, in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. NASCAR under Kennedy also returned to North Wilkesboro Speedway in North Carolina for the first time since 1977 when the All-Star race was moved there three years ago. He allowed dirt at Bristol Motor Speedway, a hybrid road course and oval at Charlotte Motor Speedway, alongside his biggest undertaking: NASCAR's first street race, held in downtown Chicago. He also had his eyes set on expanding internationally, which will come Sunday with the first points-paying international race in the Cup Series since 1958. It is only third time in 77 years that NASCAR's top series will run an event that counts in the championship outside the United States. The last two times were in Canada; the Cup Series also has held exhibitions in Japan and Australia. 'Our biggest opportunity to grow as a sport is international,' Kennedy said when he announced Mexico City was replacing one of the two races on the schedule allocated to Richmond International Raceway. 'The U.S. is always going to be our mainstay and our next opportunity was to expand internationally," he said. "We said we've wanted to do this for a long time, but also needed to make sure it was the right time, the right partners and the right location. Mexico City checked every box. To be in one of the biggest cities globally — over 20 million people that live in the city — is a massive opportunity for us to bring the sport.' The weekend includes the second-tier Xfinity Series and the NASCAR Mexico Series. It's a strong return to a market that devours the entire F1 weekend ticket package within an hour of them becoming available. Mexicans have proven to be rabid motorsports fans but haven't gotten a chance to see NASCAR's big names since 2008, the final year of a four-year run of Xfinity races. Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin and Martin Truex Jr. were winners during the four-year stretch. Daniel Suarez, the former Xfinity champion and native of Monterrey, is NASCAR's face of the event. He raced the circuit 13 times with a different layout in the NASCAR Mexico Series, and three of Suarez's starts were wins. 'I'm super excited for the event. I'm super excited to live the moment because the first time is going to only happen once,' Suarez said. "I'm really trying to be as present as possible, enjoy the moment and try to execute the best possible weekend that we can. We know that we are capable of winning the race, but that's not the goal. The goal is the execution of the entire weekend, and hopefully the win is the result of the execution part.' The planning that has gone into Mexico City, one of 38 events on the Cup schedule, began about a year ago. NASCAR has worked on myriad details, beginning with how to get nearly 200 trucks hauling race cars and equipment from Michigan International Speedway into Mexico City. NASCAR official Tom Bryant has spearheaded the organizational logistics and made multiple trips to the border crossing in Laredo, Texas, to meet with customs officials from both nations. The drive from Michigan to Mexico City is about 40 hours, not including the tedious customs crossing, where all the equipment and tools on every NASCAR hauler must be documented on an exhaustive manifest. Cup Series teams cars were scheduled for a Monday night arrival at Laredo, with crossing scheduled for Tuesday and arrival at the track on Thursday. 'It's been a ton of coordination moving lots of people and lots of stuff safely and efficiently across a great distance and an international border,' Bryant said on the 'Hauler Talk' NASCAR podcast. 'There is a lot to it, but the key to it is you just have to define the problem. We've got to get these people and these things from this point to that point within a certain time period," he said. "How do we do it in a way that's going to best position us to be ready to go to work as soon as we hit the ground down there? Because this is a pretty tight window.'

NASCAR goes south of the border to grow fan base with its 1st Cup Series race in Mexico City
NASCAR goes south of the border to grow fan base with its 1st Cup Series race in Mexico City

Hamilton Spectator

time41 minutes ago

  • Hamilton Spectator

NASCAR goes south of the border to grow fan base with its 1st Cup Series race in Mexico City

NASCAR's first international Cup Series race of the modern era is all about the eyeballs, specifically new fans in the Mexico City market. NASCAR will be on the track Friday for the first of three days of racing at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodríguez, one of the most popular stops on the Formula 1 calendar and Ben Kennedy's newest project. The great-grandson of NASCAR founder Bill France Sr., Kennedy has taken the family business beyond its comfortable confines before. Kennedy in 2022 moved the preseason exhibition Clash from its longtime home at Daytona International Speedway in Florida to a temporary track built inside Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum . Kennedy this year moved the Clash to The Madhouse — the historic Bowman Gray Stadium, which had last hosted a Cup race in 1971, in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. NASCAR under Kennedy also returned to North Wilkesboro Speedway in North Carolina for the first time since 1977 when the All-Star race was moved there three years ago. He allowed dirt at Bristol Motor Speedway, a hybrid road course and oval at Charlotte Motor Speedway, alongside his biggest undertaking: NASCAR's first street race, held in downtown Chicago. He also had his eyes set on expanding internationally, which will come Sunday with the first points-paying international race in the Cup Series since 1958. It is only third time in 77 years that NASCAR's top series will run an event that counts in the championship outside the United States. The last two times were in Canada; the Cup Series also has held exhibitions in Japan and Australia. 'Our biggest opportunity to grow as a sport is international,' Kennedy said when he announced Mexico City was replacing one of the two races on the schedule allocated to Richmond International Raceway. 'The U.S. is always going to be our mainstay and our next opportunity was to expand internationally,' he said. 'We said we've wanted to do this for a long time, but also needed to make sure it was the right time, the right partners and the right location. Mexico City checked every box. To be in one of the biggest cities globally — over 20 million people that live in the city — is a massive opportunity for us to bring the sport.' The weekend includes the second-tier Xfinity Series and the NASCAR Mexico Series. It's a strong return to a market that devours the entire F1 weekend ticket package within an hour of them becoming available. Mexicans have proven to be rabid motorsports fans but haven't gotten a chance to see NASCAR's big names since 2008, the final year of a four-year run of Xfinity races. Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin and Martin Truex Jr. were winners during the four-year stretch. Daniel Suarez, the former Xfinity champion and native of Monterrey, is NASCAR's face of the event. He raced the circuit 13 times with a different layout in the NASCAR Mexico Series, and three of Suarez's starts were wins. 'I'm super excited for the event. I'm super excited to live the moment because the first time is going to only happen once,' Suarez said. 'I'm really trying to be as present as possible, enjoy the moment and try to execute the best possible weekend that we can. We know that we are capable of winning the race, but that's not the goal. The goal is the execution of the entire weekend, and hopefully the win is the result of the execution part.' The planning that has gone into Mexico City, one of 38 events on the Cup schedule, began about a year ago. NASCAR has worked on myriad details, beginning with how to get nearly 200 trucks hauling race cars and equipment from Michigan International Speedway into Mexico City. NASCAR official Tom Bryant has spearheaded the organizational logistics and made multiple trips to the border crossing in Laredo, Texas, to meet with customs officials from both nations. The drive from Michigan to Mexico City is about 40 hours, not including the tedious customs crossing, where all the equipment and tools on every NASCAR hauler must be documented on an exhaustive manifest. Cup Series teams cars were scheduled for a Monday night arrival at Laredo, with crossing scheduled for Tuesday and arrival at the track on Thursday. 'It's been a ton of coordination moving lots of people and lots of stuff safely and efficiently across a great distance and an international border,' Bryant said on the 'Hauler Talk' NASCAR podcast. 'There is a lot to it, but the key to it is you just have to define the problem. We've got to get these people and these things from this point to that point within a certain time period,' he said. 'How do we do it in a way that's going to best position us to be ready to go to work as soon as we hit the ground down there? Because this is a pretty tight window.' ___ AP auto racing:

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into the world of global news and events? Download our app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store