The Morning Warmup
Aug. 9, 2026
Good morning and happy Sunday. It’s race day for the Cup Series, IndyCar and MotoGP - at least if you’re up early enough to catch it. I remember a time when I was writing about Formula E in its infancy and would occasionally get comments pondering whether Elon Musk (then tied primarily to the electric car brand Tesla) would make his way into the motorsports world.
Well, Musk finally has a tie to racing, but it’s not a positive one. It’s a lot to make sense of, but I say we give it a try. Let’s talk racing.
Today’s Top Story
1) SpaceXAI suing Darana Hybrid, owned by IHRA owner Darryl Cuttell.
The recent switch of priorities and decision to effectively shutter all racing tied to the IHRA and its owner, Darryl Cuttell, is beginning to make sense - and it somehow involves Elon Musk.
The Ohio-based Darana Hybrid, a known electro-mechanical contractor for Musk companies and namely what is now SpaceXAi, fielded two mechanic’s liens against CTC Property on July 30 and 31 totaling roughly $136.9 million for work performed between 2024 and June of this year. The liens are legal claims against a piece of property, effectively keeping the client from selling, refinancing or abandoning a building until the bill is resolved.
That was only part of the alleged picture. Cuttell, who owns Darana Hybrid, said the $137 million alleged in the liens was a portion of what his company was owed, claiming it was all he could document well enough to attach to the property. Cuttell later indicated that SpaceXAI still owns Darana Hybrid roughly 40 percent of its total bill, which stretches beyond $1.5 billion. That’s led to estimates of $570 million allegedly owed from the Musk-led company to Cuttell.
He claims that payments stalled out after the former xAI and SpaceX combined into SpaceXAi earlier in 2026 - the latest in a string of consolidation efforts from Musk-led companies. That’s led to nearly $200 million is money owed by Darana Hybrid to its own vendors and subcontractors.
A pair of other companies - USW-Menard Inc. and TorcSill Foundations - have also field liens totaling $2.2 million tied to work with the company. The work is all tied to data center infrastucture - primarily SpaceXAI’s massive Colossus I and Colossus II centers in Memphis. It isn’t the first time Musk has been accused of ripping off his vendors.
SpaceXAI fired back with a lawsuit earlier this week, accusing Darana Hybrid and Cuttell of fraud, breach of contract and overbilling. It claims Darana charged labor rates far above contractual limits and diverted company funds to projects unrelated to the data center construction.
What projects, you might ask?
Enter the IHRA.
The lawsuit alleges that Cuttell used proceeds from the contracts to support his drag racing ventures, including work tied to Darana Motorsports Park and the IHRA. It states that “Cuttell owns an international racing association, and he saw in the Memphis project a way to fund his racing ambitions at CTC’s expense.”
Cuttell acquired the IHRA in Dec. 2024, moved its headquarters to Ohio and went on an acquisition spree. The company acquired multiple tracks, including recent NASCAR returnee Rockingham Speedway and former NHRA schedule regular Maple Grove Raceway. At the same time it launched a short track racing series and tried to bring IHRA Australia into the fold.
The moves were quick and tricky to keep up with. Over the past couple months, the same company’s descent has proven even quicker and messier. Essentially every racing series tied to Cuttell has paused its 2026 season. Racers, sponsors and more have alleged a lack of payment from the IHRA.
Every series, track and team tied to Cuttell’s various racing endeavors has found itself cast into uncertainty. NASCAR’s popular O’Reilly Auto Parts Series and Craftsman Truck Series standalone weekend at Rockingham isn’t expected to continue next year. It’s believed some of the properties could be resold, which always comes with the risk of them going to someone with non-racing ambitions. Competitors in various niche series are uncertain if they’ll get the opportunity to compete again in 2027 and beyond.
And given that this is tied to one of the world’s biggest (and most litigious) companies, that uncertainty may stretch on for quite some time.
(Source(s): Courtney Anderson / Yahoo Finance (x2)AZ, Audrey Ash, Blake Ellis, Melanie Hicken & Kyung Lah / CNN)
Race Recaps
NASCAR
Cup Series: Ryan Blaney was Iowa Speedway’s first Cup winner - and if Saturday was any indication, he may also be its first multi-time victory. Blaney laid down a top time of 23.474s to deny Kyle Larson and claim his third pole of 2026. (Reid Spencer / NASCAR.com)
He accomplished the feat wearing a special Kyle Busch helmet:
O’Reilly Auto Parts Series: It took Carson Kvapil some time to notch his first O’Reilly Series win.
The second, though? It came much quicker.
Two weeks after his Brickyard breakthrough, Kvapil rolled through a pair of overtimes into back-to-back wins, leading home Rajah Caruth and William Sawalich in the effort. (NASCAR.com)
Ryan Sieg started the race on pole for the first time in his lengthy career and was in contention late, but contact from Brent Crews sent him into the all in an overtime restart.
ARCA Menards Series West: A chaotic final lap played out just right for Mason Massey at Portland International Raceway. (Brandon White / ARCARacing.com)
Massey entered the last lap fourth. But Sam Corry and Ethan Tovo took themselves out of contention by muscling themselves out of the lead and Kyle Steckly messed up in the final corners. That allowed Massey to slip through down the final straight for a surprising victory over Steckly and Hailie Deegan.
IndyCar
IndyCar: The Indy 500 champ’s back at the pointy end of the field. Felix Rosenqvist laid down a top time of 58.4828s in the closing moments of the Firestone Fast Six to deny points leader Alex Palou and claim his eighth-career pole. (Paul Kelly / IndyCar.com)
Moto
MotoGP: Have yourself a day, Jorge Martin.
The championship leader was the star of the show in Silverstone, setting a lap record in qualifying an leading home a 1-2-3 for Aprilia in the Sprint. (MotoGP.com)
Other Open Wheel
It was a weird finish overnight at Sugo, with Igor Fraga losing out to Nirei Fukuzumi due to a safety care. )Jamie Klein / Motorsport)
Dirt
World of Outlaws Sprint Cars: There was no drama up front in Saturday’s Ironman 500. Logan Schuchart dominated to pick up his second win in the signature event. (Alex Nieten / WorldofOutlaws.com)
Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series: A trip to his home track netted the biggest win of Josh Rice’s career on Saturday night. Rice got the best of Jonathan Davenport in a late battle to secure his first win in the North/South 100 at Florence Speedway. (James Essex / LucasDirt.com)
Short Tracks
USAC Silver Crown Series: C.J. Leary’s got the big pavement tracks figured out. Two months removed from a victory at WWT Raceway, Leary supplied another one Saturday night at Iowa Speedway, rising from fifth to first in the opening 47 laps and surviving a late challenge from Mario Clouser to score the victory. (USACRacing.com)
News and Notes
America’s Top Tours
NASCAR
Haas Factory Team is expanding its O’Reilly Auto Parts Series operation, bringing on Dean Thompson to pilot a car in 2027. (Nick DeGroot / Motorsport)
The company’s president, Joe Custer, took questions as part of the announcement. That naturally included inquiries about its single-car Cup team and its long-term future. Despite the challenges, Custer says it has no plans to sell and is seeking a closer technical relationship with GM.(Nick DeGroot / Motorsport)
Both Ryan Preece and Todd Gilliland saw their car chiefs ejected after inspection failures in Iowa. (Nick DeGroot / Motorsport)
Frontstretch asked various drivers about NASCAR’s stage caution changes. The feedback was overwhelmingly positive:
Worldwide Racing Series
Formula 1
Williams is in a difficult spot. Team Principal James Vowles has admitted that the program is sacrificing short-term improvements for major long-term infrastructure upgrades to stay within F1’s cost cap. (Lydia Mee / Motorsport)
Grassroots Racing
Dirt
Welcome back to team ownership, Chase Briscoe. The Joe Gibbs Racing star has acquired High Limit Racing regular Brent Marks Racing. Marks himself will continue to pilot the Winged Sprint Car. (Kyle McFadden / FloRacing)
Barring delays or other schedule shifts, Kyle Larson won’t be able to contest next weekend’s Knoxville Raceway. He’s going to try to lock into the feature anyways. (Matt Weaver / Motorsport)
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On Track Today
All Times ET
NASCAR
At Iowa Speedway
Cup Series Iowa Corn 350: 3:30 p.m., USA
IndyCar
At Portland International Raceway, also airing on FOX One
IndyCar Warmup: 1 p.m., FS1
Indy NXT Race: 2 p.m., FS1
IndyCar OnlyBulls Grand Prix of Portland: 4 p.m., FOX
Moto
At Silverstone Circuit, airing on MotoGP VideoPass
MotoGP British Grand Prix: 8 a.m., also airing on FS1
Moto3 Feature: 9:30 a.m.
Baggers Race 2: 11 a.m.
Dirt
Weekly Racing (Knoxville Raceway): 7:30 p.m., DirtVision
Short Tracks
ISMA/MSS Supermodifieds (Oswego Speedway): 10:30 a.m., FloRacing
Weekly Racing (Thunder Road Speedbowl): 4 p.m., FloRacing
Mid-Am Racing (Slinger Speedway): 7:30 p.m., FloRacing
Number of the Day: 3
With Saturday’s top qualifying effort complete, Ryan Blaney has as many poles this year (3) as in any full season of his NASCAR Cup Series career, tying 2018 and 2022 for his personal best effort. With a full 13 races remaining, there’s a strong chance the 2023 champ will reach a new personal high in 2026.