After The Flag Vol. 1 (March 11-17)

The last week has seen a slightly more sparse program, with the Beer League taking a noticeable absence with their final off-week of the season before a four week blast to season's end.

GENERAL NEWS
Josh Baird made his commentary debut on Monday night, calling his first ever race for the High Tide Racing League's season opener. Baird will be the regular colour commentator for the Monday night cup series. He is also a current racer in the Classic Indycar Series, and is anticipated to be competing in the 2024 season on Sunday afternoons starting next week.

The VSCA SportsCar Championship less than 48 hours ago made the official decision that wet weather would now be a possibility in all races going forward in the season, beginning at the 12 Hours of Sebring coming up on Saturday. With this, has come the possibility of manual red flags to be thrown to neutralize a race altogether, should the weather grow to be too severe. Presently the forecast stands at 19.5-14.5 degrees celsius through the race, with scattered showers throughout, the total chance of rain starting at 52% for the day.

OMSRL
The OMSRL Truck Series had a difficult race on Tuesday night, with the race at Martinsville sporting 26 cautions, and with the race finishing under caution after triple overtime. Matt Cherry would take the win on Tuesday night after numerous ups and downs, the driver of the #48 truck apologizing to Ryan Dingler in his winning interview, after turning him for the race lead in turn 2 late in the running.

SPEED
The SPEED Tires Plus Cup Series saw some struggles as well early on Thursday night, but would see a long green flag run near the end. Pit strategies were abundant in the first half, with numerous exchanges for the race lead. All eyes would be on Ryan Shelton and Jason Gracias throughout much of the second half. A late-race caution would bunch the field up, and while Gracias jumped Shelton in the pits, technical problems would soon knock the #1 car out of the race. Shane Winemiller would pick up 2nd, but would not be able to mount a charge on Shelton in the closing 2 laps.

TNGG
Over the last week, it was decided by TNGG administrators to strike last weeks race at Phoenix from the record due to a few critical errors in setting up the session. Meaning the official 3rd race of the championship took place at the Iowa Speedway. The state in the Midwest made for a phenomenal race, despite several cautions in the first half of the race. Things would quickly settle though, allowing for a race of non-stop entertainment that would see Scott Rankin from Australia take his 2nd career win.

ASRL
This week saw the ASRL NextGen Cup Series swing to the Windy City for its only road course race on the streets of Chicago. While it was a caution-free race, it was still marred with numerous incidents, mostly single-car with drivers overshooting their braking points. Much of the racing would take place within the first half, with the last 25 laps seeing almost no overtakes that weren't brought about by incidents. Brody Gunter was looking set to take his 2nd win of the season, but was unable to save enough fuel, being forced to make an unscheduled stop in the last 10 laps, giving the win to Hunter Engrav, who continues his now 6-podium streak with his 2nd win.

GreenFlagTV's Race Of The Week
Taking the Race Of The Week by storm has to be the High Tide Racing League's season opener at the legacy 2008 scan of Daytona International Speedway. The Monday night cup series saw a switch back to the good old days, with the Gen 4's replacing the Gen 7 stock cars. This resulted in an action and incident-packed race, that saw 12 cautions and two attempts at overtime. 30 lead changes would commence over the course of the race, with Bryan Dees leading just under half the race, at 50 of 111 laps.

The biggest highlight though would come on the final lap, when Eddie Hagigh was turned by Ty Marasco for the lead in turn 4. Surviving the carnage by the skin of his teeth would be Michael Ashmore, dodging the melee to win the race in a 4-wide drag race. Ashmore was making his season debut, and would lead just a single lap, but it was the lap that counted the most. Just as it was in their inaugural season, HTRL is showing promise of a thrilling season for weeks to come.

Weekly Winners
Michael Ashmore: HTRL MF Racing Designs Cup Series -- Race 1, Daytona International Speedway
Matt Cherry: OMSRL Truck Series -- Race 8, Martinsville Speedway
Ryan Shelton: SPEED Tires Plus Cup Series -- Race 5, Bristol Motor Speedway
Scott Rankin: TNGG IEL Truck Series -- Race 3, Iowa Speedway
Hunter Engrav: ASRL NextGen Cup Series -- Race 7, Chicago Street Circuit

Next Week
HTRL MF Racing Designs Cup Series -- Race 2, Rockingham Speedway
OMSRL Truck Series -- Race 9, Darlington Raceway
Beer League -- Race 9, Algarve
SPEED Tires Plus Cup Series -- Race 6, Circuit Of The Americas
VSCA SportsCar Championship -- Race 3, 12 Hours of Sebring
Classic Indycar Series -- Race 1, Circuit Of The Americas