Benchmark Autosport joins USF2000 lineup

The racing off-season is filled with lots of excitement and anticipation. Driver changes, team changes, new liveries are exciting things to look forward to when the off-season is in full swing. Another exciting bit to look forward to is new teams being created and joining the paddock for the next racing season. During the off-season Benchmark Autosport announced they would be joining the USF2000 paddock for the 2025 racing season. Benchmark Autosport is in partnership with Don Conner. Don Conner is no stranger to the series or sport, for he owned DC Autosport and had Ayrton Houk as his pilot for the 2024 racing season. Houk finished 11th in points standings for his rookie season. Benchmark Autosport is comprised of Kevin Houk (Father of Ayrton Houk), Don Conner, Colin Kaminsky, and driver Ayrton Houk. This is a new and exciting team to watch for in 2025 as Ayrton has had some good finishes in his rookie season. The team is looking to capitalize their success and have a winning and successful 2025 season.

Photo Courtesy of USF Pro Championship

Xpel Grand Prix at Road America

Road America weekend was definitely one for the books! Just like last weekend with Detroit, cautions breed cautions. During the start of the Xpel GP at Road America the first lap in the first turn Pole Sitter Linus Lundqvist and teammate Marcus Armstrong collided spinning eachother out causing drivers to check up and Newgarden to spin Herta. A couple of caution laps later Colton Herta will find himself spinning around yet again. Coming towards the last turn on lap 6 Christian Rasmussen (R) took Chip Ganassi Racing driver Kyffin Simpson (R) out. Rasmussen ultimately received a penalty for avoidable contact. Scott McLaughlin took no time to reach the front and start setting pace away from second place Kyle Kirkwood. Sting Ray Robb also received a penalty for avoidable contact when he collided with Felix Rosenqvist. Several laps later Scott McLaughlin has grown his lead over Kyle Kirkwood to greater than 2 seconds. Scott led a bunch of drivers to pit lane to get more fuel and to change their tires. We've seen this weekend with driver Graham Rahal during his warm up laps his Firestone Alternate Reds were blistering on his left rear. There hasn't been any other reports of drivers having a similar issue. After a revolution of green flag pit stops, McLaughlin, Newgarden, and Power will revert to be in the top spots of the leaderboard. There is no doubt about it that Scott McLaughlin is hungry to win. With a rough weekend in Detroit, he's been eager to get to Road America and clean his slate.

Scott Dixon started falling back several spots after some issues with his Firestone Reds. He last pitted lap 17 and pitted again on lap 23. He also had a similar situation to Rahal with his left rear blistering all around the LR tire. Lap 24 it's still a Penske 1-2-3.

Fast Forward to the end of the race and It's still a Penske leading podium. Will Power was able to stay out longer than his teammates as he was on black primary tires resulting him the win of the race. This is Will Power's first win since Detroit 2022.

Jamie Chadwick Writes History at Road America

Jamie Chadwick is in her sophomore year with Andretti Global in the IndyNXT Series. Chadwick from Bath, United Kingdom is not new to racing. She has been racing for most of her life. However, this weekend at Road America she set the fastest qualifying lap giving her the pole position with a lap time of 1:51.033. Fast forward to Sunday, as the green flag waves she went into Turn 1 as the race leader. She led all 20 laps and snagged her first career win and also wrote history! There hasn't been an IndyNXT winner in 15 years! She is one of three to have done so. She is also the only female to have won an IndyNXT road course race and lead all laps! Congratulations to Jamie Chadwick!