Larson Starts 22nd at Phoenix, Plus the $1,500 Flying Car — Car News, Oct 18

NASCAR at Phoenix

Blaney grabs pole, Larson starts 22nd, and the Chase gets tight

Ryan Blaney put his Team Penske Ford on pole for today’s Freeway Insurance 500 with one lap at 137.143 mph, a 26.250-second trip around Phoenix Raceway’s one-mile oval. Teammate Joey Logano missed it by just 0.032 seconds, so Penske owns the whole front row.

Behind them sits a wall of title contenders. Chase Briscoe starts third, Denny Hamlin fourth and Christopher Bell fifth. Tyler Reddick and Ty Gibbs fill sixth and seventh. In other words, six of the top seven are fighting for the championship.

The man they’re chasing is buried. Points leader Kyle Larson complained about his car’s balance all day and will roll off 22nd. Here’s why that matters: in the last 18 Cup races at Phoenix, no winner started deeper than 13th, and all but three came from the top 10. Phoenix is short, flat and hard to pass on. Track position is gold.

This is the seventh race of NASCAR’s new Chase, with the title decided at Homestead-Miami on November 8. Hamlin trails Larson by 49 points, Bell by 51, Briscoe by 65, Blaney by 85 and Logano by 92. Think of it like a marathon where the leader just tripped at mile 20: he’s still ahead, but everyone behind smells blood.

Watch three storylines. First, Blaney is chasing a third straight Phoenix win, and this is already his fifth pole of 2026. Second, Briscoe wants a third straight Chase victory after Las Vegas and Charlotte. Third, Logano, a four-time Phoenix winner, has called his own spot “pretty desperate”: with four races left, he basically needs to win.

Why it matters to you: if Larson can’t climb the order, stage points could swing the title picture before Homestead. The race airs on USA Network and HBO Max in the US. For fans in Nairobi, that’s a 10pm green flag tonight, which makes it a proper late-night watch.

Car History

Convair’s ConvAirCar: 160,000 sales planned, one bumpy landing

November 18, 1947, somewhere over San Diego. A small, bubble-shaped car is flying with a full-size wing and propeller bolted to its roof. Then the engine goes quiet. The pilot, Reuben Snodgrass, glides it down to a forced landing on open ground. He walks away with minor injuries. The car body is wrecked.

This week Tesla made headlines with a Roadster that supposedly flies. Nearly 80 years ago, one of America’s biggest aircraft makers tried to sell the real thing to ordinary families. Most people have never heard of it.

Here’s what most people don’t know. First, the company behind it was Consolidated Vultee, better known as Convair, the firm that built thousands of B-24 bombers in World War II. Designer Ted Hall’s earlier prototype, the Model 116, first flew on July 12, 1946.

Second, it was really two vehicles. The car had a tiny 25 hp Crosley engine in the back. The detachable wing unit carried its own 190 hp Lycoming aircraft engine. You drove to the airport, latched on the wing and took off.

Third, the business plan was wildly confident. The car part was meant to cost about $1,500, and Convair talked of 160,000 orders. The idea was that you’d own the car, then rent a wing at the airport, like hiring a trailer today.

Fourth, that crash came within weeks of the Model 118’s first flight. The museum record simply calls it a low-fuel forced landing. A popular story says the pilot checked the car’s fuel gauge instead of the plane’s. It’s a great tale, but it isn’t confirmed by the museum’s own record, so treat it as legend. A second prototype flew in January 1948, but interest faded and Convair cancelled the program. It never reached production.

Why it still matters: the ConvAirCar hit the same walls every flying car since has hit. It was two machines’ worth of weight, cost and paperwork, wrapped in one dream. Even its “rent the wing” plan sounds a lot like today’s subscription pitches. The next time a carmaker promises you’ll fly to work, remember the little Crosley that landed in the dirt.

GT World Challenge

A penalty wrecks Verstappen’s Portimao win bid

Max Verstappen spent his F1 weekend off racing a Mercedes-AMG GT3 in the GT World Challenge Europe finale in Portugal. It went sideways before he even climbed in. Teammate Chris Lulham was handed a drive-through for spinning Luca Stolz on a Safety Car restart, and the team served it with 53 minutes left.

Verstappen took over in 24th and charged to ninth, missing eighth by three-tenths of a second. Fabian Schiller won in another Mercedes. Lulham then faced online abuse, and Verstappen publicly backed him.

United States GP

Norris says McLaren is “a long way off” before Austin

Formula 1 returns at the Circuit of The Americas on October 23–25, and the reigning champion isn’t sounding hopeful. Lando Norris says his McLaren is too slow and too hard to drive, living on a knife edge in every corner. He expects Red Bull, Mercedes and Ferrari to be stronger in Texas.

Norris is fifth in the standings. Since his Dutch GP win, McLaren’s only podium was his third in Spain, while Verstappen has won twice and Red Bull is closing in on the constructors’ lead.

African Grand Prix

Rwanda’s F1 track gets a signature corner

Former F1 driver Alex Wurz, whose firm is designing Rwanda’s circuit with Tilke Engineering, has picked Turn 2 as its star. Cars plunge down a slope steeper than 10%, hit a compression, then climb a near-15% hill at about 240 km/h.

The layout has 17 corners and 197 metres of elevation change, with hints of Spa and Suzuka. The race is due in the early 2030s, ending a wait that goes back to South Africa’s last Grand Prix in 1993. For East African fans, that’s a race a short flight from Nairobi.

Singapore Fallout

Hamilton and Verstappen agree: Marina Bay needs a longer straight

Rare unity from old rivals. Lewis Hamilton wants a longer straight added to Singapore’s street circuit, saying it’s great over one lap but offers maybe one real passing spot. Verstappen backed a longer straight or a proper hairpin, but said the cars also need more of a power boost to pass.

Both, plus Charles Leclerc, say Sprints belong on tracks where overtaking is easier. Singapore isn’t on the 10-Sprint calendar for 2027.