This Weekend's Racing Guide: F1 Returns to Spa, NASCAR Revives North Wilkesboro, and NHRA Hits Sonoma (July 16-19)
· Yahoo Sports
The July 16-19 weekend is stacked from Belgium to Tennessee to California, with seven different series sharing the same four days. Consider this your racing weekend guide: after last week's slate, Formula 1 returns from its summer break for the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps, NASCAR revives a beloved short track, IndyCar heads to Music City, and NHRA's nitro cars finally fire up again in Wine Country. Here's everything worth watching.
Formula 1: The Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps
Round 10 of the Formula 1 World Championship lands at Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps for the Belgian Grand Prix, one of the most demanding tracks on the calendar thanks to Eau Rouge, Raidillon, and the long Kemmel Straight. Practice begins Friday, July 17, qualifying runs Saturday, and the Grand Prix goes green Sunday, July 19. The Ardennes forest circuit is famous for creating its own weather, so a dry qualifying session guarantees nothing about race day.
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Spa is never just an F1 weekend. FIA Formula 2 and Formula 3 both run their own championship rounds on the support bill, and the Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup's Round 4 fills the schedule out even further, giving fans nearly wall-to-wall track action across all three days.
Charles Leclerc heads into Belgium off the back of his chaotic British Grand Prix win at Silverstone, and Spa's long straights and heavy braking zones have historically rewarded Ferrari's power unit.
NASCAR Cup Series: Window World 450 at North Wilkesboro Speedway
NASCAR's In-Season Challenge Round 4 lands at North Wilkesboro Speedway for the Window World 450, a 450-lap, 281.25-mile race on the historic 0.625-mile short track. Qualifying runs Friday, July 17, and the green flag drops Sunday, July 19 at 7:00 p.m. ET on TNT Sports and Max. North Wilkesboro's return to the Cup schedule has become one of the more beloved stops of the year, blending old-school short-track racing with a layout whose banked, technical corners still catch drivers out.
IndyCar: Borchetta Bourbon Music City Grand Prix at Nashville Superspeedway
The NTT IndyCar Series heads to Lebanon, Tennessee for the Borchetta Bourbon Music City Grand Prix at Nashville Superspeedway, with the green flag Sunday, July 19 at 5:30 p.m. ET on Fox. Josef Newgarden won this race a year ago, and the concrete oval's tricky, egg-shaped corners tend to bunch the field tightly and produce late-race chaos.
NHRA: DENSO NHRA Sonoma Nationals presented by PowerEdge
The NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series returns to action at Sonoma Raceway for the DENSO NHRA Sonoma Nationals presented by PowerEdge, running Friday, July 17 through Sunday, July 19. It's the tour's first event since its early-July break, and it lands on a road course where Shane van Gisbergen bullied the field in a NASCAR Cup car back in June, giving fans a second reason to pay attention to what Wine Country asphalt can do to a field.
WRC: Delfi Rally Estonia
Round 9 of the World Rally Championship heads to Tartu, Estonia for the Delfi Rally Estonia, running July 16-19. Known for its high-speed gravel roads and the famous Estonian jumps that send cars flying over blind crests, this is consistently one of the fastest and most spectacular rounds on the WRC calendar.
Also Racing This Weekend
A few more series are packing action into the same four days. The GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup runs its Round 5 at Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli in Italy, featuring a record 45-car GT3 field across the Pro, Gold, Silver, and Bronze classes, with two one-hour races Saturday and Sunday under Misano's lights. In Japan, Super Formula makes its second stop of the year at Fuji International Speedway, running three separate races across the weekend for the country's premier open-wheel series.
Who Sits This One Out
Not everyone is racing. MotoGP is between rounds after Germany, with the next stop not until Great Britain in August. WorldSBK just wrapped its UK round at Donington Park and won't return until France in September. IMSA's WeatherTech Championship is off until Road America closes out the month, and the FIA World Endurance Championship is on its own break after Brazil, with Lone Star Le Mans in September its next stop.
The Bottom Line on This Racing Weekend Guide
Where to watch: NASCAR Cup Series' Window World 450, North Wilkesboro Speedway, Sunday 7 p.m. ET on TNT Sports/Max. NTT IndyCar Series' Borchetta Bourbon Music City Grand Prix, Nashville Superspeedway, Sunday 5:30 p.m. ET on Fox. Formula 1's Belgian Grand Prix, Spa-Francorchamps, Sunday morning ET, check local listings and the F1 app for exact broadcast details. NHRA's Sonoma Nationals, Sonoma Raceway, all weekend, check NHRA.com for broadcast listings. WRC's Delfi Rally Estonia, Tartu, streaming via WRC+.
Seven series, four days, and almost no overlap in what each one demands from its drivers: Spa punishes power and bravery, North Wilkesboro rewards patience on a tight, banked short track, Nashville's concrete oval turns into a bumper-car derby, and Sonoma and Estonia test two completely different definitions of traction. That's the whole racing weekend guide in one paragraph: pick a series or watch all seven, since this is one of the fuller racing weekends of the summer.