Latest news with #Daytona
Daily Mail
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Lionel Messi spotted wearing '$2m' watch on Inter Miami sidelines... and there's only 10 of them in the world!
Though he wasn't able to play in Inter Miami's most recent match, Lionel Messi still caught attention as he stepped out in a luxury Rolex watch reportedly worth $2m. The former Barcelona and PSG star was suspended for Miami's clash against FC Cincinatti - along with defender Jordi Alba - after missing the MLS All-Star game. The MLS later announced their one-match ban for the Miami duo, who were then forced to watch from the sidelines as the side was held to a 0-0 draw on Saturday. However, eagled-eyed fans noted that Messi wore an incredibly rare - and expensive - luxury watch as he sat in the dugout at the Chase Stadium. Messi stepped out in the Rolex Daytona 'Barbie' for the game and, though there is no official price tag, valuations have ranged from $800,000 to $2million. Watch aficionados have also noted that there are just 10 of them in the world that exist, which makes the time piece an even more lucrative asset. The Daytona has become one of Rolex's most iconic and legendary chronograph's and the 'Barbie' variant is one that is seldom seen in public. Actor Mark Wahlberg has previously been spotted wearing the model at the start of the year, in one of the first sightings of the rare Rolex variant. Despite owning one of the rarest watches in the world, Messi is evidently not keen to overuse it and was not spotted with the time piece whilst at a recent Coldplay concert. Messi and his wife Antonella were seen in attendance at the gig in Miami on Sunday night, where they were shown on the venue's 'kiss cam'. Messi, 38, was seen attending the show at the Hard Rock Stadium with his wife and children on the final night of Coldplay's Music of the Spheres World Tour in the United States. At one point in the concert, he and Antonella were spotted on the band's 'kiss cam' as they waved while smiling to the crowd. The couple avoided becoming embroiled in a controversial incident, unlike Andy Byron and Kristin Cabot, who were caught with their arms around one another - before trying to avoid the camera on July 15 - in an incident that since went viral. Messi, meanwhile, was left 'extremely upset' by his recent one match ban, according to Inter Miami owner Jorge Mas. Messi, 38, was also seen attending the show at the Hard Rock Stadium with his wife and children on the final night of Coldplay's Music of the Spheres World Tour in the United States 'The reaction was exactly as expected out of two competitive players who don't understand the decision, who don't understand why not attending an exhibition leads directly to a suspension,' he said. 'The rule is what it is, but they don't understand it. I think that the punishment for the role is frankly draconian. 'I'm hopeful that it doesn't have an impact long-term. Will it have an impact initially, in the players' perception of how the league rules work? Absolutely no doubt.'
Hindustan Times
a day ago
- Automotive
- Hindustan Times
Motor racing-From farm to fame, Tandy recognised for 24 Hours grand slam
* HT Image Tandy recognised for 24 Hours grand slam * Only driver to win Le Mans, Nuerburgring, Spa and Daytona * Briton extended record to 'Big Six' in March * Presented with prestigious Segrave Trophy By Alan Baldwin LONDON, July 29 (Reuters) - Nick Tandy's thirst for speed began when he was barely a teenager, driving a combine harvester around an open field on his father's farm. The only driver to have won every 24-hour endurance race -- a grand slam of Le Mans, Nuerburgring, Spa and Daytona -- the Briton was honoured on Tuesday with the Royal Automobile Club's Segrave Trophy for outstanding exploits on land, sea or air. Past winners include Formula One champions Lewis Hamilton, Jackie Stewart, Damon Hill and Nigel Mansell. Speaking to Reuters at the London club, and slightly stunned to be there, the Porsche factory driver accepted his path was perhaps not the typical one. Driving the combine had certainly made him want to go faster, though. "You just wanted to get the job done so you could go out and play with your friends," he said. Tandy still helps out when he can, going from 250kph around a racetrack to the wheel of a tractor at walking pace with a harrow on the back. "Everyone has their own back story and I'm country folk," he said. "I enjoy going back to the countryside. "I struggle going to places like Monaco but everyone's different I guess." Tandy, now 40, took overall victory at Le Mans' Sarthe circuit a decade ago, a 2015 victory shared with Earl Bamber of New Zealand and German F1 driver Nico Hulkenberg. At the time it was a box ticked, a dream come true. "But then of course you wake up the very next morning and think 'Right. What's next?'," he said. The answer came in 2018 when he won the Nuerburgring 24 Hours, again with Porsche. In 2020 he conquered the Spa 24 Hours with Bamber and Belgian Laurens Vanthoor. That left Daytona and Tandy had won the U.S. race previously in the GT class. "Somebody said to me 'you do realise nobody has ever won them all, overall, and you've won three and you've got a class win at Daytona'. And I thought 'Oof! Now there's a challenge'," he recalled. The Briton succeeded last January with Brazilian Felipe Nasr and Vanthoor. Tandy also won the 2015 Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta, Georgia, and 12 Hours of Sebring in Florida last March -- becoming the first driver to win endurance racing's 'Big Six'. In a world where the car is more often the star, Tandy said he had been taken aback by the amount of interest suddenly penetrating his "little bubble". "I drive my little car in my little races around and around and kind of finish where we started up," he said. "I haven't been on water and driven a boat faster than anybody's ever done. I haven't won a world championship in a plane. I haven't circumnavigated the globe. "It makes you realise that what you've done actually is probably bigger than I ever thought." Comparisons have been made to double Formula One champion and Indianapolis 500 winner Jim Clark, an all-time great who came from a Scottish farming family and died in 1968. Tandy said being mentioned in the same breath as Clark was unbelievable but the background similarity was not such a surprise. "There's so many more other good drivers that come from farming," he said. "There's something about having the land available and growing up and driving machines, working on machines as well, and understanding mechanics. "I'm a professional racing driver... but when I come home, I can switch off and I go back to family life and working in my workshop, helping my dad on the farm. Just being a normal person." (Reporting by Alan Baldwin, editing by Christian Radnedge)
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Frankie Muniz latest actor-turned-driver out to prove he can compete in high-level racing
Frankie Muniz may be the only actor who has been nominated for an Emmy award and driven in a NASCAR event at Daytona. But if Muniz had been old enough to get a driver's license before he moved to Hollywood, there may never have been a "Malcolm in the Middle." 'When I'm in that race car and I put my visor down and I drive out of that pit lane, I feel like I'm exactly where I'm supposed to be,' he said. 'That's what I'm supposed to do and that's what I'm doing.' And acting? 'I don't feel like I'm a good actor,' he said. 'I know I can act. But when I look at good acting, I go 'dang, I could never do that'.' That's not true, of course. Muniz, who started acting when he was 12, has been credited in 26 films and 37 TV shows, including the title role in 'Malcolm in the Middle,' which earned him two Golden Globe nominations and one Emmy nod during its seven-year run on Fox. But acting was a profession. Racing is a passion. 'Excitement and all the emotions. That's what I love about racing,' he said. 'The highs are so high and the lows are unbelievably low. It's awesome.' Muniz placed 28th in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at Indianapolis Raceway Park on Friday. He is 23rd among the 64 drivers listed in the series points standings, with his one top-10 finish coming in the season opener at Daytona. Muniz, 39, isn't the first actor to try racing. Paul Newman was a four-time SCCA national champion who finished second in the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1979 while Patrick Dempsey ('Grey's Anatomy,' 'Can't Buy Me Love') has driven sports cars at Le Mans and in the Rolex 24 at Daytona, in addition to other series. But driving isn't a side hustle for Muniz, who last October signed with North Carolina-based Reaume Brothers Racing to be the full-time driver of the team's No. 33 Ford in the truck series. Muniz also raced twice last year in the NASCAR Xfinity Series. 'When I originally started racing, I was kind of at the height of my [acting] career. I had tons of offers to do movies and shows and all that,' said Muniz, who made his stock-car debut in the fall of 2021 in Bakersfield, then accepted an offer to drive full time in the ARCA Menards Series in 2023. 'Very easily could have stayed in that business. But I wanted to give racing a try. And to compete at the top level, you have to put in the time and effort that professional race car drivers are doing, right? You can't do it halfway.' Muniz was into racing before he even thought about acting. Growing up in North Carolina, he remembers waking early on the weekend to watch IndyCar and NASCAR races on TV. No one else in his family shared his interest in motorsports, so when his parents divorced shortly after Muniz was discovered acting in a talent show at age 8, his mother moved to Burbank, where he made his film debut alongside Louis Gossett Jr. in 1997's 'To Dance With Olivia.' Two years later he was cast as the gifted middle child of a dysfunctional working-class family in the successful sitcom 'Malcolm in the Middle.' Motorsports continued to tug at him so after running in a few celebrity events, Muniz twice put his acting career on hold to race, first in 2007 — shortly after 'Malcolm' ended after seven seasons and 151 episodes — when he started a three-season run in the open-wheel Atlantic Championship series. Read more: NASCAR announces race on U.S. Navy base in Coronado scheduled for 2026 Still, Muniz, who lives with his wife Paige and 4-year-old son Mauz in Scottsdale, Ariz., is dogged by criticism he is little more than a weekend warrior who is using his substantial Hollywood reputation and earnings to live out his racing fantasies. 'I don't spend any of my money going racing,' he said. 'I made a promise to my wife that I would not do that. So I can kill that rumor right there.' But those whispers persist partly because Muniz hasn't completely cut ties with acting. Because the truck series doesn't run every weekend, racing 25 times between Valentine's Day and Halloween, Muniz had time to tape a 'Malcolm in the Middle' reunion miniseries that is scheduled to air on Disney+ in December. He has also appeared in two other TV projects and two films since turning to racing full time. But his focus, he insists, is on driving. 'If I wanted to go racing for fun,' he said, 'I would not be racing in the truck series. I'd be racing at my local track or I'd be racing some SCCA club events. I want to be one of the top drivers there are. I want to make it as high up in NASCAR as I can. And I'm doing everything I can to do that.' Fame outside of racing can be a double-edged sword in the high-cost world of NASCAR. It can open doors to a ride and sponsorships others can't get, but it can also cause jealousy in the garage, with drivers crediting that fame and not talent for a rival's success. And Muniz isn't the only rookie driver who has had to deal with that. Toni Breidinger, who finished 27th in Friday's race and is one place and eight points ahead of Muniz in the season standings with nine races left, is a model who has posed for Victoria's Secret and been featured in the pages of Glamour, GQ and Sports Illustrated's swimsuit edition. She's also a good driver who has been going fast on a racetrack far longer than she's been walking slowly down a catwalk. 'I was definitely a racer before anything. That was definitely my passion,' said Breidinger, who started driving go-karts in Northern California when she was 9. 'I've been lucky enough to be able to do modeling to help support that passion. But at the end of the day, I definitely consider myself a racer. That's what I grew up doing and that's the career I've always wanted do to.' Still, she sees the two pursuits as being complementary. When Breidinger appears on a red carpet, as she did before this month's ESPY Awards in Los Angeles, it helps her modeling career while at the same time giving the sponsors of her racing team — which includes 818 Tequila, Dave & Buster's and the fashion brand Coach — added value. 'It's all part of the business. It all goes back into my racing,' said Breidinger, 26, who is of German and Lebanese descent. 'The side hustles, I like to call them. I don't think that takes away from me being a race car driver.' Breidinger, who won the USAC western asphalt midget series title as a teenager, raced in the ARCA Menards Series for five years before stepping up to truck series in 2021, making NASCAR history in 2023 when she finished 15th in her first race, the best-ever debut by a female driver. That helped her land a full-time ride this season with Tricon Garage, Toyota's flagship team in the truck series. Like Muniz, Breidinger sees the truck series, the third tier of NASCAR's national racing series, as a steppingstone to a seat in a Cup car. 'I want to climb the national ladder. That's what I'm here to do,' she said. 'I wouldn't be doing this if I didn't have long-term plans and long-term goals. I'm a very competitive person, especially with myself.' Kyle Larson, who climbed to the top of that ladder, running his first NASCAR national series race in a truck in 2012, then winning the 2021 Cup championship nine years later, said the path he took — and the one Muniz and Breidinger are following — is a well-worn one. Read more: NASCAR figuring out if building new track in Fontana is the 'right thing to do' 'Anybody racing in any of the three series has talent and ability enough to be there,' he said. Funding, Larson said, and not talent and ability, often determines how fast a driver can make that climb and that might be a problem for Muniz since Josh Reaume, the owner of the small three-truck team Muniz drives for, has complained about the price of racing. It can cost more than $3.5 million a year to field one competitive truck in the 25-race series — and that cost is rising, threatening to price many out of the sport. But having drivers like Muniz and Breidinger in NASCAR will help everyone in the series, Larson said, because it will bring in fans and sponsors that might not have been attracted to the sport otherwise. 'I just hope that he can get into a situation someday where you can really see his talent from being in a car or a truck that is better equipped to go run towards the front,' Larson said of Muniz. 'You want to see him succeed because if he does succeed, it's only going to do good things for our sport.' And if it works out the way Muniz hopes, perhaps he'll someday be the answer to another trivia question: Name the NASCAR champion who once worked in Hollywood. Get the best, most interesting and strangest stories of the day from the L.A. sports scene and beyond from our newsletter The Sports Report. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Washington Post
4 days ago
- Automotive
- Washington Post
Deep Reads: Chasing ghosts with Dale Earnhardt Jr.
In October 2023, Junior turned 49. That's the same age his dad was in 2001, when, before the last turn on the last lap of the Daytona 500, Dale Earnhardt Sr.'s car bumped into Sterling Marlin's, sending the iconic No. 3 careening into the wall at 160 mph. Reporter Kent Babb was studying journalism in college in 2002 when his grandmother called. 'They think he's gone,' she said, referring to Babb's father. His father's heart had become enlarged, and while he was painting a house one day, it just stopped. His dad was 51. Babb is 43 now, and since the day his dad died, there has been something unsettling to him about the idea of turning 51. This is common among people who've lost a parent young, or what is called an 'off-time' death. Psychologists suggest these feelings of anxiety and fear, alongside a gradually intensifying urge to learn about your bloodline, are like a final stage of grief. And it's one that most people, and in particular men, rarely talk about or explore. Babb wanted to talk about it, preferably with someone who understood. And though he never took to NASCAR, Babb knew he and Junior belonged to the same unfortunate club. Babb wondered if he thought about it, if he dreaded turning 49, how he was coping as he approached the age his daddy was. So, before his birthday in 2023, Babb asked if Earnhardt Jr. would be open to talking. He said yes. This story traces Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s relationship with his father and who he has become after his father's death. Kent Babb reported, wrote and narrated the piece. Bishop Sand composed music and produced audio for the piece. Subscribe to The Washington Post here.
Business Wire
6 days ago
- Automotive
- Business Wire
McPherson College Unveils Rare Ferrari Hanging From Ceiling as Centerpiece to New Student Center During Ribbon-Cutting Ceremony
MCPHERSON, Kan.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Today, McPherson College, located in McPherson, KS, officially opened its new student center – the Campus Commons – with a ribbon-cutting ceremony. As part of the event, a rare 1972 Ferrari 365 GTB/4 Daytona was lifted to the ceiling of the atrium, where it will serve as a striking centerpiece of this landmark building. The multi-level, 55,000-square-foot building features new dining options, a coffee shop, campus store, student collaboration and lounge spaces. As the only college in the U.S. offering a four-year degree in automotive restoration, it was fitting for McPherson College to showcase a unique classic automobile in its new building. The Daytona Ferrari, ranked by MotorTrend as the second greatest Ferrari of all-time, was donated in 2022 by California's Dr. Richard Lundquist, a Giving Pledge philanthropist, real estate developer, car collector, and McPherson College Trustee. Lundquist, the chief executive officer of Continental Development Corporation and one of California's most respected real estate owners and developers, along with his wife Melanie have been longtime supporters of the college, having committed $50 million. The Ferrari is one of the last models manufactured by Ferrari before the company founder and namesake, Enzo Ferrari, sold the company to Fiat. The two-seat grand tourer was designed by Pininfarina and built by Carrozzeria Scaglietti. 'I am honored that my Daytona will be the first car to hang from the ceiling of Campus Commons,' said Richard Lundquist. 'McPherson College and I have collectively owned this Ferrari Daytona for over fifty years. There is no greater home for this car than at McPherson College – and I am pleased that the students here can enjoy the car as much as I have. I also look forward to the day when my car is replaced by another, allowing McPherson students in the automotive restoration program the opportunity to meticulously restore the Ferrari.' McPherson College is recognized for its automotive restoration program, which is producing the next generation of automotive restorers. Graduates secure positions at some of the world's top car collectors, museums, and restoration companies. Their students won second in class in the 2023 Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance with an entirely student-restored 1953 Mercedes-Benz 300S Cabriolet. The new Campus Commons at McPherson College is part of a larger expansion effort by the college, which has seen campus size increase by 20% with nearly half of all existing buildings renovated since 2022. These renovations include all student dormitories, as well as athletic facilities, science labs, general education classrooms, and computer labs. 'This is a historic day for McPherson College. We have been rapidly expanding our campus to give students the best possible experience, and the Campus Commons will serve as a vibrant hub for our community,' said McPherson College President Michael Schneider. 'I am grateful to Richard and Melanie Lundquist for their continued generosity and support. When Richard donated his favorite classic car to McPherson College, he helped me fulfill my promise that someday there would be a Ferrari in our automotive restoration program.' In addition to the added dining and student amenities, Campus Commons will include a center for career and experiential learning, including the Student Debt Project, as well as a welcome center for prospective students and one-stop enrollment service to better serve students. The construction was completed by Dondlinger Construction, a Wichita-based construction company who have built and managed some of the most notable projects in Kansas since 1898. The Campus Commons' 'prairie-inspired' design is a homage to its Kansas roots, featuring a bright, glassy atrium that connects all three floors and showcases the Ferrari, honoring the college's Automotive Restoration program. The exterior of the building blends glass, metal, and wood with stone stair towers. Watch a time-lapse video of the car getting raised in the new building here. Editor's Note: Video footage and photos from the event can be found here. Photo and video credit: McPherson College. About McPherson College McPherson College offers more than 30 undergraduate degree programs to its more than 800 students, representing 33 states and seven countries. Its nationally renowned Automotive Restoration Technology degree program has earned the support of car collectors, including icon Jay Leno. In August 2023, its students competed and won second in class in the Postwar Luxury category at the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance, one of the automotive world's signature events. For more information, please visit:
