Three world champions podiumed in the Australian Grand Prix on Sunday. Lewis Hamilton led for a spell but, after being overtaken by Max Verstappen, spent most of the race with Fernando Alonso close behind him in the second-place battle. Verstappen got his well-deserved win this time, and the three shared the podium. But the driver of the Day Award went to Skip Barber Graduate Sergio Perez. Checo had a terrible final practice on Saturday, running off the track four times and complaining about an issue before duly getting stuck in the gravel at Turn 3 on his first flyer. Without a time, he started the race in pit lane, tasked with fighting through the rest of the cars and seeing how many points he could gain. Overtake after overtake, Perez ended up fifth. Checo also claimed the fastest lap at the 2023 Australian Grand Prix to add to his impressive points haul. “What a crazy race! At the end, we had a good recovery and managed to minimize the damage from a very frustrating Saturday. Good result for the team at the end. Now looking forward to the next one in Baku.” The Mexican is one point behind team-mate Max Verstappen in the early championship standings. Fans of the IndyCar saw Skip Barber Racing School graduate Josef Newgarden win his first NTT IndyCar Series race of the 2023 season in Sunday’s PPG 375 at Texas Motor Speedway. The race was almost a repeat of last season. Felix Rosenqvist qualified on pole position and Josef Newgarden walked away with a thrilling victory, in both events. Newgarden got his start in karts and was runner-up in the Skip Barber Southern Regional Series. The final restart with 12 laps remaining saw a pack of contenders battling side-by-side for the win. The Tennessee native took the lead after a late restart and held off the advances of Pato O’Ward to claim his third win at Texas. Other notable Skip Barber Graduates finishers included: 7th Colton Herta 14th Ed Capenter 20th Connor Daly 21st Santino Ferucci 22nd Alexander Rossi 24th Graham Rahal 27th Kyle Kirkwood In just his 10th start, Skip Barber Graduate and NASCAR Xfinity Series Rookie Chandler Smith earned his first career victory Saturday afternoon at Richmond Raceway, holding off fellow Skip Barber Graduate John Hunter Nemechek on a final race restart with six laps remaining to hoist the ToyotaCare 250 trophy. "It feels great," Smith said. "Here we are at Richmond, my favorite racetrack, and we're sitting in victory lane. This is unbelievable." In 2022, Smith spent the day with our Instructors learning the quickest way around the Circuit of the Americas. The race marked another runner-up finish at the 0.75-mile Richmond track for Nemechek, who ran an admirable race on Saturday. The driver of the No. 20 car found himself in 32nd at the end of Stage 2 — only to rise through the field and then find himself leading before the final restart. Nemechek has three second place finishes including a NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race and the last two NASCAR Xfinity Series races there. John Hunter is the son of another famous Skip Barber Graduate “Front Row Joe”. Other notable Skip Barber Graduates finishers included: 8th Parker Kligerman 9th Austin Hill 28th Connor Mosack 38th Anthony Alfredo Four Skip Barber Graduates finished in the top eight on Sunday at Richmond Raceway, with the top finisher Ross Chastain finishing 3rd and Michael McDowell finishing sixth — his first top-10 finish of the year. Reigning series champion Joey Logano was seventh, Alex Bowman finished 8th, with Kyle Laron prevailed for his first win of 2023 for Hendrick Motorsports. The win was more emotional than some. His Chevrolet mirrored the paint scheme once run by Ricky Hendrick, who died in a plane crash along with nine others in 2004. Sunday would have been Ricky Hendrick’s 43rd birthday. Josh Berry came close to being the first in 21 years while filling in for Chase Elliott. “Jeff Gordon was my hero when I was a kid,” he said. “That’s pretty amazing, man. So to be able to drive for them and to finish second place, I mean, it just really exceeds all my expectations.” Jeff did his 3-Day racing school at Road America with Instructor Barry Waddell who today coaches and spots for Meyer Shank Racing. Other notable Skip Barber Graduates finishers included: 14th Kyle Busch 15th Todd Gilliland 17th Chandler Smith 19th Harrison Burton 22nd Bubba Wallace 25th Austin Dillon 27th A.J. Allmendinger 28th Austin Cindric 30th Chris Buescher 31st Erik Jones 32nd Ty Dillon 33rd Anthony Alfredo 35th Ricky Stenhouse Jr. 37th Noah Gragson