The 2026 Chesapeake Bay Concours will feature an invitational category for classic American pickup trucks. Get all the latest auto industry news in the Executive Briefing.
Today’s headlines:
+ New-vehicle inventory declined to 75 days in July as consumers bought vehicles faster than automakers could restock dealer lots, according to new Cox Automotive data. More at CBT News.
+ Stellantis has notified Unifor, the Canadian auto workers union, that it is considering the closure and sale of its Brampton, Ontario plant due to United States import tariff policy. More at U.S. News & World Report.
+ Lamborghini unveiled the Revuelto SV, its fastest and most powerful car to date with 1,050 V12/hybrid horsepower, a list price of $741,172, and production limited to 1,963 units. More at CNBC.
+ NASCAR Cup star Kyle Larson led all 50 laps to win the Knoxville Nationals in Knoxville, Iowa, his fourth title in six years in dirt sprint car racing’s Super Bowl event. More at Speed Sport.
+ Detroit’s automakers plan to warn the Trump administration that yet another revision of the North American trade agreement could cost the U.S. industry billions of dollars per year. More at Automotive World.
+ Battery giant CATL of China plans to expand its after-sales battery service to 100 cities worldwide in the second half of 2026, using robotics to cut repair time to 72 hours More at China Car News.
+ Hiroshi Okuda, who served as CEO and then chairman of Toyota from 1995 to 2006 and is regarded as a hybrid pioneer and the father of the Prius, has passed away at 93. More at The Drive.
+ A Polestar dealer is suing for $25 million, alleging that the carmaker’s stated U.S. departure due to federal software restrictions was only an excuse to abandon its dealers. More at Autoblog.
+ Honda Racing hopes that combustion engine upgrades can put the Japanese manufacturer back among the leading Formula 1 power unit suppliers by late 2027 or early 2028. More at Motorsport.com.
+ Bentley will be the featured marque at the 2026 Chesapeake Bay Concours on Sept. 25-27, while the invitational categories will include one for classic American pickup trucks. More at Old Cars.
Photo courtesy of the 2026 Chesapeake Bay Concours.
Review the previous MCG Executive Briefing from August 14 here.
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Call me crazy, but Kyle Larson DOMINATING the Knoxville Nationals doing double duty mirrors the legendary feats of A.J. Foyt and Dan Gurney winning Le Mans in 1967, and maybe even Charles Lindbergh crossing the Altantic Ocean!
The lone-wolf nature of sprint car racing at Knoxville, there is no pit stop during the feature, no spotter in your ear, no telemetry and no mirrors. We justvwitnessed HISTORY! It’s like seeing Juan Manuel Fangio balance a 410 wing sprint car perfectly on a razor’s edge in a crowd on dirt at 150 mph with no hotlaps, no practice, no qualifying…
Indeed. And just a few hours before that he ran 300 miles in the Cup race at Richmond, finishing 6th. The Cup race ended at 10:15 PM and the rain-delayed Knoxville feature started just after 2 AM.
He could win the Indy 500 and the IndyCar title with some seat time. No doubt in my mind. He’s a generational talent.
WARNING:
All motorists entering Ohio during winter now face an artificially slicked, high-risk statewide roadway network!
To the surprise of nobody, Ohio’s winter highway casualties have now surpassed a catastrophic crisis, as ODOT recently replaced traditional deicing with a new foofoo juice that caused winter crashes to double from 8,104 in 2024 to 15,647 in 2025 according to the Ohio Highway State Patrol. For those in the back, this secures Ohio’s position as the deadliest state in the nation for winter driving fatalities…
Source: Ohio State Highway Patrol (.gov) https://share.google/zd1CYIwXoWfYUYUzy
Here are three major recent loophole cascades likely driving Ohio’s record setting winter bloodbath:
■The H2Ohio Rivers Chloride Reduction Initiative to strictly limit/eliminate rock salt for road deicing.
■An updated ODOT Materials Application Guideline blending organic carbohydrate additives like “Beet Heet” with liquid pre-treatments.
■Ohio Senate Bill 329 permanently bans the spreading of radioactive carcinogen-heavy oilfield waste brine like AquaSalina ODOT previously used.
Because ODOT’s mandated new deicers are now apparently made up of over 75% water, any sudden drop in road surface temperature can cause their liquid pre-treatments/deicers to instantly flash into transparent sheets of invisible ice.
https://www.richlandsource.com/2026/01/01/ohio-state-highway-patrol-issues-winter-driving-safety-tips/
“That’s good enough for government work…”
Yes Viginia, ODOT’s post-modern deicing trucks and snowplows in Ohio now utilize automated, speed-synced spray bars using algorythms, software and air temperature sensors to regulate how much liquid hits the road per mile, while fully connected OTA to the cloud and GPS Automated Vehicle Location (AVL): WCPO 9 Cincinnati https://share.google/AhO3GaUDK898Jhh5t
Be advised that if ODOT, contractor or local government suffers a single mixing error or spraying malfunction, or if precipitation and/or passing traffic dilutes the mixture to 80% water from the 76.6% sprayed on the road, the precise chemical balance and equilibrium collapses, the freezing point of the liquid can spike back toward 32°F, causing it to rapidly flash freeze into a solid sheet of transparent, invisible “black” ice…
The Ohio cancer lukemia money machine is just more political selfishness data points of the retarded ODOT NEPA Assignment MOU’s, including NHTSA’s much abused 49 CFR Part 555 exemptions ODOT exploits now, both nothing more than immunity loophole cascades with no real time limits or any crash limits. These loophole cascades are wargamed and designed to bypass American safety standards written in blood, for the explicit financial benefit of the American litigation industry and it’s brothehood of ambulance chasers…