Tanner Foust wins Americas Rallycross title

Tanner Foust has emerged as the 2019 Americas Rallycross (ARX) Champion after the season-ending event at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.

Foust did everything he needed to at the final round of the event, wrapping up his first ARX championship title after the fourth qualifying race.

The #34 Rockstar Energy Drink Beetle R was fast from the get-go at Mid-Ohio, dominating the first two qualifying rounds, but suffered a penalty for contact with Steve Arpin's Ford in his Q3 Heat race, which put him on the back-foot for the next round of qualifying.

Still, a finish was all that was needed to take the title, while teammate Cabot Bigham led the way with a first-place finish in their Q4 Heat.

Foust finished second on the road in the other Semi-Final, but was given a dubious five-second penalty for transgressing track limits that dropped him to fourth place and thus out of the Final.

In spite of the setback, Foust said, "I couldn't be happier. The vision of racing a Beetle in a chaotic, aggressive sport like this seemed so crazy six or seven years ago and with the engineering of Volkswagen and the race capabilities of Andretti, they've come together to create a Goliath that has taken the whole sport of rallycross by storm. It's incredible to follow up on its legacy as the Beetle bows out of production. Hopefully, there's more fun stuff to come."

The Beetle R first competed in Rallycross in North America at the end of the 2014 season, which Foust and Scott Speed had started in the Volkswagen Polo R. The following year, 2015, was the first of five straight Rallycross titles for Volkswagen, Andretti Rallycross and the Beetle. Since then, the Beetle has taken three Global Rallycross driver titles, two Americas Rallycross driver championships, two Global Rallycross manufacturer wins and an ARX team title.