Kimi Antonelli strengthened his grip on the Formula One championship Sunday with a Belgian Grand Prix victory, while the Cadillac team, with a headquarters under construction in Fishers, suffered another frustrating mechanical failure.

Antonelli briefly lost the lead when a virtual safety-car period gave Leclerc a more advantageous pit stop. The Mercedes driver closed the gap and passed Charles Leclerc with 10 laps remaining before pulling away for the victory.

Cadillac’s difficult day

Cadillac arrived in Belgium hoping the high-speed Spa circuit would show progress in the team’s first Formula One season. Instead, both cars started near the back and only one reached the checkered flag.

Valtteri Bottas, who started 17th after grid adjustments, finished 18th and one lap behind Antonelli. He nevertheless brought the car home ahead of Fernando Alonso’s Aston Martin, which finished two laps down.

Sergio “Checo” Pérez started 18th and initially moved closer to Esteban Ocon’s Haas. His race ended on Lap 13 when an internal component of the Cadillac’s rear suspension failed, according to the team’s Belgian Grand Prix race report.

“We are still investigating the reasons why,” Pérez said.

Pérez also said the Cadillac lacked straight-line speed, leaving him unable to sustain his fight with Ocon. The retirement continued a troubling reliability pattern for the first-year team, which also lost both cars to overheated brakes early in June’s Austrian Grand Prix.

Bottas said completing the race at least supplied engineers with useful information about the car’s reliability and tire degradation.

“We just need to keep pushing,” Bottas said.

Team principal Graeme Lowdon described Bottas’ drive as strong but said Cadillac must determine the cause of Pérez’s failure and regain the reliability it demonstrated earlier in the season.

Cadillac remains without a championship point after Belgium. The team’s next opportunity comes quickly: the Hungarian Grand Prix is scheduled for July 24-26 in Budapest.

A global race with a Fishers connection

Cadillac’s performance has special relevance in Central Indiana because its principal American headquarters is being built in Fishers.

The planned 400,000-square-foot facility will become the team’s headquarters and a major center for car manufacturing, according to Cadillac’s employment site. Cadillac is presently operating across multiple locations, including Silverstone, England, and GM’s motorsports operation in North Carolina.

TWG Motorsports CEO Dan Towriss said earlier this year that the Fishers construction could be completed late in 2026 or during the first quarter of 2027. He described it as a state-of-the-art facility that will operate alongside Cadillac’s European base, according to Formula One.

The Fishers operation ultimately is expected to handle much of Cadillac’s Formula One car production. For now, the team uses Ferrari engines and gearboxes while General Motors develops a Cadillac power unit targeted for competition in 2029.

That makes each race—including difficult afternoons such as Sunday’s in Belgium—part of the foundation for an international racing program whose long-term home is taking shape in Fishers.

Fishers residents are being advised to limit prolonged outdoor exposure Sunday and Monday as wildfire smoke is expected to push fine-particle pollution into a range considered unhealthy for sensitive groups.

The Indiana Department of Environmental Management has declared an Air Quality Action Day beginning at midnight Saturday night and continuing through Monday night. The alert includes Fishers and the rest of Hamilton County.

According to the National Weather Service alert, concentrations of PM 2.5 — extremely small airborne particles that can enter the lungs — are expected to reach levels considered unhealthy for sensitive groups.

Those groups include active children and adults, along with people who have asthma or other respiratory conditions. They are advised to limit prolonged outdoor exposure and reduce strenuous activity.

The alert could affect several outdoor activities in the Fishers area, including the free World Cup final watch party scheduled Sunday afternoon outside the Fishers Event Center.

The event is planned for the FORUM Credit Union Plaza at 11000 Stockdale St. Gates are scheduled to open at 2 p.m., with the game beginning at 3 p.m. Spectators have been encouraged to bring lawn chairs or blankets for the outdoor gathering.

As of Saturday evening, the Fishers Event Center continued to list the watch party on its website.

IDEM recommends that residents avoid or limit exposure to wildfire smoke, reduce strenuous outdoor work and keep windows and doors closed as much as possible. Additional air-quality information is available through the agency’s SmogWatch website.

PM 2.5 pollution can be difficult to see or smell, meaning outdoor conditions may appear normal even when particle concentrations are elevated. Residents experiencing breathing problems or other symptoms should move indoors and follow guidance from their health-care provider.

A lightning strike sparked a fire at a Fifth Third Bank, 11662 Commercial Drive, in Fishers during Friday evening’s commute, prompting a multiagency emergency response.

The Fishers Fire Department said all bank employees evacuated safely before firefighters arrived. Crews contained the fire and prevented it from spreading farther through the building. No injuries were reported.

The response may have caught the attention of drivers traveling through the area Friday evening. Fishers police assisted with traffic control and used a drone to support the operation, while the Indianapolis Fire Department provided additional assistance. Fishers Fire Corps supplied rehabilitation services—including rest and hydration—for crews at the scene.

Officials did not release details about the extent of the damage, the exact time of the fire or whether the building would remain closed. No additional cause beyond the reported lightning strike was announced.

Hamilton County Republican Party Chairman Mario Massillamany on Saturday dismissed Democratic Chair Josh Lowry’s call for Election Administrator Beth Sheller’s resignation as a “clown show,” and countered with an accusation of his own: that Lowry once submitted incorrect paperwork that cost his own party 18 convention delegates.

The exchange is the latest in a fast-moving war of words that began Thursday night, when President Trump delivered a prime-time address repeating his claims that the 2020 election was “rigged, fraudulent, and not secure.” Lowry seized on the speech Friday, arguing that because Republicans held every office overseeing Hamilton County’s 2020 election, Trump’s claims — if true — would mean “Republicans cannot be trusted to run elections in Indiana.” He called on voters to reject every Republican on the November ballot and demanded that Sheller, the Republican candidate for county clerk, resign immediately.

Sheller refused, saying she has administered 11 elections and that a bipartisan county election board tested the machines and certified the 2020 results.

Massillamany echoed that defense in blunter terms.

“Josh Lowry wants Hamilton County voters to fire Beth Sheller, the woman who has personally run eleven elections in this county … with zero credible allegations of wrongdoing — because a president said something in a speech,” he wrote. “That’s not an argument. That’s a Mad Libs page: insert ‘Trump said a thing,’ conclude ‘therefore my opponent should resign.'”

The Republican chairman noted that the county’s bipartisan election board — which includes a Democratic appointee — certified the 2020 results as accurate. “Josh’s own party signed off on it,” he wrote. “If he has a problem with that outcome, he can take it up with his own appointee.”

Massillamany then went on offense, claiming Lowry “personally submitted incorrect delegate numbers and cost Hamilton County Democrats 18 delegates,” and that the error was Lowry’s alone because the election office processes, but does not audit, party chairs’ submissions.

“Before he questions whether Beth Sheller can be trusted to hold elected office, he might want to explain how he can be trusted to count to eighteen,” Massillamany wrote.

Lowry did submit an incorrect delegate allocation in December 2025, sending county election officials a township breakdown totaling 144 delegates even though the Indiana Democratic Party had allotted Hamilton County 162. Lowry acknowledged that he mistakenly copied an earlier draft. The error initially left 18 positions off the May primary ballot, but Lowry said the state party would fill those positions through its rules process and that Hamilton County would retain its full 162-member delegation.

Massillamany characterized Trump’s remarks as being “about a different state entirely.” The president’s 25-minute address did not single out Indiana; it alleged nationwide vulnerabilities, including a claim that China acquired data on 220 million American voters. Trump offered no new evidence of fraudulent votes, and the dozens of lawsuits challenging the 2020 results were rejected by the courts. Election officials of both parties have repeatedly affirmed the security of the 2020 election.

Notably, neither county chairman has disputed the security of Hamilton County’s own elections. Lowry’s release framed its argument as conditional — “if President Trump is correct” — while Sheller and Massillamany both pointed to the bipartisan certification of the 2020 count as evidence the system worked.

The dispute unfolds against the backdrop of this fall’s clerk’s race, in which Sheller is the Republican nominee. Voters will decide the contest in November.

Another very busy period of road construction in and around Fishers for the coming week.  Work continues to restrict traffic at two major site, 116th & Allisonville Road, along with Southeastern Parkway and Olio Road.  There are many other projects going on as well.

The work at I-69 & I-465, the Clear Path project, is making strides so be aware of constant changes at that location.

Also, note these two important items at the 116th St., Allisonville Road construction site:

• The west leg of Fishers Crossing Boulevard at Allisonville Road will close Thursday, July 23, for approximately three weeks. Drivers will not be able to enter or leave the shopping-center area through that connection.
• A new traffic pattern is now in effect at 116th Street and Allisonville Road. Outside lanes are closed, with traffic shifted to inside lanes and designated turn lanes through early October.

Also, an overnight water-valve replacement near 111th Street and Allisonville Road is also scheduled from 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, July 22, until approximately 6 a.m. Thursday.

Here is the full listing, as provided by the City of Fishers, for thew week of Sunday, July 19:

🚩Traffic News – At a Glance🚩

• 96th Street and Cyntheanne Road – Full Closure
• 136th Street Widening – Southeastern Parkway to Prairie Baptist Road – follow detour route
• 116th and Allisonville Intersection Improvements Project – Down to one lane in all directions
• Southeastern Parkway & Olio Road Roundabout Improvements – Periodic lane restrictions
• 131st Street Road Closure – Follow posted signage (July 13-20)
• 126th Street – single-lane restrictions (Beginning July 13)

Fishers Crossing Blvd – closed west of Allisonville beginning July 23 (For three weeks)

Continue reading Fishers Area Road Construction Update – week beginning Sunday, July 19 →

Hamilton County Democratic Party Chair Josh Lowry on Friday called on voters to reject every Republican on this fall’s ballot and demanded the resignation of Election Administrator Beth Sheller, the Republican candidate for county clerk — a demand Sheller flatly rejected.

Lowry’s statement came a day after President Trump, in a prime-time address from the White House, repeated his claims that the 2020 election was “rigged, fraudulent, and not secure,” alleging among other things that China acquired the data of 220 million American voters. The president offered no new evidence of fraudulent votes, and the dozens of lawsuits he and his allies filed challenging the 2020 results were rejected by the courts.

Lowry’s release turned the president’s allegations into an argument against local Republicans, noting that the 2020 election in Hamilton County was conducted under a Republican governor and secretary of state at the state level, and a Republican clerk and Republican election administrator at the county level.

“If President Trump is correct, then the 2020 election was not secure while being operated exclusively by Republicans,” Lowry wrote. “That leads to the only obvious conclusion: Republicans cannot be trusted to run elections in Indiana.”

The release singled out Sheller, who was election administrator in 2020 and is seeking the clerk’s office in November. “If she oversaw the most fraudulent election of all time, she cannot be trusted to hold an elected office that gives her even more power over elections,” Lowry wrote, calling on her to resign immediately.

In a written response, Sheller said she has no intention of stepping down.

“My record in planning and supervising elections speaks for itself,” she said, crediting the county’s clerk and election staff along with “at least 1,000 Democrat and Republican absentee board workers, traveling board workers, and poll workers” who serve in every election. “I will not let anyone downplay or question the job that these workers do. I have absolutely no intention of letting down these workers or Hamilton County voters by resigning from my position.”

Sheller, who said she has administered 11 elections in the county, offered what she called “a little election lesson”: most election procedures are set by state law, she said, and remaining decisions fall to a bipartisan county election board made up of the clerk and one appointee each from the Democratic and Republican party chairs. That board oversaw the public testing of voting machines in 2020 and certified the results.

“This bipartisan team approved and signed off on the 2020 election stating that the results were accurate,” she said. “Hamilton County voters will continue to see our elections be run with integrity and honesty.”

Sheller did not address the president’s speech directly, saying she does not know how other counties and states run their elections. “My heart is in Hamilton County,” she said.

In Thursday’s 25-minute address, Trump claimed declassified documents show American voting systems are vulnerable to being “rigged and stolen.” Election officials of both parties have repeatedly affirmed the security of the 2020 vote, and a group of 24 Democratic governors responded that the nation’s elections “have repeatedly been proven to be safe and secure.”

Lowry closed his release by quoting the president — “We want those elections to be honest” — and said that starts in Hamilton County. Voters will decide the clerk’s race in November.

Bill Stuart, the lone Democrat on the Fishers City Council, is calling on residents to reject the message of Greg Bovino, the former U.S. Border Patrol commander scheduled to keynote a rally in Fishers August 1 organized by the group Save Heritage Indiana.

“I am deeply disturbed to see that Greg Bovino, the architect of President Trump’s most aggressive immigration enforcement measures, will be speaking at an event on August 1st in our hometown of Fishers promoting mass deportations,” Stuart, who represents the Southwest District, said in a written statement.

Bovino served as commander-at-large of the Border Patrol from October 2025 until January of this year, leading high-profile immigration enforcement operations in Los Angeles, Chicago, Minneapolis and other cities. He was removed from that post in January following the deaths of two U.S. citizens during enforcement operations, and retired from the agency at the end of March.

Stuart called Bovino “an extremist when it comes to immigration,” citing his claim that as many as 100 million people are in the country illegally, and blaming his tactics for the deaths of American citizens “who were expressing their constitutional right to free speech.”

“As a country, we need to have constructive discussions about appropriate levels of immigration and the security of our borders,” Stuart said. “Bovino, however, simply fans the flames of hate and fear. He is someone who further divides us instead of helping to find solutions.”

Noting that a substantial share of Fishers residents were born outside the United States — most here legally and “making positive contributions to our community” — Stuart closed with an appeal: “Please join me in standing united with our friends and neighbors in Fishers and reject Bovino and his message.”

Stuart’s statement stands in contrast to the approach taken by Mayor Scott Fadness, who addressed the rally in a recent podcast interview with LarryInFishers. Fadness said the city had no role in bringing the event to Fishers and acknowledged there are aspects of the organization he “certainly wouldn’t personally agree with,” but declined to condemn the rally or its speakers, citing the First Amendment.

“When I swore an oath to serve this community and uphold the Constitution, I did not swear an oath to ensure that you’re never offended by what others may say,” Fadness said, warning against giving any mayor “the arbitrary ability to censor or shut down a person’s rights.”

The mayor said Fishers police are working to identify the rally site — which organizers plan to disclose only to ticket holders — so officers can protect both attendees and counter-protesters. A counter-protest is being organized by a local group.

The rally is set for 7 p.m. August 1.

When I played wiffle ball more than 60 years ago, the idea of a professional wiffle ball league was beyond belief. On this week’s edition of the Fridays With Larry podcast, I talk with an 18-year-old from Fishers who is living that once-unimaginable life.

Connor Smith plays professionally for the Atlanta Ballers, a team whose owners include former NFL wide receiver Julio Jones and the musician Nelly. Smith was drafted 10th overall, along with his best friend and longtime teammate, after the two won a major tournament in Texas that caught the league’s attention.

Smith’s road to the pros began during the COVID pandemic, when boredom sent him down a YouTube rabbit hole of wiffle ball videos and his father ordered two yellow bat-and-ball sets for backyard games with neighborhood friends. One of those bats broke. The other is the same bat Smith has been swinging in Atlanta this season.

After 12 years of organized baseball that came with mounting pressure and anxiety, Smith calls wiffle ball his “happy place.”

“When I walk on a wiffle ball field, I’m truly there, I’m truly in the moment,” Smith told me.

The two compare notes on how the backyard game has changed. Pitchers now cut patterns into the ball to create eye-popping breaking pitches, and Smith’s league enforces a 75-mile-per-hour speed limit on pitches to encourage offense. Games are available on ESPN+, and the league’s World Series will air on ESPN2 from the Disney Wide World of Sports complex.

Smith isn’t banking his future on wiffle ball, though. He is preparing to become an elementary school teacher and hopes the summer wiffle ball season will provide a second income alongside the classroom.

Larry uses the conversation as a jumping-off point to look at the decline of unstructured, kid-organized play. Children today spend about 35% less time in outdoor free play than their parents did, only about 6% of kids ages 9-13 ever play outside unsupervised, and teens now average roughly eight and a half hours of daily screen time. Youth sports participation is at record levels, Larry notes, but nearly all of it is scheduled, supervised and paid for — with costs up 46% just since 2019.

Also in this episode: Larry digs into an overlooked economic headline — American worker productivity is growing at its fastest pace in more than 20 years, and AI isn’t the reason — and closes with the story of more than 600 trombonists in Ipswich, Queensland, Australia, who broke a Guinness World Record by playing “76 Trombones” together.

Fridays With Larry is sponsored by Citizens State Bank.

Listen to the podcast using this link, or watch the episode on YouTube at this link, or utilize the links below.

The Fishers Freight brought their playoff push to King Jugg Brewing Tuesday night, as broadcaster Andrew Smith hosted head coach Dixie Wooten and running backs Josiah King and Dominic Roberto for the latest edition of Coach’s Corner.

The stakes could not be clearer. The Freight (8-7) close the regular season Sunday, July 26, at 4pm against the Orlando Pirates at the Fishers Event Center, with the winner claiming a playoff spot in the Indoor Football League’s loaded Eastern Conference.

“Basically, Orlando is a playoff game,” Wooten said. “Whoever wins is in, and we get to do it in front of our fans in Fishers.”

Much of the evening looked back at Saturday’s 49-35 road win over the Quad City Steamwheelers, a bounce-back performance after a rough outing at Green Bay. Wooten credited a defense that set the tone early with a safety and a defensive touchdown, then closed the game with takeaways. Jaylin Swan read a quarterback draw and forced a fumble with Quad City driving for the lead, and a Marcus Gray tip turned into a Jacorey Benjamin interception in the final minutes.

“Our defense came to play,” Wooten said. “Those guys locked in this week.” He also praised the speed of Raneiria Dillworth at linebacker — “he doesn’t give the quarterback time to even think” — and the return of Gray, the heart-and-soul safety who had missed two games.

Special teams may have been the difference. Kicker Calum Sutherland accounted for nine points with four deuces — kickoffs through the uprights, worth two in the IFL — a rouge and a 54-yard field goal. Sutherland now has 20 deuces on the season, within reach of the league record of 22. King supplied the dagger, taking a late kickoff back for a touchdown after Quad City had pulled within a score.

“We know for a fact that if we win the special teams, we win the ball game,” Wooten said.

King and Roberto, who have combined for 37 touchdowns this season, kept things light when they joined Smith on stage. Roberto admitted he gets mad when King stays in for an extra play. “You already had your three plays,” he laughed. “It keeps it fun, it keeps it competitive. I wouldn’t have anybody else in that backfield.”

Both backs credited an offensive line that includes Navaughn Donaldson, Kordell Brewster and LaQuinston Sharp. “We’re not getting touched until the second level,” Roberto said. “We’re averaging five yards a carry, easy.”

The finale carries extra meaning for Roberto, a Furman product who spent time in a New Orleans Saints camp and played for Orlando last season before being cut ten weeks in. “I went into that game with a chip on my shoulder,” he said of the Freight’s earlier win over the Pirates, adding that nobody wants to tackle “a 230-plus-pound back every single play.”

King, a Corpus Christi native who arrived midseason last year, said the fans keep him in Fishers — along with meeting his future wife here. “It was just a big blessing.”

The Freight have a bye this week, but Wooten said his team will still practice, using the extra time to heal up and prepare for what he called the biggest game in franchise history.

Coach’s Corner returns to King Jugg on Tuesday, July 21, to preview the finale. Tickets for the July 26 game are available through the Fishers Event Center.

With a politically charged rally planned in Fishers for August 1, Mayor Scott Fadness sat down with me at City Hall for a wide-ranging podcast conversation about free speech, public safety and what he sees as the proper role of a mayor when national controversies land on the city’s doorstep.

A group called Save Heritage Indiana, led by organizer Daniel Poynter, has scheduled a rally for 7 p.m. August 1 at a location to be disclosed only to ticket holders shortly beforehand. Organizers say the event is about the rule of law; the Southern Poverty Law Center describes the group as anti-immigrant, a characterization Poynter disputes. Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith is expected to appear in video remarks, and a local group is planning a counter-protest.

Fadness said the city had no role in bringing the event here. “There’s been no coordination or conversation with City Hall,” he said, adding that there are aspects of the organization “I certainly wouldn’t personally agree with.”

The mayor said he has received a flood of emails demanding he stop the rally, and he pushed back on the idea that he could — or should — have that power. “When I swore an oath to serve this community and uphold the Constitution, I did not swear an oath to ensure that you’re never offended by what others may say,” he said. “People want me to do away with the events that they don’t like. But what happens if there’s someone else in this role and they have a very different opinion about things, and they start taking away events that you support?”

On private property, he noted, the city has no authority over content unless laws are broken. The Fishers Police Department is working to identify the rally site in advance so it can protect attendees and protesters alike.

Roughly 11.5 percent of Fishers residents are foreign-born — about double the state average — and members of the city’s large Muslim community have said they feel targeted by the event. Fadness said he hopes the culture Fishers has built “is far stronger than any one event,” and described his practice of keeping an open line of communication with the local mosque and other community groups.

Asked what success looks like on the morning of August 2, his answer was simple: “That everyone’s safe.”

The conversation also covers where protected speech ends and intimidation begins, the cost of a mayor’s silence, lessons from 2020, and Fadness’s advice for disagreeing with a neighbor — starting with finding what you have in common.

The LarryInFishers.com Podcast series is sponsored Citizens State Bank.