A new season of Mazda MX-5 Cup racing kicked off this week in Daytona, and the spec series is already delivering its usual thrills. When the traveling circus of Miatas visits the superspeedway, you can expect bump drafting and super-close finishes. But the second of this year’s two races also served up a real-life reenactment of Pixar’s Cars.
About halfway through the race, the number 95 car—wearing a Lightning McQueen tribute livery and driven by Julian DaCosta—was taken out by the number 86 car, driven by Farhan Siddiqi and dressed up like McQueen’s nemesis from the 2006 animated film, Chick Hicks. Both cars were entered by BSI Racing. The crash at Daytona’s Le Mans Chicane ended the race for both DaCosta and Siddiqi, who started 12th and 39th, respectively, in the field of 45 identically-prepped ND Miatas.
A closer look at the crash, which occurs at about the 29:43 mark in the broadcast replay on the IMSA YouTube channel, shows that Siddiqi wasn’t getting into character, and he didn’t break the golden rule of racing (don’t hit your teammate) on purpose. A few cars bunched up heading into the chicane, with the JTR Motorsports Engineering No. 81 of Chris Hutter (in snazzy Richard Petty STP blue and orange) spinning through the pack. By the time Siddiqi makes contact with DaCosta, he’s no longer in control of the car, likely due to damage at the right front corner that’s left a wheel jutting out at an odd angle.
2026 IMSA Whelen Mazda MX-5 Cup at Daytona International Speedway | Race 2 | Daytona Beach, Florida
The BSI Racing brass probably weren’t thinking of this result when they chose the Cars liveries, but perhaps they should’ve known better. The team did get a good result out of this race, though, as Tyler Gonzalez finished second in the No. 57 Miata, another of eight cars BSI fielded. Gonzalez finished just 0.05 seconds behind winner and defending MX-5 Cup champion Jeremy Fletcher, battling him all the way through the final lap.
Now in its 21st season, the MX-5 Cup is the most visible Mazda racing program in the United States, as the automaker has scaled back other motorsports activities (RIP, Mazda RT24-P). But with action like this, it’s hard to think of a better way to represent the “Zoom Zoom” brand on the track.