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By NAPA
It was take two for High Limit Racing at Riverside International Speedway in West Memphis, Arkansas, last week after the original date of April 9 was postponed due to heavy rain in the days prior. Race fans eager to see some 410 sprint car action packed the stands, leaving standing room only by the time Brad Sweet hit the track for hot laps in the
link hidden, please login to view No. 49 machine. Sweet was lightning-fast right away, clocking a lap time of 11.266 seconds in qualifying, putting him in the top spot and within just two-tenths of the track record. It marked Sweet’s fifth QuickTime award on the season, all achieved within a ten-race span.
As the evening unfolded, Sweet found himself starting fourth in his heat race, where he maintained his position to the checkered flag. Though finishing fourth, the Big Cat still earned a trip to the Dash as the fastest qualifier.
Drawing the third starting spot for the Dash, the NAPA team had seven laps to gain a better starting spot and test their setup in the feature. Sweet mounted a thrilling battle for second but ultimately crossed the line in third. He lined up in that spot for the main event, and the feature went green. The NAPA driver navigated the track to the best of his abilities as the laps ticked by. With an extended mid-race caution, the No. 49 team tried to modify their strategy. Sweet faced fierce competition and a challenging track surface but brought the NAPA Auto Parts No. 49 to the finish line in fourth place.
Start / Finish: 3 / 4
Points Standing / Total: 2 / 662 pts. (-17)
Next Race: Wednesday, May 1, 81 Speedway, Park City, KS
How to Watch or Listen:
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By Counterman
In his chairman’s message to the industry, Tom Trisdale, the new chairman of ASE and vice president, quality for Toyota, says 2024 is a year of “action and change” for the The National Institute for Automotive Service Excellence. It is the responsibility of ASE’s Board of Directors, he says, to help ASE advance to meet the realities of today’s market, support a pipeline for future technicians and elevate the value of professional certification for all.
link hidden, please login to viewTom Trisdale, 2024 chairman of The National Institute for Automotive Service Excellence. “For more than 50 years, ASE has been a unifying force to improve the quality of repair and service in the transportation industry through testing and certification. With ASE, every professional technician can demonstrate their technical capability to the standards and tasks defined by their peers and experts in all areas of service, repair and diagnosis — across automotive, truck/heavy equipment and collision repair disciplines.
I am incredibly excited and honored to serve as the chair for the ASE board of directors in 2024. Through ASE, technicians, shop owners, dealers, parts makers, manufacturers of tools and equipment, service information providers and vehicle manufacturers all come together with one aim — elevate our profession and the results we all deliver to the motoring public.
This is a year of action and change at ASE. The challenges of repairing and servicing across all forms of vehicles have never been greater. The pressures facing working technicians have also never been higher. Now more than ever, the standards and structure that ASE and the ASE Education Foundation provide for our profession are needed to support our trade and provide confidence to the consumer. It is our responsibility, as a board and with industry partners, to help ASE advance to meet the realities of today’s market, support a pipeline for future technicians and elevate the value of professional certification for all. Working with and through the ASE leadership team, we are committed to:
Confirm and update the alignment of ASE education standards and professional testing with the technologies on the road and in your shops Streamline access and availability of testing Elevate the understanding and visibility of professional technician development and certification by service professionals, consumers, service providers and other stakeholders Nearly a quarter million service professionals, and more than 72,000 students, are currently certified by ASE. My challenge to all of us involved in the service or repair of motor vehicles, trucks and heavy equipment is to get engaged with ASE. Participate in the industry surveys of current work, join the technical webinars, promote our profession and importantly, get certified if you are not and if you are certified, promote the value of an industry standard measure of knowledge and capability. ASE is an organization that serves technicians and the entire motoring public, so let us work together and deliver on the mission of professional service and quality repair.
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By NAPA
ATLANTA, April 18, 2024 /
link hidden, please login to view/ -- Genuine Parts Company (NYSE: GPC), a leading global distributor of automotive and industrial replacement parts, announced today its results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2024. "Our performance in the quarter highlights the value of our business mix paired with our geographic diversity as our teams delivered profits that were ahead of our expectations," said Paul Donahue, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. "We did this by staying focused on both our near- and long-term strategic initiatives to improve our business and drive profitable growth. I want to take a moment to thank our GPC teammates across the globe for their hard work and dedication to delivering value for our customers."
First Quarter 2024 Results
Sales were $5.8 billion, a 0.3% increase compared to $5.8 billion in the same period of the prior year. The sales result is attributable to a 1.9% benefit from acquisitions, offset by a 0.9% decrease in comparable sales and 0.7% unfavorable impact of foreign currency and other.
Net income was $249 million, or $1.78 per diluted earnings per share. This compares to net income of $304 million, or $2.14 per diluted share in the prior year period.
Adjusted net income, which excludes a net expense of $62 million after tax adjustments, or $0.44 per diluted share, in non-recurring costs related to our global restructuring, was $311 million. This compares to net income of $304 million for the same three-month period of the prior year, an increase of 2.3%. On a per share diluted basis, adjusted net income was $2.22, an increase of 3.7% compared to diluted earnings per share of $2.14 last year. Refer to the reconciliation of GAAP net income to adjusted net income and GAAP diluted earnings per share to adjusted diluted earnings per share for more information.
First Quarter 2024 Segment Highlights
Automotive Parts Group ("Automotive")
Global Automotive sales were $3.6 billion, up 1.9% from the same period in 2023, reflecting a 0.2% increase in comparable sales and a 2.8% benefit from acquisitions, partially offset by 1.1% unfavorable impact of foreign currency and other. Segment profit of $273 million increased 3.2%, with segment profit margin of 7.6%, up 10 basis points from last year.
Industrial Parts Group ("Industrial")
Industrial sales were $2.2 billion, down 2.2% from the same period in 2023, with a 0.5% benefit from acquisitions, offset by a 2.6% decrease in comparable sales and 0.1% unfavorable impact of foreign currency. Segment profit of $271 million increased 3.4%, with segment profit margin of 12.3%, up 70 basis points from the same period of the prior year.
"We are pleased with the start to 2024, which was highlighted by operating discipline that delivered improved overall earnings against a backdrop of low sales growth," said Will Stengel, President and Chief Operating Officer. "In Industrial, sales decreased low-single-digits, in-line with our expectations, as we were up against our most difficult comparative period for the year. In Automotive, the actions taken in our U.S. Automotive business are gaining traction, and we are encouraged by the sequential improvement in performance. This improvement, coupled with the solid performance of our other businesses, is reflected in our reaffirmed sales growth and improved earnings outlook for 2024."
Balance Sheet, Cash Flow and Capital Allocation
The company generated cash flow from operations of $318 million for the first three months of 2024. We used $178 million in cash for investing activities, including $116 million for capital expenditures and $135 million for M&A. We also used $175 million in cash for financing activities, including $133 million for quarterly dividends paid to shareholders and $38 million for stock repurchases. Free cash flow was $203 million for the first three months of 2024. Refer to the reconciliation of GAAP net cash provided by operating activities to free cash flow for more information.
The company ended the quarter with $2.5 billion in total liquidity, consisting of $1.5 billion availability on the revolving credit facility and $1.0 billion in cash and cash equivalents.
2024 Outlook
The company is updating full-year 2024 guidance previously provided in its earnings release on February 15, 2024. The company considered its recent business trends and financial results, current growth plans, strategic initiatives, global economic outlook, geopolitical conflicts and the potential impact on results in updating its guidance, which is outlined in the table below.
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By Counterman
JNPSoft OptiCat, a provider of solutions to support aftermarket auto part suppliers with the mapping, maintenance, development, validation and publishing of their catalog data in industry standards ACES® and PIES, has launched DataLive, an innovative tool that transforms the way manufacturers manage their product data. With DataLive, manufacturers can now automatically track when their products reach a go live state on the various distribution sell platforms.
link hidden, please login to view “As part of our commitment to pioneering new and effective products for our customers, we are thrilled to launch DataLive to the Aftermarket Industry”, said David Williams, CEO of JNPSoft OptiCat. “DataLive gives our partners the ability to strategically follow up with distributors and retailers, perform reviews and accurately forecast supply chain management.”
“DataLive was designed to determine why sales may not be happening as projected,” said Bryan Thueson, COO JNPSoft OptiCat. “DataLive has flexible packages based on search volume making it an effective tool to help you sell more parts”.
DataLive aims to automate a process that is currently manual, saving manufacturers time and allowing them to allocate valuable resources to other critical operations.
For more information about DataLive visit
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By NAPA
As he celebrated 30 years as a professional drag racer, Funny Car superstar Ron Capps was looking forward to a long race day on Sunday at the NHRA Arizona Nationals at Firebird Motorsports Park. The three-time world champion entered eliminations in the No. 11 position on the ladder but made an early exit against Blake Alexander in the first round of competition.
Aboard his brand-new link hidden, please login to view Toyota GR Supra, Capps battled to gain a favorable spot on the ladder among a stacked Funny Car field. Typically, teams at this elite level within the sport will go through several test sessions with a new car before throwing it into the intensity of NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series competition, so Capps, crew chief Dean ‘Guido’ Antonelli, and the Ron Capps Motorsports team knew that they would experience some trial and error. His first qualifying effort went up in a puff of smoke, but his second attempt showed more promise as he powered to the finish line with a run of 4.020 seconds at 310.34 MPH. A loss of traction in the third qualifying round forced Capps to shut off early, marking the first time in 20 events for him to begin eliminations from the bottom half of the field.
“Building into the race we had the excitement of the 30 years. Having fans come up throughout the weekend and saying, ‘Happy Anniversary’ and things like that, it was fun,” began Capps as he recalled his weekend. “I always try to keep our NAPA fans updated as much as we can about what goes on with our team. We brought out a new chassis. It’s something we built in the off-season. Rather than testing first, we decided to do it in race conditions and that’s hard to do. But it reminds me a lot of our NAPA Auto Care people because I love this process of trying to take something and be the best with something so new. It’s like pulling your car into an AutoCare Center, you have a dash light blinking and technicians can attack that problem, and they don’t just snap their fingers and fix it. It’s a process, especially with today’s cars, as they try to figure out what the problem is. I love watching my NAPA Auto Care guys do the same thing. The car didn’t go down the track in the first run and to watch how many hours they put in trying to figure things out, it was really impressive.”
As Capps lined up against No. 6 qualifier Alexander, hopes were high as he has defeated Alexander seven out of the eight times they’ve faced each other in the first round of eliminations. Despite getting the starting line advantage, Capps ultimately came up short. Both cars lost traction early in the race resulting in a bit of a pedal fest to the stripe, but Alexander was able to get there first.
“There’s an upside and a downside to bringing a new chassis out at a race. It’s a gutsy move. But a couple of races down the road, I know that we are going to be much better because of it. And that’s also part of me having the utmost confidence in Guido and our NAPA Auto Care team. We didn’t qualify in the top half of the field, so we didn’t have lane choice. As we sat in the staging lanes, seeing dragsters winning only in the left lane made me pretty nervous and sure enough we got put in the right lane. That’s part of not qualifying in the top half. We still felt like we could beat them and that’s the confidence we had going up there. But it just wouldn’t hold, and we lost traction. I feel like I could have done a better job pedaling it. I should win those races, but we didn’t. But I feel like we’re going to have a great car for Vegas.”
Capps is currently fifth in the NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series points as he heads to the next stop on the tour, the NHRA Four-Wide Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, April 12-14, where he is a six time winner at the facility.
Start / Finish: No. 11 / def. in first round
Points Standing / Total: No. 5 / 170 pts.
Next Race: April 12 – 14, Las Vegas, NHRA Four-Wide Nationals
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