HENDERSON, Nev. (AP) — Raiders quarterbacks Kirk Cousins and Fernando Mendoza will both play Thursday night when Las Vegas hosts the Arizona Cardinals in a preseason game, but coach Klint Kubiak wouldn't provide details on how much playing time they and their teammates would get.
“Our starters are going to play,” Kubiak said, adding that standout pass rusher Maxx Crosby's availability would be “TBD.”
Cousins, who's entering his 15th NFL season, has been running the first-team offense in training camp and is expected to be the starter when the Raiders open their season Sept. 13 against Miami.
Mendoza was the No. 1 overall pick in this year's draft. The Heisman Trophy winner, who led Indiana to its first national championship, has worked with the second-team offense nearly all camp.
Mendoza ran the first-team offense Saturday, when Cousins and Crosby were held out of team drills because of a tussle between the two the day before.
“He's continuing to grow,” Kubiak said Tuesday before the Raiders' scheduled practice that night at Allegiant Stadium. “It's been a really impressive training camp as far as how he's prepared, and then he goes out there to practice. Things don't happen on the paper, the playbook, exactly how they do on the field. I think he's done a good job of adjusting.
“With all of our players, we ask that as they gain experience and they make mistakes that they don't make the same mistake twice. I think that he's done a good job of that, and now it comes to live bullets with a live pass rush, and that'll be a whole other animal.”
The preseason opener also provides an opportunity for rookie wide receiver Malik Benson to show that his promising play in camp can translate into a game.
Drafted in the sixth round out of Oregon, Benson quickly played his way onto the second team. He began to develop a rapport with Mendoza before they arrived in Las Vegas, and their connection has been obvious in practices. He also has worked with the starters and began to build an on-field relationship with Cousins as well.
“Just for my confidence, I feel like it has been really good for me,” Benson said of being with the top group. “Just to show myself that I can do it. I’m really glad that the coaches and my teammates are giving me (the) opportunity. They’re trusting me, and I’m able to show that I can be trusted.”
Kubiak said rookie cornerback Jermod McCoy will receive plenty of playing time, which could showcase the progress he's made since tearing an ACL after the 2024 season at Tennessee.
He had been considered a first-round talent, but the Raiders got him in the fourth round after trading up a spot.
“Jermod has been practicing almost every day we’ve been out there, so we expect him to play,” Kubiak said. “We expect him to compete and look forward to watching him play.”
Defensive ends Kwity Paye and Keyron Crawford, guard Caleb Rogers and wide receiver Dont'e Thornton Jr. have missed practice in recent days with undisclosed injuries.
“Most of those guys we expect to play in this game,” Kubiak said. “Not all of them will, and we hope the ones that don’t play get to go get ready for that Houston game (next week).”
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Las Vegas Raiders wide receiver Malik Benson (19) runs after a catch during practice at the team's NFL football training camp, Thursday, July 30, 2026, in Henderson, Nev. (AP Photo/Ian Maule)
Las Vegas Raiders quarterback Kirk Cousins (8) looks to pass during practice at the team's NFL football training camp, Thursday, July 30, 2026, in Henderson, Nev. (AP Photo/Ian Maule)
Las Vegas Raiders quarterback Fernando Mendoza (15) throws during practice at the team's NFL football training camp, Wednesday, July 29, 2026, in Henderson, Nev. (AP Photo/Lucas Peltier)
WENDOVER, Utah (AP) — The only person to break the sound barrier in a car earned another world record Tuesday in a show of force for hydrogen power.
British driver Andy Green reached 406.320 mph (653.908 kph) in a car powered by two hydrogen internal combustion engines with a combined 1,600 horsepower, setting the record for that vehicle category, according to the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile, the international governing body of motor sports.
The 64-year-old retired Royal Air Force pilot rocketed across the crystalline crust at Utah’s famous Bonneville Salt Flats in a 32-foot (9.75-meter) car engineered by British construction equipment manufacturer JCB. The engines, adapted from those used in the company’s heavy machinery, mix pressurized hydrogen gas with air and ignite it to create bursts of power.
“It’s magic to be able to showcase this technology and to showcase how good the engineering is on the best racing surface in the world, Bonneville Salt Flats,” Green told The Associated Press after the run.
To be clear, Tuesday’s feat didn’t come close to approaching the overall land-speed record, which Green set with jet power in 1997. That year, he climbed into the Thrust SSC, a black needle sandwiched between two cartoonishly large jet engines, and hit 763.035 mph (1,227.985 kph), breaking the sound barrier and achieving a feat no one has come close to matching. His runs in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert produced sonic booms that shook the nearby town of Gerlach.
In 2006, Green also set the land-speed record for a diesel-powered car — 350.092 mph (563.4 kph) — at the Bonneville Salt Flats. He returned there Tuesday with the goal of beating that mark using hydrogen power, which he has called the “fuel of the future.”
In targeting his diesel speed, Green easily topped the previous hydrogen combustion world record of 185.5 mph (298.5 kph). He had a 10-mile (16-kilometer) straightaway to build speed. A few dozen JCB staff members and reporters watched from a distance through cameras and binoculars.
Green said the cockpit of the car he used on Tuesday was “probably a little hotter” than in the jet-powered vehicle from 1997, with temperatures routinely above 122 degrees Fahrenheit (50 degrees Celsius).
“But I have been training four months for that, both training in the gym and actually just getting used to it with hot baths,” he said.
A remnant of a prehistoric lake bed, the Bonneville Salt Flats are about 100 miles (160 kilometers) west of Salt Lake City and sit atop a shallow aquifer that cools the tires. The low-friction surface and dry desert air are conducive to speed and have beckoned drivers since the first race there in 1914.
“It looks like snow, and it behaves a bit like packed snow — it is surprisingly slippery,” Green said.
Green was no stranger to speed when he took his first racing job. He had been flying supersonic military jets when he spotted a 1994 British newspaper ad seeking a high-speed driver to break the sound barrier.
Green did not approach supersonic speeds on Tuesday, but JCB engineers hope his feat with hydrogen power will shake up the clean-energy industry.
The company's chairman has argued that hydrogen can better handle the demands of heavy industries than electric power.
Hydrogen is only as clean as its source, and the vast majority is currently produced from fossil fuels. JCB signed a deal to buy green hydrogen, which is created using renewable energy but makes up a tiny fraction of global hydrogen production.
The concept and development of such technology has been around for decades, but has had a resurgence over the past several years, said Greg Keoleian, a professor of sustainable systems at the University of Michigan and co-director of the school’s MI Hydrogen initiative.
Many major automakers have already developed hydrogen internal combustion engines or hydrogen fuel cell technology, but the higher cost of hydrogen production compared with gas and diesel is a barrier to wider usage, Keoleian said.
“It represents an important energy carrier for decarbonizing areas of the economy,” he said. “As far as its deployment, it’s influenced heavily by the cost.”
An emerging focus, he said, is extracting hydrogen from natural deposits instead of separating it from water, a prospect that could significantly reduce costs.
Associated Press reporter Dave Collins in Hartford, Connecticut, contributed reporting.
British driver Andy Green and the JCB engineering team pose with the car used to set a new land speed record for a hydrogen-powered vehicle, Tuesday, Aug. 11, 2026, at the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah. (AP Photo/Hannah Schoenbaum)
British driver Andy Green speaks to reporters after setting a new land speed record for a hydrogen-powered vehicle, Tuesday, Aug. 11, 2026, at the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah. (AP Photo/Hannah Schoenbaum)
British driver Andy Green, center, and the JCB engineering team celebrate setting a new land speed record for a hydrogen-powered vehicle at the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah, Tuesday, Aug. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Hannah Schoenbaum)
The JCB Hydromax sits on the Bonneville Salt Flats in Wendover, Utah, where Andy Green aims to drive it to a land speed record for cars powered by hydrogen internal combustion engines, Monday, Aug. 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Hannah Schoenbaum)
FILE - British driver Andy Green goes for a new unofficial world diesel powered land speed record of over 328 mph over two runs Tuesday, Aug. 22, 2006, on the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah. (AP Photo/Douglas C. Pizac,File)
Racing stickers cover a sign for Utah’s Bonneville Salt Flats, home to a speedway where several land speed records have been set, Monday, Aug. 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Hannah Schoenbaum)
FILE - British driver Andy Green, right, is congratulated by a crew member after setting a new unofficial world diesel powered land speed record of over 328 mph over two runs on the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah on Tuesday, Aug. 2006. (AP Photo/Douglas C. Pizac, File)
The JCB Hydromax sits on the Bonneville Salt Flats in Wendover, Utah, where Andy Green aims to drive it to a land speed record for cars powered by hydrogen internal combustion engines, Monday, Aug. 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Hannah Schoenbaum)
