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Winning on and off the grid is the daily focus of CrowdStrike (CRWD) founder and CEO George Kurtz.

Kurtz is an accomplished endurance racer with a passion for driving Mercedes AMG cars. That led him recently to purchase a minority interest in the Mercedes F1 team (which CrowdStrike has sponsored) for a cool $300 million.

It’s an incredible marrying of Kurtz’s public company experience, tech experience, and passion for racing at high speeds.

“I’ve always been a gear-head, always loved cars and going fast and the thrill of the adrenaline rush, if you will, and never had the opportunity to do it as a kid. So I got into it a little bit later in life,” Kurtz told me in a new episode of Yahoo Finance’s Opening Bid Unfiltered podcast (video above; listen in below).

Explained Kurtz on his recent purchase, “Over the last couple years I’ve been chatting with him [Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff] about what other opportunities are there. And these sorts of things take a while. There’s only 10 now going to 11 F1 teams. There’s only one Mercedes team … I’m delighted to say that I’m now a technical advisor with them working on both commercial as well as sort of leveraging data for on-track performance.”

At the same time, CrowdStrike is gearing up for a big 2026 as more AI agents raise the risk of cybersecurity threats. The company is already beginning to benefit from companies going all in on threat protection.

CrowdStrike had a solid third quarter. Sales rose 22% from the prior year to $1.23 billion. Annual recurring revenue (ARR) improved 23% from the prior year to $4.92 billion. Non-GAAP operating income hit a record of $264.6 million.

For the current quarter, CrowdStrike said it sees sales in a range of $1.29 billion to $1.3 billion. Earnings are pegged at $1.09 to $1.11. Yahoo Finance data shows analysts are expecting CrowdStrike to deliver toward the high end of its top and bottom line outlooks.

“You’re going to need AI to fight AI, and you’re going to need to protect all these AI agents. We think it’s a great opportunity,” Kurtz said of the demand backdrop for cybersecurity.

Shares have gained 24% in the past year, out-performing the Nasdaq Composite’s 17% advance.

“CrowdStrike is an important platform vendor with a number of drivers to sustain at least high-teens top-line growth and improving profitability in coming years and remain buyers,” Stifel analyst Adam Borg said in a note.