By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service
Return to Chicagoland features unknowns for many NASCAR Cup drivers
Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race is billed as a return to Chicagoland Speedway.
In reality, nearly half the field will be competing on the 1.5-mile intermediate for the first time in Cup Series cars when drivers take the green flag in the eero 400 (6 p.m. ET on TNT, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
The Cup Series last raced at Chicagoland in 2019, when Alex Bowman took the lead from Kyle Larson with six laps left and went on to win by 0.546 seconds. At that time, Larson was still driving for Chip Ganassi Racing.
In fact, the last time the Cup Series raced at the track in Joliet, Illinois, neither Larson nor Chase Elliott had won a championship in NASCAR’s top division.
Since 2019, 10 new race tracks have been introduced into the Cup Series schedule; 23XI Racing, Kaulig Racing and Trackhouse Racing have debuted as Cup teams; and seven former full-time drivers have retired from competition.
Accordingly, there are only three former Chicagoland winners in the field for Sunday’s race: Brad Keselowski with two victories and Denny Hamlin and Bowman with one each.
The field of 39 drivers features 21 who have driven Cup cars at the 1.5-mile track and 18 who have not. From the latter group, 13 have competed at Chicagoland either in the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series or NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series or both.
Five drivers—Ty Gibbs, Corey Heim, Carson Hocevar, Connor Zilisch and Shane van Gisbergen—will be seeing the track for the first time.
However, it will be a different Chicagoland that greets all 39 drivers. The pavement is seven years older, and the bumps are more severe. The nature of the track surprised Larson when he participated in a Goodyear tires test at the track in late April
“It was really fast,” Larson said. “It had a lot more grip than I was expecting it to have and a little less (tire) fall-off than I was expecting it to have. But a challenging track, super-rough surface and, yeah, excited to get there.”
Though Larson’s winless streak reached 42 races last weekend at Sonoma, he has good reason to be enthused. The driver of the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet has the best average finish all-time at Chicagoland—6.17 in six starts. He also enters Sunday’s race on a streak of four straight top-five finishes.
Hamlin, who represented Toyota in the tire test, said the introduction of the Next Gen race car in 2022 will lessen the value of notes from the previous generation.
“It’s been so long since I’ve raced there, and we hadn’t run there in the Next Gen car,” Hamlin said. “So, my thing was, I didn’t remember the track being that rough. But the last time we ran there, we had suspension on the car.
“Now, with the underbody being the main source of downforce, we have to run our cars so low, which makes the track feel bumpier than I remember.”
All things considered, Hamlin expects exciting racing from the return to Joliet.
“It should be good,” said Hamlin, who took over the series leader by one point over Tyler Reddick in last Sunday’s event at Sonoma Raceway. “It’s a mile-and-a-half. It’s a high-wear type of race track. So, we’re going to be running all over that race track, similar to how we finished when we were there (seven) years ago.”
In the Gen 6 car, Hamlin was no slouch at Chicagoland. He posted top-10 results in five of his last six races there. More relevant to the Next Gen era, he enters Sunday’s race with six consecutive top-five finishes on 1.5-mile tracks, including two wins.
Hamlin also has led laps in the last 10 races on 1.5-milers and has scored stage points in the last 18 stages on tracks of that length.
Between them, Hamlin and Reddick have won half the 18 races so far this season—Reddick with five victories and Hamlin with four.
Second-seeded Hamlin also was the highest-ranked driver to advance in the opening round of the In-Season Challenge at Sonoma. He will face Erik Jones in the second round at Chicagoland.
Top-seeded Reddick, however, suffered a power steering failure at Sonoma and was eliminated by Bowman, who faces Chase bubble driver Austin Cindric in Round 2. As noted earlier, Bowman is the last driver to win at Chicagoland.
Another intriguing In-Season Challenge matchup features Chase Briscoe against Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Ty Gibbs, the defending tournament champion. Briscoe and Gibbs finished second and third, respectively, last Sunday in wine country.
Justin Allgaier seeks rebound in return to oval tracks
Typically, Justin Allgaier is a skilled road racer, but the driver of the No. 7 JR Motorsports Chevrolet doubtless would gladly forget the last two events on circuits that turn right as well as left.
On June 20, Allgaier fell out of the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series race at Naval Base Coronado in 32nd place because of an engine failure. Last Saturday at Sonoma Raceway, he finished 26th.
The good news is that, despite the disappointing results on the road and street circuits, Allgaier retained the lion’s share of his series lead. He holds a 207-point advantage over second-place and defending series champion Jesse Love entering Saturday’s Cuervo 300 at Chicagoland Speedway (5:30 p.m. ET on CW, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
Allgaier also has an enviable edge entering the 10th race on the O’Reilly Series schedule. Not only did he represent Chevrolet in the Goodyear tire test at Chicagoland in April, but he also conducted the subsequent wheel-force test at the speedway, which will host its first O’Reilly Series race since 2019.
Allgaier has two victories at Chicagoland. The only other drivers in the field with wins at the track are Cup Series interlopers Chase Elliott and Cole Custer (one each). Custer won the last race held at Chicagoland seven years ago.
“I’m so happy to be going back to Chicagoland,” said Allgaier, a native of Riverton, Illinois. “This has always been one of my favorite tracks, and it’s great to see it back on the schedule. Hopefully our notes from the past can help us get a good baseline for this weekend, but I know that (crew chief) Andrew (Overstreet) and all the guys on this No. 7 group will be ready to go when we unload.
“It’s always great getting the chance to race back in the home state, not only for me but for everyone at (sponsor) BRANDT Professional Agriculture as well. We just need to go out and execute like we have throughout this season, and if we do, I think we can have an awesome homecoming on Saturday night and celebrate the 4th of July in style.”
There are currently five races left in the O’Reilly Series regular season, and the battle for 12 Chase spots is intensifying. Currently, Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Taylor Gray and William Sawalich straddle the cut line, with 12th-place Gray holding a 20-point edge.
