Author: Mike Haag

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service JOLIET, Ill. – Paul Menard had the hottest shoe on the hottest day of the NASCAR season. Torching Chicagoland Speedway with a lap at 180.102 mph (29.998 seconds) in the final round of Saturday’s knockout qualifying session at the 1.5-mile track, Menard won the pole for Sunday’s Overton’s 400 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race (2:30 p.m. ET on NBCSN, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Nearly 10 years had passed since Menard last claimed a Busch Pole Award. His only previous top qualifying effort came at Daytona in July 2008, when he was driving a…

JOLIET, Ill. – A photographic look at the NASCAR Xfinity Series Overton’s 300 held Saturday at Chicagoland Speedway. All photos provided courtesy of Getty Images and NASCAR. ” order_by=”sortorder” order_direction=”ASC” returns=”included” maximum_entity_count=”500″]

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service JOLIET, Ill. – When Kyle Larson crossed the finish line at Chicagoland Speedway 8.030 seconds ahead of runner-up Kevin Harvick, there were no screams of elation from the winner of Saturday’s Overton’s 300 NASCAR Xfinity Series race. Instead, Larson placed an order. “Water, ice and towel at the start/finish line,” Larson radioed to his team, after winning a race in mind-numbing heat that approached 150 degrees in the greenhouse of his No. 42 Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet Camaro. Larson had won the pole earlier in the day but had to start from the rear…

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series champ is fond of bumpy Chicagoland JOLIET, Ill. – Bring on the bumps. Reigning Monster Energy NASCAR Cup champion Martin Truex Jr. says the bumps in the asphalt at Chicagoland Speedway make driving more difficult—and for Truex, that’s a good thing. Shots from Justin Hailey’s visor cam in Friday night’s NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race at the 1.5-mile track showed just how rough a ride the Cup drivers will get in Sunday’s Overton’s 400 (at 2:30 p.m. ET on NBCSN, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). But in Truex’s…

Staff Report, NASCAR Wire Service DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Welcome back, Dale Jr. As the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series returns to a summertime date at Chicagoland Speedway, we also see the return of the NBC Sports Group to the broadcast schedule – and a new beginning for Dale Earnhardt Jr. After retiring from full-time racing following the 2017 season, the 15-time Most Popular Driver and two-time Daytona 500 champion officially takes his spot in the NBC Sports broadcast team for the Overton’s 400 on Sunday, July 1 (2:30 p.m. ET on NBCSN, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). He spent the off-season…

JOLIET, Ill. – A photographic look at the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Overton’s 225 held Friday at Chicagoland Speedway. All photos provided courtesy of Getty Images and NASCAR. ” order_by=”sortorder” order_direction=”ASC” returns=”included” maximum_entity_count=”500″]

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service JOLIET, Ill. – Brett Moffitt didn’t hear the words that turned Friday night’s Overton’s 225 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race in his favor. “I’m blowing up!” John Hunter Nemechek shouted over his team radio as he entered Turn 1 with the lead on the final lap at Chicagoland Speedway. Nemechek’s misfortune proved an unexpected boon to Moffitt, who won the race by 5.092 seconds over Ben Rhodes, as Nemechek faded to seventh at the finish—not with a blown engine, as he had thought, but with an empty fuel cell. Moffit’s victory—his third of…

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service Kyle Larson says the performance gap to the top teams is small—but it’s there JOLIET, Ill. – Kyle Larson doesn’t believe there’s a large chasm between the drivers who have dominated the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series this season and those who are trying to catch them. But the difference in big enough to keep the chasers out of Victory Lane. Four drivers have combined to win 14 of the first 16 events of the season. Kevin Harvick has five victories, Kyle Busch four, Martin Truex Jr. three and Clint Bowyer two. With Joey Logano…

Staff Report, NASCAR Wire Service DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – When it comes to young drivers looking for their first Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series victory, this weekend’s race at Chicagoland Speedway could be the one for 22-year-old Hendrick Motorsport’s driver Chase Elliott. Looking at his average finishes, Chicagoland is Elliott’s best race track, with second and third-place finishes under his belt in only two starts. “Well, the past two races here at Chicago have been really good for us,” said Elliott. “I think that a lot of it is kind of circumstantial. But we had some great things going on.” Each…

Courtesy of the NHRA MORRISON, Colo. – The NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series powers back to Bandimere Speedway as the famed Western Swing kicks off at the 39th annual Dodge Mile-High NHRA Nationals, July 20-22. Sunday’s finals will be shown live on the FOX national broadcast network. The Dodge Mile-High NHRA Nationals is the 14th of 24 events during the 2018 NHRA season and is traditional starting point of challenging three-race Western Swing. Only four events follow it before the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series Countdown to the Championship begins, which adds to the importance of the race…