{"id":26995,"date":"2019-06-28T17:30:11","date_gmt":"2019-06-28T22:30:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/?p=26995"},"modified":"2019-06-29T18:46:11","modified_gmt":"2019-06-29T23:46:11","slug":"nascar-friday-chicagoland-notebook-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/2019\/06\/28\/nascar-friday-chicagoland-notebook-2\/","title":{"rendered":"NASCAR: Friday Chicagoland Notebook"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Ross Chastain stays busy while chasing NASCAR Gander Outdoors Trucks Series Playoffs berth<\/b><\/p>\n

JOLIET, Ill. \u2013 Ross Chastain smiled widely when asked Friday how his multi-win, playoff-brink of a season in the NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series has gone. But he insists he\u2019s been too busy to bask in the spotlight or soak in the accolades coming his way.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Ross Chastain, driver of the #10 Nutrien Ag Solutions Chevrolet, practices for the NASCAR Xfinity Series Camping World 300 at Chicagoland Speedway on June 28, 2019 in Joliet, Illinois. (Photo by Jared C. Tilton\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

And there have been plenty of both.<\/p>\n

Chastain\u2019s victory last weekend at Gateway put him in a more solid position to earn a shot at the truck series championship. With the win, the 26-year-old only needs to break into the top 20 in the points standings to earn the chance to compete for the season title. He entered Friday night\u2019s Camping World 225 at Chicagoland Speedway (9 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) only 38 points below 20th-place Josh Reaume in the standings. And neither Reaume nor 19th place Cory Roper are entered in the Chicagoland race.<\/p>\n

Chastain won earlier this season at Kansas Speedway but hadn\u2019t declared his truck series championship intention yet so it didn\u2019t count toward a truck championship eligibility. He won two weeks ago at Iowa, but his truck was disqualified and the victory wasn\u2019t allowed to count toward his championship effort. It inspired instead of deterred him, however, and he answered with another win last week at Gateway.<\/p>\n

So this weekend, Chastain\u2019s only looking forward even if there\u2019s little time to enjoy the view. He is entered in all three races at Chicagoland \u2013 Friday\u2019s truck race will be his 40th start among the three series this season, most of any driver in NASCAR\u2019s top three divisions. He\u2019s also set to compete in Saturday\u2019s Xfinity Series and Sunday\u2019s Monster Energy NASCAR Cup races.<\/p>\n

And Chastain says he wouldn\u2019t have it any other way.<\/p>\n

\u201cDefinitely,\u2019\u2019 Chastain said. \u201cI had three hours of truck practice yesterday then today I\u2019ll have an hour of Xfinity (Series) practice then 10 minutes later I\u2019ll be qualifying a truck, so that will help me in the truck for sure. It\u2019s the sensation of speed for me.\u2018\u2019<\/p>\n

Next week Chastain returns to his home state for the annual July stop at Daytona International Speedway. He\u2019ll visit a children\u2019s hospital in St. Petersburg on Monday and then head over to his home in Alva on the Southwest Coast near Fort Myers. Yet as his star brightly rises in the NASCAR world, Chastain insists his profile hasn\u2019t changed much \u2013 at home or at the race locales he visits.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s still the humble, driven competitor who is seizing the opportunity he\u2019s earned.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re hustling and now is the time more than ever I have to prove I want it,\u2019\u2019 Chastain said.<\/p>\n

JUSTIN ALLGAIER FEELS THE LOVE FROM HOME TRACK<\/b><\/p>\n

Justin Allgaier, of Riverton, Illinois, returns to his home state a celebrated competitor. \u2026 and a very busy man.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is my home track,\u2019\u2019 Allgaier said during a Friday media availability. \u201cIt\u2019s also my home track but also [my sponsor] Brandt\u2019s home track and they bring a lot of customers and employees so it\u2019s always unique because you\u2019re trying to find that balance.<\/p>\n

\u201cAdd in family and friends and all the guests Brandt brings, as much as I love coming home, it is hard because you do put a lot of expectation on yourself.  You put a lot of pressure. You always leave the weekend like someone got shorted, so that\u2019s probably the hardest part for me. But this is such a great facility and we love coming here.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

Allgaier, who won in 2011 and 2017, is one of only two former Chicagoland race winners in Saturday\u2019s field \u2013 joining fellow two-time winner and reigning Cup champion Joey Logano, who is making his first Xfinity start of the year.<\/p>\n

That same victory magic can\u2019t come soon enough this season. Allgaier is ranked fourth in the points standings, but is winless on the season. The top-three ranked drivers \u2013 Tyler Reddick (three wins), Christopher Bell (four wins) and Cole Custer (three wins) \u2013 have hoisted the vast majority of the 14 trophies this season. Those three drivers \u2013 Reddick then Custer then Bell \u2013 were fastest in opening Xfinity Series practice at Chicagoland.<\/p>\n

By this time last year, Allgaier had two trophies already \u2013 winning at Dover and Iowa. He would go on to win at the Mid-Ohio and Elkhart Lake (Wisc.) road courses and top it off with a victory at Indianapolis Motor Speedway; the best season victory output of his nine-year Xfinity Series fulltime career.<\/p>\n

This year, Allgaier has been productive and close. His No. 7 JR Motorsports Chevrolet has earned eight top-10 and seven top-five finishes \u2013 a championship setup most any other season. He led 138 laps at Bristol, but crashed out. He answered by leading 86 laps the next week at Richmond only to finish third. He has three runner-up finishes (at Daytona and back-to-back races at Dover and Charlotte).<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s interesting to me because we fired off the season and obviously we had some good runs, but we weren\u2019t as fast as we\u2019d like to be,\u2019\u2019 Allgaier said. \u201cThat\u2019s probably the one thing that\u2019s really hard to put your finger on, when you\u2019re off a little bit. It\u2019s like what area are you off because there\u2019s about ten thousand things you could do differently.<\/p>\n

He could only smile when comparing identically intense efforts between 2018 and 2019, producing such different results.<\/p>\n

\u201cLast year was crazy because everything we did was right. Even when we didn\u2019t have the fastest car, we could win the race. That\u2019s probably the hardest part.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s been the interesting part, it couldn\u2019t have been more opposite from last year,\u2019\u2019 Allgaier added. \u201cThat being said though, we were great in the regular season and terrible in the playoffs. So we\u2019ve been steadily working on our program and if you look week in and week out the three JRM cars have gotten better and better. \u2026 I\u2019m excited for the playoffs and I think we can be a championship-winning car.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

NEW OPPORTUNITY, GOOD VIBE FOR JEFFREY EARNHARDT<\/b><\/b><\/p>\n

Jeffrey Earnhardt has been all smiles and positive vibes this Xfinity Series season and Friday afternoon he remained optimistic and grateful for more opportunity awaiting him.<\/p>\n

The 30-year-old grandson of the late seven-time NASCAR Cup champion Dale Earnhardt has scored major career milestones even in a part-time season. He earned his first Xfinity Series top 10 with a sixth-place showing at Atlanta Motor Speedway in March and his first top five, a third-place finish at Charlotte in May. He has three top 10s in six starts this season and earned the outside pole position at the season-opening Daytona race. He has started top 10 in five of the six races he\u2019s competed in.<\/p>\n

Five of Earnhardt\u2019s previous starts have come in Joe Gibbs Racing Toyotas. This week he\u2019ll drive the No. 81 XCI Racing Toyota for the second time this season \u2013 and is splitting starts between the two teams.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been huge,\u2019\u2019 Earnhardt said of the results this year. \u201cIn my opinion it\u2019s every driver\u2019s dream to be able to drive for Joe Gibbs Racing and also with Xtreme Concepts Racing and them having the support from Joe Gibbs. It\u2019s incredible.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou go out every weekend knowing you\u2019re racing for a win when before, a good day was racing for 25th you know, and you\u2019re trying to take care of the car. Now, if you don\u2019t leave it all out on the track they get mad at you.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been a change, but it\u2019s been a good change. It\u2019s exciting to have the opportunity to showcase my talents because people start to doubt you and wonder if you can drive or not when you\u2019re in bad equipment. There\u2019s tons of drivers out there well-talented who may never get the opportunity to compete in good equipment just because of circumstances. So I\u2019m very fortunate and thankful for the opportunity I\u2019ve got. I just really want to capitalize on it and get that win this year. I know we\u2019ve been close and had some good runs but I really want to put it all together and put the car in victory lane.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service   Ross Chastain stays busy while chasing NASCAR Gander Outdoors Trucks Series Playoffs berth JOLIET, Ill. \u2013 Ross Chastain smiled widely when asked Friday how his multi-win, playoff-brink of a season in the NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series has gone. But he insists he\u2019s been too busy to bask […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":676,"featured_media":26997,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[11],"tags":[488,16],"class_list":["post-26995","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nascar","tag-chicagoland-speedway","tag-nascar"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/NXS_CLS_ChastainXS_062819.jpg?fit=4882%2C3249","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7hzTZ-71p","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26995","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/676"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26995"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26995\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26999,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26995\/revisions\/26999"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26997"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26995"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26995"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26995"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}