{"id":47145,"date":"2024-07-04T13:22:04","date_gmt":"2024-07-04T18:22:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/?p=47145"},"modified":"2024-07-07T10:27:23","modified_gmt":"2024-07-07T15:27:23","slug":"nascar-weekend-preview-chicago-street-race","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/2024\/07\/04\/nascar-weekend-preview-chicago-street-race\/","title":{"rendered":"NASCAR Weekend Preview: Chicago Street Race"},"content":{"rendered":"
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By Reid Spencer, <\/em>NASCAR Wire Service<\/em><\/p>\n

On wet pavement or dry, Christopher Bell is a threat in Chicago Street Race<\/b><\/b><\/p>\n

With the vast majority of drivers hoping for sunshine in Chicago, Christopher Bell may be the most notable exception.<\/p>\n

Understandably, Bell would be just as happy to race on wet pavement in Sunday\u2019s Grant Park 165 Chicago Street Race (4:30 p.m. ET on NBC, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).<\/p>\n

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Shane Van Gisbergen, driver of the #91 Enhance Health Chevrolet, drives during the NASCAR Cup Series Grant Park 220 at the Chicago Street Course on July 02, 2023 in Chicago, Illinois. (Photo by Sean Gardner\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

Bell recently demonstrated his comfort level on a wet track in winning the June 23 rain-interrupted NASCAR Cup Series race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. The driver of the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota led the final 64 laps on wet-weather tires to score his third victory of the season.<\/p>\n

That win, however, didn\u2019t constitute the only successful wet work Bell has done in the Cup Series. In last year\u2019s Chicago Street Race, he led a race-high 37 laps, won the first two stages and at one juncture built a lead of almost nine seconds.<\/p>\n

But Bell\u2019s performance was all but lost in the hoopla surrounding New Zealander Shane van Gisbergen\u2019s victory in his NASCAR debut. As the Chicago streets began to dry, the driver known as \u201cSVG\u201d drove like lightning and stole the thunder from the Cup regulars with a late charge from 18th to take the checkered flag.<\/p>\n

So don\u2019t blame Bell for hoping for wet conditions on Sunday, despite a forecast that promises mostly sunny skies and a minimal chance of rain throughout the weekend.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, I think at this point, I\u2019d probably prefer the rain,\u201d Bell said. \u201cGoing into the Chicago Street Race (last year), we had a really good practice, and I was looking forward to a dry race. And then the wet, and when we started the race, we just took off and were really good.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe track is very, very technical, very high-risk and high-reward. I think it\u2019s Turn 4, which is a very fast section of the race track, gets very tight and you have to push hard there to make some lap time. And I don\u2019t know the turns very well, after we come through that half-circle (Turns 8, 9 and 10) on the backside of the race track, that\u2019s another section that\u2019s super-fast, super-rough.<\/p>\n

\u201cReally easy to throw it into the wall there. The race track is filled with a lot of very high-risk, high-reward corners, and if you want to do good, you have to push the car hard and be right on the edge.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not that Bell hasn\u2019t been fast on both wet and dry tracks this season. He won decisively at Phoenix earlier this season, by 5.465 seconds over runner-up Chris Buescher.<\/p>\n

In last Sunday\u2019s Cup race at Nashville Superspeedway, Bell won the first two stages to take a one-point edge over regular-season leader Kyle Larson in Playoff points before spinning out in the final stage.<\/p>\n

Joey Logano\u2019s five-overtime victory at Nashville moved the shifted the Playoff bubble to Alex Bowman in the last Playoff-eligible position. Heading for Chicago, Bowman holds a 51-point edge over Bubba Wallace, the first driver below the current cut line.<\/p>\n

Bowman hopes to preserve his standing with better luck than he had in last year\u2019s Chicago Street Race.<\/p>\n

\u201cChicago\u2019s honestly pretty fun from the driver\u2019s seat,\u201d said Bowman, who fell out after 40 of 78 laps last year and finished 37th. \u201cWe had a failure there last year, so I\u2019m excited to go back there and run that whole race, hopefully, and have a good day, \u2018cause we were pretty good there, I felt like.\u201d<\/p>\n

Van Gisbergen is a slight favorite over Larson and Bell entering Sunday\u2019s race, but if the Kiwi hopes to repeat his success, he\u2019ll have to do so with a different team. Last year, SVG won in the No. 91 Chevrolet for Trackhouse Racing. This year, he\u2019s driving the No. 16 Kaulig Racing Camaro.<\/p>\n

Shane van Gisbergen goes for third straight NASCAR Xfinity road course win<\/b><\/b><\/p>\n

Last year, New Zealand\u2019s Shane van Gisbergen won the NASCAR Cup Series\u2019 Chicago Street Race in his NASCAR debut.<\/p>\n

This year, the three-time Australian Supercars champion will try to add a NASCAR Xfinity Series victory to his resume in The Loop 110 on the 2.14-mile, 12-turn course on the streets of the Windy City (3:30 p.m. ET Saturday on NBC, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).<\/p>\n

“I\u2019m looking forward to racing the Xfinity car on this Chicago Street Course,\u201d said van Gisbergen, who is competing full-time in the series for Kaulig Racing. \u201cObviously, I have already raced the Cup car here, but these cars (Xfinity and Cup) are not comparable.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, it\u2019s going to be another massive challenge for me but (crew chief) Bruce (Schlicker) and my 97 Kaulig Racing team always bring fast cars to the track. Happy to have (sponsor) WeatherTech on board with us this weekend in their home city and hopefully park it in Victory Lane.\u201d<\/p>\n

Van Gisbergen is seeking his third straight Xfinity victory on courses with both right and left turns, having won back-to-back races at Portland (June 1) and Sonoma (June 8). With the two triumphs, van Gisbergen is guaranteed a spot in the Xfinity Playoffs in his rookie season.<\/p>\n

Van Gisbergen will have plenty of competition in Saturday\u2019s race. Defending series champion Cole Custer also is the defending race winner, having led all 25 laps in last year\u2019s inaugural race, which was shortened because of drenching rain.<\/p>\n

The Xfinity event also features a handful of excellent road course racers doing double duty, among them Xfinity regular AJ Allmendinger and full-time NASCAR Cup drivers Kyle Larson, Ty Gibbs, John Hunter Nemechek, Joey Logano and Daniel Suarez.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service On wet pavement or dry, Christopher Bell is a threat in Chicago Street Race With the vast majority of drivers hoping for sunshine in Chicago, Christopher Bell may be the most notable exception. Understandably, Bell would be just as happy to race on wet pavement in Sunday\u2019s Grant Park […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":676,"featured_media":47148,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_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}},"categories":[11],"tags":[942,16],"class_list":["post-47145","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nascar","tag-chicago-street-race","tag-nascar"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/GettyImages-1510107756-scaled.jpg?fit=2560%2C1707","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7hzTZ-cgp","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47145","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=47145"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47145\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47149,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47145\/revisions\/47149"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47148"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47145"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47145"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47145"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}