{"id":59711,"date":"2026-07-18T17:37:41","date_gmt":"2026-07-18T22:37:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/?p=59711"},"modified":"2026-07-22T09:01:07","modified_gmt":"2026-07-22T14:01:07","slug":"nascar-saturday-north-wilkesboro-notebook","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/18\/nascar-saturday-north-wilkesboro-notebook\/","title":{"rendered":"NASCAR: Saturday North Wilkesboro Notebook"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service<\/em><\/p>\n

Chase Elliott faces more than one battle at North Wilkesboro<\/b><\/p>\n

NORTH WILKESBORO, N.C.\u2014The NASCAR Cup Series In-Season Challenge won\u2019t be foremost on Chase Elliott\u2019s mind in Sunday\u2019s Window World 450 at North Wilkesboro Speedway (7 p.m. ET on TNT, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).<\/p>\n

Now that he\u2019s two rounds away from a possible $1-million winner-take-all prize, however, Elliott definitely will be paying attention as he tries to eliminate upset-minded Todd Gilliland in the semifinals.<\/p>\n

\u201cOh, yeah, it’d be nice to win, for sure,\u201d said Elliott, who was bounced from last year\u2019s Round of 16 by John Hunter Nemechek. \u201cYou know, over the last couple of seasons being involved in the In-Season Challenge, it’s not something that I’m overly consumed over, you know?<\/p>\n

\u201cI can say that with a lot of confidence. You just know in the back of your mind, kind of similar to the points situation in general, if you’re going out and you’re doing your job and you’re performing at a high level, then you’re likely going to take care of the other things.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I kind of look at that in a really similar light, but I do think it is really fun.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even though the end of the Cup Series regular season is just six races away, Elliott considers the In-Season Challenge a worthwhile component of the schedule.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it’s a really good thing for just the sport, in general, to kind of have something else going on in the middle of the year,\u201d he said. \u201cI know we’re getting close to the Chase cutoff, but still, it’s kind of neat to have another little side quest going on.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it’d be cool to win it. We made a good run at it last year, but couldn\u2019t quite get it done, so hopefully we can make it happen this season.\u201d<\/p>\n

Interview: Chase Elliott (No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet) –<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Top of Ryan Blaney\u2019s bucket list: Hosting Saturday Night Live<\/b><\/p>\n

With a handlebar moustache straight out of Tombstone Territory and a laid-back, affable personality, Ryan Blaney has the potential to expand his presence beyond racing.<\/p>\n

\"\"

NORTH WILKESBORO, NORTH CAROLINA – JULY 18: Ryan Blaney, driver of the #12 Menards\/Duracell Ford, looks on during practice for the NASCAR Cup Series Window World 450 at North Wilkesboro Speedway on July 18, 2026 in North Wilkesboro, North Carolina. (Photo by Meg Oliphant\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

Jeff Gordon extended NASCAR\u2019s reach in 2003 when he hosted Saturday Night Live, and Blaney wouldn\u2019t mind following in the four-time champion\u2019s footsteps.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would love to,\u201d Blaney said when asked whether he would like to host the show. \u201cThat\u2019s probably P1 on my bucket list. \u201cI would love to do SNL. I\u2019m a big SNL fan.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s a big commitment though. If you guest-host SNL, you\u2019re gone for a week. I don\u2019t really have a week in my schedule, unless it\u2019s in the winter. Maybe one day\u2014that would be really, really neat.\u201d<\/p>\n

Blaney already has his musical guest picked out.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m good buddies with Whiskey Myers,\u201d he said. \u201cI think they would put on a pretty good show.\u201d<\/p>\n

Blaney does have a brief history in television. He had a guest role in 2019 on the Magnum P.I. episode \u201cWinner Takes All.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat one actually worked out fun, because I was vacationing in Hawaii, in Maui, and they filmed it in Honolulu,\u201d Blaney said. \u201cThey said, \u2018Hey, can you come film this now?\u2019 and yeah, so I took a puddle jumper over to Honolulu and filmed it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was just neat because the timing of it worked out pretty cool.\u201d<\/p>\n

Interview: Ryan Blaney (No. 12 Team Penske Ford) – <\/strong><\/p>\nhttp:\/\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/NCSNWSRyanBlaney71826.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n

 <\/p>\n

Great dress rehearsal for Shane van Gisbergen at North Wilkesboro<\/b><\/p>\n

Fighting for a berth in the postseason Chase, Shane van Gisbergen welcomes all the track time he can get on ovals, which comprise the final six events in the NASCAR Cup Series regular season.<\/p>\n

Van Gisbergen made the most of the laps he ran in Saturday\u2019s FaithFest 250 NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series race on Saturday at North Wilkesboro Speedway, which will host Sunday\u2019s Window World 450 (7 p.m. ET on TNT, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).<\/p>\n

After qualifying 19th and getting the feel of his No. 71 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet in the first two stages of the race, SVG made steady progress though the field in the final stage, ultimately finishing third and matching his best performance on an oval track in any of NASCAR\u2019s national series.<\/p>\n

(The New Zealander also placed third in the NASCAR O\u2019Reilly Auto Parts Series race at EchoPark Speedway near Atlanta in February 2024).<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a lot of fun,\u201d van Gisbergen said. \u201cQualifying wasn\u2019t that good, but once I got in the race and kind of found what I needed and got adjustments, I started moving forward and I had a lot of fun. It was really cool.\u201d<\/p>\n

For SVG, the primary value was gaining experience on the track. He enters Sunday\u2019s Cup race 15th in the series standings, 31 points above the current cut line for the Chase.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Cup cars are very different, but it\u2019s got to help\u2014yeah,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service Chase Elliott faces more than one battle at North Wilkesboro NORTH WILKESBORO, N.C.\u2014The NASCAR Cup Series In-Season Challenge won\u2019t be foremost on Chase Elliott\u2019s mind in Sunday\u2019s Window World 450 at North Wilkesboro Speedway (7 p.m. ET on TNT, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Now that he\u2019s two rounds away from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":676,"featured_media":59694,"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_feature_clip_id":0,"_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":[16,774],"class_list":["post-59711","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nascar","tag-nascar","tag-north-wilkesboro-speedway"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/GettyImages-2286690120-scaled.jpg?fit=2560%2C1706","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7hzTZ-fx5","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59711","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=59711"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59711\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":59722,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59711\/revisions\/59722"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59694"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59711"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59711"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59711"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}