{"id":59515,"date":"2026-07-04T11:50:16","date_gmt":"2026-07-04T16:50:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/?p=59515"},"modified":"2026-07-05T09:31:36","modified_gmt":"2026-07-05T14:31:36","slug":"nascar-saturday-chicagoland-notebook-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/04\/nascar-saturday-chicagoland-notebook-2\/","title":{"rendered":"NASCAR: Saturday Chicagoland Notebook"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

Denny Hamlin: Experience has minimal value in return to Chicagoland<\/b><\/p>\n

JOLIET, Ill. \u2014 Denny Hamlin is one of three drivers in the field for Sunday\u2019s eero 400 who has won a NASCAR Cup Series race at Chicagoland Speedway.<\/p>\n

\"\"

JOLIET, ILLINOIS – JULY 03: Denny Hamlin, driver of the #11 Progressive Insurance Toyota, drives during practice for the NASCAR Cup Series eero 400 at Chicagoland Speedway on July 03, 2026 in Joliet, Illinois. (Photo by James Gilbert\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

But Hamlin says his experience at the 1.5-mile intermediate speedway won\u2019t amount to a significant edge when drivers take the green flag for the 19th race of the season (6 p.m. ET on TNT, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).<\/p>\n

For one thing, the asphalt at Chicagoland has weathered for seven years, and the bump over the tunnel in Turns 3 and 4 is perhaps more pronounced.<\/p>\n

And though 18 drivers on the entry list for the race have never driven Cup Series race cars at the Joliet track, it\u2019s also true that no driver in the field has ever raced a Gen 7 Cup car at Chicagoland.<\/p>\n

The Gen 7 car debuted in the series in 2022, three years after Alex Bowman outdueled Kyle Larson to win the most recent race at the speedway.<\/p>\n

Even though Hamlin represented Toyota drivers in a Goodyear tire test at Chicagoland in April, he doesn\u2019t think that experience or his history at the track will be a decisive factor on Sunday.<\/p>\n

\u201cI ran some laps here during the test but it\u2019s still one line,\u201d Hamlin said before Friday\u2019s Cup practice. \u201cI\u2019ve been around long enough to know that a test race track and a race weekend track are two vastly different things. So, lots of unknowns, just what line are we going to run?<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s going to be the fastest? And as Kyle (Larson) mentioned, we didn\u2019t really go up the race track at all during the test, so we don\u2019t know whether the bump is more or less the higher you go. I have some old notes I had in the book that I looked at, but it\u2019ll be something small, nothing big.\u201d<\/p>\n

Battle of the \u201cChristophers\u201d adds intrigue to Sunday\u2019s race<\/b><\/p>\n

Christopher Bell and Christopher Buescher share at least one thing beyond driving in the NASCAR Cup Series.<\/p>\n

\u201cLongest first name in the garage, right?\u201d Buescher quipped after Friday\u2019s NASCAR Cup Series practice.<\/p>\n

Currently, however, the drivers have one other thing in common. After winning their opening-round In-Season Challenge matchups last Sunday at Sonoma Raceway, Buescher and Bell will face each other in Round 2, with the victor meeting the winner of Sunday\u2019s Denny Hamlin vs. Erik Jones contest July 12 at EchoPark Speedway near Atlanta.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got a battle going,\u201d Buescher said. \u201cThey (Bell\u2019s team) have been really good on mile-and-a-halfs this year, as have we, but we\u2019ve been somewhere about fifth to eighth\u2014that\u2019s kind of been our stuck point.<\/p>\n

\u201cI felt really good about practice today. It\u2019s really a bit of a different animal, given that we\u2019ve been gone from this place so long\u2026 But (the battle against Bell) is not something that you go in and use as a primary focus. It\u2019s a secondary part of the race, and we\u2019ll do everything we can to figure how to win.\u201d<\/p>\n

Buescher was 10th fastest in Friday\u2019s practice, and Bell was 17th. Despite breaking his wrist in a devastating crash June 7 at Michigan, Bell fashioned an impressive fifth-place finish last Sunday at Sonoma, where Buescher ran ninth.<\/p>\n

For the first time since the accident, Bell will race without a cast this weekend.<\/p>\n

Carson Hocevar faces \u201cmystery\u201d In-Season Challenge opponent in 100th Cup start<\/b><\/p>\n

To say Carson Hocevar hasn\u2019t been focused on the In-Season Challenge is putting it mildly.<\/p>\n

Last Sunday at Sonoma Raceway, the driver of the No. 77 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet finished 11th to Zane Smith\u2019s 18th to eliminate Smith in the opening round of the tournament.<\/p>\n

Asked after Friday\u2019s practice about his second-round matchup, Hocevar responded, \u201cWho is it?\u201d<\/p>\n

In fact, Hocevar will face Todd Gilliland, who eliminated Daniel Suarez in the first round at Sonoma.<\/p>\n

\u201cOh, it\u2019s Todd?\u201d said Hocevar, who will make his 100th NASCAR Cup Series start on Sunday at Chicagoland Speedway. \u201cI don\u2019t know. Hopefully he\u2019s slow.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Friday\u2019s practice, Hocevar was ninth fastest to Gilliland\u2019s 27th.<\/p>\n

About his 100th start in NASCAR\u2019s top division, Hocevar was equally nonchalant.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, you just kind of blink and you\u2019re at a hundred,\u201d he said. \u201cBlink twice, and you\u2019re at 200. \u201cI just try to enjoy as many as possible. I\u2019m just glad I have a win in the win column before a hundred, right?\u201d<\/p>\n

Hocevar picked up his only career victory so far on April 26 at Talladega Superspeedway.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service Denny Hamlin: Experience has minimal value in return to Chicagoland JOLIET, Ill. \u2014 Denny Hamlin is one of three drivers in the field for Sunday\u2019s eero 400 who has won a NASCAR Cup Series race at Chicagoland Speedway. But Hamlin says his experience at the 1.5-mile intermediate speedway won\u2019t […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":676,"featured_media":59517,"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":[488,16],"class_list":["post-59515","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\/2026\/07\/GettyImages-2284548983-scaled.jpg?fit=2560%2C1707&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7hzTZ-ftV","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59515","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/676"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59515"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59515\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":59526,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59515\/revisions\/59526"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59517"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59515"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59515"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59515"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}