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Make sure you guys keep an eye out for me in Chicago. I'll have some small giveaways both Saturday and Sunday!  This weekend marks the inaugural NASCAR Chicago Street Course event, and on top of that... It has the makings to being a huge marketing success for the sport as a whole. The event will take place right on the shores of Lake Michigan in Chicago's famous Grant Park with famous Chicago landmarks such as the Field Museum, The Art Institute of Chicago, Buckingham Fountain, The Bean and so much more all within eyesite of the main event. Not only will we have 2 days of racing, but also 2 days of full concerts including the Chainsmokers, Miranda Lambert, The Black Crows and Charley Crockett. The sport is being greeted well in the city with NASCAR night at Navy Pier Tuesday night, the Bubba's Block Party Wednesday night, NASCAR night at Wrigley Field for the Cubs vs. Phillies Thursday night, the Chicago Sports Commission Welcome Party Friday afternoon and so much more. Here's everything you need to know for this upcoming weekends events.
Xfinity Series - The Loop 121
Weekend ScheduleSaturday
Sunday
Cool Facts about the Chicago Street Course
By: Editor - Tom Luttermoser
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 Credit: DAYTONA BEACH, FLORIDA - FEBRUARY 16: Legacy Motor Club team owners, Jimmie Johnson, driver of the #84 Carvana Chevrolet, (L) and NASCAR Hall of Famer Richard Petty pose for photos prior to the NASCAR Cup Series Bluegreen Vacations Duel #1 at Daytona International Speedway on February 16, 2023 in Daytona Beach, Florida. (Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images) Following a family tragedy,
Per a post by Legacy Motor Club. Johnson and the No. 84 team have withdrawn from the Grant Park 220 this weekend. My heart goes out to the entire Johnson family. Sometimes you just cannot comprehend the terrible things in this world. They have asked for Privacy and will not make another statement on the matter. We will not post or comment further either out of respect for the family. Tom Luttermoser During lap 5 of this weekend's Rackley Roofing 200 at Nashville, Hailie Deegan drove her No. 13 F-150 into Turn 3, got loose and slid up into the No. 45 of Lawless Alan sending booth trucks spinning.  The ThorSport No. 13 crew attending the damaged truck of Hailie Deegan at Nashville 2023. Image: ThorSport Twitter Lawless Alan was PISSED, and he didn't hold back on his remarks after the contact with Deegan sent him up into the Turn 4 wall collecting Jack Wood in the process. "I just don't understand what the move was about, it's not the first time she's wrecked me. She does it to fucking everybody."
Deegan has had run-ins with many, many drivers over her 3 year career in the Craftsman Truck Series. In 2023 she has 2 Top-10 and 3 DNFs, but has not brought home many clean trucks. Sure she has been caught up in someone else's mess a few times but overall, it seems she is mostly front and center. To compare with the only other woman in the Truck Series, Toni Breidinger, who has 3 starts to her name in 2023. Toni has out-finished Deegan in 2 of her 3 races putting her on pace to become the Truck Series leading lady. And worst of all, she's doing it in Deegan's old truck. A lot of Deegan supporters say that the Trucks just don't suit her driving style and that all will be right in the world when she moved up to the Xfinity Series referencing last season in her loan start at Vegas, Deegan finished P. 13 in the No. 07 SS-Green Light Racing Mustang. By: Tom Luttermoser Ross Chastain sat on the Pole for the first time in his career and scored his 3rd career victory at Nashville Superspeedway, a hometown win for TrackHouse Racing.  Credit: LEBANON, TENNESSEE - JUNE 24: Ross Chastain, driver of the #1 Worldwide Express Chevrolet, drives during qualifying for the NASCAR Cup Series Ally 400 at Nashville Superspeedway on June 24, 2023 in Lebanon, Tennessee. (Photo by Logan Riely/Getty Images) Ross Chastain held off a hard charging Martin Truex Jr after leading 5 times for 99 laps. He pulled off the Pole in qualifying on Saturday afternoon over Tyler Reddick and Sunday night, he won his first race of 2023 from that pole.
Ross battled hard through lap down traffic over the last 50 plus laps but managed to keep Truex behind him the entire time. Chastain even thread the needle between the 10 & 15 cars with only a couple dozen laps to go. That move putting 3 lap down cars between the 1 & 19. He would go on to win all while scoring 57 points on the afternoon. Top-5
By: Tom Luttermoser  Ross Chastain during practice at Nashville Superspeedway 2023. Image: Ross Chastain FB Ross Chastain scores his first Busch Light Pole Award today at the Nashville Superspeedway over Tyler Reddick. Chastain won his first pole with a 29.797 second lap over Reddick's 30.005. Both the front runners were in great risk of being beatten by the 23XI rocket ship of Bubba Wallace until he spun coming out of Turn 4.
Wallace was not the only car to go around in 4, TrackHouse's Daniel Suarez spun coming out of 4 as well before even taking the green. Suarez backed the car into the outside wall and it is yet to be known if the No. 99 team will go to a back-up car. If Suarez falls out, Kyle Busch will start P.10. Your Top-10 Starters
By: Tom Luttermoser Carson Hocevar survives late race restart and holds off Corey Heim and Zane Smith to score his second career victory at the Nashville Superspeedway.  Credit: LEBANON, TENNESSEE - JUNE 23: Carson Hocevar, driver of the #42 Worldwide Express Chevrolet, celebrates with the checkered flag after winning the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Rackley Roofing 200 at Nashville Superspeedway on June 23, 2023 in Lebanon, Tennessee. (Photo by Logan Riely/Getty Images) Hocevar scored his 5th Top-5 finish in a row as he took the checkered flag for the Rackley Roofing 200 at Nashville. Hocevar led twice for a total of 40 laps including the most important final lap to score his second career win and second win of the season.
Carson now sits in the 3rd seed in the Playoff picture with 12 Playoff Points putting him just 2 Playoff Points behind Craftsman Truck Series leader Corey Heim. With 3 races to go in the regular season, Hocevar sits 81 points out from the points lead so a regular season championship is a bit out of reach for the Michigan native, but that doesn't mean that he cannot close the gap in the Playoff picture. The next three races before the cutoff are Mid-Ohio, Pocono and Richmond where Carson scored a 3rd at Mid-Ohio, 3rd at Pocono and 10th at Richmond last season so Carson has a lot to look forward to before the Playoffs start at IRP 4 weeks from now. By: Tom Luttermoser We're going to do something a little different today. We're going to compare a few of today's biggest Cup drivers to some of the GOATs at their respective points in their careers in terms of number of wins. Let's compare them with, lets say.... Gordon, Johnson and Earnhardt. All drivers in this comparison are suggestions from followers on FB and Twitter. (Note: SInce Dale Earnhardt's career never spanned full-time between 1975 & 1979, we will call his full-time career 1980-2000 for simplicity of this)  At Darlington Raceway, Jeff Gordon went to Victory Lane for the third time in four races. Photo courtesy of Jerry Markland/Getty Images for NASCAR Kyle Busch Rookie Year - 2005Kyle Busch could today be deemed the second coming of the the King of NASCAR. 228 combined wins makes him #1 on the All-time win list. But we're talking about Cup wins today, and Kyle has 63 of them in a career spanning 2 decades with 646 starts to his name. So let's compare.
Kyle Larson Rookie Year - 2014Kyle Larson has at this point in his career has had just over 8.5 full-time seasons under his belt. He now sits at 21 career victories over a period of 311 Starts. 6 of those wins came before the pandemic and his suspension and the remainder came with Hendrick since 2021. So let's compare.
Kevin Harvick Rookie Year - 2001As he retires this season, Kevin Harvick has had one hell of a Cup Series career. Filling in for the late Dale Earnhardt, it is only fitting we take a look at their careers on this list. Harvick has run 803 races and is on his 23rd full-time season in Cup scoring a total of 60 trips to victory lane. So let's compare.
Joey Logano Rookie Year - 2009One of only 12 multi-time champions in the sport's history, Joey Logano has spanned a career of closing on 15 years with 32 victories over 517 races. Logano is a consistent threat year after year, and that's hard to do for more than just a few seasons. So let's compare.
Chase Elliott Rookie Year - 2016The 5x Fan favorite and 2020 Cup champion Chase Elliott took over from Jeff Gordon in the HMS No. 24 car in 2016. He has run 7 full-time season and is currently on his 8th although he has missed a majority of the 2023 season to suspension and injury. He has 18 Cup victories in 261 starts. So let's compare.
Bubba Wallace got his Cup Series debut at Pocono in 2017 out of a bad situation, filling in for an injured Aric Almirola.  Credit: KANSAS CITY, KANSAS - SEPTEMBER 11: Bubba Wallace, driver of the #45 ROOT Insurance Toyota, celebrates in victory lane after winning the NASCAR Cup Series Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas Speedway on September 11, 2022 in Kansas City, Kansas. (Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images) This weekend's Ally 400 at Nashville Superspeedway represents a major milestone for the Alabama native. Wallace will start his 200th career Cup Series race in Music City this weekend. Wallace has not made 200 consecutive starts in the series as his first four fill-in races were split in half and more recently Wallace was suspended for on-track contact near the end of 2022.
Wallace spent the first 4 substitute races with Richard Petty Motorsports and would follow that up with the first 3 seasons of his career at RPM. In 2021, Wallace would make the move over to Toyota and 23XI Racing co-owned by Denny Hamlin & Michael Jordan. That year Wallace would break through and score his first career win at Talladega and follow that up with the best season of his career in 2022 winning at Kansas and scoring a career high 5 Top-5 finishes and 10 Top-10s. Currently Wallace sits 15th in the standings following the race at Sonoma Raceway in California. By: Tom Luttermoser  Display of Elliott's LLumar Chevrolet at North Wilkesboro. Image: Llumar Window Films Twitter LLumar Window Films has a single win with Elliott back at the 2021 COTA race and since then sponsored a limited number of races per year with the HMS 9 team. Today it comes out that LLumar will extend that partnership with Hendrick and Elliott going into 2026 including their primary at the Vegas fall race this year as well.
LLumar will primary 2 races per year, in 2024, 2025 & 2026.. PLUS they will get 2 extra races for 2023, Daytona's Cutoff race and the Talladega Playoff race. The company also has a much larger business deal with Hendrick Automotive Group. By: Tom Luttermoser "I'm not interested in some kids father coming and buying their way into the Cup Series. I have Zero interest in that " - Smoke  Current Junior Motorsports Xfinity Series driver, Josh Berry will be moving on in 2024. Berry was impressive in his first few races in the NEXT GEN car while racing for Hendrick Motorsports. Everyone saw Berry getting a Cup ride sooner rather than later, but the where was the question.
Kevin Harvick announced his retirement at the end of the 2023 season and speculation began on his replacement. Late April we speculated a few landing spots for Josh Berry and the #1 spot was one of the SHR cars (4/10 both potentially being open at the end of the year). Larry McReynolds made a statement on XM radio that Berry would for sure have a Cup ride in 2024 back on April 28 and the silly season speculations were on from there. |