|
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
0 Comments
"Iconic", "Snoozefest", "Boring", "Historic"  A general view of NASCAR Cup Series drivers (Back Row L-R) Ryan Blaney, Josh Bilicki, Erik Jones, Noah Gragson, Aric Almirola, Corey LaJoie, Ross Chastain, Ty Gibbs, Bubba Wallace, Ty Dillon, Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin, Daniel Suarez, Chase Briscoe, Christopher Bell, Michael McDowell, Chris Buescher, Chase Elliott, Austin Cindric, Martin Truex Jr., (Front Row L-R) Chandler Smith, Harrison Burton, Kyle Larson, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Joey Logano, William Byron, Justin Haley, AJ Allmendinger, Kevin Harvick, Austin Dillon, Todd Gilliland, Brad Keselowski, Ryan Preece, JJ Yeley, and Tyler Reddick pose on track for a photo at North Wilkesboro Speedway on May 19, 2023 in North Wilkesboro, North Carolina. (Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images) Via Media.NASCAR NASCAR's return to the historic North Wilkesboro Speedway was without a doubt one of the most hyped-up events in the recent history of the sport. Right up there with the Daytona 500 & the Chicago Street Race, NASCAR, the media, and Speedway Motorsports Inc pushed the "Racetrack Revival" to the masses and with a 30,000-fan capacity it was clear that, at least at the track it worked. Fans packed the stands for Sunday's All-Star Event at what appeared to be just under capacity. There was a fantastic showing for the Open, the Heat races as well as the Tyson 250 Craftsman Truck race as well.
Fan reactions after Sunday however were less than favorable however. With terms and words like "snoozefest, Boring, Waste of 2 hours of my life" and sooooo much more. being seen all across social media, it's hard to think that many fans enjoyed the race. With Kyle Larson at one point running nearly 16 seconds over Bubba Wallace in second, I get it, I really do. But this race at this track was never meant to bring in newer, younger fans. This event was targeted directly at NASCAR's legacy fanbase. I was only about 5 the last time we raced at Wilkesboro, so I cannot quite call myself a Legacy fan. I think of myself as a "Core" fan, No driver allegiance since Gordon retired, I attend 3-4 or more races a year and I haven't missed a single National Series race since halfway through 2020. This event was targeted at fans like myself and those who came before. But it was even fans in my group of the Core fanbase who absolutely hated what they saw on track. It's no secret our current short track program sucks for those watching. The speedway was never known for its exciting 2 or 3 wide action, But some fans held it on such a pedestal that it was just never going to climb to. Which was beyond unfortunate. On the TV side, the race scored a Nielsen rating of 1.28 and 2.203 million viewers while the 2022 All-Star Race scored 1.38 and 2.481 million viewers. So a drop. But why? Well, It did start just before 8pm on Sunday night. I'm sure that didn't help, but it is a TV spot that does work very well for other sports such as the NFL. The event did not sell out the 30,000 seats, meanwhile the following week's Coke 600 at Charlotte sold out a much larger capacity in it's grandstands as well as infield earlier in the week. So why did they not sell out the most hyped up event in the last couple decades? Why were the TV numbers lower?  NASCAR's Sunoco Rookie of the year competition is between only 2 drivers in the Cup Series, 4 in the Xfinity Series and 5 in the Craftsman Truck Series here in 2023
Here are where they stack up after Daytona; Craftsman Truck Series:
Xfinity Series:
Cup Series:
By: Tom Luttermoser Image: Arrowhead Brass & Plumbing FB  The 65th running of the Daytona 500 had a lot going on and the last 30 laps had people on the edge of their seats. The fans should receive a partial refund because they did not use their seats for the last few restarts and damn this 500 didn't disappoint.
By: Tom Luttermoser Image: Sonoma Raceway (FB) Full Points Standings Post Daytona  We are just 3 days away from the all important Duals at Daytona. To see who of the 6 Open Cars (In green below) will be going home. As of right now there are 42 cars competing for 40 spots in the Great American Race!
 Kyle Busch is by far the winningest driver in the Craftsman Truck Series and he is looking to continue his 10 year win streak of adding to his record by 5 in 2023 (the limit due to the Kyle Busch Rule #15 limiting full-time Cup drivers to 5 events in either lower series). Kyle will field his #51 Chevrolet Silverado RST for the first time at his home track of Las Vegas next month with Zariz Transport providing funding for all 5 races. Busch will field the #51 Zariz Silverado at Las Vegas on March 3, Circuit of the Americas on March 25, Martinsville on April 14, Kansas on May 6 and Pocono on July 22. Busch has won at least 1 Craftsman Truck Series race a year between 2013-2022, the longest streak in Series history. By: Tom Luttermoser Images: Kyle Busch  
2019 Chili Bowl Winner Christopher Bell Image: Dave Biro III
"For the time being, I'm not going to be dirt track racing" Christopher Bell
By: Tom Luttermoser
When you're investing millions of dollars into an athlete in hopes of them performing for your team for many years, the last thing you want is some unforeseen circumstance taking them out of play. Many coaches in stick and ball sports as well as owners in motorsports have tried to help prevent this from happening to the best of their ability. Obviously, an accident like the one that left Formula 1 legend Michael Schumacher paralyzed is out of anyone's control. In motorsports however, a racing accident is potentially avoidable... When you keep your drivers out of other forms of racing. Owners such as Rick Hendrick and Joe Gibbs for years have been big on restricting the outside racing that their drivers participate in. Only over the last couple years has Rick allowed drivers such as Kyle Larson to essentially have free reign over their driving decisions. Larson in 2021 raced numerous dirt races and still came "home" to win the second most races in a single season in the modern era with 10 and the Cup Series Championship on top of that. But the big news today is about young Christopher Bell. Bell, a 3x Chili Bowl Nationals winner and 3x Turkey Night Grand Prix winner grew up on dirt. Bell had a breakout season in 2022 after winning 3 Cup Series races and making his first final-4 appearance. Well, on David Gravel Live, Bell talking about the Chili Bowl, stated "Joe... Joe Gibbs has been extremely, extremely vocal about his, I don't want to use the word hatred, but hatred towards dirt track racing.... He does not love dirt track or open wheel racing at all." Bell basically admitted he had to go around Joe through the late Coy Gibbs adding, "I would always funnel my dirt track stuff through Coy." With Coy's passing in November, it is clear that Joe Gibbs will not allow it. The fan reactions to this news are as expected, they are overwhelmingly in support of young Bell.
With the loss of primary sponsor Voyager Crypto after the companies bankruptcy and sale last year, it is now official per Landon Cassill himself that he will not be fielding the #10 Kaulig Racing Xfinity car full time in 2023. What races and how many he will run in '23 are not yet known as I'm sure his sponsorship for those races are the deciders.
No word as of yet for a second/ third driver for the 10 or if Kaulig will field the car in limited events. Keep with us and we will keep you up to date as the information comes out. Image credit: unknown twitter. Story By: Tom Luttermoser
 By: Tom Luttermoser Image: Anthony Alfredo Twitter
The changes coming to the 2023 Xfinity Series are huge! I can't wait for this season, I'm sure you cannot either! Guide: Red - Unconfirmed Green - New for 2023 TBA TBA Zane Smith Ford 00. Stewart-Haas Racing Cole Custer Ford 02. Our Motorsports/TBA TBA TBA 07. SS GreenLight Racing Blaine Perkins Ford 08 SS GreenLight Racing TBA Ford/Chevrolet 0 JD Motorsports TBA Chevrolet 1 JR Motorsports Sam Mayer Chevrolet 2 Richard Childress Racing Sheldon Creed Chevrolet 3 Richard Childress Racing Ty Dillon Chevroelt 4 JD Motorsports Bayley Currey Chevrolet 6 JD Motorsports Brennan Poole Chevrolet 7 JR Motorsports Justin Allgaier Chevrolet 8 JR Motorsports Josh Berry Chevrolet 9 JR Motorsports Brandon Jones Chevrolet 10 Kaulig Racing Landon Cassill Chevrolet 11 Kaulig Racing Daniel Hemric Chevrolet 16 Kaulig Racing Chandler Smith Chevrolet 17 Hendrick Motorsports TBA Chevrolet 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Sammy Smith Toyota 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Ryan Truex/Joe Graf Jr Toyota 20 Joe Gibbs Racing John H. Nemecheck Toyota 21 Richard Childress Racing Austin Hill Chevrolet 23 Our Motorsports/TBA TBA TBA 24 Sam Hunt Racing Connor Mosack Toyota 25 AM Racing Brett Moffett Chevrolet 26 Sam Hunt Racing Kaz Grala Toyota 27 Jordan Anderson Racing Jeb Burton Chevrolet 28 RSS Racing TBA Ford 31 Jordan Anderson Racing Parker Retzloff Chevrolet 34 Jessie Iwuji Motorsports TBA Chevrolet 35 Emerling-Gase Motorsports Brad Perez Toyota 38 RSS Racing Joe Graf Jr Ford 39 RSS Racing Ryan Sieg Ford 43 Alpha Prime Racing Ryan Ellis/TBA Chevrolet 44 Alpha Prime Racing Jeffrey Earnhardt Chevrolet 45 Alpha Prime Racing Sage Karam/Caeser Bacarella/TBA Chevrolet 47 CHK Racing Ryan Vargas Chevrolet 48 Big Machine Racing Parker Klingerman Chevrolet 53 Emerling-Gase Motorsports Brad Perez? Toyota 74 CHK Racing TBA Chevrolet 78 BJ McLeod Motorsports Anthony Alfredo Chevrolet 88 JR Motorsports Dale Earnhardt Jr Chevrolet 91 DGM Racing Josh Bilicki Chevrolet 92 DGM Racing Josh Williams Chevrolet 98 Stewart-Haas Racing Riley Herbst Ford 99 BJ McLeod Motorsports Garett Smithley Chevrolet |
