CHICAGO — Chicago, NASCAR and rain must have a thing going on!
With the traditional rain being part of the festivities, NASCAR returned to the Chicago area this past weekend with both the NASCAR Cup Series and O’Reilly Auto Parts Series competing at the Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet after an absence of seven years.
The speedway, located some 45 miles southwest of Chicago, fell off the NASCAR schedule after 2019 because of the COVID pandemic.
The past three years had seen NASCAR race on the streets of downtown Chicago with success with many blaming the weather from preventing the three previous events in “The Windy City” even being more successful.
Personally, there was nothing like walking down Michigan Avenue and hearing raw horsepower.
With no rain and pretty much partly sunny skies Sunday, Indiana native Chase Briscoe, wheeling the Bass Pro Shops No. 19, won Sunday’s eero 400 NASCAR Cup Series race, holding off a fast-closing and Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Christopher Bell at the checkered flag. It was Briscoe’s sixth career Cup Series win.
A reported sellout crowd of some 44,000 was on hand with many late arrivals caused by muddy and wet parking areas that became useless after the heavy, ground-soaking rains Friday and Saturday – estimated at more than five inches of rain.
Rain and wind hit the speedway on Friday – the opening day of three days of racing. Before things got a little wet, the Automobile Racing Club of America’s ARCA Menards Series got things under way in the afternoon with cars taking to the 1.5-mile speedway for practice for the first time since 2019. ARCA qualifying was rained out with the lineup for the evening’s race lined up by practice times.
Friday night saw Connor Mosack, from Charlotte, N.C., come home the winner of the Ashley Furniture 150, guiding his Friends of Jacklyn Chevrolet to his third career ARCA victory.
A field of 27 started the ARCA race with three Illinois drivers in the lineup. Tim Richmond of Ottawa, Ill., finished 11th, Tim Monroe of Elmwood, Ill., finished 23rd and Alex Clubb from Morris, Ill., finished 22nd with a broken drivetrain.
Clubb, who has campaigned on the entire ARCA circuit the past several years, is a product of local short tracks, racing on both dirt and asphalt. His dad, Brian, was a longtime competitor at the Grundy County Speedway in Morris, Ill. Clubb Racing Inc. had three entries in Friday’s race with Jeff Maconi, finishing 18th, and Nate Moeller, finishing 27th, joining Alex in the race.
Friday’s weather canceled out the entire practice for the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series with drivers getting in some practice laps before Saturday’s race which was lined up by current points standings.
Delayed by another “daily” rain/windstorm, the Cuervo 300 finally got underway late on a hot and muggy Fourth of July as 38 cars took the green flag.
With the race going into overtime, Brandon Jones snuck by Chase Elliott for the lead on a 200-lap restart. In the first O’Reilly Series race to require overtime this season, Jones’ No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota stayed side-by-side with Elliott’s No. 88 JR Motorsports Chevrolet through the first two corners with Jones wrestling away lead and going on to score his first O’Reilly win of the season and the eighth of his career.
Jones held a 0.171-second lead over Elliott as the checkered flag fell as midnight approached.
Former Chicago area racing star Bobby Dotter had two cars in the lineup for the O’Reilly race – Cole Custer, driving the SS GreenLight Racing No. 0 and Josh Bilicki, wheeling the team’s No. 07. Custer finished ninth while Bilicki finished 36th after experiencing problems. Sysco, Creekside Landscaping, Granum X and Rich’s Pizza Joint supported the team’s efforts.
Looking Back
• The all-time Chicagoland Speedway winner — the late Kyle Busch scored 11 victories, including two Cup wins. His other victories included four O’Reilly series wins and five Craftsman Truck checkers. Tony Stewart leads all Cup drivers with three career wins at the Joliet oval.
• New Zealander Shane van Gisbergen was the “King” of Chicago NASCAR Street racing, winning four times on the downtown 2.2-mile, 12-turn, course. Van Gisbergen won two Cup races and two O’Reilly events – making a “clean sweep” of both street races last year.
• Alex Bowman won the last previously held Cup race at Chicagoland Speedway on June 30, 2019 with Kevin Harvick being the winner of the inaugural 400-miler 25 years ago — July 15, 2001.
• 70 Years Ago – Glenn “Fireball” Roberts, one of NASCAR’s first superstars, drove a factory-backed 1956 Ford to victory in a 200-lap/100-mile NASCAR Grand National race in front of a reported crowd of 17,585 at Chicago’s Soldier Field – the home of NFL’s Chicago Bears, at the least for the time being. The date was July 21, 1956.
• How many remember the huge inflatable Tropicana Orange Juice ball trying to sneak in a lap in at the Chicagoland Speedway in 2004? A strong wind caused the ball to break loose and set sail down the main straightaway during qualifying.
• Finally – Track or Street? That’s the question in a lot of people’s minds. Will NASCAR return to the Chicagoland Speedway or the Streets of Chicago in 2027? Stay tuned.
