By Roy J. Akers — www.skyviewsports.net
Chicagoland Speedway is back on the CUP schedule since 2019. While NASCAR has not given up on the Chicago Street Race, this gives the series at least one more look at a speedway that needs to deliver in performance and put those city folk into the stands. Not sure how all that shakes out, but with the manufacturers, here is the news for the week.
| BOWMAN’S “WINDY CITY” HISTORYComing off a strong top-10 finish on the west coast, Alex Bowman will head to a city that’s played a memorable role in his NASCAR Cup Series career. Two years ago, it was the streets of downtown Chicago that broke Bowman’s winless streak and delivered his eighth, and most recent, Cup Series victory. But it was a visit to Chicagoland Speedway in June 2019 where the Arizona native really put his name on the map by taking the checkered flag at NASCAR’s highest level for the first time in his career. Not only will Bowman enter the highly anticipated weekend as Chicagoland’s defending winner, but he’s also earned a spot on a very short list of just three past winners at the track entered in Sunday’s event. In his three Chicagoland starts under the Hendrick Motorsports banner, he has yet to finish outside of the top-10, with his victory accompanied by a pair of 10th-place results in 2016 and 2018. |
 LARSON’S CONSISTENCY CONTINUES For Kyle Larson, a trip to his home state of California only further proved that the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet team are setting themselves up to be a threat for a title-defending run in the NASCAR Cup Series Chase. Running most of the day in the top-five, the Elk Grove, California, native ultimately came home with a fourth-place finish at Sonoma Raceway – delivering the team its fifth top-five finish in the past six races, including an active streak of four-straight. With his history at Chicagoland Speedway, the weekend looks to be another opportunity to keep that momentum going. He’s finished no worse than seventh in five of his six career Cup Series starts at the track, including a pair of runner-up results in the past two events (2018-2019), to earn a series-leading average finish of 6.2. Larson has also found success in the second-level series at the track with a trip to victory lane alongside Chip Ganassi Racing in the June 2018 event. |
 VAN GISBERGEN VAULTS BACK UP THE STANDINGSWith yet another statement road course performance, Shane van Gisbergen made his return to victory lane at Sonoma Raceway – becoming the second multi-time winner of the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series season. With the series’ regular season continuing to wind down, capitalizing on his forte was just what Van Gisbergen needed to do to get back into the Chase picture. The victory, along with a 63-point day, saw the New Zealand native jump three positions in the standings to 14th with a 36-point advantage over the cutline. While the series will only see left-hand turns for the remainder of the season, Van Gisbergen has been progressively finding his footing on the circuit’s traditional ovals – accumulating six top-15 results on tracks measuring between .5-1.5 miles in length. Among those includes his career-best oval finish of fifth, which came at Nashville Superspeedway just one month ago. |
| IN-SEASON CHALLENGE: ROUND TWO Chevrolet closed out the opening round of the In-Season Challenge with the highest representation moving on as seven Team Chevy drivers remain in the hunt for the one-million-dollar grand prize. Arguably the biggest upset of the opening round came when the No. 32 seed, Alex Bowman, eliminated the No. 1 seed, Tyler Reddick, following his top-10 effort at Sonoma Raceway. Now matched with No. 16 seed, Austin Cindric, the opportunity for yet another upset is on the horizon for the Arizona native as he heads to a track where he’s the series’ most recent winner. Joining Bowman in round two includes his three Hendrick Motorsports teammates Kyle Larson, Chase Elliott and William Byron; Spire Motorsports’ Carson Hocevar and Michael McDowell; and last week’s winner Shane van Gisbergen. |
| JR MOTORSPORTS STACKING STATS Last season, JR Motorsports put together a record-setting season that saw 17 trips to victory lane in the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series – marking not only the organization’s winningest season in its history, but also the most wins by a single organization in the series since the 2016 season. Their 2026 campaign is already shaping up with the potential to top that success. With 19 races complete, the organization has already reached 12 victories with five different drivers behind the wheel of their Chevrolet-powered machines. Among those includes the series veteran, Justin Allgaier, with five wins and a substantial points lead that has already secured his spot in the Chase and a shot at a second championship title. In addition, with Shane van Gisbergen and Connor Zilisch’s top-two sweep at Sonoma, the organization has placed at least one car in the top-10 for the past 76-straight races. |
NASCAR National Series – NCS/NOAPS
Hamlin overtakes Reddick in points … Five months into the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series season, and for the first time, Tyler Reddick is not the Cup Series driver’s points leader. Now sitting second in the standings, just one point behind, Reddick finds himself looking up at his 23XI Racing team co-owner Denny Hamlin and the No. 11 Toyota Camry XSE team with Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR) in first place. With three straight wins at Nashville Superspeedway, Michigan International Speedway and Pocono Raceway in late May and early June, along with a third-place result at the Coca-Cola 600, Hamlin carved into the massive points lead Reddick held from his historic start to 2026. Hamlin and Reddick are both more than 100 points clear of third-place in the point standings entering this weekend.
Five Toyota drivers move on in In-Season Challenge … After last Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series In-Season Challenge opener at Sonoma Raceway, five Toyota drivers are moving onto Round 2 this weekend at Chicagoland Speedway. Hamlin, the No. 2 overall seed, will take on LEGACY MOTOR CLUB’s Erik Jones, while Christopher Bell will face Chris Buescher. The defending In-Season Challenge winner Ty Gibbs competes against his JGR teammate, Chase Briscoe.
More Chicagoland success yearned by Hamlin … Before NASCAR left Chicagoland in 2019, Hamlin had a knack for the 1.5-mile oval in Joliet. The Virginia native had five top-10s in the last six Chicagoland races, including his victory in 2015. Hamlin has finished inside the top-10 in half of his 14 career starts at Chicagoland, as well as three top-fives. Hamlin also seeks his fourth consecutive win on an oval this season, after those triumphs at Nashville, Michigan and Pocono.
Heim seeks second straight win … After his monumental first career Cup Series win at Naval Base Coronado in San Diego two weeks ago, Corey Heim returns to the 23XI Racing No. 67 Toyota Camry XSE this weekend in Chicagoland. This will be Heim’s 14th career Cup Series start and seventh of the 2026 season as he continues his development ahead of his full-time debut in 2027.
Crews continues strong debut … Another top-five result (third) last weekend at Sonoma gave Brent Crews his seventh top-five and 10th top-10 finish in his debut season in the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series. The result was also Crews’ third top-three finish in the last four races, as he now sits 11th in the series point standings with five races remaining before “The Chase.”
| BLANEY TOP 10 STREAK AT SIXRyan Blaney extended his streak of Top 10 finishes to sixth after his sixth-place run on Sunday in Sonoma. The only race keeping that streak from being eight came last month when he finished 11th at Watkins Glen International. The Team Penske driver currently sits third in the point standings as he heads to Chicagoland Speedway, where he has four career starts and a best finish of fourth (2016 ).  ZANE SMITH MAKING 100TH CUP STARTFord Racing’s Zane Smith will be making his 100th career NASCAR Cup Series start this weekend at Chicagoland Speedway. Smith is in the midst of a breakout year as he’s already established career-highs for most Top 10 finishes (6) and laps led (62) in a single season. He’s currently 23rd in the point standings and 61 points out of the final Chase berth with eight races remaining. This will mark his first Cup start at Chicagoland, but he does have one NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series start at the facility with that coming in 2019 when he finished 17th.  FOUR IN CHASE POSITIONS With eight races remaining in the NASCAR Cup Series regular season, four Ford drivers find themselves in Chase positions. As noted above, Ryan Blaney is tops on the list in third while Chris Buescher is solidly in the field in seventh. Ryan Preece (15th) and Austin Cindric (16th) are both on the Chase bubble and are separated by only one point.  IN-SEASON CHALLENGE UPDATE Four Ford drivers advanced to the second round of NASCAR’s In-Season Challenge and are still alive for the $1 million bonus that will be awarded at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Austin Cindric, Ryan Blaney, Todd Gilliland and Chris Buescher all emerged victorious in their opening matchups. This weekend, Cindric is paired against Alex Bowman while Gilliland battles Carson Hocevar. Blaney and Shane van Gisbergen are matched up on the other side of the bracket with Buescher set to face Christopher Bell.  SITTING ON 749The next Ford win will be its 750th all-time in NASCAR’s top series. Ned Jarrett is Ford’s win leader with 43 while Bill Elliott is second with 40. Shirtless Jimmy Florian scored the Blue Oval’s first series victory when he upset the likes of Lee Petty, Curtis Turner and Joe Weatherly at Dayton Speedway on June 25, 1950. Florian earned his nickname after getting out of his 1950 flathead Ford without a shirt. Overall, 91 drivers have won at least one series race with Ford, including notable drivers Mario Andretti, Dan Gurney, Parnelli Jones, A.J. Foyt, Richard Petty, and Dale Earnhardt. |
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