Posted on by Staff Report

Kevin Harvick led 69 of 80 laps in Stage 2 at Chicagoland Speedway to capture his fourth stage win of the season in the Camping World 400.

Harvick took the lead after pit stops following the Stage 1 break, and held control until the stage concluded on Lap 160. The race is scheduled to end on Lap 267.

RELATED: Stage 2 results

Harvick held off hard charges from Chase Elliott, who finished second in the stage, and Jimmie Johnson, who dropped to fifth in Stage 2.

The stage featured some contact between the No. 11 of Denny Hamlin and the No. 41 of Daniel Suarez that resulted in a tire rub that forced Suarez to pit road.

WATCH: Hamlin, Suarez collide 

Finish Driver Team Points
1  Kevin Harvick  Stewart-Haas Racing 10
2  Chase Elliott  Hendrick Motorsports 9
3  Kyle Larson  Chip Ganassi Racing 8
4  Alex Bowman  Hendrick Motorsports 7
5  Jimmie Johnson  Hendrick Motorsports 6
6  Martin Truex Jr.  Joe Gibbs Racing 5
7  William Byron  Hendrick Motorsports 4
8  Kurt Busch  Chip Ganassi Racing 3
9  Kyle Busch  Joe Gibbs Racing 2
10  Aric Almirola  Stewart-Haas Racing 1

 

STAGE 1
Denny Hamlin grabbed his third stage win of the season after the rain-delayed Camping World 400’s first stage ended under caution at Chicagoland Speedway.

Hamlin led just three of the first 80 Stage 1 laps Sunday as pit strategy was scrambled following a 3 hour, 18 minute rain delay for a powerful storm that blew through the Joliet, Illinois, area just 11 laps into the race.

Clint Bowyer spun through the grass in his No. 14 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford just two laps before the stage break to bring out the caution that set the Stage 1 results.

RELATED: Stage 1 results

Kevin Harvick led 53 laps in the first stage, but a flat tire — and a need for fuel — brought him to pit road before the end of the stage. He still managed to finish seventh.

Jimmie Johnson led 10 laps — his first laps led since he was out front in Dover for four laps in May and was fourth in the stage.

Kyle Busch, the defending race winner, scraped the outside wall soon after restarting after the rain delay. He finished Stage 1 in 30th.

WATCH: Busch clips wall

Finish Driver Team Points
1  Denny Hamlin  Joe Gibbs Racing 10
2  Brad Keselowski  Team Penske 9
3  Michael McDowell  Front Row Motorsports 8
4  Jimmie Johnson  Hendrick Motorsports 7
5  Austin Dillon  Richard Childress Racing 6
6  Martin Truex Jr.  Joe Gibbs Racing 5
7  Kevin Harvick  Stewart-Haas Racing 4
8  William Byron  Hendrick Motorsports 3
9  Alex Bowman  Hendrick Motorsports 2
10  Kurt Busch  Chip Ganassi Racing 1
Posted on by Staff Report

Sunday’s Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race at Chicagoland Speedway was delayed by inclement weather for more than three hours. But drivers were called to pit road at 6:20 p.m. ET, and cars rolled off pit road at 6:33 p.m.

NASCAR officials moved up the start time of the Camping World 400 by 14 minutes to a 3:02 p.m. ET green flag (NBCSN, NBC Sports App, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), and the race got underway. But lightning and rain built in from the west of the Joliet, Illinois, track and the event was halted 11 laps in. A heavy rain storm ensued.

RELATED: See every car in the field | Starting lineup

Competition officials had an array of track-drying equipment at Chicagoland this weekend: 10 Air Titans, six conventional jet dryers, one blower, two track vacuums and one Elgin Sweeper. The official time of the red flag was three hours, 18 minutes and 26 seconds.

When the race resumed, Jimmie Johnson led the field to green in the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet. Kevin Harvick, in the No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford, was also on the front row.

Posted on by Staff Report

A late caution at South Boston Speedway set up a 15 lap run to the finish, and a two horse race between two of the best late model drivers in the sport. In the end, it was the 26 car of Peyton Sellers that held off a charging No. 5 of Lee Pulliam for Sellers’s fifth win of the season.

Sellers came into Saturday’s Thunder Road Harley-Davidson Presented by Grand Atlantic Ocean Resort at South Boston leading to NASCAR Whelen All-American Series late model points both at the track and nationally. While he didn’t start the best, an invert of the top 10 cars at the 100 lap break put him in fourth. He hung around the top 5 for much of the second half of the race.

A caution on Lap 177 brought on by spins by Colin Garrett and Layne Riggs set up the final battle between Sellers and Pulliam, both former NWAAS national champions. Pulliam started first on the restart, but Sellers quickly passed him after going green. Pulliam dropped down to fourth until the final five laps, when he got back to second and onto Sellers’s bumper.

Pulliam was right on Sellers’s back coming out of Turn 4 on Lap 200, and could have spun him for the win, but a clean finish by both drivers put Sellers in victory lane.

“We just had just enough car there at the end,” Sellers told reporters in victory lane. “Lee Pulliam was the best car there the last 20 or 30 laps, but he didn’t go on that restart good. We got a good little lead out. He came back strong, I knew he would.”

Sellers praised his opponent for racing clean at the finish.

“He ran me clean at the end. He could have drove through there and took me out, but he didn’t,” Sellers said. “That’s what racing is all about. These races are hard to come by.

“We had a good clean battle last week for the win, and he won that one, so respect coming back. I appreciate that. It’s been some good, clean racing here the last month or two. It’s the kind of racing the fans want to see.”

Sellers called Saturday’s a “race of attrition,” fitting given the night started with 31 cars and finished with about half that. The second half of the race saw seven cautions, with two red flags. Two big pile ups at the start/finish on Laps 102 and 124 took out 10 cars in the back of the field.

After the invert, Tyler Hughes took the pole on the Lap 101 restart, and held it for 70 laps, always coming out clean on restarts. Hughes’s hold on the lead was finally relinquished after his No. 8 car suffered a flat tire, sending sparks out the back for several laps before he was forced to pit.

The third former national champion in the field, Philip Morris, started the day on the pole, and ran towards the front all day until Lap 111 when Morris was pushed and spun between Turns 3 and 4. Morris suffered enough damage to end his night.

Pulliam, currently fourth in the track standings, Trey Crews, fifth in the SoBo standings, and Mike Looney, currently eighth in the NWAAS national standings, finished second, third, and fourth, respectively.

Not only did Saturday’s win come with a $10,000 check, it also gives Sellers a good head start in the Virginia Triple Crown standings. The Triple Crown winner is the driver with the highest average finish in the Thunder Road 200 at South Boston, the Hampton Heat 200 at Langley Speedway on July 20, and the Valley Star Credit Union 300 at Martinsville Speedway in October.

While Sellers is happy to have a leg up in the Triple Crown, he’s not resting on his laurels.

“We’ve got to go to Langley with an open mind,” he said. “I told them earlier you can’t play today’s game with yesterday’s homerun, so we’ve just got to put our nose down and try to get us a win over there.”

Other races:

– Jared Dawson led all 20 laps of the Budweiser Hornets race to start the night. Dawson was sixth in the South Boston hornets standings heading into Saturday night.

Aaron Cash, Josh Dawson, Kevin Currin, and Andrea Routolo rounded out the top 5.

– Johnny Lane won for the first time this season at South Boston, cruising to a win in the Budweiser Pure Stock race.

Pure Stock points leader Nathan Crews wrecked out midway through the race. Crews attempted to get back on the track without a front hood, but a leak in his car forced him to finish his night.

Jordan Pickrel, second in the track points, was involved in an incident between Turns 3 and 4, but battled back to a third place finish. Pickrel pulled a double a SoBo, also running in the late model race immediately following the pure stock race.

Randy Hupp, fifth in the points standings, finished second. Justin Dawson and Bruce Mayo were fourth and fifth.

Posted on by Staff Report

The Front Row Motorsports No. 36 Ford failed Optical Scanning Station pre-race inspection on Sunday at Chicagoland Speedway, meaning driver Matt Tifft will start from the rear of the field in today’s race, instead of where he initially qualified at 22nd.

The pre-race inspection was notable for not producing failures as 37 of the 38 cars passed the first time through and retained their starting positions for the Camping World 400 (3 p.m. ET, NBCSN/NBC Sports App, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Tifft’s car passed inspection on its second time through.

RELATED: Chicago 101, TV times

Austin Dillon won the Busch Pole Award for the 17th race in the 26-event regular season. Chicagoland also marks the beginning of NBC’s portion of the television schedule. The 1.5-mile track was the site of Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s “slide job” call last year when Kyle Busch outdueled Kyle Larson for the victory.

Busch is starting 17th on Sunday while Larson is in the 14th position.

MORE: Unofficial starting lineup

Posted on by Nick Giffen

The Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series returns to its bread-and-butter track type: The 1.5-mile oval for 400 miles at Chicagoland Speedway. Chicagoland has an 18-year-old track surface, which leads to moderately high tire wear. That means tire management and long-run speed will be extremely important.

In addition to practice, track history and 1.5-mile oval performance this year should also be factored in. This is the fifth 1.5-mile race run this year under the 2019 rules package that includes the aero ducts, so looking at the prior four races (Las Vegas, Texas, Kansas, Charlotte) will help us get an idea of which drivers have been strong at these tracks this year.

RELATED: Updated odds for Chicago

Another note about 1.5-mile tracks: The favorites usually win. It’s hard to bet long shots at the races where the prestigious teams have optimized their cars with elite drivers in them. So long-shot bets to win are infrequent. However, surprise top-three, -five, or -10 driver placements are a profitable venture under the right circumstances.

Another important note: NASCAR performed technical inspection on Sunday morning. Any car that fails inspection will have its qualifying time revoked and start from the rear of the field. Very often, the betting market will overreact to a driver moving to the rear, which could open up some value on Sunday. (UPDATE: Matt Tifft was only driver to fail inspection on Sunday.)

RELATED: Chicagoland Speedway inspection report

In the meantime, here are two drivers I like outright for Sunday’s race.

All odds as of 9 p.m. ET on Saturday.

Joey Logano +1200 to Win

The big three of Kevin Harvick, Kyle Busch and Martin Truex Jr. are appropriately priced and present little-to-no betting value. However, the driver fourth in my model — Joey Logano — is priced with the seventh-lowest odds at the Westgate.

Logano was +800 prior to track activity heading into the weekend, and I haven’t seen anything that should have dropped him to +1200. Yes, he qualified 19th, but starting position isn’t a major factor in a 400-mile race.

In fact, I’d say on-track performance has been a positive for Logano. He began final practice with a 31-lap run, which usually occurs when a driver is happy with his car. If something was significantly wrong with the handling early in practice, it’s likely Logano would have brought the car in much sooner for adjustments.

He then ran another long stint which resulted in the fourth-best 10-lap average among all drivers. His 15-lap time ended up seventh, so he’s right in that upper echelon of practice times, coming in less than 0.6 mph slower than Kevin Harvick’s top 15-lap speed.

Logano has already won at Las Vegas under this rules package, and picked up a second-place finish at the Series’ most recent 1.5-mile race at Charlotte. Notably, these are the two oldest track surfaces among the four 1.5-mile races with aero ducts run so far this year.

Logano wasn’t appealing at +800, but his positive final practice makes him attractive down to +1000.

Kyle Larson +350 to Finish Top 3

Larson is priced at +1400 at the DraftKings Sportsbook. Yes, he’s quite unlikely to win given the way 1.5-mile races have gone this year, but he does have top-three value for a multitude of reasons.

First, Larson dominated the race at Atlanta, which is a 1.5-mile race with the oldest surface among all 1.5-mile tracks. Yes, the rules package did not include the aero ducts at Atlanta, but with as old a surface as Atlanta has, I don’t believe aero ducts would have made much of a difference. Chicagoland has the second-oldest track surface among the remaining 1.5-mile tracks.

Larson also finished second in this race last year, losing out to Busch in one of the best finishes in recent NASCAR Cup Series history

However, the kicker is his final practice times. He steadily improved as the number of laps increased, moving from outside of the top 10, to seventh, to fifth as the number of consecutive laps run in final practice increased from five to 10 to 15. In other words, he improved relative to the field as the number of laps increased.

His dominance at Atlanta, strong track history, and solid long-run speed give me confidence in a top three finish. He’s finished top three in two of his five Chicagoland starts (40%), with two of those finishes that barely missed the top three coming in fifth and seventh place.

Posted on by RJ Kraft

Austin Dillon has earned the pole for the Camping World 400 at Chicagoland Speedway on Sunday (3 p.m. ET, NBCSN, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Does he merit a spot in your Fantasy Live lineup? We’ve dissected the numbers to offer a suggested lineup worthy of your Fantasy Live consideration.

PLAY NOW: Set your lineup | How the game works | Tips to set your lineup

RJ Kraft’s Fantasy Live lineup for race day at Chicagoland:
1. Kevin Harvick
2. Denny Hamlin
3. Alex Bowman
4. Kyle Larson
5. Brad Keselowski
Garage: Jimmie Johnson

RELATED: Odds for Chicagoland | 10-lap averages | Weekend preview

Analysis: Harvick has looked like the driver to beat this weekend and he has a solid Chicagoland history. I’m in on him regardless of uses — this is one of his best tracks left and I don’t want to miss out. Hamlin has been the best in the Toyota camp so far and I’m in a good spot on uses here — five left — so he’s in. Bowman has been pretty impressive this weekend with the best 15-lap average in final practice (h/t @SteveLetarte) and the best 10-lap average in opening practice. Larson has the long-run speed, loves the top at this track and has a strong history here. To me, Keselowski is lurking. The averages aren’t great, but I’m trusting the comfort he has here and his 1.5-mile wins in 2019 — that Kansas win seemed to come on a relatively pedestrian weekend for him. Johnson gets the garage spot, because his lap averages stood out to me and usage-wise, he’s worth the flier. If he can nab some decent stage points, the play will have been worth it.

For the bonus picks, I like Harvick to win Stage 1 and Stage 2, but Elliott to score the win.

Each week in this space, we’ll also highlight two Props Challenge items for players.

MORE: Need Props help? The Action Network has you covered | Play the Props Challenge today

1. Which driver scores more points in this race: Ryan Blaney or Erik Jones? Both drivers have been very up-and-down. Blaney has the better starting spot and seems to be emerging from a mid-spring funk with a solid showing last weekend at Sonoma. That makes me lean toward YRB for this prop.

2. O/U 33.5 stage points for Joe Gibbs Racing. I figured going into this weekend that either Kyle Busch or Martin Truex Jr. was a lock to score a stage win. But with just one of the four cars to line up inside the top 10, I like the under here. I’d still expect Busch and Truex to get stage points, but not the volume I anticipated going into the weekend. Hamlin could be a team leader at the green-checkered flag, and Jones will have his work cut out to earn some stage points.


Posted on by Chase Wilhelm

JOLIET, Ill. – Kyle Larson hasn’t forgotten about last year’s finish with Kyle Busch at Chicagoland Speedway, but not because he’s frustrated or bitter.

“It was just such an exciting finish,” Larson told NASCAR.com. “I got into him in (Turn) 2 and he got into me in (Turn) 3, so I thought it was fair game. Just good, hard racing for a win. These Cup wins are hard to come by, so we each did everything we could to win — but he just had the last punch.”

As much fun as it was for fans to witness that show of skill and determination between Busch and Larson, it might have been the most fun the No. 42 driver has ever had being a bridesmaid.

RELATED: GarageCam: Why Larson loves Chicagoland’s abrasive surface

“I’m a racer, but I’m also a fan of racing and the sport and I knew that was an exciting finish,” Larson said. “I didn’t think that he did anything wrong getting into me because I got into him first. I didn’t have anything to get over; I just got beat.”

If Larson is put into the same situation in Sunday’s Camping World 400 (3 p.m. ET on NBCSN, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), he might reconsider his  strategy from last year and hold back to stay even with Busch down the backstretch.

“It’s hard to tell yourself to lift when you’re going down a straightaway, but if I could have side-by-side with him into (Turns) 3 and 4, I think I would have won,” Larson said. “But I also didn’t know if I ran side-by-side with him if he would have just hooked me in the fence for running into him out of (Turn) 2.”

“You really don’t know what’s going on in each other’s minds either when you’re out there racing,” he added. “It’s easy to look back after things. You don’t know if the next person will react differently in that situation.”

This season, Larson feels the speed in the No. 42 car has been there because both he and Chip Ganassi Racing teammate Kurt Busch have had fast Chevrolets. It’s just the execution that needs work, as he has collected one top five and five top 10s in 16 events.

RELATED: Busch, Larson relive finish in their own words

“I feel like I’ve been very similar on speed with him (Kurt Busch) all year long. Their team’s just done a really, really good job of executing toward the end of the races,” Larson said. “Even the midpoint of the race just to position themselves. He’s really high in the points (eighth) and I’m barely in the cutoff (15th).

“I know we can go out and compete like he has, so it’s been a frustrating year. But I’ve been positive about it all because I can see the potential we have in our cars.”

Fresh off a pole position and a 10th-place finish at Sonoma, Larson is hopeful it can translate into another strong run this weekend.

“We had a solid week is what I can take away from that,” he said. “I feel like we maximized our day with gaining points, sacrificing a higher finish for more points in stages and things like that.”

With 10 races to go in the regular season, Larson is just 17 points ahead of Ryan Newman on the cutline, meaning any rhythm he and the No. 42 team hope to build on needs to begin now.

“We need to put a few weekends together in a row where we’ve executed the right way,” Larson said. “Hopefully we can just get some momentum, keep it and stretch out that gap to the cutoff a little bit.”

Posted on by Staff Report

NASCAR officials disqualified the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 20 Toyota on Saturday afternoon, throwing out Christopher Bell’s third-place finish in the NASCAR Xfinity Series after his car failed post-race inspection.

RELATED: Custer holds on at Chicagoland

According to Wayne Auton, managing director for the NASCAR Xfinity Series, the No. 20 failed the height station of post-race inspection, which is standard procedure for the top-five finishing vehicles and a sixth selected at random. Bell was demoted to a last-place result in the 38-car field.

“When we put the sticks on, the car failed both front heights and the right rear,” Auton said. “The front was extremely low. The right rear was a little high, which is normally what you’ll see whenever a car on the front sort of tilts toward the front. The rear’s going to come up; it’s got to go somewhere.”

The No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing operation had until Monday at noon ET to initiate the appeal process, and NASCAR did not receive a request for an appeal during that time. No additional penalties will be handed down after the disqualification.

Additionally, NASCAR officials announced that the race-winning Stewart-Haas Racing No. 00 Ford of Cole Custer was found with one lug nut not safely secured after a post-race check. NASCAR Rule Book guidelines call for a fine issued to the crew chief for such an infraction, but the results for the No. 00 will stand.

Auton mentioned that the No. 20 JGR team was “one of our biggest assets” in the recent process of fine-tuning the inspection process in regards to ride heights. Auton said that inspectors now unhook the shocks before and after the race to provide a clearer baseline. Auton said officials checked the car for damage and found only a rub on a quarter panel, “not enough to look at anything,” he added.

Saturday, Auton said he conferred with No. 20 crew chief Jason Ratcliff before and after the inspection. “Things happen and we feel 100% confident that we did our job the way we do every car,” Auton said. “We checked every car the same way. We had five other cars that went right through the same process at the end of the race … and they all cleared the heights just fine. Since we started this in Daytona back in February, this is the first one that we’ve even seen close. I think Jason was a little surprised, and I’m sure they’ll go back and do their due diligence to see exactly what may have happened.”

Posted on by Holly Cain

JOLIET, Ill. – Austin Dillon earned his third Busch Pole Award of the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season Saturday evening at Chicagoland Speedway, his No. 3 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet posting a speed of 176.263 mph around the 1.5-mile track.

Kevin Harvick will start second, his fifth front row start of the season in the No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford. Sunoco Rookie of the Year candidate, Dillon’s RCR teammate Daniel Hemric was third fastest, seven-time Cup champion Jimmie Johnson was fourth and Kurt Busch will roll out fifth on the grid.

RELATED: Qualifying results | Full inspection report

The qualifying order was provisional until pre-race inspection Sunday morning, which Dillon’s car passed. In all, 36 of the other 37 cars passed inspection, with Matt Tifft’s No. 36 Ford being the lone failure. The pole win was a possible sign of promise for Dillon, the 2018 Daytona 500 winner who hasn’t had a top-20 finish in the last four races and has only a pair of top-10 finishes in total this year. The pole position, Dillon conceded, was a bit of a pleasant surprise compared to where he had run in practice earlier Saturday.

“You don’t usually see a guy that was 21st and 25th in both practice sessions jump up to the pole but I actually felt really confident in our car in the second practice,’’ Dillon said. “When we put on our stickers (tires) we had our car too low. We were hitting the track. So our speed wasn’t there because of that. … I felt confident that our car was good and driving good. We just needed to get off [hitting] the track and we did and we went really fast. It was a good lap.’’

MORE: Chicagoland weekend schedule

His teammate Hemric was equally as enthusiastic. Third place is a career best start for the 28-year-old first-year Cup driver.

“We all enjoy coming to these places where you can try to find little advantages throughout the weekend, practices and qualifying to try and dial in your car to have some versatility to it,’’ Hemric said. “If you can do that and maintain grip, it gives you more opportunities to move.

“I’m a big fan of this place and a big fan of all of the tracks like this. I’m excited about our speed there in our Camaro ZL1 and hopefully it’s a sign of what’s to come in the race.’’

Johnson will be making his best start since winning the pole position at Texas two months ago and Busch will similarly be making his best start since winning the outside pole at Bristol in April.

Michael McDowell, who will roll off from the seventh position, earned the best start in the No. 34 Front Row Motorsports Ford this season.

Defending race winner Kyle Busch was 17th fastest in qualifying, one position ahead of his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate and fellow four-time 2019 race winner Martin Truex Jr.