Posted on by Staff Report

This weekend’s NASCAR Chicago Street Race will capture the attention of thousands of newcomers to the sport, with first-time attendees lining the fencing and watching from the temporary grandstands, eyes affixed to Next Gen cars parading through the streets of downtown Chicago.

Important to the decision to host NASCAR’s first-ever street race in America’s third-largest city was exposing the sport to new audiences. And as NASCAR hopes, inspire new race fans.

“He’s really excited to see the trophy,” said Jamie Metcalf, of Naperville, Illinois, whose son, Franklin, 7, will be in attendance to experience his first NASCAR race on Sunday.

Like many others, Jamie, Franklin and two family members will make the 30-mile trip this weekend from the Chicago suburbs to Michigan Avenue, the city’s most iconic thoroughfare and home to four of the race course’s 12 turns.

“He asked about monster trucks,” said Metcalf. “There won’t be monster trucks there, will there?”

No. Sadly not.

But if speed, horsepower, or the thunderous roar of 40 Next Gen engines are any consolation, Franklin will be in for a treat Sunday. And so will thousands of other Chicagoland families planning to spend their Independence Day weekends with NASCAR.

For Jamie and Franklin Metcalf, however, this first-time NASCAR memory – like all other family memories over the last five years – will take place without their beloved husband and father, David Metcalf.

David was a decorated Navy SEAL combat operator who spent nearly 20 years in the military, and during that time served tours in Iraq, Afghanistan and the Pacific. He met Jamie while stationed in San Diego and the couple were married in 2012.

Over the course of his military career, David developed a series of symptoms that made his days increasingly difficult, and particularly so as he entered his 40s. Headaches, memory loss, anxiety, paranoia and mood swings were among the worsening symptoms that ultimately led David to take his own life, in the garage of his home in North Carolina in 2019.

The Metcalf family

As detailed in a June 30 article in the New York Times, David left a note near a stack of books on brain injuries, his written words listing his symptoms and pleading for greater attention to the impact of weapons blast exposure on brain health.

David shot himself in the heart, preserving his brain which was studied and analyzed by a Defense Department laboratory in Maryland. He is one of at least a dozen active or veteran Navy SEALS that have died by suicide over the last decade.

While it’s believed that David’s tragic death was tied to brain injury, after repeated exposures to weapons blasts across five deployments, it is just one pathway leading to the deteriorating mental health of veterans and service members at large in the United States.

According to the Department of Veteran Affairs, on average 17 veterans die by suicide every day. Approximately 500 active-duty service members die by suicide each year, on average. Many were known to have battled PTSD, depression, severe anxiety or other medically diagnosed mental health issues. Tragically, in most cases, these battles are happening in silence.

More than 60% of veterans who die by suicide had not recently engaged with the Veterans Health Administration, according to the VA.

“We really emphasize a number of studies looking at post-9/11 veterans and service members,” said William Negley, founder of Sound Off, a non-profit organization focused on reducing veteran suicide by providing mental health support for veterans. “They all say half or more of those who really need help, actively choose not to seek help for fear of cultural stigmatization and professional blowback.”

It’s a truth that cripples efforts to aid veterans and service members in dire need of effective care and support.

“There are many who were close to him that would say this, and truly, David was the last person you would think would take his own life,” said Jamie Metcalf. “He was a positive individual, happy and upbeat.”

“David didn’t vocalize or express his struggles. And since his passing I’ve heard from military brothers of his who privately shared that they, too, don’t talk about their issues because of fear and how it might affect their relationships or careers.”

Prior to his death, David Metcalf taught a course on suicide awareness and prevention to Marines through a program with the U.S. Marine Corps. No one could’ve predicted his own tragic passing.

For Negley, an ex-CIA officer, the subject of veteran mental health and suicide became even more resonant a few years after he founded Sound Off. His brother-in-law, Bill Mulder, also a Navy SEAL, died by suicide in June of 2017 – just months after retiring from the Navy.

Bill was a family man, a loving husband to William’s sister, Sydney, and doting father of three children. Late in his career and into retirement he suffered bouts with alcoholism, insomnia, anxiety and combat fatigue.

Bill, too, suffered quietly.

“We were devastated, the many of us that loved and were close to Bill,” said Negley. “And we were frustrated. Here this man who had dedicated his life to serving this nation, had access to all these resources, yet he felt alone. He felt unable to engage with care in an open and honest fashion.”

With her husband’s death in 2017, Sydney Mulder joined her brother in working to address this fundamental issue.

“The anonymity is essential,” said Mulder. “If Bill could have talked to someone without his teammates, leadership, family, or even me knowing, I know it would have made all the difference.”

Sound Off, with roots in Negley’s hometown of San Antonio, Texas, is one of more than 40,000 veteran services organizations in the U.S. According to Negley, the number of organizations prioritizing mental health support is far lower.

“We’re all aiming for the same thing, a viable solution to a very complicated problem,” said Negley. “With Sound Off, we sought to get to the heart of the issue. What are the roadblocks? What specifically is preventing veterans and service members from seeking treatment? And then how do we remove those barriers?”

Negley and his team focused on two key insights. The first centered on stigma and the understanding that military members are more likely to accept mental health support if they felt safe doing so.

Secondly, many veterans and service members are more comfortable discussing their challenges and emotions with others that served in the Armed Forces. When veterans are talking to other veterans, the shared lived experience creates a connection and level of empathy that otherwise may prevent them from seeking care.

Guided by these truths, Sound Off developed a fully encrypted mobile app that provides anonymous mental health support for veterans and service members who are struggling by pairing them with other veterans, enlisted as peer supporters.

Once registered with the app, the veteran or service member in need of support is provided with a unique and anonymous digital identity as well as access to Sound Off’s database of clinicians and veteran peer supporters.

Once a match has been made, communication between the veteran and peer supporter takes place within the mobile app’s protected environment. No FaceTime or need for a phone number. All messages are shared within the app’s anonymous system.

The early results are promising. Of those who have sought help through Sound Off thus far, 38% reported they had not previously sought help, and were unwilling to do so elsewhere.

“Our survey asks why they are unwilling to seek help elsewhere, and it’s exactly what we know – concern of professional blowback, as well as the concern of friends, family or the community finding out,” said Negley. “It’s very clear. We are reaching the people who up until now have been suffering alone.”

As she continues to grieve her late husband, Jamie Metcalf believes David and others like him lost to suicide would’ve benefitted greatly from a resource like the Sound Off app.

“I wish he knew about this,” said Metcalf. “What so many who are dealing with these issues want is a safe place to go for help. An outlet for them to talk and share and communicate what they’re going through.”

“The work that William and Sound Off are doing is so incredibly important. It’s creating a lifeline.”

Built within the app’s framework is a network of partner organizations, contract and volunteer clinicians, and hundreds of peer supporters who registered veterans and service members have access to seven days a week. The goal is to provide access to varying levels of care depending on military member needs.

The challenges for Sound Off, like so many other non-profits, are visibility, growth and scaling the app’s user base – not just those seeking help, but also clinicians and peer supporters. The organization announced NASCAR as its first major corporate partner last fall – a collaboration designed to bring awareness to Sound Off and recruit peer supporters from the sport’s massive fan base.

The partnership represents of a key component of NASCAR IMPACT, the sport’s new social responsibility platform that focuses on veteran services among other areas of community engagement and support.

“As our fans know, NASCAR is a patriotic sport and we have a long history of celebrating and showing appreciation for the military,” said Pete Stuart, NASCAR’s managing director, impact strategy and development. “With NASCAR IMPACT, we’re leaning into areas of critical need for veterans and service members and, very importantly, that includes mental health.”

“We believe in the vision of Sound Off and the progress that’s been made to date, so now it’s about activating veterans who are NASCAR fans to rally around this organization and support.”

This spring, in conjunction with NASCAR Salutes Together with Coca-Cola, NASCAR IMPACT launched a multi-channel campaign to amplify the mission of Sound Off and encourage veterans among the fan base to sign up as peer supporters. The campaign includes a PSA, social media content, digital advertising and video signage at NASCAR racetracks.

After the launch, Sound Off began seeing spikes in registered peer supporters – more than six times as many compared to the same period in 2023. In addition, there has been growth in terms of veterans and service members seeking aid.

“NASCAR has the audience and reach that we need to grow our impact,” said Negley. “We’re so grateful for the support, and it’s partnerships like these that will ultimately turn our long-term vision for Sound Off into a reality.”

This weekend, Negley and Metcalf will attend NASCAR Chicago Street Race Weekend with their families to share the stories of their lost loved ones and bring awareness to Sound Off and the issue of veteran suicide. Along the track footprint and fan areas, there will be Sound Off signage with QR codes directing veterans to download the app on Apple and Android devices.

To learn more about Sound Off and its efforts to reduce veteran suicide in America, visit Sound-off.com. Veterans can become peer supporters by downloading the Sound Off app and registering with code ‘NASCAR.’

Posted on by Zach Sturniolo

CHICAGO — Shane van Gisbergen and Kyle Larson took turns crossing each other over for the race lead. Ty Gibbs tried to chase SVG for the win.

Ultimately, it was van Gisbergen who enjoyed Chicago’s spoils all over again, this time in the NASCAR Xfinity Series on Saturday on the Chicago Street Course. But it’s safe to say the thrill of the show was even fun for the drivers performing.

“I was having a blast,” said Larson, who finished third in his first Xfinity start on the city roads.

RELATED: Race results | At-track photos: Chicago

Van Gisbergen agreed, jumping to the point as soon as he sat down for his press conference inside The Art Institute of Chicago.

“That was a pretty awesome race,” van Gisbergen said, now boasting a 2-for-2 record on the 2.2-mile street course.

The first stage produced the most dazzling of SVG’s and Larson’s head-to-head battles. They swept the front row in qualifying but wasted zero time in slicing and dicing through DuSable Lake Shore Drive, Roosevelt Road and Columbus Drive.

For all of Larson’s success — which includes earning the Busch Light Pole Award for Sunday’s Grant Park 165, the feature race of Chicago Street Race Weekend — he knew there would be plenty of takeaways from any straight-up contests between himself and van Gisbergen’s No. 97 Chevrolet.

“Obviously, I wanted to win today, but I wanted to learn more than anything,” Larson said. “And I wanted to get to battle with him because he’s just really good at creating shapes and angles and passing, and that was an objective of mine. The first opportunity I got, I wanted to get racing because I just didn’t know if you’d ever have another opportunity to race with him.

“My car seemed to be a little bit better than his for maybe a lap or two, which helped me get by him and then able to protect and stuff. But he was so much better than me. He was just being patient and playing with me, I think. But it was it was good fun and probably made for great TV. And yeah, the whole race was really exciting, I thought.”

There was perhaps a little less patience than Larson gave SVG credit for, the New Zealander said, attributing a slower car under re-fires that forced him to play a little catch-up.

“The first stage race with Kyle there, my car was really weak,” van Gisbergen said. “I couldn’t get going at the start or the restarts, and then take two or three laps, and he’d always pass me. Then, when my car would come on with, I’d be attacking him and yeah, just awesome. Awesome, fun racing with him. His car was a little better over the bumps and under braking, and he was driving very well as well. But yeah, gave him a thumbs up, he was waving back, and yeah, had a blast.”

Shane van Gisbergen and Kyle Larson at Chicago.
Brittney Wilbur | NASCAR Digital Media

But in the end, pit strategy placed multiple cars between the two. And while Larson felt he got through traffic quicker than SVG, van Gisbergen had the ever-important track position that gave him a better shot to chase victory.

On a restart with three laps remaining, van Gisbergen was able to clear Gibbs for second and hunt then-leader Jesse Love for the win. SVG charged to Love’s right on entry to the 90-degree, left-handed Turn 6 from Columbus onto Balbo Drive, then continued to drive shallower and shallower to the right-handed Turn 7 onto Michigan Avenue — forcing Love to either leave a lane or get crashed.

Love left the lane, SVG drove through and Gibbs followed through into second place.

Gibbs charged hard to whittle the gap to van Gisbergen over the final two laps but ultimately had to settle as the runner-up.

RELATED: Gibbs ‘just needed to be better’ in runner-up day

“He just seemed like he set (Love) up really well getting into (Turn) 6 and had him pointed a whole different direction,” Gibbs said of SVG’s race-winning move. “And then he could cross him back over quickly and jump inside and get his nose far out enough to where Love is gonna have to lift because, at that point, it doesn’t make sense for him to run in the corner next to him. He just did a really good job of setting them up.”

Perhaps the best part of Saturday’s showdown between three top road-racing talents is that a sequel is immediately on deck, with all three set to compete in the Cup race. Gibbs qualified second — 0.01 seconds shy of Larson’s pole lap time — with SVG fifth. Van Gisbergen offered his praise of Gibbs as well, with the two of them having prior Xfinity battles at Circuit of The Americas and Sonoma Raceway as well.

“He races really good,” van Gisbergen said. “You can tell when someone — when you’re racing around them — how aware they are, how sharp. And yeah, he puts the car in good spots and he’s always fast as well. So yeah, I’m sure him and Kyle, they’ll probably be the quickest guys tomorrow. And I think at one stage in practice, overall, I think the top five or four guys were all people doing (the) Xfinity Series (race), so it’s been really handy doing both for everyone.”

Posted on by Holly Cain

CHICAGO — Shane van Gisbergen put on a master class Saturday afternoon, winning the NASCAR Xfinity Series’ The Loop 110 at the Chicago Street Course. The New Zealander led early and, again, led late to claim his third consecutive series road-course win and second race win on the 2.2-mile downtown Chicago streets.

Fans who experienced monsoon-like rains at last year’s inaugural NASCAR visit to the Windy City could not have asked for a more ideal summer afternoon on Saturday. People in the packed grandstands — nearly half taking in their first NASCAR event, according to Chicago Street Race President Julie Guise — enjoyed blue skies, a comfortable breeze and temperatures in the mid-70s.

And they enjoyed a highly competitive-spirited race, with van Gisbergen and Californian Kyle Larson dicing it up, door-to-door, front fender to back bumper from the drop of the green flag and then van Gisbergen charging through the field to claim the lead again in the final laps.

RELATED: Race results | At-track photos: Chicago

In the end, the 35-year-old van Gisbergen got his No. 97 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet around Joe Gibbs Racing’s Ty Gibbs with two laps remaining and charged off to his series-best third win of the year by a healthy 1.287 seconds over Gibbs and Larson.

“That’s awesome, what a great race,’’ said a grinning van Gisbergen after kicking a rugby ball into the cheering crowd as is his established NASCAR victory celebration.

“It was pretty wild there at the end, but I can’t thank the Kaulig Racing guys enough. It was great racing to start with Kyle [Larson]. He was really good on the restarts and we made our car better with the second set of tires, but whooo, that was fun at the end passing all those guys. Had some great racing with everyone.’’

Van Gisbergen who also claimed road-course wins at Portland and Sonoma led 14 laps as did Richard Childress Racing’s Jesse Love — most on the afternoon. Big Machine Racing’s Parker Kligerman finished fourth; his best result of the season and Love was fifth.

The two champion drivers — Larson and van Gisbergen — set the tone immediately, exchanging the lead sometimes three and four times in a single lap from the drop of the green flag. Larson, the 2021 Cup Series champion, led the first six laps and van Gisbergen, a three-time Australian Supercars champion who won last year’s inaugural Cup Series race in Chicago, led the next nine laps to claim the Stage 1 win in the process.

“It was cool we were waving at each other, thumbs up,’’ Van Gisbergen said of racing Larson early. “Really respectful but big moves. He was amazing on the brakes and on the bumps. Really cool. I learned a lot and he probably learned a lot off me. Hope to race him again for the win tomorrow.’’

Larson, who will start from pole position in Sunday’s Grant Park 165 Cup Series race, had been looking forward to the chance to race up front with van Gisbergen.

“I was having a blast,’’ Larson said. “Obviously, I wanted to win today but I wanted to learn more than anything. I wanted to get to battle with him because he’s just really good at creating shapes and angles and passing. That was an objective of mine and the first opportunity I got, I wanted to get racing because I just didn’t know if I’d have another opportunity to race with him.

“My car seemed to be a little better than his for a lap or two which helped me get by him and was able to protect and stuff but he was so much better than me.’’

WATCH: Larson reflects on fun Saturday in Chicago

Varying pit-stop strategies adjusted the field mid-race. Many — such as Love — pitted during the first stage break at Lap 15. Van Gisbergen, Gibbs and Larson pitted during a caution period later on Lap 24. That shuffled the field putting those three early frontrunners playing catch-up in the closing laps.

With six laps to go and van Gisbergen making his way forward, his Chevy was hit from behind by Sam Mayer’s Chevy in the Turn 12 corner forcing van Gisbergen’s Chevrolet to scrape the wall. He fell off the bumper of then race leaders, Gibbs and Love but stayed in the third position.

He got around the two with three laps remaining. And Gibbs said looking back, he probably should have raced van Gisbergen a little more aggressively in the final laps

“We had a bad pit stop and I feel like I used my stuff up a lot to get back through the field,’’ said Gibbs, whose team had a problem on the tire change. “I’d say it would have been close in the end though.’’

Connor Mosack, Austin Hill, Cup Series regular Joey Logano, Justin Allgaier and Austin Green rounded out the top 10. It was the first Xfinity Series start for Logano since 2019. It was the third top 10 in four career series starts for the 23-year-old Green — all coming on road courses.

Last year’s Chicago Xfinity race winner, Stewart-Haas Racing’s Cole Custer, finished 18th despite dealing with various issues throughout the afternoon — including a pit-stop penalty. He now holds a 38-point lead over JR Motorsports driver Justin Allgaier in the standings. Joe Gibbs Racing’s Chandler Smith dropped to third place in the championship after finishing last — 38th — with an engine problem suffered only five laps into the race.

Van Gisbergen’s effort now gives him a series-best 17 playoff points and his three wins are the most in the series this year.

The Xfinity Series travels back east to Pocono Raceway for next Saturday’s Explore the Pocono Mountains 225 (3 p.m. ET, USA, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App). Hill is the defending race winner.

Note: Post-race technical inspection was completed without any issues, confirming van Gisbergen as the race winner.
Posted on by Zack Albert

CHICAGO – With seven weeks remaining in the NASCAR Cup Series regular season, there are plenty of uneasy feelings to go around for drivers residing on the playoff bubble. That’s true for those currently on the ever-shifting plus and minus sides of elimination without a victory in the 2024 campaign.

An opportunity exists to shift the postseason complexion again in Sunday’s Grant Park 165 (4:30 p.m. ET, NBC, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App), the main event of Chicago Street Race Weekend. For two-time Cup champion Kyle Busch in particular, those opportunities have been fleeting this season – either on the performance side or the ability to capitalize when they’ve arisen.

“I’ve stopped keeping track, it’s been so dismal and so heartbreaking that I have a hard time dealing with enough stuff in my life that, every Sunday to keep adding to it is getting harder and harder to deal with,” said Busch, 104 points below the provisional line as his Richard Childress Racing team tries to regroup. “But just got to keep going on into next week and keep fighting on and fight the good fight to try to score a win hopefully before the playoffs, and if not before the playoffs, then at least in the playoffs.”

Joey Logano’s first victory of the season last weekend after five overtimes at Nashville Superspeedway put an 11th winner into what will be a 16-driver playoff grid once the regular season wraps Sept. 1 at Darlington Raceway. Logano’s clinching win removed him from the bubble conversation, opening up the gap between elimination from 13 points before Nashville to a 51-point margin afterward.

RELATED: What to Watch: Chicago | At-track photos

On the plus-51 side is Alex Bowman, who has slipped five positions in the Cup Series standings in the last five races. That drop comes after a steady run of five consecutive top-10 finishes during the springtime months, which had the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports driver up to eighth in points after the Coca-Cola 600.

“I think we were in a really good spot a month ago,” said Bowman, who starts eighth Sunday aspiring for his first top five since mid-April. “We’ve had a lot of things happen outside of our control in the last month that we need to get our stuff turned around a little bit. Definitely frustrating to give away as many points as we have. But at the same time, we’re still the same race team that was running really well prior to that, and there’s no reason we can’t get back to that.”

The other side of the elimination coin belongs to Bubba Wallace, who has been both the last driver in and the first driver out in recent weeks as the bubble line has fluctuated. Wallace reached the postseason for the first time last year on the basis of points, and his two Cup Series victories have come during the playoffs in years when he was not postseason-eligible. A first regular-season win would soothe his current situation.

“I’ll be honest with you, I’m quite tired of having to do it on points, you know?” said Wallace, starting sixth Sunday in a bid for his first top-five result since Martinsville Speedway on April 7. “Always seem to find ourselves right around the bubble, and it gets stressful. Every race that goes by and you don’t win, it gets more and more stressful. So we know we can do it on points, for sure. We did last year, but damn, it’d be nice just to win, and then you can start doing crazy stuff just to try something in the regular season. Right now, we have to play the game, and hopefully, we’re in the right spot at the right time to win it.

“I know we’re all hyper-focused on that, but we can’t lose sight of we just need to go out and do the best that we can do and run good, which I believe 100% in this team. It’s just a matter of doing it.”

MORE: Chicago weekend schedule | Cup Series standings

Logano’s win also shifted up the points outlook for Chase Briscoe, who leads the charge standings-wise for Stewart-Haas Racing in its farewell season. Briscoe entered Nashville off his best finish of the season – second at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in the No. 14 Ford – but his position relative to the provisional elimination line shifted from minus-25 to 78 points off the cutoff as he rolls into Chicago’s streets.

Briscoe’s standings situation has also switched up his approach.

“I was 100% in points mode up until last week when Joey won. That kind of changed a lot of things,” Briscoe says. “… In the big scheme of things, we could point our way in, but it’s going to be really, really hard to do that, probably. So especially if another guy wins, and you’re absolutely in must-win. So I think we’ve got to start throwing Hail Marys at it now. In the past, we’ve not wanted to do that just because we’re still in the points, so it makes it hard to sometimes take those risk versus reward moves, but definitely, now I think we’re to the point where we’re going to have to start getting pretty aggressive.”

Chris Buescher has also shrugged at the standings, and he’s on the plus side by 56 points. That mantra stems from a long-held philosophy that values wins above all else.

The driver of RFK Racing’s No. 17 Ford has had several close brushes with a Victory Lane appearance this year, none closer than his loss by 0.001 seconds to points leader Kyle Larson at Kansas Speedway on May 5. His late-race scrap with Tyler Reddick, which led to defeat after a strong day one week later at Darlington, also stands out. The strength of his performances has given him a slight cushion in the team’s pursuit of the postseason, but he’s not harping on the exact number.

“I haven’t looked at them, and kind of just whenever they pop up or someone mentions it, that’s how I get my updates because I’m not a points racer. I don’t want to get caught in that,” said Buescher, who has finished fifth the last two weekends. “It is a big part of our sport, but I’m just a little more old school in the way that I think about going to the race track, and if you figure out how to win every week, points come with that, and that’s been my mindset. What we’re trying to do on the 17 side is figure out how to go each race track and make this one our win. So regardless of the points side of things, we’re coming here to figure out how to set up for that last stage to win a race.”

Posted on by Dustin Albino

In a minor upset, Kyle Larson won the pole for Sunday’s Grant Park 165 at the Chicago Street Course (4:30 p.m. ET, NBC, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App). He and three other drivers clipped defending race winner Shane van Gisbergen, who will start fifth. There was plenty of action during practice and qualifying, making for an unpredictable race. My advice would be to lean toward drivers who constantly run up front on road courses while having other drivers who need to race for points.

RELATED: Set your Fantasy Live lineups

Dustin Albino’s race-day lineup:

Starter 1: Shane van Gisbergen

Starter 2: Michael McDowell

Starter 3: Tyler Reddick

Starter 4: Ty Gibbs

Starter 5: Chase Elliott

Garage pick: Alex Bowman

NEXT IN LINE: Kyle Larson, Christopher Bell, Daniel Suárez, Bubba Wallace

RISING: It feels like an obvious choice to slot Larson in your lineup. He scored his fifth pole while turning left and right – his first outside of Sonoma Raceway – and led the way in practice. The No. 5 Chevrolet might be the best car in Chicago this weekend. I’m assuming, however, that, like me, you probably have very limited starts remaining with Larson in the regular season. And with races like Pocono Raceway, Darlington Raceway and a few others on the horizon, Larson could theoretically score more points at those than he will on Sunday, should the No. 5 team’s strategy be to chase the race win rather than scoring stage points. You can make up those points in other areas this weekend. Admittedly, this strategy bit me at Sonoma, but it feels right to save a Larson start.

Ty Gibbs races at the Chicago Street Race.
Alejandro Alvarez | NASCAR Digital Media

Gibbs is one of those drivers you might be able to make those points up with, though. It shouldn’t come as a surprise to anybody if the young phenom scores his first victory on a road/street course, just as he did while breaking onto the scene in the Xfinity Series. Gibbs is in a tight points battle to remain in the top 10 and, should there be another winner below the elimination line, make the playoffs outright. The No. 54 Toyota will start second and will most likely be chasing points with a car that could still work its way through the field in the final stage to tally big-time points.

FALLING: Multiple drivers made their weekend more challenging by getting involved in incidents during practice and qualifying. Notably, Chris Buescher — who has 12 top-10 finishes in 14 road course starts in the Next Gen car — tapped the outside wall and broke his left-rear toe link. By replacing it, the No. 17 car will need to drop to the rear for the start of the race.

You never know what to expect out of a part-time entry for a race team. When AJ Allmendinger showed up to COTA in March for Kaulig Racing, he was competitive and finished sixth. He was not that at all on Saturday. For a driver that has a prestigious road racing background, the No. 13 team has a bunch of homework to do Saturday evening. Allmendinger will take the green flag from the 37th position. His practice pace was slightly better, though, placing 23rd on single-lap speed.

FEATURED MATCHUPS:

Kyle Larson vs. Chase Elliott: Elliott had mediocre speed in qualifying and will start 18th but was seventh in practice. Larson was on top of the leaderboard after practice and qualifying and has a car capable of winning. Although it hurts not to have Larson in my lineup, the No. 5 pilot should outrun his No. 9 teammate.

Shane van Gisbergen vs. Denny Hamlin: For the second year in a row, Hamlin had a solid opening day to the Chicago Street Race Weekend. It wasn’t as flawless as last season when he won the pole, but being the first driver to miss the final round cut isn’t shabby. But let’s be honest, he’s going up against van Gisbergen, who had a life-changing weekend here one season ago. He is the standard at Chicago, and that’s not changing this weekend.

Tyler Reddick vs. Ty Gibbs: Oof, this is tough. Both drivers are stout on road courses and could be in contention to win on Sunday. Reddick, who led eight laps last season at Chicago before being nose-deep in the Turn 6 tire barriers, might have a clearer race strategy. Gibbs is hovering near the playoff bubble and needs points. Because this is a heads-up battle, I’m thinking Reddick will finish ahead of Gibbs.

Austin Cindric vs. AJ Allmendinger: If you glance at the starting lineup, you will miss Allmendinger’s name — it’s way down towards the bottom of the page. Cindric was slightly better and will start mid-pack in 20th. Allmendinger seemingly finds a way to find decent finishes on these types of tracks, so while I dropped him from my lineup, I’m staying the course here.

Posted on by Zach Sturniolo

CHICAGO — Carson Hocevar left Nashville Superspeedway lighter in the pocket and farther down the points standings.

What he’s not concerned about is proving anything to anyone in the NASCAR Cup Series garage.

Hocevar was fined $50,000 and docked 25 points after contacting and spinning Harrison Burton under caution during the Ally 400 on June 30. The 21-year-old rookie driver of the No. 77 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet is, unfortunately, no stranger to controversy, incurring prior in-race penalties for on-track incidents through his past three years spent in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series.

MORE: Chicago schedule | Nashville recap

The Michigan native is back in the Midwest for the second Chicago Street Race along the city streets. But before hopping into his car, he explained his perspective on the Nashville incident that cost him.

“My intentions were not by any means to have him (spun) around,” Hocevar said Saturday morning. “You know, I went up to bump him like you’ve seen 1,000 times and happened to me a lot. He wanted to use 1,000 pounds of brake pressure in front of me, and then obviously, it happened from that But, you know, if you get in a bar fight and whatnot, the guy who throws the last punch that lands somebody on the ground isn’t the one that gets in trouble. It’s the one that initiated it.

“So moving forward, I just won’t initiate anything like that. And if anything, I’ll either talk to him after the race or I go up next to him and throw my hand in the air rather than use a race car.”

Hocevar believes “no,” he does not have to prove anything to his competitors about any lessons learned. But not everybody agrees that the No. 77 car didn’t turn Burton’s No. 21 Ford intentionally.

Defending series champion Ryan Blaney specifically questioned Hocevar’s decision-making during a Saturday morning press conference at The Art Institute of Chicago.

“Pay money, pay points, park him if you have to,” Blaney said. “That’s something I’ve seen too many times out of that guy from different series. That’s not cool. Don’t do that. I mean, they parked Layne Riggs for two laps for running through the back of somebody in that Truck race at Nashville and I think everyone made a big deal when Hocevar did that in the Cup race and then they rightfully penalized him after the race.

“I mean, that’s the only way you’re gonna get that stuff to stop. You have to make him pay a lot of money, fine him from points, things like that. If it’s bad enough, make him sit out. You know, that’s just stuff you learn as a young driver don’t do. Like there’s a lot of no-nos, and that’s one of them. And I don’t care if it’s under caution or under green. Both of them are worse. Obviously under green’s worse.

“But yeah, I think NASCAR did the right thing of penalizing because you have to slap people on the (wrist). There has to be repercussions for what you do when it’s something like that. And so that’s something I’ve seen be reoccurring with him that hopefully he learns from it and hopefully when there’s a little bit a hole in his pocket after the money he had to pay, hopefully it teaches you a lesson of ‘don’t do that anymore.'”

Carson Hocevar and Ryan Blaney walk together on pit road.
James Gilbert | Getty Images

Hocevar remained steadfast Saturday that brake traces and in-car telemetry paint a different picture, but admitted his “track record is not squeaky clean.”

“I mean, if you see the SMT (data), I think you’ll understand and I think that shows a different picture completely of the whole situation,” Hocevar said. “But I’m not going to — there’s no point for me to release that or do anything. It is what it is and I’ll move on. My team is very supportive of me. And I think they fully believe and they are in full support and they’ve reassured me of that. That’s really what matters to me.”

Before Brad Keselowski became a Cup champion in 2012, there were instances of him ruffling feathers with Cup guys like Denny Hamlin and Carl Edwards while Keselowski was still making a name for himself in the Xfinity Series. Some 15 years removed from some significant rivalries, the 40-year-old driver and co-owner of RFK Racing offered his own perspective on what Hocevar’s rise — and simultaneous conflicts — may entail.

“Certainly understand how hard it is to break through in the Cup Series and that desire to make an immediate impact,” Keselowski said. “You have to be careful, in my experience having gone through it, to not allow that to be a negative to you, right? You can almost try too hard. And it’s a good and bad thing to try too hard sometimes. You certainly prefer someone who tries too hard over someone who doesn’t try at all. But there’s certainly a sweet spot there that I think each driver to some degree has to find on their own.

“And there’s an argument — strong argument — to be made that he’s on the other side of that and not living in that sweet spot. I hope for his own sake, he can find that spot. I have some empathy for that and with respect to that, I felt like I needed to flirt with kind of that border of being too aggressive. And that served me well. And you know, sometimes I would look back and say, ‘Yeah, I probably might have gone just a touch too far on the line or over the line. So I think you’ve got to find that spot and decide where it is and live comfortably.”

Posted on by Zach Sturniolo

Grant Park 165

(⏰ Sunday, 4:30 p.m. ET | NBC | NBC Sports App | MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio)

Weekend schedule | TV schedule | Weather tracker | NASCAR 101

Location: Chicago
Track length: 2.2 miles
Race purse: $7,978,831
Race distance: 75 laps | 165 miles
Stages: 20 | 45 | 75
—
Starting lineup: Kyle Larson speeds to pole position
Pit stall assignments: See where drivers will pit
Defending winner: Shane van Gisbergen, July 2023

Key things to watch

Saturday sessions

Kyle Larson wheels through Windy City

A last-second dash across the alternate start/finish resulted in Kyle Larson’s leap to the Busch Light Pole Award by 0.01 seconds over Ty Gibbs, claiming the top starting spot at 90.168 mph. Completing the top five in an eventful time-trial session around the Chicago Street Course were Michael McDowell, Tyler Reddick and defending event winner Shane van Gisbergen.

Larson and van Gisbergen also posted the two fastest laps during Saturday’s practice session, besting Gibbs, Daniel Suárez and Alex Bowman. Bowman had the quickest 10-lap average of the session of the 16 drivers who completed at least 10 consecutive circuits. | Full Saturday recap

Big story line

Chicago shaping up for thrilling sequel

The streets of Chicago are alive with the sound of speed once again as NASCAR thunders down Michigan Avenue and DuSable Lake Shore Drive in the second edition of the Chicago Street Race Weekend.

The stars are set for an encore performance after last year’s soggy-yet-sensational debut. Defending winner Shane van Gisbergen — a relatively seasoned ace in NASCAR with 19 Xfinity starts and an additional three Cup starts since his stunning 2023 debut triumph — excelled thanks in large part to his vast experience racing street circuits in Australia’s Repco Supercars Championship, where SVG is a three-time champ. But the talented Cup field now has specific data to point to from 2023, potentially closing the gap to New Zealand’s NASCAR representative this time around.

“I think for sure there will be more of them (up front),” van Gisbergen said Friday. “There was a lot of guys who were fast — you know, five or six fast guys last year, especially in qualifying. There were some big laps. But this year, there’s just gonna be more. There’s more guys with data, more guys will have better setups learning what they learned last year, I think. I think there’s gonna be a big chance to be 10 or 15 guys.

“That’s the best thing I find about NASCAR. It’s not the same people every week (fighting for wins). It’s so competitive, this series, and so tight, so hopefully it’s us that’s in there as well.”

Joey Logano won last week’s race on the 1.33-mile Nashville Superspeedway, but only one of his 33 career wins has come on a road course — a 2015 race at Watkins Glen. Like his Cup compatriots, Logano has put in plenty of prep work to improve. The question remains: whose efforts will prove most fruitful?

“Am I ready? I’m as ready as I know how to be,” Logano said. “I’m more ready than I was last year, I can tell you that much. But the whole field is. At least you have an idea of what you’re up against and what it’s going to be like. Those first few laps in practice last year was kind of sketchy, right? You’re just like, ‘I don’t know. In the sim, I brake here, but I mean, how good’s the sim gonna be? Like, I’m on the streets of Chicago. I don’t know.’

“But yeah, we seemed to figure it out fairly quickly. Now … you study your competitors and kind of see where they were strong, where you were weak. You have an idea of things you want to make better to your car. There’s actually stuff to talk about where last year, it was just, I don’t know, put in what (setup) you think is best and we’ll tune on it from there and hope it’s pretty close. Now it seems like we have a little better direction.”

TICKETS: Don’t miss the July 7 Chicago Street Race

History tells us…

Not much. With just one downtown race in the books that featured plenty of wet-weather racing, there remains plenty to learn through Sunday’s event.

Racing Insights notes Toyotas led 46 of the opening 47 laps during the inaugural, courtesy of Tyler Reddick, Christopher Bell and Ty Gibbs, with Bell sweeping the stages after Denny Hamlin scored the pole position in qualifying. But strategy flipped when the race’s length was shortened from its scheduled 100-lap distance to 75 due to the impending sunset, putting Justin Haley and SVG in prime position to capitalize and lead the final 31 laps through overtime.

He may not be the betting favorite to win, but watch out for…

AUSTIN CINDRIC. Cindric is still looking for his first road-course-style victory in the Cup Series, but the driver of Team Penske’s No. 2 Ford could offer a surprise come Sunday. Entering Chicago at 50-1 odds on DraftKings, Cindric has seven top-10 finishes on road courses, his most top 10s on any track type, including a sixth-place finish at Chicago in 2023.

Cindric’s racing career began with a focus on road racing, including multiple starts in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Series and two starts in the 12-hour Bathurst event at Australia’s famed Mount Panorama Circuit. That experience led to five road-course wins in the Xfinity Series as well as a NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series victory at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park in 2017. | Chicago odds

Speed reads

Our biggest pieces of the week — get covered for race day from all angles.

• Chicago 101: Course map, track layout and race information for Sunday’s spectacle | Read article
• ‘Unfinished business’: Chicago Street Course president Julie Giese on Year 2 in Chicago | Read article
• Berry ripe for No. 21: Josh Berry to join Wood Brothers in 2025 | Read article
• Chicago still SVG’s kind of town?: Van Gisbergen still having his moment one year later | Read article
• Hocevar penalized: Spire driver docked 25 points, fined $50,000 after Nashville | Read article
• Streak, for starters: Chase Elliott, all top 20s so far in 2024 | Photo gallery
• Extra innings: NASCAR’s overtime policy through the lenses of other sports | Read article
• Power Rankings: Reddick ready to turn up the wick in Chicago? | Photo gallery
• Turning Point: Playoff pressure peaking, plus how Logano stretched his Nashville fuel tank | Read article
• Racing Insights: Who can challenge SVG this year? Inside our experts’ projections | Read article
• Field of 16: How the projected playoff picture shakes out with eyes on Chicago | Read article
• 36 for 36: Check out this week’s survivor pool picks | Read article
• Fantasy Fastlane: All in on Kaulig on the city streets | Read article
• Fantasy Update: Arguments for, against Larson; Gibbs remains impressive | Read article
• NASCAR Classics: Flashback to 2023 and prior Midwestern hits before Sunday’s street race | Read article
• Paint Scheme Preview: Street styling set to shine in Chi-Town | Pick your favorite

Fast facts ⏩

Race-relevant statistics, brought to you by the experts at Racing Insights.

• Despite a rain-soaked Sunday in 2023, Saturday’s practice and qualifying sessions were held in the dry. Shane van Gisbergen was quickest in practice by three-tenths of a second over Denny Hamlin, who won the pole.
• Hendrick Motorsports has won each of the two road-course races in 2024 (William Byron, Circuit of The Americas; Kyle Larson, Sonoma Raceway).
• The driver who led the most laps has won four of the last five road-course races.

Posted on by Reid Spencer

CHICAGO — Kyle Larson made the most of his last chance in NASCAR Cup Series qualifying on Saturday, edging Ty Gibbs for the pole position for the Grant Park 165 on the Chicago Street Course (4:30 p.m. ET, NBC, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App).

On his final lap in the final round of time trials on the tight 2.2-mile course, Larson’s No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet covered the distance in 87.836 seconds (90.168 mph) to outrun Gibbs (90.158 mph) by .010 seconds.

“It wasn’t perfect,” said Larson, who ran a track-record 90.496 mph (87.518 seconds) in the opening round. “It was better than my first lap (in the final round), but I think I had better grip potential on the first lap, so I wish I could have had a couple corners back there.

“Judging by the reaction from my spotter, it had to be pretty close on lap time, so really awesome to get a pole here in Chicago… (We’ve) checked the first box, and hopefully we can keep it going.”

RELATED: Sunday’s starting lineup | At-track photos: Chicago

The Busch Light Pole Award was Larson’s series-best fifth of the season and the 21st of his Cup Series career. His three victories this year, however, have come from starting positions of second, fourth and fifth.

Michael McDowell qualified third at 90.141 mph, followed by Tyler Reddick (89.923 mph) and defending Chicago Street Race winner Shane van Gisbergen (89.813 mph).

“I was trying to get my Ford Mustang on the pole,” said McDowell, who won last year’s road race on the Indianapolis Grand Prix Course. “We were close, right? So proud of everybody. We made good changes in between Round 1 and 2 because I felt like Larson and SVG (van Gisbergen) sort of had everybody covered there.

“Then we went into that next round and made some gains and got close. You know what it means to get a pole and track position and all that. So we’re starting up front. We’ll have a great shot at it with the White Sox Ford Mustang.”

Bubba Wallace, Christopher Bell, Alex Bowman, Daniel Suárez and Brad Keselowski claimed starting positions six through 10, respectively, though Keselowski spun into the wall during his first final-round lap and was off the pace when he finished the lap.

Denny Hamlin, last year’s pole winner for the Chicago Street Race, narrowly missed the final 10 and will start 11th on Sunday.

William Byron, a three-time winner this season, suffered a power steering failure in the first round, requiring a complete replacement of the steering system. Byron will start from the rear of the field on Sunday after repairs.

Harrison Burton, in his final season in the Wood Brothers No. 21 Ford, ended the first round with a spin into a tire barrier, requiring a tow truck to remove the car. Josh Berry, named earlier in the week as Burton’s replacement next year, spun during the opening round and will start 36th in the 40-driver field.

Larson fastest in Cup Series practice

Kyle Larson topped the leaderboard in practice at 89.549 mph over Shane van Gisbergen (89.435 mph) and Ty Gibbs (89.405 mph).

Daniel Suárez (88.881 mph) and Alex Bowman (88.874 mph) rounded out the top five.

MORE: Practice results

Bubba Wallace (88.845 mph), Chase Elliott (88.843 mph), Tyler Reddick (88.771 mph), Michael McDowell (88.737 mph) and Denny Hamlin (88.697 mph) completed the top 10.

Contributing: Staff reports.

Posted on by Press Release

 Chicago, Ill. (July 6, 2024) — NASCAR and ABB, a global leader in electrification and automation, announced today the ABB NASCAR Electrification Innovation Partnership and revealed a new EV prototype at the Chicago Street Race. ABB becomes the first Official Partner of NASCAR Impact, the sanctioning body’s platform driving NASCAR’s mission to strengthen its communities and contribute to a healthier planet, and together will work to advance NASCAR’s strategic sustainability ambitions across electrification.  

“ABB is a technology leader in electrification and automation, and we help customers globally to optimize, electrify and decarbonize their operations,” said Ralph Donati, ABB Executive Vice President. “The objective of the collaboration between NASCAR, ABB in the United States and the NASCAR industry is to push the boundaries of electrification technology, from EV racing to long-haul transportation to facility operations.”

The ABB NASCAR EV Prototype for each of the OEMs on display at the 2024 Chicago Street Race.

As part of the partnership, ABB in the United States will also help NASCAR achieve public sustainability targets around electrification and electric vehicle charging.

While NASCAR is committed to the historic role of the combustion engine in racing, it is also committed to decarbonizing its operations and reducing its own carbon footprint to zero across its core operations by 2035 through electrification and innovative solutions.

“There could not be a more optimal moment in time to announce our first Impact partner than in tandem with the debut of the ABB NASCAR EV Prototype at the Chicago Street Race,” said Eric Nyquist, NASCAR Senior Vice President and Chief Impact Officer. “ABB is an industry leader and will help in efforts to decarbonize our operations as we pursue achieving net-zero operating emissions over the next decade.”

The ABB NASCAR EV Prototype is the latest innovation from the NASCAR Research & Development Center team, which recently completed the largest overhaul of the NASCAR Cup Series car in NASCAR’s 75-year history. The Next Gen car, which debuted in 2022, put the ‘stock’ back in stock car, modernizing most of the vehicle’s components. It also marked NASCAR’s rededication to product relevance in ensuring its race cars match production cars on the street as much as possible.

The prototype was developed in collaboration with NASCAR’s OEM partners — Chevrolet, Ford, and Toyota — and was built by the NASCAR engineers responsible for the Next Gen car and the Garage 56 entry into the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Throughout the process, NASCAR and the OEMs collaborated on the design and elements of the vehicle.

The track-tested, electrified stock car has three STARD UHP 6-Phase motors (one front, two rear) supplying power directly to all four specially designed Goodyear Racing Eagle tires. Anchored by a 78-kWh liquid-cooled battery, the tunable powertrain can produce 1,000 kW at peak power. Regenerative braking converts kinetic energy into power, making the car ideal for road courses and short oval tracks.

The All-Wheel Drive car has a generic Crossover Utility Vehicle (CUV) body made of sustainable flax-based composite. It shares many similarities with both the Next Gen and Garage 56 cars – the body sits on a modified Next Gen chassis, and the steering, suspension, brakes, and wheels all derive from the NASCAR Cup Series car.

The new EV prototype sits on track at Hickory Motor Speedway

NASCAR IMPACT

ABB is a founding partner of NASCAR Impact, an umbrella platform launched to shepherd sustainability, community engagement, and other social initiatives. At the core of NASCAR Impact is NASCAR’s plan to reduce its own carbon footprint to zero across its core operations by 2035. 

NASCAR has made material commitments to sustainable operations across its entire business. Moving operations from scope 1 (fuel burned) to scope 2 (electric) is a critical element of NASCAR’s sustainability strategy.

In addition to the long-term operating emissions goal, NASCAR’s annual carbon measurement informed near-term sustainability priorities, including sourcing 100% renewable electricity at owned race tracks and facilities by 2028, expanded waste diversion efforts, and on-site EV charging stations. ABB will play a critical role in helping NASCAR by providing valuable guidance, equipment, and support in electrifying key elements of the operational business.

The NASCAR Cup Series season continues with the Chicago Street Race, a one-of-a-kind sports and entertainment festival in downtown Chicago on Sunday, July 7 at 4:30 p.m. ET on NBC, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.