KANNAPOLIS, N.C. — Stewart-Haas Racing made select organizational changes to its crew chief lineup on Tuesday that will be in effect beginning with the upcoming Nashville Superspeedway race weekend June 24-25.
Richard Boswell, the main steward of SHR’s NASCAR Xfinity Series program since its inception in 2017, becomes the crew chief for driver Chase Briscoe and the No. 14 team in the NASCAR Cup Series. Boswell had been the crew chief for SHR’s No. 98 Xfinity Series team and driver Riley Herbst. Boswell won eight Xfinity Series races with Briscoe over a three-year span (2018-2020), including a six-win campaign in 2020, before becoming the crew chief for Herbst in 2021.
John Klausmeier, the former crew chief for the No. 14 team, remains at SHR and has transitioned to the company’s vehicle performance group.
Replacing Boswell as crew chief for the No. 98 Xfinity Series team is Davin Restivo. Since 2022, Restivo has been the lead engineer for the No. 10 team and driver Aric Almirola in the Cup Series. Before his time with the No. 10 outfit, Restivo was the lead engineer for driver Cole Custer, first in the Xfinity Series (2019) and then moving up with Custer to the Cup Series (2020-2021). Before joining SHR in 2019, Restivo was an engineer at Chip Ganassi Racing.
“We made these changes in the best interests of the entire organization,” said Greg Zipadelli, chief competition officer at SHR. “Different people in new positions brings new perspectives. There’s still a lot of racing left to do this year, which means there’s still a lot of opportunity. We need to seize these opportunities and make the most of them, and fresh perspectives from the top of the pit box to the preparation inside the shop will help us do that.”
The NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour’s second trip to Riverhead Raceway in 2023 will be a special evening for both the series and the facility.
Former driver Mike Ewanitsko is being honored at Riverhead on Saturday evening with the Miller Lite Salutes Mike Ewanitsko 200. A veteran of the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour starting with the series’ inaugural year in 1985, Ewanitsko amassed 28 Tour victories during his career, including a record 11 trips to Riverhead’s Victory Lane.
Since Ewanitsko ran his final NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour event at Riverhead in 2001, several drivers have established their own legacies at the quarter-mile bullring, including as Justin Bonsignore, Doug Coby, Ryan Preece, Ted Christopher, Donny Lia and many more.
Another chapter in Riverhead’s storied history will be written on Saturday evening as the current generation of NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour competitors look to build momentum during a busy summer slate for the series.
Below is everything you need to know about the seventh race of the 2023 NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour season.
Justin Bonsignore enters Saturday as the most recent Riverhead Raceway winner. (Photo: Dakota Moyer/NASCAR)
Miller Lite Salutes Mike Ewanitsko 200 at Riverhead Raceway
What to watch for:
Everybody will be chasing Matt Hirschman when the green flag flies for the Miller Lite Salutes Mike Ewanitsko 200 at Riverhead Raceway.
After a slow start to the 2023 season by his standards, Hirschman has been unstoppable during the last two NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour events at Lee USA Speedway and Seekonk Speedway, as he led a combined total of 323 of 325 laps to score two consecutive victories.
Saturday’s Miller Lite Salutes Ewanitsko 200 will be Hirschman’s first NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour appearance at Riverhead this year, as a schedule conflict forced him to miss the first event at the facility on May 21.
The driver who stands the best chance of ending Hirschman’s hot streak is Justin Bonsignore, who won the most recent Riverhead NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour race in a thrilling battle with Ron Silk.
Bonsignore holds the best record at Riverhead of any active NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour driver with 10 total victories. Should he take the checkered flag on Saturday evening, Bonsignore will tie Ewanitsko’s Tour record of 11 Riverhead victories.
As with any NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour race at Riverhead, there will be a healthy contingent of track regulars looking to shine on a national stage. Among the names in this group include John Beatty Jr., Jack Handley Jr., Roger Turbush and Chris Young.
Other noteworthy drivers on the preliminary entry list include Eric Goodale, who returns to the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour following a two-race absence. Joining Goodale on the entry list is another previous Riverhead winner, Timmy Solomito, who is seeking his first Tour victory since 2017.
The complete entry list for the Miller Lite Salutes Mike Ewanitsko 200 is available here.
Schedule: Saturday, June 24 … Final practice from 3:15 p.m. to 4:15 p.m. ET … Qualifying at 6 p.m. ET … Miller Lite Salutes Mike Ewanitsko 200 at 8 p.m. ET.
Qualifying: Two consecutive qualifying laps. Faster lap determines qualifying position. Adjustment or repairs may not be made on the vehicle after the vehicle has taken the green flag at the start/finish line. NASCAR reserves the right to have more than one vehicle engage in qualifying runs at the same time. Starting field for the Miller Lite Salutes Mike Ewanitsko 200 is limited to 28 starters including provisionals.
Tire allotment: The maximum tire allotment available for this event is eight (8) tires per team. All tires used for qualifying and the race must be purchased at the track and scanned by Hoosier, unless otherwise approved in advance by the Series Director. Four (4) tires must be used for qualifying and to begin the race. All qualifying tires must remain in impound until released by NASCAR officials. The remaining tire allotment may be used for practice and/or change tires during the event. The tire change rule is zero (0) tires, any position.
CHICAGO – Today, NASCAR announced a multi-year partnership on the official pace cars for the Chicago Street Race Weekend with the sport’s partner OEMs Chevrolet, Ford, and Toyota. As part of the partnership, each OEM will have an opportunity to lead the field to green in both the NASCAR Xfinity Series The Loop 121 and the NASCAR Cup Series Grant Park 220.
“As the industry unites to support an unprecedented NASCAR event weekend, we are proud to welcome Chevrolet, Ford and Toyota as our official pace cars for the Chicago Street Race,” said Julie Giese, Chicago Street Course president. “We look forward to showcasing the cars that will compete in the race through the streets of downtown Chicago prior to leading the field to green over race weekend.”
The order for the official pace car will be determined by the NASCAR Cup Series qualifying results with the pole-winning OEM leading the field to green to start each race. Future restarts will rotate with each OEM leading the race field. In subsequent years of the Chicago Street Race, the second OEM will lead first in 2024 and third OEM will lead first in 2025.
Leading up to the Chicago Street Race, Chevrolet Camaro, Ford Mustang and Toyota Camry promotional cars will be in-market to support the inaugural event. The promotional cars will make appearances at many regional events across the greater Chicagoland region to showcase the Chicago Street Race Weekend. The official pace cars for the weekend will include a 2023 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1, a 2024 Ford Mustang GT and a 2023 Toyota Camry TRD.
The summer stretch of the NASCAR calendar is upon us and a past Cup Series champion sits well below the playoff picture with 10 races to go in the regular season.
Entering next Sunday’s race at Nashville Superspeedway (7 p.m. ET, NBC, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), Chase Elliott is 27th in the standings, 84 points behind his Hendrick Motorsports teammate Alex Bowman for the 16th and final postseason spot.
One can point to Elliott’s absence from a staggering seven of 16 Cup races this season as the 2020 titleholder missed six consecutive starts due to injury and was suspended from the trip to St. Louis after an incident with Denny Hamlin in last month’s Coca-Cola 600 as the reason for the deficit. In terms of results when the driver of the No. 9 Chevrolet is on the track, however, they’ve been steady outside of two DNFs at the Daytona 500 and Coke 600.
When Elliott has crossed the start/finish line, he’s finished inside the top 10 in five of seven races, including three where he finished in the top five.
His worst non-DNF finish in 2023? Twelfth at Talladega.
This push to the postseason will be new territory for the eighth-year veteran, who hasn’t been in a position where he may have to win to compete for this year’s series crown.
So far in his Cup career, each season Elliott has either had a win after 16 races or was inside the top 16 in points.
YEAR
WINS AFTER 16 RACES
POINTS POSITION AFTER 16 RACES
2016
0
6th
2017
0
6th
2018
0
13th
2019
1
7th
2020
1
2nd
2021
1
3rd
2022
1
1st
2023
0
27th
The good news for Elliott, as his career has shown so far, is that he really gets going around this time of the year. Seven of his 18 career wins have come between races 16-26 on the Cup Series schedule, including a blazing five-race stretch of 1-2 finishes last season that propelled him to the 2022 regular-season title.
He collected wins at Nashville, Atlanta and Pocono with runner-up performances at Road America and New Hampshire sandwiched in between. Outside of Road America, all those tracks are back on the docket over the next five weeks. The only difference is the debut of the Chicago Street Course on Independence Day weekend, which still could play into the hands of the 27-year-old with his prowess on tracks with left and right-handed corners (seven road-course wins).
What happens if Elliott can’t win? Can he make his way in on points alone?
Well, let’s compare him to his teammate Bowman, who is the last driver in the playoffs at the current moment. Taking into account Bowman’s average finish this season (12.0) and his average finish at the remaining 10 regular-season tracks, here’s where Elliott would hypothetically need to finish if he is to make the playoffs on points alone over his teammate. NOTE: Stage points not included, Bowman’s projected finish at each track based on avg. finish this season and avg. finish at the following tracks
TRACK
Bowman's avg. finish
Bowman's projected finish
Where Elliott would need to finish
Elliott's projected point differential to Bowman
Nashville
25.0
19th
10th
-75
Chicago Street Course
N/A
12th
7th
-69
Atlanta
16.8
14th
8th
-62
New Hampshire
24.3
18th
10th
-53
Pocono
17.9
15th
7th
-44
Richmond
18.8
15th
7th
-35
Michigan
23.5
18th
10th
-26
Indy Road Course
24.5
18th
10th
-17
Watkins Glen
21.2
17th
9th
-6
Daytona
16.8
14th
7th
+1
It’s not an easy task to score 10 consecutive top-10 finishes but it’s definitely possible for one of NASCAR’s superstars. And while the standings are due to change after each race, there’s a path for Elliott to reach the 2023 postseason without a victory. Luckily for him, that likely won’t be necessary over the next month.
An immersive AR experience will make a triumphant return in the NASCAR Mobile app, where eager race fans will have the opportunity to customize and drive their own Next Gen car to that of many schemes, including those for the upcoming Chicago Street Race (July 2, 5:30 p.m. ET, NBC, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App).
The resurrection of the AR Burnout Driven by Goodyear will allow fans a newfound way to interact on the app. These ways include:
Customize: Fans can personalize their Next Gen car by selecting the manufacturer, base color, decals and paint schemes. Create your own unique design and add decals to the doors, roof and hood. All-new this time around, fans can select a paint scheme and event stickers dedicated to the Chicago Street Race weekend.
Drive: Once the car is customized, fans can drive it in augmented reality. The AR technology maps the car into your scene, allowing you to drive virtually in your real-world environment.
Burnout: One of the most exciting features is the ability to perform the perfect burnout. Fans can engage the burnout mode, where the app will accurately simulate the sound, smoke of the spinning tires and movement of a classic burnout.
Share: To share the excitement with friends, family and other fans, capture videos and images and easily share them on social media or directly with contacts.
CHICAGO – Few ideas have not been tried in the NASCAR Cup Series’s deep well of history as the sport celebrates its 75th anniversary.
Yet one momentous debut lingers, just around the corner – a race on the streets of Downtown Chicago.
The Chicago Street Race is set to take the Windy City by storm on July 1-2 around a 2.2-mile circuit, the first time NASCAR’s premier competitors will tackle a street course.
Among the drivers ready to hit Chicago for the Grant Park 220 (Sunday, July 2, 5:30 p.m. ET, NBC, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App) is road-course ace AJ Allmendinger. The 41-year-old driver of the No. 16 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet is back as a full-time Cup racer for the first time since 2018. Though he’s still looking to make his mark on the 2023 season, his racing resume is dotted with numerous stock-car wins on road courses – two in Cup (Watkins Glen 2014, Indianapolis road course 2021) and 11 in the Xfinity Series. The California native is also no stranger to street courses, however, with plenty of experience thanks to his open-wheel roots.
In a visit to Chicago in late May, Allmendinger got his first taste of the course layout in person. His takeaway? What lies ahead will be a challenge of skill and aggression for every competitor come July.
“Looking at the race track, it’s very technical,” Allmendinger told NASCAR.com. “But I like the way – at least driving around in a car … there’s a lot of sections that are super wide, which are not what you would expect from a street course, but there’s also a lot of real tight corners as well.
“So just the way it’s laid out, just kind of the broad scheme of things of looking at it, it does feel like there’s passing opportunities and going to be some good racing.”
Allmendinger is a past winner on street circuits, winning on the streets of both Toronto and Denver during the 2006 Champ Car World Series season. That success still resonates 17 years later, but whether it will translate to a NASCAR Cup Series car remains to be seen.
“What makes especially on the Cup side of it so difficult is you’ve got the best drivers in the world, and we’ve seen that at all the road courses,” Allmendinger said. “It’s not just three or four guys that stand out anymore. I mean, it’s a tough field from one through 36. So I hope that experience helps, but put it this way – I’m not relying on it saying ‘Oh, that’s what’s gonna make the difference.’”
With a debut comes numerous unknowns, making Chicago a prime example as a potential wild-card race. Drivers like Allmendinger, Michael McDowell and Austin Cindric are known for their road-racing prowess. All three have yet to win this season, but one victory will propel them into the NASCAR Playoffs. That also doesn’t include others like Ross Chastain, a winner last year at Circuit of The Americas, his Trackhouse Racing teammate Daniel Suárez who won at Sonoma in 2022, or Chris Buescher, who’s strung together seven straight top-10 finishes on road courses.
A sixth-place finish at Sonoma Raceway equaled Allmendinger’s best finish of the 2023 campaign and helped the veteran racer gain 20 points on the playoff cut line. However, he still sits 20th in points, 33 points shy of a playoff spot heading into the lone off week of the NASCAR schedule.
“At the end of the day, for me, and I think for the race team at Kaulig, it’s still about getting the best finish possible, right?” Allmendinger said. “So you want to win the race – if you show up to a race not willing and open to (the idea that) the ultimate goal is to win the race, then you shouldn’t show up. But yeah, you’ve just got to see where you’re at and see, OK, if the car is good, then maybe the win is the ultimate goal. If the car’s not great, you try to make top five, top 10 the best that you can, but it’s gonna be easy to make a mistake.
“So if you’re running up front, you can’t let your guard down. And if maybe you’re running, say fourth or fifth with a couple (laps) to go, that doesn’t mean you don’t have a chance to win a race because (of) a late-race restart or as I said, if you make a two-inch mistake, you’re hitting a wall and that’s gonna probably put you out of the race.”
The other aspect of a street race, of course, is the atmosphere around the circuit. The city will be a key star of the show – perhaps as much or more than the competitors themselves. The Black Crowes will perform a pre-race concert Saturday ahead of the Xfinity Series’ Loop 121 with The Chainsmokers set to perform post-race. Sunday’s show starts with pre-race concerts from Charley Crockett and Miranda Lambert ahead of the Cup Series’ main event.
Bringing that festival vibe to the city – while also showcasing NASCAR’s best – is a critical point that is expected to bring the event — arguably already the marquee racing event of the year — over the top, Allmendinger said.
“Especially the day and age we live in, it’s not just about the race for everybody. It’s about what the experience is and it’s a party, right?” Allmendinger said. “Like if you’re NASCAR, you’re not coming here just going, ‘We’re solely focused on the race. That’s what’s going to bring everybody in.’ It’s what’s going to bring the hardcore and maybe even somewhat casual fan in. …
“You look at the (Clash at the Los Angeles Memorial) Coliseum. It’s the same thing, right? When you’ve got Wiz Khalifa and Ice Cube playing a halftime break, that’s what’s cool about an event and that’s what makes maybe an ordinary event become special.”
There was something familiar to Kyle Dudley about Ryan Blaney’s car for the NASCAR All-Star Race at North Wilkesboro Speedway.
Written above Blaney’s passenger side door for the late-May race weekend was Dudley’s name, celebrating his track championship at Virginia’s Motor Mile Speedway last season.
Advance Auto Parts has been spotlighting NASCAR track champions on Blaney’s car all season as part of its Home Track Highlight program, with the name of two champions written on the No. 12 Team Penske Ford every week.
Dudley seeing his name on the car at North Wilkesboro, a track located about 90 minutes from his own home track, was extra special.
“It was awesome. I didn’t know we’d get Wilkesboro. That was cool,” Dudley said. “My Facebook blew up with people sending me it. I’m trying to find a diecast of it to buy because that was pretty cool, especially at Wilkesboro for the first time back in however long. It was a really cool deal.”
Being honored in the NASCAR Cup Series was one of several perks Dudley has found after winning his first track championship. He won the title at Motor Mile Speedway — a NASCAR-sanctioned, 0.416-mile paved oval track in Fairlawn, Virginia — last season, nine years after beginning in the track’s Late Model division.
“We won a fair amount of races last year, and everything has kept growing,” he said. “It’s a cool accomplishment. … You can always go to the track knowing no matter what happens, if you never win anything else, you were a champion in the highest division there.
“That’s just a really cool thing to have in your back pocket.”
Dudley hasn’t found Victory Lane at Motor Mile this season, but he’s still in the mix among the top drivers in the track’s Price’s Body Shop Late Model standings, currently in seventh place in the points with four top-five finishes in four races.
Kyle Dudley (No. 4.) in action at Motor Mile Speedway (Photo: Jasmine Rorrer/Motor Mile Speedway)
The 30-year-old first started watching racing when he was young, and his dad Mike was in the midst of a 30-year career in the sport.
“I was just around it the whole time and just loved it,” Dudley said. “Ever since I was a kid, that’s all I ever wanted to do, so when I got old enough he finally got me a car and that’s when we started racing.”
It was 2009 when Dudley started in Motor Mile’s limited sportsman division. He moved up to racing late models four years later.
“It took a while to get the first championship,” Dudley said.
The title was just as unexpected as everything that has come with it. Dudley was second in the points heading into the final race of the season last fall, a night that included twin features. The points leader at the time had trouble in the first race and had to start-and-park his car for the second.
“I felt good about it because I pretty much knew I had to outrun him, so I knew the goal,” Dudley said. “Me and him were battling pretty hard the first race, and he had trouble. … It was a little hectic, but I didn’t look too far into it. I just went in there and raced, and everything worked out.”
It took several years of trial and error before Dudley could call himself a champion, but the hardships of the past made the title more special.
“It was awesome,” he said. “It was kind of something we never really knew was going to be in the realm of possibilities.
“When we first started, we were a lapper. We were doing our best to just try to get top 10s. And then we gradually got better. Kept moving up and got better, kept working harder and getting better cars and finding more and more speed, and finally got to where we could compete for wins. And then we ran all last year and ended up winning the championship, which is crazy to think about. We’re not big points racers, but everything just kind of fell in line. We kept winning races and everything worked out at the end of the year.”
Kyle Dudley, middle, celebrates his Motor Mile Speedway championship at the NASAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series awards ceremony in Indianapolis on Dec. 10, 2022. (Photo: Ben Jackson/NASCAR)
Mike still helps his son on the car and serves as his spotter every race. Dudley’s best friend Taylor is his biggest helper in the garage throughout the week, and two other friends, Scottie and Jeff, have also come aboard this season.
“It takes all of them, too,” Dudley said. “You can’t do this stuff alone. It’s too hard anymore. It’s not a one-man show anymore. You can’t show up to the track with an open trailer with one other guy and be competitive in this late model division anymore. You’ve got to spend every night at the shop working on it, and have people donating their time and come up with me and work on the car at night.
“I can’t thank my dad enough for all he’s done for me throughout the years. He’s the biggest part behind this thing. Him and my mom and my family have been supporting me and letting me do this stuff, chase this crazy dream we’ve been chasing.”
In addition to Motor Mile, Dudley plans to travel around Virginia and North Carolina this summer to get as many races in as possible. In an ever-changing sport, he said the biggest thing he feels he needs to stay competitive is more time on the track so he can keep up with drivers who are competing every weekend.
Now that he has a championship, he said he no longer feels like he has to prove himself.
“People know you’re competitive, you can compete for wins, and you’ve proven it, so you’re not out there going to prove anything,” he said. “You’re out there to win races and show everyone you’ve still got it.”
Winning a championship has helped his confidence, but he doesn’t want to shy away from continuing to go for Victory Lane every time he’s on the track.
“We just want to win and be competitive wherever we are,” he said. “We want to win races. That’s kind of what we shoot for every time we show up to the track. … So, knock on wood, we’ve been doing well the last couple years. It’s been fun, and that’s what it’s all about. And we have the most fun when we win, so that’s what we’re going to keep trying to do.
“All of us do the same thing. It’s kind of a labor of love. I’m glad we’ve had success with it because it gets old when you get beat every week, so to come out and win some really, really adds fuel to the fire and keeps you going.”
NASCAR racing will return to Motor Mile Speedway on June 24, a night that will feature Twin 50s for the Price’s Body Shop Late Model Stock Car division, Twin 35s for the Collision Plus Sportsman class, as well as races in the DCT Towing Super Streets, Blue Ridge Church Pure 4s, and Stock 6 divisions. Racing will begin at 7 p.m. ET.
The inaugural Chicago Street Race is fast approaching. On July 2, the NASCAR Cup Series hits the city’s iconic Grant Park to race on a never-before-seen 2.2-mile street course track that uses scenic local landmarks like Michigan Avenue, Lakeshore Drive, and Buckingham Fountain. It’s the first time NASCAR has ever raced on a street course and that it’s happening in the Windy City is no accident. Chicago is a no-nonsense, hard-working town with diverse neighborhoods, great food, and an iconic skyline perfectly suited as the backdrop for a historic road course. It’ll be a barnburner of a weekend. (Not to mention the festival-like atmosphere.)
Because this is the city’s proper introduction to NASCAR (Chicagoland Speedway, which last hosted a race in 2019, is located in suburban Joliet 35 miles southwest of the city), Chicagoans might need a crash course on the 2023 field. There are so many fascinating drivers each with their own unique personalities, driving styles, and skillsets. To make it easy, we’ve decided to pair some of the most prominent drivers with a beloved Chicago celebrity. This isn’t an exact science (no one here is arguing that the sport’s five-time most popular driver Chase Elliott is literally Oprah Winfrey) but it’s a good rubric to familiarize yourself with the Cup Series.
Christopher Bell – Justin Fields
Justin Fields is the supremely talented quarterback for the Chicago Bears who is entering his third season in the NFL. Christopher Bell is the supremely talented driver for Joe Gibbs Racing in his fourth full-time season in the Cup Series and his third for the iconic Toyota team. Both of these athletes have enough promise, charm, and a tangible work ethic to win a championship.
Ryan Blaney – Dansby Swanson
Daniel Shirey | Getty Images
Dansby Swanson is swiftly becoming one of the most likable athletes in Chicago during his first year as shortstop for the Chicago Cubs after leaving the Atlanta Braves. Though Chase Elliott has won the Most Popular Driver Award every year since 2018, it’s not a stretch to imagine Ryan Blaney having a shot at the prize this year. Like Swanson, Blaney has had success in Atlanta. They also both look like they could be cousins.
Alex Bowman – Billy Corgan
This pick is a curveball because Alex Bowman looks nothing like the Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan and I doubt the No. 48 driver could write something as good as Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness (nor would I trust Corgan to be as adept behind the wheel as the seven-time Cup winner). However, Corgan loves animals and has been on the cover of the local animal shelter PAWS’ magazine with his cats. Bowman’s a dog person and has donated thousands to the Best Friends Animal Society to help end animal homelessness.
William Byron – Chance the Rapper
No one wants to see William Byron rap (or do we?) but both Chance the Rapper and Willy B — the latter of whom already has a career-high three wins in 2023 — have carved out great careers so far and have yet to hit their peak. The two are also known to love baseball caps despite the fact that Byron’s been donning ones that are just a tad oversized.
Kyle Busch – Jim Belushi
Kyle Busch is one of the all-time best drivers in the sport who had to drive in the shadow of his older brother Kurt Busch to start his career. Comedian and actor Jim Belushi knows what that feels like as his older brother John Belushi was a Saturday Night Live legend and the star of The Blues Brothers and Animal House, but Jim has had a successful career of his own. And we hear Kyle’s done pretty well for himself, too.
Frederick M. Brown | Getty Images
Ross Chastain – Tim Anderson
Ross Chastain is a Cup Series championship contender but he got there by stepping on a lot of toes and causing some controversy. Like Chastain, the greatest Chicago athletes like White Sox shortstop Tim Anderson (along with Bulls legends Dennis Rodman and Joakim Noah) are the kind of guys you’d want on your team — but absolutely hate to play (or race) against.
Chase Elliott – Oprah Winfrey
Few people have been able to accumulate as much goodwill in Chicago as Oprah Winfrey, whose long-running talk show was filmed in the city from 1986 to 2011. She also famously gave everyone a car one time in 2004. Chase Elliott is the closest NASCAR analog. Like his dad Bill Elliott, Chase has been cleaning up the NASCAR Most Popular Driver Award. The 2020 Cup Series champion has won it every year since 2018.
Denny Hamlin – DeMar DeRozan
Though he’s been driving the 11 car for Joe Gibbs Racing since 2005, Denny Hamlin has never won a Cup Series championship. He’s been close a few times but boasts a Hall of Fame career despite not yet claiming the top prize. NBA veteran DeMar DeRozan is in the same boat. The current Bulls forward and perennial MVP contender almost won in Toronto before he was traded to the San Antonio Spurs. Now, he looks to cement his legacy in Chicago — a town Hamlin’s business partner (and member of this list!) once had in the palm of his hands.
Ty Gibbs – Connor Bedard
On June 28, the Chicago Blackhawks are taking the first pick in the 2023 NHL Draft and most every expert expects the team to pick Connor Bedard, the unanimous choice for that top spot. He’s a once-in-a-generation talent who is expected to rejuvenate the struggling franchise. Ty Gibbs, who drives for his grandfather at Joe Gibbs Racing, is an exceptionally promising rookie in the field, too, though JGR itself is still among the elite.
Kevin Harvick – Harrison Ford
At 47 years old, Kevin Harvick is the oldest active driver in the NASCAR Cup Series field. He boasts an iconic career and while this season is his last, he will forever be a legend. Chicago native Harrison Ford has also announced that his upcoming role as Indiana Jones will be his last. At 80 years old, this isn’t a surprise but we’re grateful for all the memories.
Brad Keselowski — Vince Vaughan
Chris Trotman | NASCAR via Getty Images
Midwesterners Brad Keselowski and Vince Vaughan have experienced immense success in their respective fields for the better part of the last 20 years. While we haven’t seen Keselowski be a Wedding Crasher, he has stacked up a few wins we love revisiting, just like a Vaughan rom-com.
Kyle Larson – Candace Parker
Candace Parker is one of the best WNBA players of all time. She’s a two-time champion and usually the best player on any team she’s ever been on. Kyle Larson, who won the Cup Series championship in 2021, could easily match Parker’s decorated career the longer he races. He’s already one of the best dirt track racers ever though.
Joey Logano – Bill Murray
The ever-smiley Joey Logano shows up in unexpected places often during the races, namely coming across the finish line at the last possible second out of nowhere. Comedian and local legend Bill Murray lives the same way. You’ll see him randomly appearing at house parties, local bars, and weddings being, you know, Bill Murray, which always makes for a great story.
Tyler Reddick and Bubba Wallace – Michael Jordan
This feels like a cop-out, sure. Michael Jordan is the greatest basketball player of all time but I’m not trying to start any arguments about that by bringing up Jimmie Johnson, Richard Petty, Dale Earnhardt, or Jeff Gordon in this blurb. That’s a different debate. Instead, here’s Bubba Wallace and Tyler Reddick, the current roster of 23XI Racing that’s co-owned by the Bulls legend and driver Denny Hamlin slotting in as the pick(s) here.
Martin Truex Jr. – Jeff Tweedy
I don’t know what Martin Truex Jr.’s music taste is like but I can’t imagine he’d hate the universally appealing Wilco. Like the frontman of the Chicago indie rock mainstays, Truex has quietly built one of the strongest careers in the field over the last twenty years. Both look good in a hat and a beard, too, which doesn’t hurt the comp.
NASCAR and Darlington Raceway announced Thursday that track president Kerry Tharp will retire at the end of the 2023 season, ending a decades-long career as an instrumental leader in NASCAR.
Tharp has overseen “The Lady in Black” since 2016, a transition that followed an 11-year tenure as NASCAR’s senior director of communications for its competition department. Affectionately known by many as “The Commander,” the Kentucky native believes the time is right to hand the keys to one of the sport’s most iconic tracks to someone else.
“I’ve been blessed to be able to have worked in the sport and entertainment field for 44 years,” Tharp told NASCAR.com via teleconference. “You know, I worked about 25 years in college athletics and then now the past 19 years at NASCAR and about eight of those have been at Darlington. And I have loved every minute of it, absolutely. And we just came off of just an outstanding event last month with a Throwback Weekend that coincided with the 75th anniversary (of NASCAR), and that was as much fun as I’ve ever had in my career.
“And I know we’ve got the 74th running of the Cook Out Southern 500 coming up. And I said, ‘You know what? I think it’s time to go out.’ And if you’re gonna go out, go out on top. And I think I’m doing that.”
Tharp’s journey to motor racing was an unexpected deviation from his passion for collegiate athletics. By 2005, Tharp had already established a 26-year career in intercollegiate sports, including two decades spent as the Associate Athletics Director for Media Relations at the University of South Carolina.
That year, he received a call regarding a public relations job in NASCAR’s licensing division and made the trip to Daytona International Speedway for an Xfinity Series race.
“I went down there and met with a lot of people, visited the facility and everything was going on,” Tharp said. “And I was working at the University of South Carolina at the time, and I went back to Columbia. And my wife Debbie said, ‘What did you think?’ And I said, ‘I don’t know what I saw but it was cool.’”
Tharp took the job shortly thereafter, a position that he’d hold for just half a year before longtime NASCAR executive Jim Hunter – a former football player at the University of South Carolina – recruited him to the competition realm.
“I said, ‘Hunter, I don’t know anything about any of that,’” Tharp recalled. “He said, ‘Ah, you can pick it up. Spend some time with the guys at the R&D Center and you could pick it up.’ That was an opportunity that I’m so glad was afforded to me. I (spent) 11 years working as the director of communications for competition and got to go to every race track at the time that was on the schedule and work with so many great people and so many of the drivers and owners and really the media, because I worked in the media center and just really developed strong relationships with them and just had a ball.”
At Darlington, Tharp played an integral role in aiding NASCAR back to the green flag during the 2020 COVID pandemic. With the sport – and the world at large – halted due to the virus, NASCAR officials worked to determine a plan of resumption.
NASCAR president Steve Phelps rang Tharp’s cell phone mid-April with hopes to resume racing in May and inquired if Darlington would be up for hosting the sport’s return. Tharp didn’t hesitate to say yes, then helped officials coordinate conversations with South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster to work the logistics of putting on the event in such unique circumstances.
“NASCAR, in its wisdom, put in place a very disciplined set of protocols,” Tharp said. “And there’s no doubt in my mind that we did it better than any other sport. Hands down. And in fact, I think the other sports learned from us. So being able to coordinate all that with the state and with the Department of Health … to get that done, it took a yeoman’s effort from the entire team. And NASCAR just pulled together and had such a great plan, I thought, on how they got this done. And I was proud to be a part of that. I’ll never forget it. That is one of the highlights of my professional career to be able to do that.”
Under Tharp’s leadership, Darlington Raceway’s Throwback Weekend has not only succeeded but thrived as the facility earned a second Cup Series race date back on the schedule. Additionally, the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series returned to the weathered, asymmetrical and historic 1.366-mile oval.
“One of the things when I first got here, people kept asking me, ‘When are we getting our second race day back? And when are the trucks coming back to Darlington?’ Well, OK, they’re both here now,” Tharp said. “But that took the work of a lot of different people and the support of the state of South Carolina to be able to go back to racing in 2020. But getting that second race day back is huge. And we’ve got to keep on keeping on to keep that second race date back.”
As for what’s next? Tharp hasn’t considered the specifics yet, but being a grandfather tops the priority list.
“I have a wonderful family, and both of my sons and their families and loved ones live in the Charlotte area,” he said. “So that’s less than a two-hour drive to be able to see them. We’ve got three grandsons, so I’m sure I’d like to spend some more time with them.
“And my wife and I are very, very active. Who’s to say we may not travel some? But I’m sure that we’ll find something interesting to do, something rewarding to do. I don’t think I’m the type just to sit back on a rocking chair and watch the sun go up and down.”
