Chicagoland Speedway Tag

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service JOLIET, Ill. – Paul Menard had the hottest shoe on the hottest day of the NASCAR season. Torching Chicagoland Speedway with a lap at 180.102 mph (29.998 seconds) in the final round of Saturday’s knockout qualifying session at the 1.5-mile track, Menard won the pole for Sunday’s Overton’s 400 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race (2:30 p.m. ET on NBCSN, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Nearly 10 years had passed since Menard last claimed a Busch Pole Award. His only previous top qualifying effort cameRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service JOLIET, Ill. – When Kyle Larson crossed the finish line at Chicagoland Speedway 8.030 seconds ahead of runner-up Kevin Harvick, there were no screams of elation from the winner of Saturday’s Overton’s 300 NASCAR Xfinity Series race. Instead, Larson placed an order. “Water, ice and towel at the start/finish line,” Larson radioed to his team, after winning a race in mind-numbing heat that approached 150 degrees in the greenhouse of his No. 42 Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet Camaro. Larson had won the pole earlier inRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service JOLIET, Ill. – Brett Moffitt didn’t hear the words that turned Friday night’s Overton’s 225 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race in his favor. “I’m blowing up!” John Hunter Nemechek shouted over his team radio as he entered Turn 1 with the lead on the final lap at Chicagoland Speedway. Nemechek’s misfortune proved an unexpected boon to Moffitt, who won the race by 5.092 seconds over Ben Rhodes, as Nemechek faded to seventh at the finish—not with a blown engine, as he had thought, butRead More

By Brian Eberly, Contributing Writer JOLIET, Ill. — The month of June hasn’t been kind to Ben Rhodes with finishes of 16th, 17th and 19th in the past three NASCAR Camping World Truck Series events. But the end result in Friday night’s Overton’s 225 at Chicagoland Speedway was just the momentum Rhodes and his ThorSport Racing team needed at this point in the season. Rhodes crossed the stripe in the second position to earn his best finish of 2018 and best since his victory last September at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. AndRead More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer Outside pole sitter Dalton Sargeant was poised for a turnaround, running inside the top-five for much of the night to keep his playoff hopes alive. That all changed on the 60th lap when a battle for third went awry, as Sargeant’s No. 25 Performance Plus Motor Oil Chevrolet Silverado ended up with the short straw in Friday’s Overton’s 225 at Chicagoland Speedway in Jolliet, Illinois. Exiting Turn 1, Sargeant was in a tight three-wide battle for third, battling against John Hunter Nemechek and Stewart Friesen.Read More

By Brian Eberly, Contributing Writer JOLIET, Ill. — What a month of June it’s been for Iowa native Brett Moffitt. The 25-year-old driver went to victory lane at his home track of Iowa Speedway and sits third in the championship standings as the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series readies to compete in the Overtons 225 on Friday night at Chicagoland Speedway. But it was uncertain whether the Hattori Racing No. 16 Toyota would get loaded on the hauler and make the trek from North Carolina to Illinois all the way upRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor After spending the past seven years as the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series playoff opener, Chicagoland returns to its mid-summer roots this weekend as they get set to host Sunday’s Overton’s 400. The track, which joined the circuit in 2001, only hosts the Cup Series once each season, boasting banking of 18 degrees as well as a curved back straightaway that allows drivers to carry their momentum around the entirety of the track. Having not been repaved in its 18-year history, the track also allows forRead More

By Brian Eberly, Contributing Writer JOLIET, Ill. — Making just his fourth career start in the ARCA Racing Series, Todd Gilliland had another strong showing in the SCOTT 150 at Chicagoland Speedway, leading 28 laps in the second-half of the race. However, a late-race caution erased Gilliland’s large lead, sent the leaders to pit road for fresh tires and resulted in a frantic green-white-checkered finish. The end result was a third-place finish and the second straight frustrating ARCA race in the No. 54 DGR-Crosley Toyota. In May at Charlotte MotorRead More

Charles Krall, ARCA Racing Series Communications Manager After narrowly missing out on picking up the win at Chicagoland Speedway last year, Michael Self took advantage of a late-race restart and led the final two laps to score his second ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards victory of 2018 in Friday night’s SCOTT 150.   Self made a three-wide move to take the lead on the initial start of the race, and when Riley Herbst couldn’t get the power down coming to the final restart of the night, he made a carbon copyRead More

By Brian Eberly, Contributing Writer JOLIET, Ill. — The month of June has been quite kind to Sheldon Creed and that continued on Thursday at Chicagoland Speedway where Creed took the top spot for the ARCA Racing Series SCOTT 150. It was the second consecutive General Tire Pole Award for the 20-year-old driver as he won from the top starting spot last weekend at Gateway Motorsports Park. Creed’s lap at 176.194 mph in the No. 28 United Rentals Toyota edged his MDM Motorsports teammate Zane Smith at 176.005 mph inRead More