Chicagoland Speedway Tag

By Seth Eggert, NASCAR Correspondent Just weeks after earning his first NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series victory, Ross Chastain has switched to earn Truck Series points. The change will not automatically lock Chastain into the Truck Series playoffs as he was ineligible for Truck points at Kansas Speedway. It does open the opportunity for the Alva, FL native to compete in the Triple Truck Challenge that starts this weekend at Texas Motor Speedway. Chastain will drive the No. 38 Chevrolet Silverado for Niece Motorsports. He enters the SpeedyCash.com 400 asRead More

By Seth Eggert, NASCAR Correspondent *Editor’s note: Motorsports Tribune will be previewing the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season for the full-time drivers in the series leading into next month’s 61st running of the Daytona 500. Age: 38 Years in Cup: 12 Career Wins: One The 2018 season marked the best for Paul Menard since he made the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs in 2015. In 2018, Menard earned just one top-five finish, in a rain-shortened race at Michigan International Speedway. He earned a total of seven top-10 finishes throughout the season. MenardRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor Now that the 2018 NASCAR season is complete and the year is drawing to a close, we’ll take this opportunity to take a look back at the year that was. On the docket today is Part One of the 10 most memorable moments of the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season. 20 Years Later: Austin Dillon Returns No. 3 to Daytona 500 Victory Lane In 1998, Dale Earnhardt finally broke through with his first win in the Daytona 500 after coming so close for so manyRead More

By Brian Eberly, Contributing Writer JOLIET, Ill.— Erik Jones recorded his second-best finish of the 2018 season, bringing home a sixth-place result in Sunday’s Overton’s 400 at Chicagoland Speedway. It was the second straight top-10 result for the 22-year-old driver after finishing seventh at Sonoma Raceway last weekend. With Kevin Harvick, Kyle Busch and Martin Truex Jr. combining to win 13 of the first 17 races of the season, many positions in the Playoffs will go to drivers that haven’t visited victory lane this season. After Chicagoland, only nine racesRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor Disappointed. One word summed up how the Sunday’s Overton’s 400 at Chicagoland Speedway wound up playing out for Aric Almirola and the No. 10 Stewart-Haas Racing team. After one of the best races in recent years for the newest member of the four-car organization, Almirola saw what could have been a race winning car dropped back to 25th place at the end of the race due to two unscheduled pit stops for loose wheels. “Our car was super fast, especially out in clean air,” said Almirola.Read More

By Seth Eggert, Staff Writer The Overton’s 400 was almost a case of going from worst to first for Martin Truex, Jr. The Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series driver had plenty of speed, but not enough to contend for the victory. After the final restart, Truex battled with Brad Keselowski, Joey Logano, Kevin Harvick, Kyle Larson, Chase Elliott, and eventual race winner Kyle Busch. He pushed Logano into the lead with his No. 78 5-hour Energy / Bass Pro Shops Toyota Camry. Truex hovered just outside the top-five for theRead More

By Brian Eberly, Contributing Writer JOLIET, Ill. — The finish on Sunday afternoon at Chicagoland Speedway is exactly the finish that the sport needs in a day and age when declines in ratings and attendance have become a significant concern. The fans that braved the hot, humid and muggy conditions got their money’s worth as Kyle Busch and Kyle Larson put on a fantastic final lap that resulted in beat-up sheet metal and a respectful handshake between two of the best competitors in the sport today. With 20 laps to goRead More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer Everything seemed to be going Clint Bowyer’s way in Stage 1 during Sunday’s Overton’s 400 at Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet, Illinois, leading 21 of the first 38 laps, but multiple pit road penalties halted his aspirations of scoring his third win of the season. While the recovery was slow, he went from two laps down to back on the lead lap by staying out longer than the leaders, and clawed his way back to a fifth-place finish for his sixth top-five this season. “Yeah, weRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service JOLIET, Ill. – Like two boxers in the final round of a closely-contested slugfest, Kyle Busch and Kyle Larson traded hard shots on the last lap of Sunday’s Overton’s 400 at Chicagoland Speedway. Moments later, it was Kyle Busch who was still standing—with his car parked on the finish line and his fifth Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series victory of the season in his pocket. In the closing three laps, Larson gained on Busch, who had led from a restart on Lap 213 of 267.Read More

By Brian Eberly, Contributing Writer JOLIET, Ill. — The stars and cars of the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series will take to the 1.5-mile Chicagoland Speedway on Sunday to do battle in the Overtons’ 400. The intermediate tracks that dominate the schedule sometimes seem one and the same, but the track 50 miles outside of Chicago has begun to take on a character all of its own as the racing surface ages and bumps develop aided by the harsh Midwest winters. The 2017 MENCS Champion and defending Chicagoland race-winner Martin TruexRead More