Chicagoland Speedway Tag

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor These days, Jimmie Johnson is known as a seven-time Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series champion driving for Hendrick Motorsports, but back in the early 2000’s, Johnson was a relative unknown driving for Herzog Motorsports trying to make a name for himself. That all changed at Chicagoland Speedway in July 2001 with the running of the Hills Brothers Coffee 300. Prior to the 2001 season, Johnson was best known for his crash at Watkins Glen in 2000 after he lost his brakes heading into Turn 1, whichRead More

By Brian Eberly, Contributing Writer MADISON, Ill. — Nine races in to the 2018 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series season and Brett Moffitt has gone to victory lane twice and sits third in the championship standings. Moffitt won the second race of the season at Atlanta Motor Speedway and earned the victory last weekend at Iowa Speedway, his home track. The win at Iowa was an emotional victory for the 25-year-old Moffitt, as he grew up less than 50 miles from “The Fastest Short Track on the Planet” and his winRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor With their primary driver suspended for the foreseeable future, GMS Racing has had to turn to others in the NASCAR garage to substitute drive their No. 23 entry in the NASCAR Xfinity Series until Spencer Gallagher is able to return. After Johnny Sauter piloted the car at Dover two weeks ago, the team has elected to put Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series regular Chase Elliott in the car this weekend at Charlotte Motor Speedway and in a handful of other races throughout the rest ofRead More

By Brian Eberly, Contributing Writer Toni Breidinger, an 18-year-old driver out of Hillsborough, California, has inked a deal with Venturini Motorsports to compete in three ARCA Racing Series events behind the wheel of one of the team’s Toyota Camrys. Breidinger will have a busy month of June as she will make her debut at the half-mile Madison International Speedway on June 15 before competing at Gateway Motorsports Park (June 22) and then Chicagoland Speedway (June 28). “I’m definitely expecting to learn a lot. It’s going to be a huge learningRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor Chase Elliott finished second at Chicagoland Speedway on Sunday to give his No. 24 team a strong start to the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs, but the momentum from the runner-up result was dampered on Tuesday as the team was hit with an L1 penalty from the sanctioning body for an improper modification to the rear spoiler. NASCAR noted in their penalty announcement that the team violated Section 20.20 of the rule book (Modification of components to affect the aerodynamic properties of the vehicle).Read More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor Each week NASCAR Editor David Morgan will break down the top storylines from the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series. This week, we break down the Tales of the Turtles 400 at Chicagoland Speedway. Truex Shreds the Competition Martin Truex, Jr. entered the playoff opener at Chicago with four wins in his pocket, the regular season championship, and a boatload of playoff points at his disposal. Things couldn’t possibly get any better for the driver of the No. 78 Toyota, right? Well, it did. For theRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service JOLIET, Ill. – Remember all those playoff points that were supposed to carry regular-season champion Martin Truex Jr. through the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs? He didn’t need them—not after what turned out to be a dominating victory in Sunday’s Tales of the Turtles 400, the Playoff opener at Chicagoland Speedway. Truex’s fifth victory of the season, his second straight at Chicagoland and the 12th of his career was hardly a cakewalk, even though the driver of the No. 78 Furniture Row Racing ToyotaRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor Prior to Sunday’s Tales of the Turtles 400 at Chicagoland Speedway, the first race of the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series playoffs, Joe Gibbs Racing elected to swap the pit crews between the No. 18 and No. 19 cars, giving Kyle Busch the crew that had been working with Daniel Suarez and vice versa for the crew that was working with Busch, as they moved over to service Suarez’s car for the playoffs. The swap was supposed to help Busch in his efforts to beRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Editor For the second year in a row, the opening race of the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series playoffs at Chicagoland Speedway has been just what the doctor ordered for Chase Elliott and his No. 24 team. Heading into Chicago, just one point separated Elliott from the bottom four in the playoff standings, but when all was said and done in Sunday’s Tales of the Turtles 400, the 21-year old would be in a much more comfortable spot, scoring a runner-up finish when the checkered flagRead More

By NASCAR Wire Service JOLIET, Ill. – Johnny Sauter served notice that he’s ready to make a spirited defense of his 2016 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series championship. Ben Rhodes was happy just to squeak into the final NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Playoff berth—by the skin of his teeth. Sauter passed regular-season champion Christopher Bell for the lead on Lap 123 of 150 and drove away to win Friday Night’s TheHouse.com 225 by 2.005 seconds over Chase Briscoe, who passed Bell for second on Lap 136. The race within a race betweenRead More