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  • Brett Moffitt gets win number three after Nemechek runs out of gas on the last lap

    Brett Moffitt gets win number three after Nemechek runs out of gas on the last lap

    In what has continued to be a wild season for the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series and  for Brett Moffitt, and Hattori Racing, it continued to get even wilder as they were able to secure win number three of the season at Chicagoland Speedway after John Hunter Nemechek, who led five times for 64 laps, ran out of gas on the final lap on the backstretch.

    As Stage 1 began, Noah Gragson led Lap 1, but Dalton Sargeant took the lead and led for a while until Gragson took back the lead with 10 to go. However, Nemechek would win the first stage.

    One caution slowed the pace as Bo LeMastus spun on the fronstretch on Lap 21.

    When Stage 2 began on Lap 41, Gragson took the lead on the restart, but another caution was flown once more on Lap 51 for Ross Chastain, who had a right front tire go down. Another caution was displayed once more on Lap 59 when Sargeant spun out on the backstretch after slight contact from Stewart Friesen. Gragson went to on win Stage 2 after having a dominant truck.

    The final stage began on Lap 77.

    The race lead was swapped multiple times between Nemechek and Moffitt as they battled it out until a late race caution came with 30 to go for Friesen and Jordan Anderson, who made contact in Turn 1. Friesen suffered the most damage from the incident.

    After the restart with 24 to go, Nemechek had the lead and Moffitt started to close in with 15 to go.

    It seemed Nemechek would get win number two of the year and his second at Chicagoland but the No. 8 Chevy ran out of gas after taking the white flag and Moffitt was right there to go past him for the race win.

    It was Moffitt’s third race win of the year and his first at Chicago.

    “I got a good run off (Turn) 4 there,” Moffitt said. “We took the white and I was kind of committed to what Noah did to me back in Iowa, and then about halfway up the hill, something happened to him (Nemechek). Something blew up or out of fuel and my crew said to take it easy. That’s a great way to drive easy through (Turns) 3 and 4. I just can’t thank everyone enough on this team and FR8 Auctions for coming on board, that even got us here this week.”

    “Tuesday, we didn’t know,” he said. “They really extended a hand and helped us out when we needed it the most and that goes deeply appreciated.”

    There were six cautions for 29 laps, along with six different leaders for 17 lead changes.

     

    [pdf-embedder url=”http://www.speedwaymedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Chicagoland-NCWTS-unofficial-results-6-29-18.pdf” title=”Chicagoland NCWTS unofficial results 6-29-18″]

  • NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Preview-Chicago

    NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Preview-Chicago

    After another exciting race at Gateway last weekend, the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series continues its season and reaches the halfway point at Chicagoland Speedway.

    Last year, this race was held prior to the eight race Playoffs and decided the regular season champion. However, this year, it is now a summertime race but it is still an important race as stage points and a race win are still up for grabs.

    Currently, there are 33 trucks entered on the preliminary entry list.

    Here’s who to expect on might end up in victory lane in Friday nights Overton’s 225.

    1. John Hunter Nemechek – Nemechek will pilot the No. 8 NEMCO Motorsports truck this weekend. He’ll be hungry for a win after exiting the race late last week at Gateway due to an issue. Chicago could be the place where he will break the drought and end up in victory lane. In three races, Nemechek has an average start of 13.7 and an average finish of 7.3. In that time span, he had one win which came in 2015 and he finished 14th and seventh in the last two races. Nemechek will be a prime contender in this week’s race if all the cards fall in the right place.
    2. Johnny Sauter – How could one ever overlook a four-time winner this year going for win number five? Sauter has nine starts dating back to 2009 and is the previous race winner.  He also has an average start of 9.1 and an average finish of 8.0 and has led 106 laps. Sauter earned a pole here back in 2014 where he finished 14th. In last year’s race, the No. 21 GMS Racing team finished second and fourth in the first two stages, respectively, before taking the lead on Lap 123 en route to victory after leading the final 28 laps.
    3. Myatt Snider – While Snider only has one start at Chicago which came last year after finishing 10th, he’ll have his Thorsport Racing teammates to lean on for advice, especially two-time champion, Matt Crafton, who has nine starts. He is also carrying momentum from last week’s fourth-place finish, which was his first top five of the year. .
    4. Todd Gilliland – After turning 18 a few weeks ago, Gilliland has been consistent with his finishes, despite not finishing at Iowa and being relegated to 29th. It will be his first start at Chicago, but it is also another 1.5-mile track where he does have experience. At Charlotte, he finished 10th with a sixth-place finish the following week at Fort Worth, both 1.5-mile tracks. It will be a little bit of a learning curve with it being his first start, but if past finishes say anything, Gilliland will be a contender for the win. He will also be competing in Thursday night’s ARCA race.
    5. Stewart Friesen – Friesen has been a solid contender this year in the Truck Series. If not for issues late in previous races this year, he could have had multiple race victories in 2018. At the 1.5-mile race tracks, he finished sixth at Atlanta, fifth at Las Vegas after leading 31 laps, third at Kansas (led six laps), sixth at Charlotte, won the pole and finished second at Texas while leading 13 laps. He has certainly been a contender for the win this year at these tracks, but for whatever reason, can’t quite get the No. 52 truck to victory lane yet. If he wins this weekend, not only will it be his first win, but it could be the first of many this season and he could be a prime contender at Homestead for the championship.

    The trucks have competed at Chicagoland nine times with five different winners, those being Kyle Busch, Austin Dillon, James Buescher, Nemechek, and Sauter. Busch is the only repeat winner at the track with five wins.

    The trucks will have two practice sessions scheduled for Thursday afternoon. The first practice takes place at 5:30 p.m. ET and the final practice will be held at 6:35 p.m. ET with no live TV coverage.

    Qualifying is slated for Friday afternoon at 5:40 p.m. ET on Fox Sports 2.

    Race coverage begins at 8:30 p.m. ET and with the approximate green flag taking place at 9:19 p.m. ET, both on Fox Sports 1 and MRN Radio. Stages will be broken up into 35/70/150 laps.

  • Full weekend schedule for Chicagoland

    Full weekend schedule for Chicagoland

  • NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Power Rankings-Chicago

    NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Power Rankings-Chicago

    The final regular season race took place last Friday night at Chicagoland Speedway for the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series and set the final playoff point standings. Here’s a look at who thrived in Chicago.

    1. Johnny Sauter – Sauter seemed to have found his rhythm back after having several weeks of disappointment and losing his championship lead in the summer months. This past Friday night, he changed that as he won for the first time since Dover International Speedway. Sauter finished second and fourth, respectively, in both stages and didn’t take the lead until 27 laps to go. He might be heating up at the right time as he cut the Christopher Bell’s point lead down to 15.
    2. Christopher Bell – In the past three races, Bell has been up and down, and it has shown that in the points differential. At Bristol, Candian Tire Motorsports Park and Chicagoland, Bell finished seventh, 26th and third, respectively. This past Friday night, he finished eighth in Stage 1 and won the second stage. But at Bristol, Bell had a 42 point lead over Sauter, however, due to the engine failure at Canada and Sauter’s win on Friday night, the points lead was cut down to 15. Bell did lead 18 laps but needs to have his momentum back that he had during the summer months. Still no doubt, he will be a strong championship challenger throughout the playoffs, but he needs no mistakes.
    3. Chase Briscoe – Briscoe had a strong night at Chicago. Throughout the race, he led twice for 18 laps and finished in the top 10 in both stages. He’ll need to keep up the momentum and perhaps win a race if he wants to be in the final four at Homestead. Nonetheless, another solid run for the No. 29 Brad Keselowski Racing Cooper Standard Ford.
    4. Ryan Truex – The other Truex is maybe showing shades of his older brother Martin, here lately, in the Camping World Truck Series. In the past two races, he has won at least one stage. In Canada, it was the second stage and he wound up finishing fifth, while this past weekend in Chicago, Truex won the first stage and finished fourth. Unfortunately, Truex missed the 2017 playoffs by a tie-breaker.
    5. Grant Enfinger – Enfinger had a quiet but decent night at Chicago. The 32-year-old scored his seventh top five of the year but missed the playoffs by not having enough points/wins. Not finishing in the top 10 in any stages hurt Enfinger’s chances of making the playoffs. The only task Enfinger can do now is finish the year out strong by winning a couple of races and look forward to the 2018 NASCAR season.Next up: The “Round of 8” begins at New Hampshire Motor Speedway this Saturday. Christopher Bell, Johnny Sauter, John Hunter Nemechek, Matt Crafton, Chase Briscoe, Austin Cindric, Ben Rhodes and Kaz Grala will be competing for the championship. It will be interesting to see how these eight drivers will compete throughout the playoffs. These drivers cannot afford any mistakes if they want to have any chance making it to the final four.
  • Tales of the Stage Winners

    Tales of the Stage Winners

    It was a tale of two drives with the stage winners, Kyle Busch and Chase Elliott, in the Tales of the Turtles 400 at Chicagoland Speedway.

    Leading the field to the green flag, Busch lead all but two laps during the first cycle of green flag stops on his way to winning the first stage. Leading the field back to green on Lap 88, Kevin Harvick powered by his outside to take the lead exiting Turn 2.

    Busch was running second when he made an unscheduled stop on Lap 97 for a loose wheel. Adding insult to injury, he was hit with a pass through penalty for his crew jumping over the wall too soon. He rejoined the race in 27th, two-laps down.

    He came close to getting back on the lead lap, being the first car a lap down, but race leader Martin Truex Jr. passed Landon Cassill just five laps before Erik Jones suffered a right-rear tire blowout and spun out in Turn 4 on Lap 210, bringing out the fourth caution of the race.

    Busch brought his car home to a 15th-place finish.

    “Oh well. We’ll move on…next week. That’s all we can do.”

    For Elliott, it was a more stable and stronger run.

    After a third-place finish in the first stage, he exited pit road just feet ahead of Harvick on Lap 124, cycled to the lead the following lap and drove onto victory in the second stage.

    As was the case with Busch, Elliott lost the lead on the ensuing restart to Harvick — this time, sliding up ion front up him from the bottom lane — exiting Turn 2 on Lap 168.

    He didn’t regain the lead, but he did retake and finish second when the checkered flag flew.

    “Yeah, just a much-improved day from where we’ve been, which is nice,” Elliott said in his post-race media availability. “Obviously would have been great to battle with Martin a little bit more. We didn’t have anything for him. From where we’ve been to where we ran today was a major, major step in the right direction, frankly where we need to be, where we deserve to be, to the potential we can run.

    “It was nice to see that we can do it if all things are clicking in the right way, car is driving good, pit stops are good, race execution was nice. It was a pretty uneventful race for the most part.

    “I felt like typically when that happens, the better cars always kind of end up towards the front. That proved to be with Martin winning. I didn’t have anything for him, without a restart or something. It also proved that we were second to him. I’m not sure about the 18, if he could have got back up there.

    “Aside from those two, I feel like we could run about everybody else. That’s a lot better than we’ve been.”

    Busch leaves fifth in points, trailing Truex by 41, while Elliott leaves sixth, 43 back of Truex.

  • Truex Cruises to Victory in the Windy City

    Truex Cruises to Victory in the Windy City

    Martin Truex Jr. took the lead not long after the start of the final stage and it was smooth sailing from there, as he drove on to score the victory in the Tales of the Turtles 400 at Chicagoland Speedway.

    The only speed bump he dealt with was an early speeding penalty, but he overcame that, took the lead from Kevin Harvick entering Turn 3 on Lap 190 and drove on to win for the 12th time in 432 career Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series starts.

    “Awe yeah! This is awesome man,” Truex shouted in jubilation while grabbing Rutledge Wood, standing at the start/finish line. “So excited! This is the playoffs. This is what it’s all about. This team, my team is unbelievable. Thank all the fans for coming out. We love coming to Chicago. So proud of everybody.

    “The speeding penalty, I was like ‘Oh no. Here we go again.’ After last year, we’ve got to come from the back. But the car was amazing. We just kept our heads down and kept digging and fighting and just do what we always do, and here we are.”

    Chase Elliott finished second and Harvick rounded out the podium.

    “Yeah, just a huge step in the right direction. Days like this are the days we are going to have to have,” Elliott said. “There is no way around that. I thought we had a solid day overall. Our car drove good, it had pace, our pit stops were good. I didn’t have anything for Martin. I thought we made the most of our day without some luck I wasn’t going to get around him unless we had a late-race restart or something. I had a solid day and frankly, it is a lot better than we have been doing and we’ve got to have days like this to keep moving forward.”

    Harvick said after the race that having a “flawless” race “really wasn’t our focus today.”

    “Our focus was to make sure that we didn’t make any mistakes today and everybody at Stewart-Haas Racing worked hard to work on that gap between those cars, but we’ve known about that gap and feel like we’ve closed that up and we knew that not making mistakes was gonna go a long way,” Harvick said. “We saw the 78 made mistakes today, but they had a fast enough car to recover from that. The 18 (Kyle Busch) didn’t recover from his mistakes.”

    Denny Hamlin and Kyle Larson rounded out the top-five.

    Brad Keselowski, Joey Logano, Jimmie Johnson, Matt Kenseth and Jamie McMurray rounded out the top-10.

    RACE SUMMARY

    Kyle Busch led the field to the green flag at 3:08 p.m. He led all but two laps of the first stage, which were led by Landon Cassill, on his way to winning it.

    Harvick powered by Busch’s outside on the Lap 88 restart, exiting Turn 2, to take the race lead. He controlled the race, until he pitted on Lap 124. Chase Elliott, who pitted the same lap, exited the pits ahead of Harvick, cycled to the lead and won the second stage.

    Harvick took it back from Elliott, exiting Turn 2, on the Lap 168 restart, moments before Jamie McMurray spun out on the backstretch, setting up the run to the finish.

    CAUTION SUMMATION

    Caution flew for the first time on Lap 80 for the end of the first stage. The second caution came out on Lap 160 for the end of the second stage. McMurray’s spin on Lap 169 caused the third caution. The fourth and final caution flew on Lap 210 when Erik Jones suffered a right-rear tire blowout and spun out in Turn 4.

    HAPPENINGS

    Ricky Stenhouse Jr. slid up and hit the outside wall in Turn 2 on Lap 26, but continued on. Six drivers — Austin Dillon, Stenhouse, Matt DiBenedetto, Jones, Truex and Corey LaJoie — were busted for speeding during the first green flag pit stop cycle.

    NUTS & BOLTS

    The race lasted two hours, 45 minutes and 16 seconds, at an average speed of 145.401 mph. There were 12 lead changes among seven different drivers and four cautions for 21 laps.

    Truex leaves with a 27-point lead over Larson. Kurt Busch, Stenhouse Kasey Kahne and Ryan Newman occupy the elimination spots.

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  • Kyle Busch Fastest in Final Chicagoland Practice

    Kyle Busch Fastest in Final Chicagoland Practice

    Kyle Busch topped the chart in final Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series practice at Chicagoland Speedway.

    The driver of the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota was the fastest with a time of 29.958 and a speed of 180.252 mph. Austin Dillon was second in his No. 3 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet with a time of 30.094 and a speed of 179.438 mph. Brad Keselowski was third in his No. 2 Team Penske Ford with a time of 30.119 and a speed of 179.289 mph. Chase Elliott was fourth in his No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet with a time of 30.145 and a speed of 179.134 mph. Clint Bowyer rounded out the top-five in his No. 14 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford with a time of 30.245 and a speed of 178.542 mph.

    Kevin Harvick, Denny Hamlin, Martin Truex Jr., Joey Logano and Ryan Blaney rounded out the top-10.

    Kyle Larson was 11th, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. was 12th, Jamie McMurray was 13th, Ryan Newman was 17th, Kurt Busch was 22nd, Matt Kenseth was 23rd, Jimmie Johnson was 24th and Kasey Kahne rounded out the Playoff drivers in 27th.

    Harvick posted the fastest 10 consecutive lap average at a speed of 175.784 mph.

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  • Truex Fastest in Second Practice at Chicago

    Truex Fastest in Second Practice at Chicago

    Martin Truex Jr. topped the chart in second Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series practice at Chicagoland Speedway.

    The driver of the No. 78 Furniture Row Racing Toyota was the fastest with a time of 29.892 and a speed of 180.650 mph. Ryan Blaney was second in his No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing Ford with a time of 30.033 and a speed of 179.802 mph. Chase Elliott was third in his No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet with a time of 30.052 and a speed of 179.689 mph. Brad Keselowski was fourth in his No. 2 Team Penske Ford with a time of 179.659 mph. Ryan Newman rounded out the top-five in his No. 31 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet with a time of 30.098 and a speed of 179.414 mph.

    Aric Almirola, Kasey Kahne, Kurt Busch, Matt Kenseth and Kyle Busch rounded out the top-10.

    Kyle Larson was 14th, Kevin Harvick was 15th, Denny Hamlin was 16th, Jimmie Johnson was 18th, Jamie McMurray was 19th, Austin Dillon was 20th and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. rounded out the Playoff drivers in 22nd.

    Elliott posted the fastest 10 consecutive lap average at a speed of 176.416 mph.

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  • Kyle Busch Speeds to Coors Light Pole in Chicago

    Kyle Busch Speeds to Coors Light Pole in Chicago

  • Kyle Busch Fastest in First Cup Practice at Chicagoland

    Kyle Busch Fastest in First Cup Practice at Chicagoland

    Kyle Busch topped the chart in first Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series practice at Chicagoland Speedway.

    The driver of the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota was the fastest with a time of 29.325 and a speed of 184.143 mph. Daniel Suarez was second in his No. 19 Gibbs Toyota with a time of 29.441 and a speed of 183.418 mph. Denny Hamlin was third in his No. 11 Gibbs Toyota with a time of 29.521 and a speed of 182.921 mph. Martin Truex Jr. was fourth in his No. 78 Furniture Row Toyota with a time of 29.531 and a speed of 182.859 mph. Kevin Harvick rounded out the top-five in his No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford with a time of 29.566 and a speed of 182.642 mph.

    Kyle Larson, Chase Elliott, Danica Patrick, Ryan Blaney and Brad Keselowski.

    Kurt Busch was 11th, Ryan Newman was 12th, Austin Dillon was 14th, Matt Kenseth was 15th, Jamie McMurray was 16th, Jimmie Johnson was 19th and Kasey Kahne rounded out the Playoff drivers in 26th.

    Elliott posted the fastest 10 consecutive lap average at a speed of 175.347 mph.

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