Hot drivers rolling into Chicagoland
Warm temps may lead to slicker track for Cup race
CHICAGO – One of the biggest changes in this year’s Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series schedule reaches reality this weekend.
Chicagoland Speedway, which hosted the Cup playoff opener for seven consecutive years, opens its gates much earlier this year, hosting Sunday’s Overton’s 400 (2 p.m. ET, NBC Sports Network) with the playoffs still more than two months away. The playoff opener has moved to Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
With warm temperatures expected for most of the weekend in the far suburbs of Chicago, and without the pressures associated with a playoff race, Sunday’s event could be quite different from most recent Chicagoland races.
“That racetrack in particular, the asphalt is really worn out, and you add some high temperatures to go with it, and it should be a really fun race with the cars sliding around,” Kevin Harvick said.
Kyle Larson agreed. “I think the hotter weather will always make any race better because we will be sliding around and stuff like that,” he said. “The track should hopefully be hotter and slicker, but I always feel like that first playoff race the intensity is not that high just because people are just trying not to make mistakes. I’m not saying that there is not as much on the line, but I think the racing will be more intense even than it was.”
AJ Allmendinger called the track especially challenging “because we only race at it one time during the year. With Chicago’s rough winters, the racetrack is always getting rougher through the offseason, more than some of the other tracks we go to.
“Over the last couple of years, the seams and the bumps in the racetrack are getting more noticeable, and the pavement is getting older, which changes how hard it uses the tires.”
Friday’s predicted high temperature in the area is 93. Saturday is expected to be hotter, with a high of 96. The raceday forecast is mixed, with a predicted high of 87 and a good chance of thunderstorms.
The race will match the season’s top stars — Kevin Harvick, Martin Truex Jr. and Kyle Busch — against Everybody Else. Harvick owns five wins, Busch four and Truex three. Clint Bowyer, with two victories, is the only other driver with more than one win this year.
More surprisingly, only six drivers have won all season, thus earning spots in the playoffs. Among those without victories are Jimmie Johnson and Brad Keselowski.
Half of the drivers in the top 10 in points are winless. In addition to Keselowski, they are Kurt Busch, Denny Hamlin, Kyle Larson and Aric Almirola.
Johnson, whose victory came more than a year ago at Dover International Speedway on June 4, is No. 1 in laps led at Chicagoland with 695 in 16 races, but the track is one of three Cup venues where he has not reached victory lane (also Kentucky Speedway and Watkins Glen International). He has been a runner-up at the Joliet, Illinois, track three times.
Oddly, the only victory Johnson scored in the Xfinity Series came at Chicagoland in 2001.
Truex, whose team logged its third victory with a stellar pit strategy Sunday at Sonoma Raceway in California, carries the favorite’s flag into Sunday’s race. He has won the past two events at Chicagoland.
“A little sad it’s not kicking off the playoffs anymore just because of our record there, but at the same time, it’s a great racetrack and I’m excited to go there and see what we can do,” Truex said. “We had great runs in Pocono (a win) and Sonoma. But overall we have a much better handle on our race car and feel that we can contend on any type of track.”
Truex, Harvick and Keselowski lead all current drivers with two wins at the 1.5-mile track.