2 months agoCody Ware begins 35th for Sunday's The Great American Getaway 400. Pocono is a unique intermediate 2.5-mile track and the Rick Ware Racing driver qualified just behind teammate Justin Haley. It seems the Ford who qualified more than 1.25 seconds off the time of Ty Gibbs, just lacked entrance and exit speed in the turns. Clean air or dirty air may not make much of a difference on Sunday. Ware has finished anywhere from 25th to 28th in the last three appearances at Pocono. It may be another long afternoon in the heat on Sunday for the No. 15 Ford.
--Chris Wassel - RotoBallerSource: NASCAR.com
2 months agoZane Smith surprised many on Saturday. The Spire Motorsports driver got into the final round of qualifying. Smith ended up ninth overall just ahead of drivers like Joey Logano and Chase Elliott. The No, 71 car was outside the Top 20 in practice but delivered enough good qualifying laps to begin inside Row 5 on Sunday afternoon. Smith was second at Nashville and moved up 13 spots at Chicago. Can Smith produced a third straight good result? He will have some cleaner air to start at least on Sunday. The opportunity is there.
--Chris Wassel - RotoBallerSource: NASCAR.com
2 months agoJohn Hunter Nemechek did not practice well on Saturday. The Legacy Motor Club car started off 36th in practice and then qualified 32nd at Pocono. His time was 0.995 seconds off of the lap delivered by Ty Gibbs. Expecting much from the No. 42 car could be difficult. Nemechek did not practice well and kept losing tenths coming off the banked turns of Pocono. This is the first time the Toyota driver is racing at the Cup level. It will be intriguing to see what happens as the race goes along on Sunday. Can Nemechek get close to Erik Jones, who qualified 23rd? That is a huge question mark.
--Chris Wassel - RotoBallerSource: NASCAR.com
2 months agoAustin Dillon will start The Great American Getaway 400 from the 17th position on Sunday afternoon. The Richard Childress Racing driver has had one ugly season and is currently 32nd overall. With the amount of regular season races dwindling, Dillon needs some results. The problem is the No. 3 car crashed last year after qualifying 23rd. He has some solid placings mixed in including a tenth in 2022. Can Dillon's Chevy find some speed and clear air? That is the burning question. Dillon only did a five-lap run and had the 21st-best practice lap. Few expect much positional improvement on Sunday.
--Chris Wassel - RotoBallerSource: NASCAR.com
2 months agoChase Briscoe did not have the best qualifying effort for Ford at Pocono on Saturday. The Stewart-Haas Racing driver will start Sunday's race from the 28th position. Briscoe's average qualifying position in the last four races averaged out at 23.5. He only has one Top 20 finish also. The Ford cars have been mostly slower on the 2.5-mile track. Briscoe lost almost 0.9 seconds on Saturday and his practice laps was even worse at 35th. The No. 14 car almost did not break the 55-second mark. Expecting even a Top 20 may be a stretch barring some serious attrition on Sunday.
--Chris Wassel - RotoBallerSource: NASCAR.com
2 months agoAnother major domino in NASCAR's silly season has fallen. Rodney Childers, considered by most as one of the best crew chiefs in the Cup Series garage, will be joining Spire Motorsports to lead the No. 7 team and Corey Lajoie, starting in 2025. Childers is currently the crew chief for Josh Berry, but with Stewart-Haas Racing shutting down after the 2024 season, team members are frantically looking for other jobs. Childers was the crew chief for Kevin Harvick from 2014 through 2023, leading that team to 39 victories over that span and one championship. This is a massive addition for Spire Motorsports as they continue to invest in their organization in hopes of being more competitive in NASCAR's top series.
--Jordan McAbeeSource: Spire Motorsports
2
months
agoIn
Sunday's
Grant
Park
165
at
the
Chicago
Street
Course,
Shane
Van
Gisbergen
finished
40th,
regardless
of
his
strong
performance
earlier
in
the
race.
Starting
from
the
fifth
position,
SVG
was
expected
to
be
one
of
the
top
favorites
to
win
this
year's
event
as
the
defending
race
read more...
2
months
agoTy
Gibbs
finished
third
after
looking
like
one
of
the
early
favorites
to
win
the
Grant
Park
165
at
the
Chicago
Street
Course.
Starting
from
the
second
position,
Gibbs
took
control
of
the
race
early
from
Kyle
Larson,
leading
the
first
11
laps
before
losing
the
lead
to
read more...
2
months
agoHendrick
Motorsports
driver
Alex
Bowman
claimed
a
dramatic
victory
in
Sunday's
Grant
Park
165
at
the
Chicago
Street
Course.
Starting
from
the
eighth
position,
Bowman
quickly
displayed
that
he
had
one
of
the
better
cars
in
the
field.
The
No.
48
Hendrick
Motorsports
driver
ended
the
first
stage
read more...
2 months agoKyle Busch probably was relieved after finishing ninth on Sunday at the Grant Park 165 in Chicago. The Richard Childress Racing driver began the afternoon 19th. He did show some flashes of speed during the race, and that was about when he would end up in the top 10. Unfortunately, it started raining after then. Then there were the pit stops. However, at the end of 58 laps, Busch somehow finished ninth. He never factored for stage points (14th in Stage 2, 25th in Stage 1). However, Busch kept the car moving forward and scored an important top-finish to stay within 98 points of the playoff hunt.
--Chris Wassel - RotoBallerSource: NASCAR.com
2 months agoTodd Gilliland did not start out the best at Chicago. However, the Front Row Motorsports driver managed to accumulate three stage points and finish in seventh when the race was called. That is what matters. Gilliland had pretty good speed late in the race and was able to move up track position wise when others made mistakes. It was about minimizing and staying the course for the No. 38 Ford. While teammate Michael McDowell was closer to the front during the race, Gilliland was able to stay back a bit which allowed him cleaner air to gain time and position on Sunday.
--Chris Wassel - RotoBallerSource: NASCAR.com
2 months agoRicky Stenhouse Jr. started 33th for the Grant Park 165. Through a wave of luck, survival, and strategy, the JTG Daugherty Racing driver ended up sixth after 58 laps on Sunday. When the finish line was crossed, the No. 47 car held on for sixth place. That was an improvement of 27 positions. The back and forth from wet to slick to dry to slick tires mattered little. It was more that Stenhouse Jr. stayed on the 2.2-mile road course. There were some bumps with Denny Hamlin and others but a Top 10 was achieved mostly because Stenhouse Jr. kept the car on the track. He even picked up three stage points along the way.
--Chris Wassel - RotoBallerSource: NASCAR.com
2 months agoTyler Reddick finished runner-up in Sunday's Grant Park 165 from the streets of Chicago, IL. With six top-10 finishes in the last seven races, and a series-high 13 top-10s in 2024, Reddick is becoming one of the more reliable and consistent drivers in the Cup Series. Shockingly, despite his consistency, the 23XI star does not seem to be getting much love from the sportsbooks, as DraftKings has him with just the eighth-best odds to win the Cup Series championship at +1400. To put this in perspective, his odds place him behind both Ryan Blaney (+1000) and Joey Logano (+1200), who combined have eight top-five finishes, the same amount of top-fives that Reddick already has. Given how strong he has looked throughout the season and given how well he has performed at many of the tracks that remain on this year's schedule, the time to get behind the 28-year-old California native is now, as you will likely not get better value than what you can get right now.
--Adam Erhardt - RotoBallerSource: Racing-Reference.info
2 months agoOn Sunday evening, William Byron finished eighth in the Grant Park 165 from Chicago, IL. After a disappointing qualifying effort, and despite being sent to the rear for an unapproved adjustment, Byron made the most of his situation en route to his 11th top-10 finish of the season. From the DFS side, the Hendrick Motorsports star also came through in a big way for the 26% that decided to roster him. Despite only recording one fast lap, and while he did not lead at any point in the race, his 19 place differential points helped to earn him a spot in the winning lineup in DraftKings featured contest, and a return of nearly 6x on his $9,400 salary. Up next for the No. 24 is a trip to the "Tricky Triangle" a course Byron has never won at.
--Adam Erhardt - RotoBallerSource: Jayski.com
2 months agoMichael McDowell got trapped a lap down after an early pit stop to switch to wet weather tires, but made an improbable comeback to finish fifth in yesterday's race at the Chicago Street Course. He significantly benefited from the crash that took out Christopher Bell and Martin Truex, Jr. but his bigger advantage was his choice to finish the race on slick tires, which was the best strategy call for the drivers coming from behind. That enabled McDowell to run down the drivers who stayed out of the pits with ease, but he didn't have enough time to catch eventual race winner, Alex Bowman. Although McDowell was overshadowed by his teammate, Todd Gilliland, for most of the event and Gilliland had the much flashier race, McDowell had the superior final stint and utilized his greater racecraft on road courses to maximize his eventual result.
--Sean Wrona - RotoBallerSource: Racing Reference
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