NASCAR is swinging for the fences on the streets of Chicago

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2 years ago

June 29, 2023

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Ryan McGee, ESPN Senior WriterJun 29, 2023, 11:23 AM ET
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- Senior writer for ESPN The Magazine and ESPN.com
- 2-time Sports Emmy winner
- 2010, 2014 NMPA Writer of the Year

It was 74 years and two weeks ago when NASCAR ran the first race of its Strictly Stock division, what we now know as the Cup Series. In the years since, over 2,696 races, those stock cars have rumbled around ovals of dirt, asphalt and concrete, over road courses, through an Atlantic ocean spray, between sand dunes, and even inside ballparks, football stadiums and across an airport tarmac in New Jersey.

This weekend, though, those machines and the drivers within them will navigate a raceway unlike anywhere or anyone before them. They will steer their way through the Loop Community of Chicago, the first true street course ever run by the world’s preeminent stock car series.

These cars weren’t built for this. Michigan Avenue and Lake Shore Drive weren’t built for them. The racers seem to be worried about the course’s raciness and the cockpit heat produced by the special mufflers that will be affixed to the exhaust systems that will be on their cars for this race. Why? Because of the complaints from a not small number of Chicagoans who like to spend their Independence Day weekend hanging out Grant Park, a little irritated about 800-horsepower machines running red lights and shaking walls all weekend, especially the walls of museums covered in fine art.

So, a question: Why even do this?

OK, an answer. And it comes from a man who knows a little something about turning left and right in a high-end racing machine on the same streets where regular folks do the same in city buses and minivans.

“Why not?” says Jenson Button, the former F1 superstar who made 16 starts in the Monaco Grand Prix, including a win during his 2009 world championship season. He’ll be making his second Cup Series appearance this weekend after finishing 37th in his debut in Austin on March 26. “I think it’s great that they’re willing to attract something different, and if it doesn’t work, it doesn’t work. It’s one race on the calendar.”

It might not work. But do you know what? It might work beautifully. Like, literally beautiful. Brightly colored NASCAR Next Gen machines banging doors and hammering down Columbus Drive with the Chicago skyline in the background? That doesn’t sound so bad, does it?

“At the very least, it’s going to look cool, right?” said Ross Chastain, who won for just the first time in 2023 last weekend at Nashville Superspeedway. “I think that willingness to try something different, that probably wasn’t easy for NASCAR, but they’ve certainly been doing it a lot lately and for the most part, yeah, it’s worked out.”

That willingness is still very new. For seemingly forever, the Cup Series schedule went to the same racetracks on the same weekends to run the same races. That’s not a terrible way to go about your business, establishing routines for fans and teams, but it’s only good when it’s working, and it for a long time it did. Then, it didn’t. The fear for NASCAR brass, who admittedly had thrown too much change at their fanbase during the mid-2000s — see: Car of Tomorrow, leaving traditional markets for new racetracks out West, a constantly changing postseason format, even an internal ban on booking country music acts — was that breaking away from the traditional schedule might feel like a history of too many extreme makeovers repeating itself.

“Mindful change is the goal. New ideas that will get people excited, but ideas with roots that come from what made NASCAR great in the first place,” NASCAR president Steve Phelps explained during a preseason chat in his Daytona office. “We all acknowledge concerns and hesitation.”

When they finally got past those concerns and hesitation, though, wow, did they really get past them. Like Chastain wall-riding the final turn at Martinsville last fall.

The Chicago street course is only the latest rollout amid a five-year stretch of “Let’s give this try” ideas that not so long ago NASCAR never would have even considered.

First came the infield layout at Charlotte Motor Speedway that made “Roval” a real word. That was followed by covering Bristol Motor Speedway in dirt. Then the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway was moved from the oval to the road course and from August to July. The season finale shifted to Phoenix after 18 years at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Lights at Martinsville Speedway; adding more road courses; building a temporary oval inside the L.A. Coliseum for the preseason Busch Light Clash; going back to the track where Chastain just won; looking at another Nashville date at another track, the legendary Fairgrounds; and the pièce de resistance of this racing renaissance, taking the now-mobile NASCAR All-Star Race and dropping it into North Wilkesboro Speedway, a track that had been closed for nearly three decades.

“I think that on paper, it might feel like a lot, and it is a lot,” confessed Marcus Smith in May, the CEO of Speedway Motorsports Inc. (SMI), owners of 11 racetracks that host Cup events, including the nucleus of those changes in Bristol, Charlotte, North Wilkesboro and Nashville. “But you also might hit a home run. And for all of the changes made, if you really look, we’ve all worked very hard to ensure that a familiar foundation is still there.”

He’s not wrong. Although some of their dates have been shuffled and at least one facility, California Speedway, will be offline in 2024, a whopping 21 racetracks that hosted points-paying Cup Series races in 2019 were still on the schedule this year. And although the downtown Chicago street course is new, the market is not. Chicagoland Speedway, located in Joliet, Illinois, hosted 19 Cup Series races from 2001 to 2019.

“I believe what is exciting about what is happening now is the enthusiasm to try stuff,” Smith continued, pointing to the racetrack behind him, resurrected North Wilkesboro. “Swing for the fences. You might swing and miss big. But when you connect, you might connect big, too.”

To that point, some of those grandiose ideas have worked. Some haven’t. A substantial chunk of them were testament to “necessity is the mother of invention” ideas that were born from the chasm of the 2020 pandemic. It was NASCAR that returned to facilities and televisions first among all major American sports. Determined to get in a full 36-race season despite going dark for nearly 10 weeks, Phelps and his team bunkered into a Daytona conference room and threw every idea against the wall. They booked doubleheaders and midweek races. Somehow, it worked.

It also kicked open a door that had already been cracked.

“People forget now, but that 2020 schedule was already full of big changes even before the pandemic,” recalled Ben Kennedy, NASCAR’s senior vice president of racing development and strategy, earlier this spring. “The Brickyard and season finale moves were already on the books for that season. So was the doubleheader at Pocono Raceway and Martinsville under the lights. And our riskiest idea, that started in the fall of 2019.”

NASCAR’s Clash at the Coliseum in Los Angeles created significant buzz within the series and among casual fans. Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images

He is speaking of the Busch Light Clash at the Coliseum. Kennedy, then the just-promoted VP of racing development, was only 27 years old and less than two years removed from his final Xfinity Series start as a driver. When he met with the operators of the nearly century-old home of the Olympics and the USC Trojans, they thought he was inquiring about hosting a NASCAR cooperate event. Then he told them he wanted to build a racetrack inside their football stadium.

“To me, that’s it. That’s the whole thing. Be bold. Why not?” says Joey Logano, who raced against Kennedy nine times between the Xfinity and Trucks Series. “It’s not trying crazy stuff just for the sake of trying it, but ideas that will feel like NASCAR. If it doesn’t work, OK, don’t do it again. But if it does, then it should be all that you want it to. Create something that old school fans will be interested in, but also grab other people’s attention.”

The inaugural event the L.A. Coliseum did that. It created a preseason buzz among established fans and casual TV viewers suffering from a post-football hangover that was palpable two weeks later during Daytona Speedweeks. It also opened up conversations with other potential nontraditional venues. Like, say, the downtown of America’s third-largest city.

“The Chicago event is here because of what we did in Los Angeles,” Kennedy, now 31, explained in May. “The conversation about that event started almost immediately following the 2022 Busch Light Clash, and now we are here. It’s exciting when ideas come to fruition, for everyone.”

It was Kennedy’s great-grandfather, Bill France, who founded NASCAR 75 years ago and as its first president booked racing events wherever they would have him, from long-ago demolished road courses to horse racing tracks and even Chicago’s Soldier Field, home of the Bears. Kennedy’s grandfather, Bill France Jr., streamlined that schedule during the 1970s and created the baseline calendar that the Cup Series largely stuck to for its greatest decades of growth. It was his mother, Lesa France Kennedy, who was the leading pioneer of finding new markets and venues for the sport during the 1990s and 2000s, with some huge hits (see: Kansas Speedway, Chicagoland Speedway) and some huge misses (shuttered exploratory projects in Seattle, Denver and New York).

Now, with that DNA and with the cooperation of the NASCAR Steves (Phelps and COO O’Donnell) as well as Marcus Smith and SMI, Kennedy sits in rooms full of people who are excited to figure out what’s next and to have a discourse on big-swing ideas. Finally. Like Kennedy, though, those people all have their own deep-rooted NASCAR DNA that is always whispering in their ears …

“If it feels like a great idea and you have the means to try it, then try it,” Kennedy says his inner voice tells him. “But what makes it a great idea for us, no matter how out-of-the-box it might be, does it still feel like NASCAR? It needs to. Because if you strike that balance, then it’s hard to lose.”

Sports

Bell rings up first Cup 3-race win streak since ’21

Published

5 hours ago

March 10, 2025

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Bell rings up first Cup 3-race win streak since '21

Associated Press

Mar 9, 2025, 08:17 PM ET

AVONDALE, Ariz. — Christopher Bell became the first NASCAR Cup Series driver to win three straight races in the NextGen car, holding off Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Denny Hamlin by 0.049 seconds to win the second-closest race in Phoenix Raceway history Sunday.

Bell started 11th in the 312-mile race after winning at Atlanta and Circuit of America the previous two weeks. The JGR driver took the lead out of the pits on a caution and stayed out front on two late restarts to become the first driver to win three straight races since Kyle Larson in 2021.

The second restart led to some tense moments between Bell and Hamlin — enough to make their team owner feel a bit queasy.

“I was ready to upchuck,” JGR Racing owner Joe Gibbs said.

Bell became the fourth driver in Cup Series history to win three times in the first four races — and the first since Kevin Harvick in 2018. The last Cup Series driver to win four straight races was Jimmie Johnson in 2007.

“We’ve had four races this year, put ourselves in position in all four and managed to win three, which is a pretty remarkable batting average — something that will be hard to maintain, I believe,” Bell’s crew chief Adam Stevens said.

The Phoenix race was the first since Richmond last year to give teams two sets of option tires. The option red tires have much better grip, but start to fall off after about 35 laps, creating an added strategic element.

A handful of racers went to the red tires early — Joey Logano and Ryan Preece among them — and it paid off with runs to the lead before they fell back.

Bell was among those who had a set of red tires left for the final stretch and used it to his advantage, pulling away from Hamlin on a restart with 17 laps left.

Hamlin pulled alongside Bell over the final two laps after the last restart and the two bumped a couple of times before rounding into the final two turns. Bell barely stayed ahead of Hamlin, crossing the checkered flag with a wobble for his 12th career Cup Series win. He led 105 laps.

“It worked out about as opposite as I could have drawn it up in my head,” Bell said. “But the races that are contested like that, looking back, are the ones that mean the most to you.”

Said Hamlin: “I kind of had position on the 20, but I knew he was going to ship it in there. We just kind of ran out of race track there.”

Larson finished third, Josh Berry fourth and Chris Buescher rounded out the top five.

Katherine Legge, who became the first woman to race on the Cup Series since Danica Patrick at the Daytona 500 seven years ago, didn’t get off to a great start and finished 30th.

Fighting a tight car, Legge got loose coming out of Turn 2 and spun her No. 78 Chevrolet, forcing her to make a pit stop. She dropped to the back of the field and had a hard time making up ground before bumping another car and spinning again on Lap 215, taking out Daniel Suarez with her.

“We made some changes to the car overnight and they were awful,” Legge said. “I was just hanging on to it.”

Logano, who started on the front row in his first race at Phoenix Raceway since capturing his third Cup Series at the track last fall, fell to the back of the field after a mistake on an early restart.

Trying to get a jump on Byron, Logano barely dipped his No. 22 Ford below the yellow line at the start/finish. NASCAR officials reviewed the restart and forced the Team Penske driver to take a pass through on pit road as the entire field passed him on the track.

“No way,” Logano said on his radio. “That’s freakin’ ridiculous.”

Logano twice surged to the lead after switching to the red tires, but started falling back on the primary tires following a restart. He finished 13th.

Preece took an early gamble by going to the red option tires and it paid off with a run from 33rd to third. The RFK Racing driver dropped back as the tires wore off, but went red again following a caution with about 90 laps left and surged into the lead.

Preece went back to the primary tires with 42 laps to go and started dropping back, finishing 15th.

The series heads to Las Vegas Motor Speedway next weekend.

Sports

Who aced the NHL trade deadline? Eight winners and seven losers

Published

19 hours ago

March 9, 2025

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Who aced the NHL trade deadline? Eight winners and seven losers

Multiple Contributors

Mar 7, 2025, 08:20 PM ET

The days leading up to the 2025 NHL trade deadline were a furious final sprint as contenders looked to stock up for a postseason run while rebuilding clubs added prospects and draft capital.

After the overnight Brock Nelson blockbuster Thursday, Friday lived up to expectations, with Mikko Rantanen, Brad Marchand and other high-profile players finishing the day on different teams than they started with. All told, NHL teams made 24 trades on deadline day involving 47 players.

Which teams and players won the day? Who might not feel as well about the situation after trade season? Reporters Ryan S. Clark, Kristen Shilton and Greg Wyshynski identify the biggest winners and losers of the 2025 NHL trade deadline:

Sports

NHL playoff watch: Is Jets-Hurricanes a Stanley Cup Final preview?

Published

19 hours ago

March 9, 2025

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NHL playoff watch: Is Jets-Hurricanes a Stanley Cup Final preview?

There are some who saw what the Carolina Hurricanes did at the trade deadline — or perhaps failed to do after they traded Mikko Rantanen — and believe they’re cooked when it comes to the Stanley Cup playoffs. However, based on the projections from Stathletes, the Canes remain the team with the highest chances of winning the Cup, at 16.7%.

Standing before them on Sunday are the Winnipeg Jets (5 p.m. ET, ESPN+). The Jets had a relatively quiet deadline, adding Luke Schenn and Brandon Tanev, though sometimes these additions are the types of small tweaks that can push a contender over the edge. As it stands, the Jets enter their showdown against the Canes with the sixth-highest Cup chances, at 8.7%.

Carolina has made two trips to the Cup Final: a loss to the Detroit Red Wings in 2002 and a win over the Edmonton Oilers in 2006. The Canes have reached the conference finals three times since (2009, 2019, 2023). Winnipeg has yet to make the Cup Final, and was defeated 4-1 in the 2018 Western Conference finals by the Vegas Golden Knights in the club’s lone trip to the penultimate stage.

Both clubs are due. Will this be their year?

There is a lot of runway left until the final day of the season on April 17, and we’ll help you keep track of it all here on the NHL playoff watch. As we traverse the final stretch, we’ll provide detail on all the playoff races — along with the teams jockeying for position in the 2025 NHL draft lottery.

Note: Playoff chances are via Stathletes.

Jump ahead:
Current playoff matchups
Saturday’s schedule
Friday’s scores
Expanded standings
Race for No. 1 pick

Current playoff matchups

Eastern Conference

A1 Florida Panthers vs. WC1 Ottawa Senators
A2 Toronto Maple Leafs vs. A3 Tampa Bay Lightning
M1 Washington Capitals vs. WC2 Columbus Blue Jackets
M2 Carolina Hurricanes vs. M3 New Jersey Devils

Western Conference

C1 Winnipeg Jets vs. WC2 C algary Flames
C2 Dallas Stars vs. C3 Colorado Avalanche
P1 Vegas Golden Knights vs. WC1 Minnesota Wild
P2 Edmonton Oilers vs. P3 Los Angeles Kings

Sunday’s games

Note: All times ET. All games not on TNT or NHL Network are available to stream on ESPN+ (local blackout restrictions apply).

New Jersey Devils at Philadelphia Flyers, 1 p.m. (TNT)
Seattle Kraken at Washington Capitals, 3:30 p.m.
Pittsburgh Penguins at Minnesota Wild, 3:30 p.m. (TNT)
Winnipeg Jets at Carolina Hurricanes, 5 p.m.
Columbus Blue Jackets at New York Rangers, 6 p.m.
Los Angeles Kings at Vegas Golden Knights, 8 p.m.
Dallas Stars at Vancouver Canucks, 9 p.m.
New York Islanders at Anaheim Ducks, 9 p.m.

Saturday’s scoreboard

Ottawa Senators 4, New York Rangers 3 (OT)
Seattle Kraken 4, Philadelphia Flyers 1
Boston Bruins 4, Tampa Bay Lightning 0
Florida Panthers 4, Buffalo Sabres 0
Colorado Avalanche 7, Toronto Maple Leafs 4
Calgary Flames 1, Montreal Canadiens 0
Nashville Predators 3, Chicago Blackhawks 2 (OT)
Los Angeles Kings 2, St. Louis Blues 1 (OT)
Edmonton Oilers 5, Dallas Stars 4
New York Islanders 4, San Jose Sharks 2

Expanded standings

Atlantic Division

Points: 83
Regulation wins: 34
Playoff position: A1
Games left: 18
Points pace: 106.3
Next game: @ BOS (Tuesday)
Playoff chances: 99.9%
Tragic number: N/A

Points: 79
Regulation wins: 31
Playoff position: A2
Games left: 19
Points pace: 102.8
Next game: @ UTA (Monday)
Playoff chances: 99.9%
Tragic number: N/A

Points: 78
Regulation wins: 32
Playoff position: A3
Games left: 19
Points pace: 101.5
Next game: @ CAR (Tuesday)
Playoff chances: 99.9%
Tragic number: N/A

Points: 69
Regulation wins: 23
Playoff position: WC1
Games left: 20
Points pace: 91.3
Next game: vs. DET (Monday)
Playoff chances: 85.4%
Tragic number: N/A

Points: 66
Regulation wins: 22
Playoff position: N/A
Games left: 19
Points pace: 85.9
Next game: @ OTT (Monday)
Playoff chances: 8.3%
Tragic number: 37

Points: 66
Regulation wins: 21
Playoff position: N/A
Games left: 19
Points pace: 85.9
Next game: @ VAN (Tuesday)
Playoff chances: 19.8%
Tragic number: 37

Points: 66
Regulation wins: 22
Playoff position: N/A
Games left: 17
Points pace: 83.3
Next game: vs. FLA (Tuesday)
Playoff chances: 2.5%
Tragic number: 33

Points: 54
Regulation wins: 20
Playoff position: N/A
Games left: 20
Points pace: 71.4
Next game: vs. EDM (Monday)
Playoff chances: 0.1%
Tragic number: 27

Metro Division

Points: 90
Regulation wins: 34
Playoff position: M1
Games left: 19
Points pace: 117.1
Next game: vs. SEA (Sunday)
Playoff chances: 99.9%
Tragic number: N/A

Points: 78
Regulation wins: 32
Playoff position: M2
Games left: 19
Points pace: 101.5
Next game: vs. WPG (Sunday)
Playoff chances: 99.9%
Tragic number: N/A

Points: 72
Regulation wins: 29
Playoff position: M3
Games left: 18
Points pace: 92.3
Next game: @ PHI (Sunday)
Playoff chances: 86.5%
Tragic number: N/A

Points: 68
Regulation wins: 22
Playoff position: WC2
Games left: 20
Points pace: 89.9
Next game: @ NYR (Sunday)
Playoff chances: 27.1%
Tragic number: N/A

Points: 68
Regulation wins: 29
Playoff position: N/A
Games left: 19
Points pace: 88.5
Next game: vs. CBJ (Sunday)
Playoff chances: 31.1%
Tragic number: 39

Points: 65
Regulation wins: 23
Playoff position: N/A
Games left: 20
Points pace: 86.0
Next game: @ LA (Tuesday)
Playoff chances: 29.7%
Tragic number: 38

Points: 62
Regulation wins: 17
Playoff position: N/A
Games left: 18
Points pace: 79.4
Next game: vs. NJ (Sunday)
Playoff chances: 9.5%
Tragic number: 31

Points: 58
Regulation wins: 16
Playoff position: N/A
Games left: 17
Points pace: 73.1
Next game: @ MIN (Sunday)
Playoff chances: 0.1%
Tragic number: 25

Central Division

Points: 92
Regulation wins: 36
Playoff position: C1
Games left: 18
Points pace: 117.9
Next game: @ CAR (Sunday)
Playoff chances: 99.9%
Tragic number: N/A

Points: 84
Regulation wins: 34
Playoff position: C2
Games left: 19
Points pace: 109.3
Next game: @ VAN (Sunday)
Playoff chances: 99.9%
Tragic number: N/A

Points: 78
Regulation wins: 33
Playoff position: C3
Games left: 18
Points pace: 99.9
Next game: vs. CHI (Monday)
Playoff chances: 99.6%
Tragic number: N/A

Points: 76
Regulation wins: 29
Playoff position: WC1
Games left: 19
Points pace: 98.9
Next game: vs. PIT (Sunday)
Playoff chances: 94.4%
Tragic number: N/A

Points: 69
Regulation wins: 22
Playoff position: N/A
Games left: 17
Points pace: 87.1
Next game: @ PIT (Thursday)
Playoff chances: 37.2%
Tragic number: 34

Points: 66
Regulation wins: 20
Playoff position: N/A
Games left: 19
Points pace: 85.9
Next game: vs. TOR (Monday)
Playoff chances: 26.4%
Tragic number: 35

Points: 55
Regulation wins: 20
Playoff position: N/A
Games left: 19
Points pace: 71.6
Next game: @ SJ (Tuesday)
Playoff chances: 0.1%
Tragic number: 24

Points: 49
Regulation wins: 17
Playoff position: N/A
Games left: 18
Points pace: 62.8
Next game: @ COL (Monday)
Playoff chances: ~0%
Tragic number: 16

Pacific Division

Points: 82
Regulation wins: 35
Playoff position: P1
Games left: 20
Points pace: 108.5
Next game: vs. LA (Sunday)
Playoff chances: 99.9%
Tragic number: N/A

Points: 78
Regulation wins: 27
Playoff position: P2
Games left: 19
Points pace: 101.5
Next game: @ BUF (Monday)
Playoff chances: 99.7%
Tragic number: N/A

Points: 73
Regulation wins: 28
Playoff position: P3
Games left: 21
Points pace: 98.1
Next game: @ VGK (Sunday)
Playoff chances: 84.1%
Tragic number: N/A

Points: 70
Regulation wins: 24
Playoff position: WC2
Games left: 19
Points pace: 91.1
Next game: vs. VAN (Wednesday)
Playoff chances: 27.5%
Tragic number: N/A

Points: 69
Regulation wins: 23
Playoff position: N/A
Games left: 20
Points pace: 91.3
Next game: vs. DAL (Sunday)
Playoff chances: 30.9%
Tragic number: 40

Points: 61
Regulation wins: 19
Playoff position: N/A
Games left: 20
Points pace: 80.7
Next game: vs. NYI (Sunday)
Playoff chances: 0.1%
Tragic number: 32

Points: 58
Regulation wins: 22
Playoff position: N/A
Games left: 18
Points pace: 74.3
Next game: @ WSH (Sunday)
Playoff chances: ~0%
Tragic number: 25

Points: 43
Regulation wins: 12
Playoff position: N/A
Games left: 17
Points pace: 54.3
Next game: vs. NSH (Tuesday)
Playoff chances: ~0%
Tragic number: 8

Race for the No. 1 pick

The NHL uses a draft lottery to determine the order of the first round, so the team that finishes in last place is not guaranteed the No. 1 selection. As of 2021, a team can move up a maximum of 10 spots if it wins the lottery, so only 11 teams are eligible for the draw for the No. 1 pick. Full details on the process can be found here. Sitting No. 1 on the draft board for this summer is Matthew Schaefer, a defenseman for the OHL’s Erie Otters.

Points: 43
Regulation wins: 12

Points: 49
Regulation wins: 17

Points: 54
Regulation wins: 20

Points: 55
Regulation wins: 20

Points: 58
Regulation wins: 16

Points: 58
Regulation wins: 22

Points: 61
Regulation wins: 19

Points: 62
Regulation wins: 17

Points: 65
Regulation wins: 23

Points: 66
Regulation wins: 20

Points: 66
Regulation wins: 21

Points: 66
Regulation wins: 22