RICK WARE RACING
Enjoy Illinois 300
Date: Sept. 13, 2026
Event: Enjoy Illinois 300 (Round 28 of 36)
Series: NASCAR Cup Series
Location: World Wide Technology Raceway in Madison, Illinois (near St. Louis)
Layout: 1.25-mile oval
Format: 240 laps, broken into three stages (45 laps/95 laps/100 laps)
Note: Race extended seven laps past its scheduled 240-lap distance due to a green-white-checkered finish.
Race Winner: Kyle Larson of Hendrick Motorsports (Chevrolet)
Stage 1 Winner: Joey Logano of Team Penske (Ford)
Stage 2 Winner: Kyle Larson of Hendrick Motorsports (Chevrolet)
RWR Finish:
● Cody Ware (Started 30th, Finished 22nd / Running, completed 247 of 247 laps)
RWR Points:
● Cody Ware (35th with 217 points)
RWR Notes:
● Ware earned his seventh top-25 of the season and his first top-25 in four career NASCAR Cup Series starts at World Wide Technology Raceway.
Race Notes:
● Kyle Larson won the Enjoy Illinois 300 to score his 33rd career NASCAR Cup Series victory, his first of the season and his first at World Wide Technology Raceway. His margin over second-place Alex Bowman was .333 of a second.
● This was Chevrolet’s 888th all-time NASCAR Cup Series victory and its seventh of the season. Chase Elliott won for the Bowtie Brigade March 29 at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway, Carson Hocevar won April 26 at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway, Elliott won again May 3 at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth, Shane van Gisbergen won May 10 at Watkins Glen (N.Y.) International, Daniel Suárez won May 24 at Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway and van Gisbergen won again June 28 at Sonoma (Calif.) Raceway.
● This was Chevrolet’s second NASCAR Cup Series victory at World Wide Technology Raceway. Chevrolet won its first race at the track on June 4, 2023, with Kyle Busch.
● There were 18 caution periods for a total of 87 laps.
● Twenty-six of the 36 drivers in the race finished on the lead lap.
● Denny Hamlin remains the championship leader after the Enjoy Illinois 300 with a nine-point advantage over second-place Larson.
Sound Bites:
“It was a good day results-wise for the team. Got some damage early on in Stage 1. Lot of wrecks, a lot of attrition today, and had to kind of mitigate a lot of the aero damage we got early in the race. But the team did a good job keeping us in the hunt and getting us back on the lead lap. So it was definitely a day of dealing with adversity and never giving up. Now, we’ll just head off to Bristol and get ready for 500 laps under the lights.” – Cody Ware, driver of the No. 51 Rocket Doctor Chevrolet
Next Up:
The next event on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the Bass Pro Shops Night Race on Saturday, Sept. 19 at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway. The third race in the 10-race Chase starts at 7:30 p.m. EDT with live coverage provided by USA Network and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
