BRANDON JONES WINS IN GREEN-WHITE-CHECKERED THRILLER AT CHICAGOLAND Two Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota GR Supra’s Finish Inside Top-Five in Return to 1.5-mile Oval
JOLIET, Ill. (July 4, 2026) – Brandon Jones used a strong green-white-checkered restart to make a thrilling last-lap pass on Chase Elliott and win Saturday night’s rain-delayed NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series race at Chicagoland Speedway.
The victory was Jones’ first of the season and the eighth win of his career, coming in NASCAR’s return to the 1.5-mile oval in Joliet after a seven-year absence. It was also a strong night for Team Toyota, with Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota GR Supras claiming three of the top-seven finishing positions. Brent Crews finished fourth, while Taylor Gray, who led a total of 55 laps, came home seventh.
TOYOTA RACING Post-Race Recap NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series (NOAPS) Chicagoland Speedway Race 20 of 33 – 300 miles, 200 laps
TOYOTA FINISHING POSITIONS
1st, BRANDON JONES
2nd, Chase Elliott*
3rd, Jesse Love*
4th, BRENT CREWS
5th, Austin Hill*
7th, TAYLOR GRAY
15th, HARRISON BURTON
17th, DEAN THOMPSON
29th, WILLIAM SAWALICH
*non-Toyota driver
TOYOTA QUOTES
BRANDON JONES, No. 20 Menards/MD Building Products Toyota GR Supra, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 1st
How did you muscle through and hold off Chase Elliott on that final restart?
“I had to earn that one. I haven’t had an exciting one like that in a long time. Thank you guys for sticking this out in the rain. MD Building supplies and Menard’s and Toyota, I’m so happy to get them back in victory lane. It’s been so up and down year. We’ve had some success early on and we’ve been in a little bit of a rut the last couple of weeks, so it’s nice to do what we did today, we had to earn that one.”
What does it mean to win in the return to Chicagoland, but also hold off a Cup Series Champion?
“Think it says a lot about how resilient we are and how hard we are working at this. Chase (Elliott) made it really difficult on me. He’s one of the best in the sport so I know it was going to be difficult. We were all on old tires, that was a blast to slide around and duel it out like that. I knew had made the right adjustments there at the end and you can tell people were getting tighter tonight with the temperature falling down and the track was migrating. Awesome racetrack, you guys know I love these style of tracks, they fit me so well, lets get on a roll and get some more here before the Chase starts.”
BRENT CREWS, No. 19 YoungLife Toyota GR Supra, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 4th
Can you tell us what happened with the contact with William Sawalich?
“I take full accountability for sure. Squeezing off the bottom off of (turn) 2 and he’s coming off the top and I was just trying to pack air on his left rear and get him free and I got him free like I was trying to and when he got free he checked up I couldn’t get checked up fast enough. These aero spots when you are going 170 mph you can barely, barely tap somebody and they go around. I take full accountability, I would hate to do that to anybody, especially to a teammate. I hate that has to be my learning experience, but I definitely learned my limit there and I hate that was on my teammate.”
What do you take away from coming here to another new racetrack for you and bringing home a top five finish?
“We had a very difficult day. We were really, really good in practice, I thought we were one of the best cars and went out there for the first run and we were good there for the first three laps and then we were just extremely tight and we came in and the right front tire was just destroyed. Don’t know how it really corded there and just had a bad right front tire there. We made some adjustments going into the second run thinking it was something on our end but then we fought balance on the total opposite end on the next stage and then the last break there we were really good. I hate that’s what we had to go through, but I felt like the last 20 laps we were incredible, I just wish we had found out a little bit sooner.”
About Toyota
Toyota (NYSE:TM) has been a part of the cultural fabric in North America for nearly 70 years, and is committed to advancing sustainable, next-generation mobility through our Toyota and Lexus brands, plus our more than 1,800 dealerships.
Toyota directly employs nearly 64,000 people in North America who have contributed to the design, engineering, and assembly of over 50 million cars and trucks at our 14 manufacturing plants. In 2025, Toyota’s plant in North Carolina began to assemble automotive batteries for electrified vehicles.
JOLIET, ILLINOIS - JULY 04: Brandon Jones, driver of the #20 Menards/MD Building Products Toyota, celebrates in victory lane after winning the NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series Cuervo 300 at Chicagoland Speedway on July 04, 2026 in Joliet, Illinois. (Photo by Jonathan Bachman/Getty Images).
Brandon Jones weathered through an extensively delayed start by winning the return of the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series’ Cuervo 300 at Chicagoland Speedway between July 4-5 in overtime.
The 29-year-old Jones from Atlanta, Georgia, led four times for 12 of 201 over-scheduled laps in an event where he took the green flag from 29th place and motored his way up to 14th place at the first stage’s conclusion. After settling in sixth place following the second stage’s conclusion, Jones, who continued his march to the front, gained his first sniff at the lead while battling teammate Taylor Gray during a restart with 61 laps remaining.
Beginning on Lap 162 through Lap 189, Jones led 10 laps, and he primarily duked with Gray and Chase Elliott towards the front amid four late-race cautions and three ensuing restarts. During an overtime shootout, Jones dueled and motored ahead of Elliott for nearly a full circuit and prior to the final lap mark. Amid Elliott’s pair of final-lap challenges, Jones was not to be denied, and his race-long fight prevailed with a victorious ending under the lights, along with winning his first event of the 2026 season in Joliet, Illinois.
The event’s starting lineup was determined by a metric qualifying formula from the NASCAR rule book after NASCAR replaced the event’s qualifying session with a lone practice session for Saturday. This was because the event’s initial practice session was postponed from Friday, July 3, due to inclement weather. As a result, Connor Zilisch was awarded the pole position, and he shared the front row with rookie Brent Crews.
*This event was delayed for nearly five hours due to inclement weather, thunderstorms, and heavy precipitation that resulted in the event commencing under the lights.
When the green flag waved and the event commenced, Connor Zilisch and Brent Crews dueled for the lead in front of two stacked lanes until Zilisch gained the upper advantage and motored his No. 1 KOA Chevrolet Camaro entry ahead from the outside lane entering the backstretch. As the field cycled back to the frontstretch, Zilisch led the first lap over Crews while Corey Day, Jesse Love, Carson Kvapil and the rest of the 38-car field pursued from behind.
Over the next four laps, Zilisch stretched his early lead to one-and-a-half seconds Crews and nearly two seconds over third-place Love while Day, Kvapil, Chase Elliott, Sheldon Creed, Sam Mayer, Parker Retzlaff and Sammy Smith were racing in the top 10, respectively. As Elliott squeezed his way past teammate Kvapil to crack into the top-five mark in fifth place, Zilisch added another second to his advantage as he led by more than two seconds over both Crews and Love by the 10th lap.
Through the first 25 laps, Zilisch continued to extend his advantage as he led by more than four seconds over Love. Behind, Day and Elliott occupied third and fourth, respectively, while Crews dropped to fifth place. Kvapil, Creed, Mayer, Retzlaff and Taylor Gray, the latter of whom started 25th, were racing in the top 10 ahead of William Sawalich, Justin Allgaier, Anthony Alfredo, Austin Hill, Jeremy Clements, Cole Custer, Brandon Jones, Nick Sanchez, Ryan Sieg and Dean Thompson, respectively.
At the Lap 35 mark, Zilisch stabilized his advantage to more than three seconds over Love and Day while Elliott and Creed were racing in the top five ahead of Gray, Mayer, Kvapil and Sawalich. Meanwhile, Crews dropped to 10th place, and he had Retzlaff, Allgaier, Anthony Alfredo, Cole Custer and Austin Hill reeling in from behind while teammate Gray had gained an additional four spots on the track.
When the first stage period concluded on Lap 45, Zilisch, whose lead stood at nearly five seconds, cruised to his fourth O’Reilly stage victory of the 2026 season. Love and Day settled in second and third ahead of Elliott and Creed while Gray, Mayer, Sawalich, Allgaier and Alfredo were scored in the top 10, respectively. By then, 26 of 38 starters were scored on the lead lap.
Under the event’s first stage break period, Zilisch fell off the pace due to having no fuel pressure and had to have his entry pushed to pit road. This allowed Love to assume the lead as he led the field to pit road for service. Following the pit stops, Elliott cycled to the lead over Love while Day, Gray and Creed followed suit. Meanwhile, Zilisch, who managed to remain on the lead lap, dropped to 27th place while William Sawalich was penalized for a safety violation.
The second stage period started on Lap 53 as Elliott and Love occupied the front row. At the start, the field fanned out and jostled for spots through the first two turns as Elliott fended off Love with strong momentum from the outside lane to retain the lead. As Elliott led the next lap, Day occupied third place in front of Mayer, Creed, Allgaier, Gray and Kvapil while teammates Jones and Crews battled for ninth place. During the following lap, Crews outdueled Jones and Jones fell back to 11th place while Crews battled Kvapil for eighth place. While Zilisch carved his way back up to 13th place, teammate Elliott led by nine-tenths of a second over Love on Lap 60.
By Lap 70, Elliott was leading by more than two seconds over Love while third-place Day was being pursued by Mayer and Allgaier. Behind, Gray, Crews, Creed, Jones and Zilisch were racing in the top-10 mark ahead of Custer, Kvapil, Hill, Retzlaff and Alfredo while Clements, Harrison Burton, Kyle Sieg, Jeb Burton and Ryan Sieg trailed from the top-20 mark, respectively. A few laps later, both Mayer and Gray overtook Day for third and fourth on the track before Allgaier overtook the latter for fifth place on Lap 75. Meanwhile, Elliott maintained his lead by more than two seconds over Love at the Lap 80 mark.
When the second stage period concluded on Lap 90, Elliott cruised to his first O’Reilly stage victory in his first of two series starts of 2026. Love settled in second place for a second consecutive time during a stage’s conclusion while Gray, Allgaier, Mayer, Jones, Creed, Day, Zilisch and Crews were scored in the top 10, respectively. By then, 27 of 38 starters were scored on the lead lap while a fog patch started to overshadow Turns 3 and 4 of the speedway circuit.
During the event’s second stage break period, Jeremy Clements had a left-rear wheel detach from his entry, and he had sparks trailing from his entry as he limped to his pit stall. The incident resulted in Clements being held in his pit stall for two laps as a penalty. Once pit road became accessible for the field, Elliott led the field for service. Following the pit stops, Gray exited pit road first ahead of Love, Elliott, Allgaier, Creed, Mayer, Jones, Day, Sawalich and Zilisch. Soon after, Allgaier was penalized and sent to the tail end of the field due to a safety violation on pit road.
With 101 laps remaining, the final stage period commenced as Gray and Love occupied the front row. At the start, Love motored ahead with the lead from the inside lane while Elliott and Creed placed Gray in the middle of a three-wide battle for the runner-up spot. As Elliott motored ahead for the runner-up spot, Love led the next lap while Gray retained third place in front of Creed, Mayer and Jones. Meanwhile, Zilisch and Day battled for seventh place in front of Hill, Crews and Custer while Elliott battled Love for the lead.
After stalking and challenging Love a lap prior, Elliott used the inside lane and the frontstretch’s apron to power the No. 88 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro entry ahead with 97 laps remaining. Love, though, fought back from the outside lane as both he and Elliott spent the next two laps duking for the lead, which allowed Taylor Gray to join the battle. Amid the tight battle for the lead, Creed made an unscheduled pit stop to have a flat right-front tire addressed.
Soon after, Gray, who had a strong No. 54 Operation 300 Toyota Supra entry on long runs and had overtaken Love for the runner-up spot a few laps prior, overtook Elliott for the lead through Turns 3 and 4 with 91 laps remaining. With 85 laps remaining, Gray extended his lead to more than a second over Elliott. Gray’s lead over Elliott grew to more than two seconds with 80 laps remaining as Jones, Love, Mayer, Hill, Zilisch, Custer, Sawalich and Crews trailed in the top 10, respectively.
Down to the final 75 laps of the event, Gray led by nearly three seconds over Elliott while Jones, Love, Hill, Zilisch, Mayer, Custer, Sawalich and Crews occupied the top-10 mark, respectively. Behind, Day, Retzlaff, Allgaier, Alfredo, Ryan Sieg, Kvapil, Nick Sanchez, Dean Thompson, Patrick Staropoli and Kyle Sieg trailed in the top 20, respectively. Then with 68 laps remaining, a caution flew due to Zilisch hitting the outside wall while racing in sixth place as a tire carcass also rolled out from Zilisch’s entry through Turns 3 and 4. During this latest caution period, the field led by Gray pitted for service. Following the pit stops, Gray maintained the lead by exiting pit road first while Jones, Elliott, Sawalich and Love followed suit along with Mayer, Hill, Crews, Day and Allgaier.
The next restart with 61 laps remaining featured teammates Jones and Gray duking it out dead even for the lead for a full lap as the field fanned out. Through the frontstretch, Elliott made a bold three-wide move beneath both Jones and Gray to assume the lead through the frontstretch and entering the first turn, though Jones led the previous lap. Elliott then cycled back as the leader during the next lap while a variety of on-track battles ensued, primarily within the top-10 and 15 marks. Amid the battles, Elliott maintained the lead by three-tenths of a second over Gray with 55 laps remaining. The former continued to lead the latter by half a second with 50 laps remaining while third-place Jones trailed by more than a second.
With 45 laps remaining, the caution flew when Zilisch was involved in his second incident of the event, this time for a spin in the second turn. During the caution period, Elliott led the field back to pit road for service, but Jones managed to beat Elliot off of pit road first as they were followed by Love, Sawalich and Gray, respectively.
As the event restarted with 38 laps remaining, Jones motored ahead with the lead while a brief four-wide battle for the runner-up spot between Elliott, Gray, Love and Ryan Sieg ensued, with Sieg quickly being overtaken by the field. As Jones led the next lap, Elliott outdueled Gray for the runner-up spot, and he pursued Jones for the lead while Love was pursued by Kvapil, Sawalich and Crews for fourth place. The caution returned with 36 laps remaining when Crews bumped and sent teammate Sawalich for a spin below the backstretch.
The next restart with 30 laps remaining featured Gray outdueling his teammate Jones amid a side-by-side battle as the former returned atop the leaderboard and led the next lap while a variety of battles ensued. While Gray maintained a steady lead, Elliott fiercely battled Jones for the runner-up spot and slid from the top to the bottom of the track through the frontstretch while trying to fend off Jones for the spot. Elliott then managed to slide in front of Jones and maintain the runner-up spot with 26 laps remaining before Jones fought back. The late side-by-side action between Jones and Elliott allowed Love to reel in, though Jones reclaimed and muscled away from both with the runner-up spot, while Gray motored away with the lead by more than a second.
Down to the final 20 laps, Gray stretched his lead to nearly two seconds over Jones while Elliott, Love and Kvapil occupied the top-five spots, with Kvapil trailing by four-and-a-half seconds. Four laps later, the caution flew due to Ryan Sieg blowing a right-front tire and shredding the right-side sheet metal from his No. 39 SciAps Chevrolet Camaro entry . By then, Gray maintained his lead by more than a second over Jones, and Hill moved up to fifth place behind Elliott and teammate Love while Crews, Kvapil, Allgaier, Retzlaff and Custer were scored in the top 10.
During the next restart with 11 laps remaining, Love and Elliott pinned Jones and Gray in a tight four-wide battle for the lead. Ultimately, the latter two briefly lost momentum, with Gray slipping out of the top-five mark and Jones settling in third while Elliott cycled back as the leader for the following lap. As the laps dwindled, Gray was locked in a heated battle with Allgaier for sixth place, but he trailed the lead by two seconds and he had Love, Hill and Crews in front of him. Meanwhile, Jones started to reel in on Elliott for the lead, but the caution flew with five laps remaining due to Brennan Poole, Patrick Staropoli and Kyle Sieg spinning and wrecking through the first two turns.
As the field restarted in overtime, Jones and Elliott dueled for the lead in front of the field that fanned out through the first two turns. With both Jones and Elliott receiving no drafting momentum at the overtime’s start nor gaining an advantage of one another, they dueled from the first two turns and the backstretch as Jones mounted a fierce fight beneath Elliott. Jones then gained the upper advantage from the inside lane as he motored his No. 20 Menards Toyota Supra ahead of Elliott’s No. 88 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro entry through Turns 3 and 4.
When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Jones remained in the lead by a tenth of a second over Elliott. Though the first two turns, Elliott nearly scraped the outside wall while trying to reel in Jones. He then tried to make a move beneath Jones through Turns 3 and 4. Ultimately, both moves did not prevail as Jones cycled back to the frontstretch and claimed the checkered flag by a tenth of a second over Elliott.
With the victory, Jones, who became the 11th winner through 20 events of the 2026 season, notched his eighth career win in the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series division, his third on a 1.5-mile circuit and his first since Kansas Speedway in September 2025. He also became the third competitor from Joe Gibbs Racing to win in the O’Reilly division this season and he racked up the third victory of 2026 for Toyota.
JOLIET, ILLINOIS – JULY 04: Brandon Jones, driver of the #20 Menards/MD Building Products Toyota, celebrates with a burnout after winning the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series Cuervo 300 at Chicagoland Speedway on July 04, 2026 in Joliet, Illinois. (Photo by Jonathan Bachman/Getty Images).
“I had to earn that one,” Jones said on the frontstretch on CW. “I haven’t had an exciting one like that in a long time. Thank you, guys, for sticking this out, through the rain and everything. It’s been an up and down year. We’ve had some success early on. We’ve been in a little bit of a runt the last couple weeks, so it’s just nice to [win] it like we did today. We had to earn that one. I think it says a lot about just how resilient we are and how hard we’re working at this. Chase [Elliott] made it really difficult on me. He’s one of the best in this sport. I knew he was gonna be difficult. We were all on old tires. That was a blast to slide around and duel it out like that…Let’s go on a roll and let’s get a couple more [wins] here before the Chase starts.”
Chase Elliott, who led a race-high 78 laps and won an O’Reilly event at Chicagoland in 2014, settled in second place for a seventh time in his O’Reilly career after he was unable to outduel Jones during the overtime shootout. Elliott will make a second start in the No. 88 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet entry for JR Motorsports at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on July 25.
“[I] Ended up having momentum going the wrong way into Turn 3,” Elliott said. “I tried to drive in really hard and got myself super tight. Super bummed about that, honestly. It was kind of an up-and-down night. Credit to Brandon [Jones]. He did a good job. He had a good restart, stayed side by side through [Turns] 1 and 2, and he had momentum going the right way into Turn 3. I got myself in a bad spot and paid the price.”
Jesse Love, Brent Crews and Austin Hill finished in the top five. Points leader Justin Allgaier, Taylor Gray, Sam Mayer, Cole Custer and Connor Zilisch, the latter of whom set the event’s fastest lap time, completed the top 10 in the final running order.
This event featured 16 lead changes for six different leaders, and a total of seven cautions for 40 laps. In addition, 30 of 38 starters finished on the lead lap.
Following the 20th event of the 2026 NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series season, Justin Allgaier continues to lead the standings by 195 points over Jesse Love, 224 over Corey Day, 225 over Sheldon Creed, 255 over Austin Hill and 265 over Brandon Jones.
Results:
Brandon Jones, 12 laps led
Chase Elliott, 78 laps led, Stage 2 winner
Jesse Love, five laps led
Brent Crews
Austin Hill
Justin Allgaier
Taylor Gray, 55 laps led
Sam Mayer
Cole Custer
Connor Zilisch, 48 laps led, Stage 1 winner
Carson Kvapil
Nick Sanchez
Sammy Smith
Parker Retzlaff
Harrison Burton
Sheldon Creed
Dean Thompson
Garrett Smithley
Corey Day
Jeb Burton
Leland Honeyman Jr.
Ryan Ellis
Myatt Snider
Rajah Caruth
Brennan Poole
Anthony Alfredo
Patrick Staropoli
Lavar Scott
William Sawalich
Kyle Sieg
Ryan Sieg, one lap down, three laps led
Blaine Perkins, two laps down
Tyler Tomassi, two laps down
Joey Gase, three laps down
Jeremy Clements, three laps down
Josh Bilicki, five laps down
JJ Yeley – OUT, Power
Dawson Cram – OUT, Engine
Next on the 2026 NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series schedule is EchoPark Speedway in Hampton, Georgia, for the Focused Health 250. The event is scheduled to occur next Saturday, July 11, and air at 7 p.m. ET on the CW Network, PRN Radio and SiriusXM.
LEXINGTON, Ohio (Saturday, July 4, 2026) – Christian Lundgaard made another statement about his worthiness as a top driver in the NTT INDYCAR SERIES.
Two weeks ago, the driver, expected to soon be a free agent, won at Road America despite being in last place after the first lap. Now, he is the No. 1 qualifier for Sunday’s race at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, leading an Arrow McLaren sweep of the front row.
Lundgaard edged teammate Pato O’Ward for the fourth NTT P1 Award of his career, the most recent coming in 2023 when he won the Toronto street race. Last year at Portland International Raceway, Lundgaard grabbed the top spot in qualifying, but he had to serve a six-grid starting position penalty for an unapproved engine change.
The combination of the above has the still-young Dane, who turns 25 on July 23, brimming with optimism as his future remains unsettled.
“I think everybody knows the abilities,” he told FOX after posting the pace-setting lap of 1 minute, 4.8396 seconds in the No. 7 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet. “I don’t need to say anymore than that.”
Lundgaard will be aiming for his third road course victory of the season in Sunday’s The Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio Presented by the 2027 CR-V Hybrid (12:30 p.m. ET, FOX, FOX One, FOX Deportes, INDYCAR Radio powered by OnlyBulls). He also won the Sonsio Grand Prix on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course in May and finished second in the Children’s of Alabama Indy Grand Prix presented by AMR at Barber Motorsports Park in March.
Lundgaard is one of three drivers still with a reasonable chance of catching four-time series champion Alex Palou in the standings. Palou leads Team Penske’s David Malukas by 60 points, Andretti Global’s Kyle Kirkwood by 61 points and Lundgaard by 77. No other driver is within 100 points of the Chip Ganassi Racing driver.
Lundgaard said the goal now is to capitalize on the opportunity.
“We’ve got two wins now and we’re going to carry that momentum,” he said. “It’s just awesome to have a 1-2 (for the team in qualifying). We’ve got to go finish the job tomorrow and that’s the most important.”
O’Ward’s lap of 1:04.8649 in the No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet earned him a front-row start for the second time this season. He also held that position for the Detroit street race.
The performances of Lundgaard and O’Ward weren’t the only noteworthy developments in a qualifying session delayed nearly three hours by thunderstorms. Palou’s streak of five consecutive NTT P1 Awards ended when he qualified eighth in the No. 10 Open AI Chip Ganassi Racing Honda.
Palou’s best lap of 1:04.865 was the fourth-fastest of the qualifying session, but it came in the opening round. He was unable to improve in the second round, leaving him eighth on the starting grid. His streak of five consecutive poles is tied for the fourth longest in series history with Mario Andretti (1984) and Danny Sullivan (1988).
Still, Palou can build on his hefty series points lead in the season’s 11th race. He has finished in the top two each of the past four years – a win in 2023 and three second-place finishes.
Joining the Arrow McLaren drivers as Firestone Fast Six qualifiers were Andretti Global’s Will Power (No. 26 TWG AI Honda), Malukas (No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet), ECR’s Christian Rasmussen (No. 21 Splenda Chevrolet) and Juncos Hollinger Racing’s Rinus VeeKay (No. 76 Juncos Hollinger Chevrolet). Rasmussen reached the final round of knockout qualifying for the first time this season. VeeKay earned JHR its fourth career top-six starting position.
Chevrolet placed five drivers in the top six. Power was the lone Honda driver in that group.
Scott Dixon has won a record seven INDYCAR SERIES races at this track, one of them in 2014 when he drove from the 22nd and last starting position. If he is to win Sunday in his final Mid-Ohio race with Chip Ganassi Racing, he must do it after starting 23rd. The driver of the No. 9 PNC Bank Chip Ganassi Racing Honda was penalized for interference on Dale Coyne Racing’s Romain Grosjean (No. 18 BMax Honda) approaching Turn 5 in the first round of qualifying.
TOYOTA RACING – Bubba Wallace NASCAR Cup Series Quotes
JOLIET, Ill. (July 4, 2026) – 23XI Racing driver Bubba Wallace was made available to the media on Saturday prior to the NASCAR Cup Series race tomorrow from Chicagoland Speedway.
BUBBA WALLACE, No. 23 Upper Deck Space Jam 30th Anniversary Toyota Camry XSE, 23XI Racing
Did you enjoy your event at Navy Pier celebrating your 30th Anniversary Space Jam scheme you have on your car this weekend?
“It’s cool. It’s a true genuine full circle. I remember being a kid watching that on repeat and so to have that connection and be representing Looney Tunes, Warner Brothers, Space Jam, it’s everything that movie provided as a kid to be reliving that is just super cool. I appreciate all the parties involved and it was a great event at Navy Pier, had a great turnout, met a lot new fans and hopefully get them interested in this sport and get them to come out and be a part of it.”
What is it like to have Michael Jordan as you boss?
“It’s cool. We’re going on year six, so that question is fairly old, no disrespect, because it’s been six years now. It’s always special coming back to a place that he made so special and he was a part of this area and everything he built and created his legacy and everything he was able to do with his craft. Now to be representing it and taking it down a different path in the sport of NASCAR, it’s kind of surreal when you sit back and look at it. He’s ultra-competitive and super supportive of our race team and everything that we need to go out and win races. Hire the right people to make sure they are doing their jobs and getting us the right equipment, it starts with him. It’s not just throwing money at something and hoping it succeeds. He understands the business and makes the most out of it each and every weekend. We’ve had an incredible year as a team and it’s only getting better each and every week, so just excited for the future.”
Does this year feel like a bit of a rollercoaster for you?
“Every year it’s the same rollercoaster. I think we’ve been that much better this year, so the highs have been higher than before and the lows have been different. When we sat down in the offseason with Charles (Denike, crew chief) and Dave Rogers (23XI Competition Director) and myself sat down in a meeting and highlighted the low hanging fruits and what we needed to do and the biggest thing for us to just raise the floor. There was a lot of potential left at the end of our bad races last year, whether we would have a 15th place car and finish 18th to 20th. At Nashville, Pocono, a couple to where we were top 15 at best and the other races we’ve had winning potential and we haven’t been able to see it play through. We have a great first stage in just about every race the last two or three months. We marched forward from where we were, whether that’s qualifying or just metric from rainout. We would have the speed, but something would go wrong. It stings a little more this year just knowing how much potential is left out there and then to see how our teammates are winning. It’s like, damn, I think if we can have everything go right we can be in victory lane too. As opposed to last year where the floor was much lower.”
How do you handle managing the emotions of the mental side of it?
“You marry your best friend and have a good sounding board. It’s tough. Have I had the happiest of days lately? No, I haven’t. But at the same time I have a great support system at home and I have two beautiful kids and that helps out a lot. It’s all part of it. I sit there every year and ask why we are in this scenario and as much as I don’t want to hear it, she gives her thoughts and her advice on how to handle it and we go to the racetrack next week. You surround yourself with good people and it helps out.”
23XI Racing were all fast in practice and in San Diego a few weeks ago. How are you seeing the growth across all four teams there?
“It’s fun showing up to the racetrack and having speed. I got in the car yesterday and I didn’t remember anything about Chicagoland Speedway. The only thing I could remember was the fire station out front. So, we get on track and I look at some data and try to watch some film a little bit. I feel like I have a good grasp on it, so we got and make our first 10-lap run and I’m P35 and I’m like, this is going to be a long weekend. But, we made some adjustments and obviously finished practice second and we worked hard to get speed out of her car. You do look at the pylon and you see the numbers and our car is fast and it’s the people that we’ve put in place ot extract the most speed out of our cars. It’s the conversations we had in the offseason. I felt like we were a very volatile team the last handful of years where our three cars will be good, we go to the next week and we run 10th to 15th. We go back to winning and it was just like a ping pong match. I brought that up and you look at the 11 (Hamlin), you look at the five (Larson), and you look at the 12 (Blaney) and it’s every week those guys are in the top-five. They’re figuring out how to get speed and that that falls on the drivers. I’m one of the biggest ingredients and part of the whole recipe, right? I think it just falls back to how we approach the season and looking at the important thing and not getting too far ahead of ourselves. We’ve been doing a really good job, everybody at the racetrack and everyone at Airspeed has just been doing an incredible job to bring us cars. And then we are also getting the right data at the racetrack to focus on the areas that the drivers step up in a big way when it comes to Sunday. So it’s just everybody working together. Could not be more proud of what we’ve been able to do as a race team. It’s going to be a good second half of the year.”
You posted a picture earlier this week with a Rowdy hat and you’ve had Rowdy over your door. Was there some significance behind that picture?
“Ever since Charlotte weekend it’s been sitting there. There’s a poker table and right next to the wall. It’s just been sitting there and I’ve been meaning to find a place for it. There was a Columbia helmet that was sitting there so it got moved to another spot. I just felt like it was nice to put it as a centerpiece on the helmet wall. I mentioned in my helmet wall post months ago, I’ve never really wanted to trade with anybody. (Ryan) Blaney was at the top of the list for awhile. He was bugging me for years and finally got one of his and (Scott) McGloughlin, so I thought it would be fitting to do something different with the KB hat and how much he meant to my career. So it felt good and cool to do that.”
What are some of the keys to you to keep growing the sport here in the Chicago market?
“It’s just tough with this one because we are so far away from the city and there’s a lot of traffic. The people that live it probably don’t want to deal with it on a weekend, but it is what it is. We have a great facility here. I don’t know the reason why we stopped coming here, I don’t know what the attendance was back in 2019. I feel like it’s going to be a interesting race that people will want to tune into tomorrow to see how it all shakes out. I think it’s a great market, whether it’s here or the street course. I truly enjoyed the street course, I thought it was just different than what we always do. Having our first street course was special. I was a big proponent of being in the area, I think it’s great for the sport. We have a lot of fans in this area that want to see more growth and more opportunity to be a part of our sport. Anything we can do as drivers, we are all on board as a sport moving forward.”
How do you try and bridge the gap between getting people down here to Chicagoland then perhaps back in downtown at some point?
“We have to look at way to make the fans to want to come out. I don’t think you can just say hey, come watch this product we have on track. I think we need to have events going on to educate the people about the sport that are new and have them doing interactive things out in the midway. There’s a lot we can do as drivers. We’ve tried it for both races coming up throughout our weekly calls and what we have in the media. You need to sit down with key stakeholders and find ways to make it interactive and people wanting to come out and enjoy the fun. There’s no concrete answer, just a lot of work needs to be done.”
Do you have a stance on where you would like to see NASCAR race on July 4th weekend?
“No, not really. I think we just continue to work on our product and keep showing up and providing and producing really good racing. Keep giving the fans what they want to see and have them itching for more after the checkered flag falls. That’s the ultimate goal I believe, to get more people involved and get that conversation rolling about NASCAR and continue to grow the hype up. These last handful of weeks have been really, really fun with San Diego, Sonoma, and now we’re here at Chicago. We’re hitting really big markets and providing really great racing and everything that falls in behind that has been really positive. As far as July 4th, have fun.”
About Toyota
Toyota (NYSE:TM) has been a part of the cultural fabric in North America for nearly 70 years, and is committed to advancing sustainable, next-generation mobility through our Toyota and Lexus brands, plus our more than 1,800 dealerships.
Toyota directly employs nearly 64,000 people in North America who have contributed to the design, engineering, and assembly of over 50 million cars and trucks at our 14 manufacturing plants. In 2025, Toyota’s plant in North Carolina began to assemble automotive batteries for electrified vehicles.
JOLIET, ILLINOIS - JULY 04: Denny Hamlin, driver of the #11 Progressive Insurance Toyota, poses for photos after winning the pole award during qualifying for the NASCAR Cup Series eero 400 at Chicagoland Speedway on July 04, 2026 in Joliet, Illinois. (Photo by Jonathan Bachman/Getty Images).
Denny Hamlin added another Busch Light Pole Award to his NASCAR Cup Series resume. His latest accomplishment occurred on Saturday, July 4, in the series’ return to Chicagoland Speedway for the eero 400.
The event’s starting lineup was determined through an on-track qualifying session that consisted of a single-car, single-lap qualifying format. During the session, each of the 39 competitors vying for 39 starting spots cycled around Chicagoland once to post the fastest lap amongst one another. The competitor who posted the single fastest lap was awarded the pole position.
During the session, Hamlin, who was the fourth-fastest competitor during Friday’s practice session and the 21st competitor to qualify, clocked in his fastest single lap at 178.241 mph in 30.296 seconds. The lap was enough for Hamlin to maintain the top-starting spot and notch the fourth pole position of the 2026 season for himself and his No. 11 Progressive/Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota Camry XSE team.
With the pole, Hamlin notched his 52nd NASCAR Cup Series career pole (ninth all-time) for his 740th start, his third over the previous five events and his first ever at Chicagoland. He is also the first competitor to achieve a Cup pole at both Chicagoland Speedway and the Chicago Street Course, a feat that occurred from 2023 to 2025.
Hamlin, who despite is coming off a 26th-place result at Sonoma Raceway, is currently leading the championship standings by a single point over his 23XI Racing competitor, Tyler Reddick. As Hamlin looks to add another victory in Joliet, Illinois, to his accomplished resume, he also shifts his focus on maintaining his on-track competitiveness against the competition and his co-owned entries at 23XI Racing for the remaining eight events on the regular-season stretch prior to his championship bid.
“I’ll be honest with you, I got extremely lucky,” Hamlin said on Prime Video. “Anyone that goes out right now, beats me. I’m very confident in that. We got lucky that these last 12 guys just got stuck in the sun, and the track definitely is a very temperature sensitive track that it gets a little bit of sun on it, and it just slows way up. I think we got really fortunate there with the timing of that, and we hit our lap pretty decent considering where we went out. Really happy with the result there, the whole Progressive team, and we’ll definitely start from there. My goal was P12 today.”
Hamlin will share the front row with Kyle Larson, the latter of whom posted his fastest single lap at 178.235 mph in 30.297 seconds and just missed the opportunity to knock off Hamlin from the top of the qualifying charts by 0.001 seconds. Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing’s Chris Buescher and Brad Keselowski, along with Joe Gibbs Racing’s Ty Gibbs, will start in the top five, respectively. Christopher Bell and Chase Briscoe, teammates to Hamlin and Gibbs, will start sixth and seventh, respectively, ahead of Bubba Wallace, while Chase Elliott and William Byron completed the top-10 starting grid.
Tyler Reddick will start in 13th place, one spot behind Alex Bowman, with Bowman being the latest race winner at Chicagoland (2019). Shane van Gisbergen, winner of this past weekend’s Cup event at Sonoma Raceway, will start in 30th place and Riley Herbst, who was the fastest in Friday’s practice, will start in 18th place.
Notably, Michael McDowell was not allowed to post a qualifying lap because his No. 71 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 car failed technical inspection three times. As a result, McDowell will be forced to serve a drive-through penalty through pit road after taking the green flag, and his car chief has been ejected for the remainder of this weekend. Cody Ware was also unable to post a qualifying lap after he tagged the outside wall entering the backstretch during his session. Both will round out the 38-car field for Sunday’s main event at Chicagoland.
With 39 competitors vying for 39 starting spots, all made the main event.
Chicagoland – Qualifying Position, Best Speed, Best Time:
TOYOTA RACING – Denny Hamlin NASCAR Cup Series Pole Quotes
JOLIET, Ill. (July 4, 2026) – Joe Gibbs Racing driver Denny Hamlin was made available to the media his pole winning run Saturday afternoon at Chicagoland Speedway.
DENNY HAMLIN, No. 11 Progressive Insurance Toyota Camry XSE, Joe Gibbs Racing
What do you think about having so much speed on a weekly basis?
“I don’t want to continue to underplay it, but we got really fortunate. The last 12 cars had full sun. The last few had like 90% sun, but I think it was the deciding factor. We saw right after I went, the track got hotter and seems like the corner speeds of those guys started to slow down. I think that if there was one more car behind Ty Gibbs they definitely would have beat us, but because it went full shade we got fortunate there. They did a really good job with my car overnight. We worked for a long time with the team trying to figure out what I need to go faster and execute around here. We did a mock run yesterday, that was helpful for me to get a good balance check. But generally these are great racetracks for us. And typically I have a really good feel of what I need. Yesterday my balance was as far off as I’ve been in quite some time. A lot of the test was more for Toyota and getting information for JGR and those guys. We didn’t really work on balance a whole lot and when we came here our balance was quite a bit off, so we fixed that overnight and got that better. I thought I ran a very conservative turns 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 didn’t quite hit it right, but looked like I got off turn 4 better than the competition. This is very surprising, truthfully, I was actually thinking that I would take the rainout in P19, but once I ran the lap I thought it would put us somewhere in the top-12 and I was happy with that.”
What did the lap feel like running a qualifying lap here for the first time since 2019?
“I ran a mock run yesterday on my last lap on the racetrack. It still didn’t match up to the race runs for the whole 23XI guys, they were so much faster. It gave me a good balance check of what I needed and we made some pretty big changes from that moment to give me a heads up of what I needed today. (Turns) 1 and 2 felt pretty good, and then (turns) 3 and 4 it was just good enough.”
Did you pay any attention to the Hendrick Cars? It seems they have been gaining in recent weeks.
“I would agree with you. I’ve said that they are right there. When I raced them at Pocono, I could tell. I raced every single one of them and their all out speed was faster, we just had a little better balance than what they had over the course of a run. I think my personal opinion, (Kyle) Larson’s the best driver at this racetrack, so he’s going to be someone to contend with and I’m sure all the other cars are.”
When you have qualifying speed, how hard is it to carry over that to the race?
“Not much. So many of our qualifying on these types of tracks are impound where you can change some thing, but here when I ran my mock rock it was the same as my race run for a few laps. What we learned overnight is something we will definitely take into our race tomorrow.”
Is this track more like Charlotte or Texas as far as how bumpy it is and any potential for things to happen?
“A little bit. Once you get past that one in turn 1 that seems like its actually bigger the further you go up the racetrack, once you get past that, the corner is actually pretty smooth. I wouldn’t suspect there would be too much trouble with our cars. Maybe the O’Reilly cars, just simply because of their aero platform, you probably have to be a little bit more careful being beside someone that hits a bump. The NextGen car, we are able to run closer side-by-side and not lose control as much. I don’t think it will be a huge issue, (turns) 3 and 4, the minute someone decides they are going to hold the guy on the bottom hard and low and that guy is trying to accelerate over the bump, that’s where you could potentially see something. That would be the one spot I would be careful giving the guy the extra foot that they need.”
You have talked about how you are more open now with your teammates in meeting that you were when you were younger? Would you say you give different feedback than you did years ago?
“Yes, I think that’s very valid to observe that. Joe Gibbs Racing got younger. When I was a little more closed off, I had Hall of Fame teammates in Kyle Busch, Martin Truex, Carl Edwards, Matt Kenseth and on and on. I was more like I want to hear what they have to say. I have a responsibility at Joe Gibbs Racing, where I excel versus them is I understand what the difference between Friday, and Saturday and Sunday. That’s where I feel like the advantages and feel like it’s my responsibility to let them know what I think they are going to fight tomorrow because of the inexperience that they have. It’s why the Gibbs family values me as much as I do, because I’m able to go out there and every time Ty (Gibbs) comes over and it’s what about this and what about that, same with the 23XI guys sharing the information. I’m racing against myself with those guys. So it’s just part of the responsibility and I figure while I’m here for this little while longer I might as well open it up and if they beat me, they beat me.”
As a driver and owner, how do you continue to help develop and grow NASCAR in the Chicago market?
“I think it’s an important audience for us. Even when we came here for the test there were three cars with no logos on them and it was warm, there was probably 500 people in the stands. When I say 500, that’s in the middle of the day all during the day for eight hours watching three cars and maybe one car on the track at one time. There’s not much to see, but they’ve been wanting for us to get back into this area. I think this region is very important for us and we need to keep this region on the schedule once if not twice. This racetrack is going to race so well tomorrow that it will be hard to say lets just take it back off the schedule, but they’re up against it. There’s only so many slots and certainly can’t have more. I think that this racetrack races really well and if you look they did a great job getting it ready for us to be here. It feels like Kansas and looks like Kansas. They added a few coats of paint to it and now we’re ready to go race. So it’s hard to leave a track like this that has some wear and character off the schedule going forward and I appreciate Ben (Kennedy) and his team putting it back on the schedule after all of these years.”
About Toyota
Toyota (NYSE:TM) has been a part of the cultural fabric in North America for nearly 70 years, and is committed to advancing sustainable, next-generation mobility through our Toyota and Lexus brands, plus our more than 1,800 dealerships.
Toyota directly employs nearly 64,000 people in North America who have contributed to the design, engineering, and assembly of over 50 million cars and trucks at our 14 manufacturing plants. In 2025, Toyota’s plant in North Carolina began to assemble automotive batteries for electrified vehicles.
TOYOTA RACING – Tyler Reddick NASCAR Cup Series Quotes
JOLIET, Ill. (July 4, 2026) – 23XI Racing driver Tyler Reddick was made available to the media on Saturday prior to tomorrow’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Chicagoland Speedway.
TYLER REDDICK, No. 45 Jordan Brand Toyota Camry XSE, 23XI Racing
You seemed to not be as happy with your car after practice yesterday. Why were you not optimistic?
“I didn’t think about that. Right when Marty (Snider) pulled me we were right in the heat of discussion of the things we wanted to keep working on, decisions we wanted to make to start the night. Just where we wanted to go from practice, what more we can make better, what we can change, what we need to be thinking about. The biggest thing on my mind was just how flat it was with this tire and that at other intermediate tracks it’s what we’ve come to know at other tracks. I guess I just walked away from practice scratching my head a bit. I thought there was going to be more fall off. The track has been dormant for awhile, but I just thought the tires would wear out more than what they did, we would have winded out more, eventually it would get there throughout the weekend. I was expecting it to fill more and more out, just not a lot of falloff throughout practice.”
How much did the rain coming through yesterday change the track and could that be a challenge this weekend?
“I guess we shouldn’t speak for everybody, but I was definitely thinking that tires would wear out and we would move around a little bit. It might just be how dirty the track was. They can go out there and blow the track, but just how much time it sat. They did a tire test here and a wheelforce test here, but the upper lanes of the racetrack was largely untouched. It might just take a little bit. I think the O’Reilly cars should help that. That’s going to be good for us in the race. I think by Sunday at the end of stage one or stage two, one of those, it will be back to the Chicago that we all know. Just top to bottom all the lanes kind of available to use. In the first run, it ate away the tires a little bit. But run two or run three it was just not as much lap time fall off, tire wear as we expected.”
What do you make of what the last month has been for you and your team?
“That’s racing. We had a really good start and we were reminded about how fast things can change. The nice thing for us is that it seems like the speed is there and the potential is there, we were just finally served a dose of races not going our way. Some of it you could argue was inflicted on ourselves. What we need to have with our cars with our team we still do have. We got a couple of not good points days. Funny enough at Pocono we ran well but still lost points. That’s how high of a level we have to execute right now. We have to be scoring lots and lots of points, not just getting the finishes. So we have to have clean days. We got to dig out of the hole pretty quickly here on Sunday and work our way forward.”
Does past experience matter here at Chicagoland?
“I definitely thought coming into this that past experiences would matter. One example of this is that yesterdays practice, past experience doesn’t matter quite nearly as much as I thought it was going to. I remember coming here in a O’Reilly car and lots of fall off, I’m sure they’re experiencing that right now. By nature, how different the Cup car can be kind of showed itself a bit yesterday and everyone expecting this race and this track act a certain way. Just what we saw yesterday, the NextGen car has kind of changed everything at a lot of these track of what we kind of knew before. Yesterday was just kind of a product of that.”
Are you expecting Michael Jordan to be here this weekend?
“When he is here it is nice to have him. Whether he’s here or not, he’s always checking in and seeing how things are going. Anytime we are able to have him here at the racetrack, I see the impact from it. But it leaves quite the impact on everybody on the team or part of the organization. Anytime we are able to have him here everyone is motivated to perform well for the organization, but when he’s here it gets everyone going a little bit, which is nice.”
How realistic is it in the middle of the race to go over the patch out there in turns 3 and 4?
“It’s certainly on our minds over the years. There’s been other tracks over the years where things have changed. There’s been years we went to Fontana, sometimes you want to hit the sealer and sometimes you want to avoid sealer depending on if it was new or it was old. The old Atlanta, a characteristic of it was the apron and the bottom lane kind of interacted and how white the paint was and the grip down there. It’s something we’ll explore, but as drivers there’s racetracks and moments when conditions are right for that kind of thing. There was a time they were putting PJ1 or resins on the racetracks and it was super line sensitive as well. It’s something over the years that the drivers have adjusted and adapted to.”
What are your favorite memories of racing here coming up the ladder to the Cup Series?
The two that come to mind are my O’Reilly races. While they were good races, they were also awful memories. I remember my year at JR Motorsports, we were trying to just get this thing turned around we obviously won Daytona and we were a disaster the rest of the entire year. So as the playoffs were approaching we come here we win stage one racing against Harvick, Larson was coming from the back, it had the potential to be a really strong day for us. Then we had a slow pit stop and then I sped on pit road the next stop and we were crashed. Good or bad memories, looking back on it we have been able to find speed or we have good speed in our racecars or a combination of both. Naturally coming into this weekend I look into my two most recent races I know it’s a great track for me from my past experiences. If you look at the sheet in practice, maybe that’s carried over. Seeing all of our 23XI cars towards the top is just good preparation and good teamwork coming into this. Hopefully it is a good track for me, it seems like on paper it’s going to be a good weekend for 23XI as well.”
How much do you expect Atlanta to change from when you were there in February?
“It is a change, but there was a period of time it felt like it was losing grip each time we returned. As of late it feels like it’s kind of stabilized. The two races we have there, the track is very different between the two and that’s the fun thing about it. I do enjoy going back to some of these racetracks twice in the calendar year. It is nice when do go twice we have conditions changed like they do. We go there in March, February and it’s cool, handling is not as big of a issue and everyone packs up and races really tight. We got back there in the summer races it’s easier to slip up and easier to track. Cars get more spread out because handling is important. So every time we come back for the second date when it’s warm the racing is just a bit different and that’s one thing I enjoy about that event. I like going to all these racetracks, but it is fun when they are different like that. It doesn’t take the exact same formula both times.”
About Toyota
Toyota (NYSE:TM) has been a part of the cultural fabric in North America for nearly 70 years, and is committed to advancing sustainable, next-generation mobility through our Toyota and Lexus brands, plus our more than 1,800 dealerships.
Toyota directly employs nearly 64,000 people in North America who have contributed to the design, engineering, and assembly of over 50 million cars and trucks at our 14 manufacturing plants. In 2025, Toyota’s plant in North Carolina began to assemble automotive batteries for electrified vehicles.
LEXINGTON, Ohio (Saturday, July 4, 2026) – Enzo Fittipaldi completed a dominant Saturday at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, leading all 35 laps from the pole to earn his third career INDY NXT by Firestone victory and cap a historic day for HMD Motorsports.
Driving the No. 67 HMD Motorsports entry, Fittipaldi controlled three restarts before pulling away to victory while helping HMD Motorsports record the first 1-2-3-4 finish in series history. Tymek Kucharczyk finished second, 1.9003 seconds behind, followed by Jack Beeton and Salvador de Alba.
The last team to sweep a podium was Andretti Global at the Milwaukee Mile last season. HMD Motorsports last finished 1-2-3 in 2024 at Barber Motorsports Park, with Christian Rasmussen leading Nolan Siegel and Toby Sowery.
Lochie Hughes completed the top five on a hot and humid Ohio afternoon in the No. 26 Andretti Global entry.
The race featured 133 on-track passes, 124 for position. Both were the most for this series at this track.
Fittipaldi, the grandson of two-time Formula One World Champion, two-time Indianapolis 500 winner and 1989 INDYCAR SERIES champion Emerson Fittipaldi, added another family milestone at Mid-Ohio. Emerson won three INDYCAR SERIES races at the 2.258-mile road course.
“This was absolutely amazing,” Fittipaldi said. “We had a great drive out there. Just super happy. The car was really quick, and it’s a 1-2-3-4 for HMD, that’s absolutely amazing. So happy for them; they deserve it. They’re honestly an amazing team to work with and just super happy about the race today.”
Fittipaldi’s biggest test came after the final restart on Lap 25 following JM Correa’s trip into the Turn 12 tire barriers four laps earlier. He quickly opened a comfortable advantage, remaining unbeaten this weekend after leading Friday’s practice and earning both poles in track-record fashion.
The first caution flew on Lap 5 when Nicolas Stati stalled exiting Turn 2. On the Lap 8 restart, Kucharczyk charged from fourth to second, where he remained to earn his seventh podium in 11 starts this season and his second consecutive runner-up finish.
Beeton earned his career-best finish with third after previously placing fourth in Race 1 at Barber Motorsports Park. De Alba recorded his best finish of the season in fourth.
The race’s only other caution came on Lap 12 when Nolan Allaer stalled the No. 76 Juncos Hollinger Racing entry in Turn 6.
Championship leader Nikita Johnson entered the race with a 26-point lead over Fittipaldi but finished seventh in the No. 21 Cape Motorsports Powered by ECR entry. Combined with Kucharczyk’s runner-up finish, the result reshuffled the championship standings.
Kucharczyk now leads the standings by seven points over Fittipaldi and eight over Johnson entering Sunday’s 30-lap Race 2. It marks the first time this season Kucharczyk has led the championship and the first time since after the May 31 race at Detroit that Johnson has not occupied the top spot. Fittipaldi was the championship leader after Detroit.
Fittipaldi will have an opportunity to complete the weekend sweep in Race 2 at 10 a.m. ET Sunday (FS1, FOX One, INDYCAR Radio powered by OnlyBulls).
Connor Mosack made a three-wide move on teammate Lanie Buice and Thomas Annunziata on Lap 30 that enabled him to motor away with an ARCA Menards Series victory in the Ashley Furniture 150 at Chicagoland Speedway on Friday, July 3.
The 27-year-old Mosack from Charlotte, North Carolina, led a race-high 71 of 100 scheduled laps in an event where he started in sixth place and raced up front in the early stages. After two ensuing restarts, Mosack seized an opportunity to pounce for the lead during a Lap 29 restart. When he made a move beneath teammate Lanie Buice and Thomas Annunziata entering the frontstretch, he led his first lap (Lap 30) and proceeded to motor ahead of the latter two to retain the top spot for the event’s remainder, including a 42-lap dash to the finish. With Buice trailing and trying to reel in from behind in the runner-up spot, Mosack was not denied a victorious drive in the ARCA Menards Series’ return to Joliet, Illinois, following a seven-year absence.
The event’s starting lineup was determined by Friday’s practice speeds after qualifying was canceled due to inclement weather. As a result, Thomas Annunziata was awarded the pole position after he set the fastest practice speed at 174.300 mph in 30.981 seconds. Daniel Dye started alongside Annunziata on the front row with the second-fastest practice speed at 170.627 mph in 31.648 seconds.
When the green flag waved and the event commenced, Thomas Annunziata received a strong push from points leader Jake Bollman from the inside lane to motor ahead with an early advantage at the event’s launch. Annunziata maintained the lead over Bollman, Daniel Dye and the field for a full circuit as he led the first lap. During the second lap, Bollman got loose beneath Dye through the first two turns and both nearly got sideways, but both managed to proceed racing straight. Amid the contact, Lanie Buice and Connor Mosack overtook Dye for second and third, respectively, while Bollman dropped to eighth place. Meanwhile, Annunziata maintained the lead by nearly two seconds by the fifth lap mark.
Through the first 10 scheduled laps, Annunziata continued to lead by two seconds over Buice, Mosack, Dye and William Sawalich while Andy Jankowiak, Landon S. Huffman, Bollman, Kyle Steckly and Gavan Boschele were racing in the top 10, respectively. Meanwhile, Jade Avedisian, Isabella Robousto, Jason Kitzmiller, Tim Richmond, Morgen Baird, Bobby Earnhardt and Michael Maples were the last seven competitors from the field of 27 to be scored on the lead lap as Annunzianta had his advantage decrease to more than a second over Buice by Lap 15.
On Lap 19, the event’s first caution flew due to Bobby Earnhardt getting sideways and spinning to the bottom of the track in Turns 3 and 4. During the first caution period, some, including Bollman, Avedisian, Robusto, Jason Kitzmiller, Tim Richmond, Brayton Laster, Takuma Koga, Dustin Hillenburg and Alex Clubb, pitted while the rest, led by Annunziata, remained on the track.
The event’s next restart on Lap 24 did not last long when Sawalich, who restarted alongside Andy Jankowiak on the third row, made contact with Jankowiak before he cut a right-front tire, went dead straight into the Turn 1 outside wall and limped back to pit road with heavy right-side damage. At the moment of caution, Buice, who restarted on the inside lane and had Connor Mosack behind her, assumed the lead from Annunziata.
As the event restarted on Lap 29, Buice and Annunziata dueled for the lead through the first two turns and the backstretch. Then through Turns 3 and 4, Mosack made a move beneath the latter two. The trio remained dead even through the frontstretch before Mosack, who led the Lap 30 mark, just managed to motor ahead of Buice and Annunziata to assume the lead. As Mosack led just past the Lap 31 mark, Annunziata trailed in the runner-up spot while Buice battled Daniel Dye to maintain third place ahead of Landon S. Huffman, Jankowiak and Isabella Boschele.
By Lap 40, Mosack stretched his advantage to more than three seconds over Buice while Annunziata, Dye and Boschele occupied top-five spots ahead of Huffman and Jankowiak. Meanwhile, Bollman and Avedisian, both of whom pitted during the previous caution, trailed in eighth and ninth, respectively, while Kyle Steckly occupied the final top-10 spot over Kitzmiller, Robusto, Tim Richmond and Morgen Baird.
At the halfway mark on Lap 50, a competition caution flew, and the event reached a break period, with the field pitting for service non-competitively. At the moment of caution, Mosack was leading by more than three seconds over Buice while Annunziata, Boschele, Huffman, Bollman, Jankowiak, Avedisian, Michael Maples and Jason Kitzmiller were scored in the top 10, respectively.
When the event restarted with 42 laps remaining, Mosack launched ahead from the outside lane, and he maintained the lead over Buice, Dye and the field for a full cycle. As Mosack set a reasonable advantage by leading by more than a second while setting fast lap times over Buice and Dye over the next two laps, Annunziata was mired in fourth place in front of Huffman, Jankowiak, Bollman, and Avedisian. Mosack then proceeded to add another second to his advantage as he led Buice by more than two seconds with 35 laps remaining.
Down to the final 25 laps of the event, Mosack stabilized his advantage to nearly three seconds over Buice while Dye, Huffman and Annunziata trailed in the top-five mark, respectively, with Annunziata trailing by more than seven seconds. Meanwhile, Bollman settled in sixth place in front of Jankowiak, Avedisian, Kyle Steckly and Jason Kitzmiller as Mosack continued to lead by more than two seconds with 20 laps remaining.
With 10 laps remaining, Mosack extended his late advantage by more than three seconds over Buice while Huffman occupied third place despite trailing the leader Mosack by more than four seconds. Dye and Annunziata trailed in the top-five mark by single-digit marks while sixth-place Avedisian trailed by double-digit marks. While Bollman was mired in seventh place behind Avedisian, Mosack, who had his lead decrease to over a second, maintained the top spot over Buice.
When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Mosack remained in the lead by more than two seconds over Buice. With Buice unable to reel in from behind, Mosack steered his No. 28 Friends of Jaclyn/Pinnacle Racing Group Chevrolet entry smoothly around Chicagoland for a final circuit before he cycled back to the frontstretch to claim both the checkered flag and the victory by two seconds over Buice.
With the victory, Mosack, who competes on a part-time basis in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series division with Spire Motorsports, notched his third ARCA Menards Series career victory and his first since he won at Kansas Speedway in May 2024. He recorded the third ARCA victory of the 2026 season for Pinnacle Racing Group, and he became the 20th competitor overall to win an ARCA event at Chicagoland.
“It always means a lot to win with these [No. 28] guys,” Mosack said on the frontstretch on FS1. “Just to see where they’ve come from in the last few years. It’s always fun racing with these guys that make my job a lot easier out here with these kind of cars. Obviously, we’ve been really, really good on all the mile-and-a-halves this year. [I] Finally got one where we didn’t have any late cautions, which is nice. It hasn’t been as many [wins] for [Pinnacle] this year, but at least we got one tonight.”
Lanie Buice, Mosack’s teammate at Pinnacle Racing Group, achieved a career-best runner-up result and joins Isabella Robusto, Hailie Deegan, Erin Crocker and Shawna Robinson as the highest-finishing female competitor in the ARCA Menards Series division. She also notched her fourth top-five result in four ARCA starts this season.
Landon S. Huffman finished in third place ahead of Daniel Dye and Thomas Annunziata. Jade Avedisian, Andy Jankowiak, points leader Jake Bollman, Jason Kitzmiller and Kyle Steckly completed the top 10 in the final running order. With his eighth-place result, Bollman continues to lead the championship standings by 16 points over Annunziata as the 2026 ARCA Menards Series season is nine races away from concluding.
The 2026 ARCA Menards Series’ return to racing at Chicagoland generated two lead changes for three different leaders, and three cautions for 17 laps.
Results:
Connor Mosack, 71 laps led
Lanie Buice, five laps led
Landon S. Huffman
Daniel Dye
Thomas Annunziata, 24 laps led
Jade Avedisian
Andy Jankowiak
Jake Bollman
Jason Kitzmiller
Kyle Steckly, one lap down
Tim Richmond, one lap down
Gavan Boschele, one lap down
Isabella Robusto, one lap down
Morgen Baird, two laps down
Landon Brown, three laps down
Takuma Koga, seven laps down
Dustin Hillenburg, eight laps down
Jeff Maconi, 10 laps down
Bobby Earnhardt, 11 laps down
Brayton Laster, 15 laps down
Michael Maples, 17 laps down
Alex Clubb – OUT, Mechanical
Tim Monroe – OUT, Mechanical
William Sawalich – OUT, Accident
Brad Smith – OUT, Mechanical
Matt Kemp – OUT, Mechanical
Nate Moeller – OUT, Mechanical
Next on the 2026 ARCA Menards Series schedule is Lime Rock Park for the Lime Rock Park ARCA 100. The event is scheduled to occur next Friday, July 10, and air at 4 p.m. ET on FS2.
Connor Mosack (No. 28 Friends of Jacklyn Chevrolet) scored his third career ARCA Menards Series victory and his first of 2026 in Friday’s Ashley Furniture 150 at Chicagoland Speedway. Mosack’s other two wins came at Chicagoland’s sister track, Kansas Speedway, in 2023 and 2024.
Mosack led 71 of the race’s 100 laps. Other lap leaders included Sioux Chief PowerPEX Pole Award winner Thomas Annunziata (No. 70 JBL Toyota), who led 24 laps, and runner-up finisher Lanie Buice (No. 77 Sunoco Chevrolet), who led five laps.
Buice tied the ARCA Menards Series record for best finish by a female driver with her first career runner-up finish. Other female drivers who have scored runner-up finishes include Erin Crocker-Evernham, who finish second three times, two-time runner-up finisher Hailie Deegan, Shawna Robinson, and Isabella Robusto (No. 55 Yahoo Toyota).
Landon S. Huffman (No. 9 A.L.L. Construction / Carter CAT Chevrolet) rebounded from heartbreak at Elko Speedway last Saturday to finish third in his intermediate track debut. Huffman led 130 laps last week but broke a track bar bolt while leading which relegated him to a 14th-place finish. It marks the best finish for the Codie Rohrbaugh-owned CR7 Motorsports team since 2015 ARCA Menards Series champion Grant Enfinger finished second at Charlotte Motor Speedway in 2025.
Daniel Dye (No. 24 Champion Container Chevrolet) started outside the front row and battled among the top five all race long to finish fourth; it is his third top-five result in six starts so far in 2026.
Annunziata finished fifth after scoring his third consecutive Sioux Chief PowerPEX Pole Award; qualifying was canceled due to inclement weather but the field was set by speeds set in the afternoon’s 80-minute practice session.
Jade Avedisian (No. 15 Mobil 1Toyota) finished a career-best sixth, her third consecutive top-ten finish; she finished seventh at Kansas Speedway and eighth at Pocono Raceway in her two most recent starts.
Andy Jankowiak (No. 71 Phillips 66 Lubricants / Whelen Toyota) persevered to a seventh-place finish despite damage from early-race contact with series championship points leader Jake Bollman (No. 20 Nitro Motorsports Toyota). Jankowiak’s car had body damage on the left rear quarter panel, while Bollman, who finished right behind in eighth, had corresponding damage to the right front fender of his car.
Jason Kitzmiller (No. 97 A.L.L. Construction / Carter CAT Chevrolet) followed his fifth-place finish last Saturday night at Elko Speedway with a ninth-place run at Chicagoland. It was Kitzmiller’s seventh top-ten finish of the season.
ASA STARS National Tour championship contender Kyle Steckly (No. 2 APC Auto Parts Centres Toyota) finished fourth to score his first career top-ten finish and the first top-ten finish for team owner Kevin Conway’s RAFA Racing Team.
Mosack’s winning average speed was 119.947 miles per hour. There were three cautions for a total of 17 laps; the first on lap 19 for a spin in turn four by Bobby Earnhardt (No. 89 Colony Ammo Chevrolet); the second came out on lap 25 when William Sawalich (No. 18 SoundGear Toyota) made contact with the turn one wall; the third and final yellow flag was the scheduled caution at lap 50.
Sawalich finished 24th, a season-worst finish for the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing team; the team entered with a 52-point lead in the ARCA Menards Series owners points and unofficially leaves with a 24-point lead over the Mark Webb-owned No. 28 Pinnacle Racing Group team.
There were two lead changes among three drivers.
Mosack’s margin of victory was 2.128 seconds.
The next race for the ARCA Menards Series is the Lime Rock Park ARCA 100 on Friday, July 10.. The race, set to begin at 4 pm ET will be televised live on FS1 and broadcast on select affiliates of the MRN Radio network nationwide. ARCARacing.com will have live timing & scoring data throughout all on-track activity and live race audio. Follow @ARCA_Racing on X (formerly Twitter) for up-to-the-minute updates.
About ARCA The Automobile Racing Club of America (ARCA), founded in 1953 by John and Mildred Marcum in Toledo, Ohio, and acquired by NASCAR in April 2018, is the leading grassroots stock car sanctioning body in the United States. Bridging the gap between NASCAR’s top three national touring series and weekly and regional tour racing all across the country, the organization to sanctions over 100 races per year in the ARCA Menards Series, ARCA Menards Series East, ARCA Menards Series West, ASA STARS National Tour, ASA CRA Super Series, ASA Midwest Tour, ASA Southern Super Series plus weekly racing at Toledo and Flat Rock Speedways. For more information about ARCA visit , or follow ARCA on Facebook (@ARCARacing) and Twitter (@ARCA_Racing).
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