4:34 p.m.

Kyle Busch has won the NASCAR Cup Series race at Chicagoland Speedway, holding off Kyle Larson on a wild final lap.

It was Busch’s fifth win of the season and No. 48 for his career, matching Herb Thomas for 14th on the Cup Series’ list.

Busch moved into the lead on a restart with 58 laps to go, replacing Kevin Harvick at the front of the field. A hard-charging Larson passed Harvick, but he brushed the wall with seven laps left.

Larson kept going and was neck-and-neck with Busch on the final lap. They made contact a couple times, but Busch brushed him off on his way to the victory.

Busch was booed by the crowd when he got in the car. But Larson felt it was a fair finish.

—

3:25 p.m.

Kevin Harvick has won the second stage of the NASCAR Cup Series race at Chicagoland Speedway.

Harvick went all the way up against the wall to pass Stewart-Haas Racing teammate Kurt Busch near the end of the last lap of the stage. Harvick is going for his sixth win of the season.

Kyle Larson was third, followed by Martin Truex Jr. and Ryan Blaney. Larson is trying for the weekend sweep after winning the Xfinity Series race on Saturday.

Busch is looking for his first win of the season in his No. 41 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford. His brother Kyle has won four times.

Aric Almirola won the first stage and was in the lead before he had to pit on Lap 143 for a loose wheel.

—

The post The Latest: Kyle Busch wins Cup Series race at Chicagoland appeared first on IdealCapper.

3:25 p.m.

Kevin Harvick has won the second stage of the NASCAR Cup Series race at Chicagoland Speedway.

Harvick went all the way up against the wall to pass Stewart-Haas Racing teammate Kurt Busch near the end of the last lap of the stage. Harvick is going for his sixth win of the season.

Busch is looking for his first win of the season in his No. 41 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford. His brother Kyle has won four times.

Aric Almirola won the first stage and was in the lead before he had to pit on Lap 143 for a loose wheel.

—

2:25 p.m.

Aric Almirola has won the first stage of the NASCAR Cup Series race at Chicagoland Speedway.

Almirola began the day in the No. 6 position. It was his first stage win in the series.

Kyle Larson was second, followed by Martin Truex Jr., Kurt Busch and Kevin Harvick.

Truex is going for his third straight win on the 1.5-mile oval in the Chicago suburbs. He had to start at the back of the field after his car failed inspection following qualifying.

—

1:05 p.m.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. is set for his first NASCAR Cup Series broadcast, and Junior Nation is ready.

The post The Latest: Harvick wins 2nd stage at Chicagoland appeared first on IdealCapper.

2:25 p.m.

Aric Almirola has won the first stage of the NASCAR Cup Series race at Chicagoland Speedway.

Almirola began the day in the No. 6 position. It was his first stage win in the series.

Truex is going for his third straight win on the 1.5-mile oval in the Chicago suburbs. He had to start at the back of the field after his car failed inspection following qualifying.

—

1:05 p.m.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. is set for his first NASCAR Cup Series broadcast, and Junior Nation is ready.

A steady stream of fans stopped at the NBC Sports set before the race at Chicagoland Speedway. One man yelled ”Go get `em Dale!” as Earnhardt fulfilled his TV duties.

Earnhardt, a two-time Daytona 500 champion, retired at the end of last season and won his 15th straight most popular driver award.

—

11:05 a.m.

Extreme heat is a concern again as NASCAR closes out its annual weekend at Chicagoland Speedway.

Rain could become a factor, too.

There are scattered thunderstorms in the forecast for the NASCAR Cup Series race on Sunday afternoon. Paul Menard is set to start from the pole, and Martin Truex Jr. is going for his third consecutive victory at Chicagoland Speedway.

The post The Latest: Almirola wins 1st stage at Chicagoland appeared first on IdealCapper.

1:05 p.m.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. is set for his first NASCAR Cup Series broadcast, and Junior Nation is ready.

A steady stream of fans stopped at the NBC Sports set before the race at Chicagoland Speedway. One man yelled ”Go get `em Dale!” as Earnhardt fulfilled his TV duties.

—

11:05 a.m.

Extreme heat is a concern again as NASCAR closes out its annual weekend at Chicagoland Speedway.

Rain could become a factor, too.

There are scattered thunderstorms in the forecast for the NASCAR Cup Series race on Sunday afternoon. Paul Menard is set to start from the pole, and Martin Truex Jr. is going for his third consecutive victory at Chicagoland Speedway.

Temperatures were in the 90s for the Xfinity race on Saturday, and it reached well into triple digits inside the cars. Drivers put bags of ice in their suits and splashed cold water on their faces during pit stops.

The post The Latest: Earnhardt set for first NASCAR Cup broadcast appeared first on IdealCapper.

Rain could become a factor, too.

There are scattered thunderstorms in the forecast for the NASCAR Cup Series race on Sunday afternoon. Paul Menard is set to start from the pole, and Martin Truex Jr. is going for his third consecutive victory at Chicagoland Speedway.

Temperatures were in the 90s for the Xfinity race on Saturday, and it reached well into triple digits inside the cars. Drivers put bags of ice in their suits and splashed cold water on their faces during pit stops.

More AP auto racing: https://racing.ap.org

The post Weather a concern for NASCAR Cup Series race appeared first on IdealCapper.

It’s the second career pole for Menard, who has just one top-five finish this season. He also qualified first for a race at Daytona almost exactly 10 years ago.

”Ten years, it goes by quick. I feel old now,” the 37-year-old Menard said with a wry grin.

Menard turned a lap at 180.012 mph in his No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing Ford. He has one career win, taking the 2011 Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Blaney drove Menard’s car with Wood Brothers Racing in the previous two seasons.

”We’ll see,” Blaney said. ”It’s always up in the air. … It’s always good to have raw speed in the car like that for qualifying and you just hope it carries over.”

Chase Elliott, Kurt Busch and Clint Bowyer rounded out the top five.

The cars for Martin Truex Jr., Jimmie Johnson, Denny Hamlin and Chris Buescher failed inspection. They had their qualifying times disallowed and will start at the back of the field.

Truex has won the last two NASCAR Cup Series races at Chicagoland.

—

More AP auto racing: https://racing.ap.org

The post Paul Menard wins pole for NASCAR Cup Series race appeared first on IdealCapper.

So yes, life is quite good at the moment.

Truex appears to be picking up some momentum as he tries to become the first repeat NASCAR Cup Series champion since Jimmie Johnson won five in a row from 2006 to 2010. He goes for his third consecutive victory at Chicagoland Speedway this Sunday.

”This track has always been really good for me. Obviously, the last two years, it’s been really good,” said Truex, who turned 38 on Friday. ”I had to overcome a lot of issues here both years it seems like to be able to get the win. That’s kind of neat looking back on our two races here, what we had to overcome to win. This year is going to be different, I think.”

Truex and the rest of the Cup Series face a different challenge on this visit to the bumpy 1.5-mile oval. Chicagoland was being staged in September as NASCAR’s playoff opener, but it has a mid-summer date this season and the forecast calls for temperatures in the 90s.

Truex was 12th in qualifying on Saturday, turning a lap in 174.656 mph. But his car failed its inspection, sending him all the way back to the 36th starting position.

”Grip’s been tough to find this weekend for a lot of guys,” he said. ”New tires as well, so I mean there’s a lot of new things going on. It’s definitely going to be tougher, I would imagine that the groove’s going to be probably on average a little bit higher than when we run here in the fall. I think more guys are going to get the top working. It’s definitely going to be different, but how much it’s hard to say right now.”

Truex is coming off a win last weekend at Sonoma, outdueling Kevin Harvick on the road course for his third victory of the season in his Furniture Row Racing Toyota. He also won at Pocono on June 3, holding off a hard-charging Kyle Larson.

Truex, Harvick and Kyle Busch have combined for 12 wins in the first 16 races on the Cup Series. The only other winners this season are Austin Dillon, Clint Bowyer and Joey Logano.

With his three victories, Truex could use the rest of the summer to experiment with his car ahead of the playoffs. But Truex called that strategy ”a little bit overblown.”

”The experimentation thing I think is something that is more old school,” he said. ”This day and age you want to have confidence in the things you’re doing and continue to do them. So that’s kind of the approach we’ll take.”

Here are a few more things to watch in the Cup Series’ return to Chicagoland:

JIMMIE’S SEASON: Johnson is still looking for his first win this season, and Chicagoland is one of three tracks on the Cup Series schedule where he is without a victory. He finished second in 2004, 2008 and 2012. But the track also is the site of his only win in 83 starts on the XFinity Series. He has 83 Cup wins, one away from matching Hall of Famers Bobby Allison and Darrell Waltrip.

REMEMBERING JASON: A couple drivers were planning to pay tribute to Jason Johnson, a sprint car driver who died last weekend at age 41 following a crash at Beaver Dam Raceway in Wisconsin. Larson said he will have a ”Forever 41” sticker in place of where his name would be on his car.

KEEPING THE FAITH: Daniel Suarez finished 15th last weekend at Sonoma. He is 19th in the season standings and needs to get going to make the playoffs, but he remains confident. ”We’re going to make it. I will tell you that,” he said.

The post Martin Truex Jr. trying for 3rd straight win at Chicagoland appeared first on IdealCapper.

”NASCAR needs Chase Elliott to win,” Harvick said earlier this summer. ”Chase Elliott is the tie to the traditional NASCAR fan. It’s the only shot they’ve got with the traditional NASCAR fan. His dad. The history and heritage of the sport. There isn’t anybody else in the lineup that I can think of.”

Elliott hasn’t yet reached Junior-levels of popularity – or even Danica Patrick as she nears the stock car exit ramp – but the 21-year-old Hendrick Motorsports driver just might be the next one to carry the banner as NASCAR’s most popular driver.

First, Elliott wants to hold the checkered flag for a victory lap at a Cup race.

Elliott has yet to win a Cup race in 68 career starts and heads to a New Hampshire track where he’s never finished better than 11th in three career starts. The cover of the New Hampshire race program nonetheless shows Elliott and Kyle Larson in sunglasses with the headline, ”The Future is Bright: Elliott and Larson to Carry NASCAR Torch.”

Larson was fifth at Chicagoland and is second in the standings. Both drivers seem a lock to advance to the second round and from there, anything can happen.

NASCAR would surely love a duel between a pair of 20-somethings that could turn into a rivalry for years.

For now, Elliott was wishing his No. 24 Chevrolet could have pushed Truex harder down the stretch Sunday.

”It would have been great to battle with Martin a little bit more,” Elliott said. ”We didn’t have anything for him. From where we’ve been to where we ran today was a major, major step in the right direction”

Elliott, a two-time Daytona 500 pole winner, could break through two weeks from now at Dover, where twice he’s finished third. He had two third-place finishes in the first round last year, then sunk in the second when he finished 33rd, 31st and 12th.

”I did feel like we peaked about this time last year,” he said. ”But this isn’t last year, so it really doesn’t matter.”

What does matter is that Elliott is flashing the potential of becoming a future champion. He has been in the Hendrick Motorsports development program since 2011, when he was a freshman in high school, and won the 2014 championship in what is now the Xfinity Series. Elliott was known in racing long before his first race, the little kid hanging around the race track with his famous dad. Elliott will switch from the No. 24 to the No. 9 next season in a nod to his father, 1988 NASCAR champion Bill Elliott.

Bill Elliott won NASCAR’s most popular driver award a whopping 16 times and it’s that link to the past – and excitement for the future – that has drivers like Harvick convinced Chase’s success is key for any type of NASCAR’s needed resurgence.

Elliott may still be too young to truly challenge Truex or former champions ahead of him in the standings such as Harvick, Brad Keselowski and Kyle Busch for the title. Seven-time champion Jimmie Johnson, Elliott’s teammate, is hoping to make NASCAR history with an eighth title.

Busch, the 2015 champion, posted a blistering pole speed at Chicagoland and dominated the race early until pit road miscues knocked him out of contention. Clean that up, and he could go door-to-door with Truex for the title in the finale at Homestead.

The post Chase for championship: Elliot a NASCAR title contender appeared first on IdealCapper.

Busch made it 2 for 2 in playoff poles, turning a lap of 135.049 mph to take the top spot Friday at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. He won his eighth pole of the season in the No. 18 Toyota.

”We just need to somehow figure out how to turn these things into good Sundays,” he said. ”It would be nice to stay up front all day.”

Busch dominated early in the postseason opener at Chicagoland Speedway and had his 12th stage win of the season. He led 85 laps and was positioned as the driver to beat until his race unraveled in the pits. Busch was forced to pit because of a loose tire, then his Joe Gibbs Racing crew was penalized when his gas man hopped the wall on pit road too soon.

Busch, the 2015 Cup champion, hoped it was just a matter of first-race jitters for his new crew. Joe Gibbs Racing swapped pit crews for Busch with teammate Daniel Saurez’s crew for the final 10 playoff races.

”I’m sure the consensus is that hopefully it’s out of the way and there’s no more jitters,” Busch said. ”We can focus on looking forward and having the opportunity to race for the championship with this group of guys and have fast pit stops like they’ve been doing all year long.”

Kyle Larson, who won the pole in July at New Hampshire, joins Busch on the front row. Larson was second in the first Cup race at the track.

Playoff drivers took 13 of the top 14 spots. The 16-driver field is sliced to 12 after next weekend’s race at Dover.

Top 10 spots for other drivers racing for the championship over the final nine races include: Denny Hamlin starts third, Ryan Blaney fourth, Martin Truex Jr. fifth, Kevin Harvick sixth, Kurt Busch seventh, Kasey Kahne ninth and Matt Kenseth 10th.

Truex won his fifth race of the season in the NASCAR playoff opener at Chicagoland.

Erik Jones was the highest non-playoff qualifier in eighth.

Kahne posted a strong run in the No. 5 Chevrolet in his first race with new crew chief Darian Grubb. Grubb replaced Keith Rodden with nine races left before Kahne leaves Hendrick Motorsports for a ride next year with Leavine Family Racing.

Chase Elliott starts 14th in the No. 24 Chevrolet with a different crew chief for the weekend. Elliott suffered a setback to his championship hopes when NASCAR penalized the No. 24 team for a modification to his Chevrolet in the opening round of the playoffs. The finish is now considered ”encumbered” by NASCAR and Elliott does not keep a playoff point he earned with a stage victory at Chicagoland.

Crew chief Alan Gustafson was fined $25,000 and suspended one race, and car chief Joshua Kirk also was suspended one race. The team was docked 15 driver points and 15 owner points. Veteran crew chief Kenny Francis replaced Gustafson at New Hampshire.

Elliott and teammate Jimmie Johnson both qualified in backup cars following wrecks earlier Friday in practice.

The post Kyle Busch takes pole at New Hampshire in 2nd NASCAR playoff appeared first on IdealCapper.

Even on routine laps in practice, the hits kept coming Friday at Hendrick Motorsports.

At first glance, team owner Rick Hendrick’s organization, long the class of NASCAR, has had a nice season with three drivers in NASCAR’s 16-car playoff field.

But Hendrick hasn’t been much of a player this season, winning just four races in a season of major transition behind the scenes and in the car. Hendrick gave underachieving Kasey Kahne the boot, effective at the end of the season. Dale Earnhardt Jr. has trudged through a forgettable final season. Chase Elliott is still winless in his Cup career and his career-best finish last week at Chicagoland was tainted because his team cheated.

In the tale of the tape, only seven-time champion Jimmie Johnson has had a decent season. But even his stats come with a bit of an asterisk: Johnson’s three wins are his only three top-five finishes this season.

”This year has been tough for our company,” Johnson said Friday. ”Last year was tough, but we found a way still to get to the championship and the head table in Las Vegas. This year has been tough again, but there is a lot of change going on internally. I think directionally, we’re making some great changes and obviously the addition of the two new drivers will shuffle the deck a bit.”

New Hampshire hardly seems like an elixir to get the team rolling – Hendrick drivers have led just 14 laps at the track over the last seven races.

Elliott suffered a setback to his championship hopes when NASCAR penalized the No. 24 team for a modification to his Chevrolet in the opening round of the playoffs. The finish is now considered ”encumbered” by NASCAR and Elliott does not keep a playoff point he earned with a stage victory at Chicagoland.

Crew chief Alan Gustafson was fined $25,000 and suspended one race, and car chief Joshua Kirk also was suspended one race. The team was docked 15 driver points and 15 owner points.

Other playoff drivers were not impressed with the decision.

”That was a big penalty,” playoff driver Ryan Newman said to laughter.

Denny Hamlin, who had Xfinity and Cup wins at Richmond ruled encumbered by NASCAR, called the penalty levied against Elliot, ”a misdemeanor.”

”NASCAR didn’t deem that a very big penalty, so there must not have been any intent there. I guess it was all an accident,” he said.

The loss in driver points dropped Elliott from sixth place to eighth place in the postseason standings. There are two races remaining in the opening round of the playoffs.

The issue with Elliott’s car surrounded a piece of tape applied to the rear spoiler in what other teams believed was an effort to gain more downforce. Photos and videos were presented to NASCAR that appeared to not only show the tape, but also a crew member removing the tape following the race.

The post Tale of the tape shows Hendrick Motorsports slumping in ’17 appeared first on IdealCapper.