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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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1:05 p.m.

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

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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

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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.

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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.

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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.

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The aerodynamic modification was found in post-race inspection following Elliott’s second-place finish on Sunday at Chicagoland. 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.

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.

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He will replace Michael McDowell, who has driven that car since 2014.

The announcement Tuesday was not unexpected, but Kahne last week revealed he’d given consideration to piecing together a dream schedule of big races in different series. Although he stressed his first goal was to remain in NASCAR, his idea led at least one IndyCar owner to inquire about Kahne’s availability for the Indianapolis 500.

Instead, he will move to a mid-level race team that is trying to move up the ladder.

Leavine will continue his alliance next year with Richard Childress Racing.

Kahne has been with Hendrick Motorsports since 2012, but the team bought him out of his contract for next season. He became a free agent shortly after his win at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in July earned him a spot in the playoffs. Kahne had a rough opening round to the playoffs at Chicagoland, where he finished 21st and is 15th in the 16-driver field. Kahne’s crew chief was replaced on Monday.

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