The 20th stop on the NASCAR Cup Series tour lands the star-studded field in the middle of downtown Chicago for the second annual Grant Park 165.
Last week’s race at the Nashville SuperSpeedway was a race to remember (or forget.)
A record 15 cautions that slowed the field for 79 laps marred an otherwise competitive day of racing. Stage 1 went by with no complications, and Christopher Bell’s DeWalt Toyota proved to be the car to beat.
That is until the caution flew for rain before the end of the second stage — the third race in a row to be affected by the wet stuff.
Inclement weather turned this race on its head quick, fast, and in a hurry.
Nothing could stand in the way of Bell when the green flag flew again, claiming his series-leading ninth stage win of 2024 at the end of the 46-lap run to the green-and-white checkered flag.
While some drivers were working hard every turn, a fun, new game broke out between two drivers at the front of the field playing “grab-ass”.
Larson & Hamlin present: The Chronicles of Grab-Ass
For the uninitiated, “grab-ass” is a term used to describe drivers taking themselves out of contention to settle a quarrel between them, and the two drivers were Kyle Larson and Denny Hamlin.
Hamlin fanned the flames of a simmering rivalry with Larson in New Hampshire when he elbowed the #5 car out of the way as the rain approached. This led Larson’s spotter to remark that Denny races Larson like this because Larson doesn’t do anything to combat or deter Hamlin.
The 2021 Cup champion and 2024 Indianapolis 500 rookie of the year didn’t take too kindly to the critique.
Larson enacted revenge on the last lap of stage 2, guiding Hamlin up the track in turn 2 to grab third and extending his points lead. Hamlin’s frustration boiled over on the cool-down lap, peppering Larson’s tailgate.
Now back to your regularly-scheduled Chaos
Riley Herbst’s Rick Ware Racing entry went for a wild ride off the fender of Corey Lajoie’s Spire Motorsports Chevy, ending Herbst’s day in one of his few Cup starts. The contact appeared to be unprovoked, but it brought drivers like Ryan Blaney down pit road for what his team expected to be the final time.
A quick yellow for Erik Jones losing a tire was merely a blip on the radar as the field took the green again, only to be stopped for the eighth time just six circuits later when Chase Elliott lost control of his car and his top-5 spot when he spun all by himself on the exit of turn 4 on lap 219.
This was the caution where everything changed.
Some cars stayed out or took less tires, putting Bell, Hamlin, and Tyler Reddick deep in the field with just 75 laps left on the board. Nearly four miles later, Bell’s chances of a series-leading fourth win blew up in smoke when his DeWalt Camry broke traction in turn 1, backing into the outside wall and ending his day.
The race’s 10th caution wouldn’t be too far away as Austin Dillon and Brad Keselowski came together in turn 1, sending Keselowski’s Consumer Cellular machine skidding into the fence, relegating him to 25th place.
More grab-ass took place on the backstretch under yellow as Carson Hocevar turned Harrison Burton after Burton threw a big block on Hocevar down to the apron. The Spire rookie showed the third-year Wood Brothers driver his displeasure, peppering the #21’s tailgate before Burton brake-checked Hocevar.
Though not penalized at the time, Hocevar lost 25 driver points and $50,000 from the move, rendering his eventual 16th-place result null and void after earning just 21 points in Nashville.
Blaney’s plan to make it to the end was looking better and better as each caution allowed the field to save fuel, but this would be the last caution for the remainder of the race. The Cup Series talent remembered how to run longer than 10 consecutive laps for the dash to the finish.
Crew chief Jonathan Hassler’s botched call allowed for defending race winner Ross Chastain to seize the lead for much of the last jaunt, but an old foe crept into his rearview mirror: Denny Hamlin.
Rocking a fresher set of tires, Hamlin’s FedEx Camry stalked Chastain for the better part of 15 laps after passing Blaney, who dipped into the pits with about 20 to go because of poor gas mileage.
Chastain is a known defensive driver and used his #1 car to take up as much space from Hamlin’s #11 as possible before the front end tightened up on the Busch Light Chevy, sending Ross up the track and Denny flying by.
Bettors were lighting their cigars, making purchases they couldn’t afford until recouping their winnings, and just when the race looked as over as it could possibly be, Noah Gragson and Austin Cindric — battling outside the top-20 — activated NASCAR Overtime by bringing out the race’s 11th yellow.
Hamlin and several others up front were low on patience and low on fuel, meaning most cars could only go through one Overtime attempt before pitting for more gas.
Hamlin controlled the restart with Chastain on the high side. Larson pushed Hamlin’s FedEx Camry all the way through the trioval and into turn 1 until the #5 car clipped the apron, shooting his HendrickCars Camaro back into traffic and punting Chastain into the outside wall.
This incident collected the likes of Ty Gibbs, John Hunter Nemechek, Daniel Hemric, and Austin Dillon, but one driver curiously left off the crash report was the #8 car, Kyle Busch.
Busch had a bad weekend going until the Christopher Bell caution put him close to the front where the zOne Chevy ran in the top-5 prior to Overtime. Running in Chastain’s shadow, Busch made the choice to avoid including himself in the accident, tapping the wall but making no contact with other mangled vehicles.
NASCAR deemed the #8 car maintained a reasonable amount of speed considering the circumstances and gave Kyle his fourth spot back for the next restart. Speaking of which, Busch nearly turned Larson on that second restart, but all appeared to recover by the exit of turn 2 until — you guessed it — another multi-car pileup.
Rack ’em up again.
The green flag returned for a moment until Kyle Larson ran out of gas on the restart, causing a stack-up that resulted in Busch’s zOne Chevy smacking driver’s side against the frontstretch wall, ending a promising day.
Hamlin and company were forced down pit road for the fourth Overtime attempt, tying the all-time record. This put Joey Logano and Chase Briscoe up front for the finish, and they almost made it to the white flag if not for Briscoe’s teammate, Josh Berry, backing into the turn 3 fence.
Thankfully, that would be the last caution as Joey Logano got a clean launch on the fifth Overtime restart (yay, new record), but he would soon be joined by Tyler Reddick. Hamlin’s hired gun flanked to the outside of the field and passed several rows of cars to affix his Monster Camry to Logano’s Pennzoil Ford.
A charge on the top into turn 3 got his #45 car around Ryan Preece to move into second, and finally, we made it to the white flag. There would be no turning back from here for another Overtime. The race would end!
And, what a final lap it was. The oft-maligned rookie Zane Smith closed in on the top-2 as Logano thwarted Reddick’s outside advances in turn 1, knocking the Talladega race winner down to just one last gasp before reaching the checkered flag.
In an attempt to run Logano out of fuel, Reddick faded to the top one last time by making the #22 go the longest way around the track, but it wasn’t enough.
Logano held off Smith and Reddick and went 110 laps from his last pit stop to shatter his 49-race winless streak and take his first victory of 2024 in the Ally 400 at Nashville.
His victory solidified his berth into the Playoffs alongside his other Team Penske stablemates, becoming the first team to lock all of their full-time entries into the Playoffs.
If that was exhausting to read, I apologize, but it was also exhausting to watch. I hope to the power that be that we never sniff a fifth Overtime again for many years to come.
The News
Onto more positive news, Josh Berry found himself a home for 2025. The Stewart-Haas Racing rookie will make the move to Wood Brothers Racing to drive the famed #21 Ford Mustang Dark Horse.
The move puts another Cup driver in peril as current #21 driver Harrison Burton finds himself without a ride for 2025. The 23-year-old son of NASCAR Hall of Famer Jeff Burton could make a leap back into a competitive lower series seat to rebuild his confidence a la Cole Custer and John Hunter Nemechek.
Now, let’s talk about the Windy City.
The Track
This 2.2-mile street course is built around Grant Park, which some of our readers might be more familiar with for hosting Lollapalooza than auto racing.
However, you might be surprised to know that Chicago is the birthplace of American motorsports as Frank Duryea scooted and sputtered from Chicago to Evanston to win the first-ever automobile race in the United States of America on Thanksgiving, 1895.
Almost 130 years later, racing returned to Chi-Town for the inaugural Grant Park 220 (or, what eventually became the Grant Park 171.6) around a fixed circuit downtown.
It was here, one year ago, when New Zealander Shane van Gisbergen made his first Cup Series start and cruised past Justin Haley in the waning laps to earn his first Cup Series victory, becoming the first driver in 60 years to accomplish this feat (three-time Indy 500 champion Johnny Rutherford, 1963 Daytona Duels.)
Cars rocket out of turn 12 and onto the home stretch. The straight extends down South Columbus Dr until veering 90° to the left at turn 1. The field then revs up East Balbo Drive, swinging to the right to set themselves up for the 90° right going southbound past the Harbor Suites on DuSable Lake Shore Drive.
Drivers careen to the right after the kink of turn 3 before entering the double rights of turns 4 & 5. Returning northbound on South Columbus Drive, a long backstraight opens up before cutting hard to the left for turn 6 — aka Calamity Corner — near the entry to turn 1.
A short chute flying westbound on East Balbo Drive ends abruptly at the tight turn 7. What is normally a short cruise up South Michigan Avenue for commuters diverts at the deceptively quick turn 8, working these heavy NextGen machines across East Congress Plaza Drive for turn 9 before swaying back to the right for turn 10.
Unable to rest, turn 11’s 90° turn to the right requires quick hands from fast drivers as they enter the final stretch onto East Jackson Drive where they cross the Jackson Boulevard Bridge before diving downhill into the final right-hand turn 12.
The track is littered with passing zones, averaging over 21 passes per green-flag lap in last year’s event.
Now that we’re reacquainted with this unique course, let’s see what the forecast entails for Chicago.
Weather & Fast Facts
Here’s a brief rundown of last year’s race. The field followed the pace car for 21 laps over 9 caution periods, due in part to the race being the first street race in Cup Series history with rain soaking the track for much of the week leading up to the race.
That race bled into Overtime after being squeezed for time from lack of daylight, initially shortening the race from 100 laps to 75 laps and eventually 78 laps.
Despite the lack of lead changes, the circuit produced over 1200 green-flag passes during the 57 green-flag laps, meaning this track allows for drivers to take advantage of each other’s mistakes.
The running time of the race — no doubt affected by the rain and rash of cautions — fell short of three hours, and I’d expect that to ease this season. Well, as long as we don’t have another multi-Overtime rumbles, that is.
Forecasts for this weekend vary in optimism, but AccuWeather projects a 25% chance of precipitation with mostly cloudy skies, rising up to 83°F. This combination of circumstances should give the track more grip as the Sun’s rays won’t make the concrete as slick through the clouds.
Tomorrow’s Grant Park 165 will air on NBC starting at 4pm Eastern time, and the race will be broken into three stages ending on the following laps: 20-45-75.
With the Fast Facts and Weather taken care of, let’s analyze the betting favorites from the DraftKings Sportsbook oddmakers.
The Odds
New Hampshire winner Christopher Bell (+600) flexed his muscle at Nashville before losing traction in traffic, ending his day prematurely. Bell and crew chief Adam Stevens snagged their first victory together at the Daytona road course in 2021, bringing great speed to the track no matter the type.
Bell possessed the best car at COTA early in the season, but Stevens’ bold pit strategy and no controversy meant the #20 Joe Gibbs Racing Camry ran out of time, less than a second behind William Byron. Wrecking after leading the most laps last year, expect the bells to toll in vengeance for Christopher on Sunday.
Tyler Reddick (+550) strolls into Paris on the Prairie as the third-favorite, and the victor of Denny Hamlin’s informal Bracket Challenge is hotter than most in the series on the back of five top-10s in the last six races.
Sitting fourth in the points and already locked into the Playoffs, Reddick could rise to the occasion in the town where team owner Michael Jordan made his name sinking buzzer-beaters for the Bulls. He is driving a car inspired by Mike after all.
Last up is Texas winner, Chase Elliott (+800). The 2020 Cup Series champion fought tooth and nail through the weekend in last year’s debut race, but he persevered to score third, one of his best results of 2023.
Still able to keep his top-20 streak alive these past two weeks, a road course provides a great opportunity for Elliott’s patient yet aggressive driving to shine, and after going the entire NextGen era without a road course win, Elliott might be due.
As for the two drivers not currently locked into the postseason, my eyes are on Chris Buescher (+1600) and Justin Haley (+8000).
Pilot of the #17 Fastenal Ford Mustang Dark Horse, the pride of Prosper, Texas heats up in the summer, and what better place to do that than a road course that demands good tire management? RFK’s longest-tenured driver is eager to get that sticker on his car, and Buescher might paste it on there in the City in the Garden.
Pit strategy played in Haley’s favor during the inaugural event; sadly, he was nothing more than a mild obstacle for the eventual winner. Haley hung on tight for a runner-up result, and with a more cohesive unit around him at RWR that gave him a fast Ford at COTA, I would not be surprised to see him contend.
Writer’s Pick
Last week’s selection was Tyler Reddick. After zeroing in on leader Joey Logano on the final restart, the #45 couldn’t do anything with the #22, settling for a third-place finish.
Defending winner Shane van Gisbergen (+425) opens the weekend on top of the heap for the oddmakers and my selection to take the win on Sunday.
The dynamic Kiwi struck gold on the cusp of Lake Michigan, winning in his Cup Series debut. A three-time Australian SuperCars champion, the driver initialized as SVG took back-to-back victories at Portland and Sonoma in the Xfinity Series last month.
With his newfound skills and familiarity with the NASCAR stock car, I suspect SVG can run up front and take these Cup regulars to task yet again, but he’ll have to go through Christopher Bell and Reddick to get there.
Last year, the two Toyota drivers took themselves out of the race while SVG used patience and instinct to slither his way through the pack before coming to a rest in victory lane. Ready for a sequel?
(Top Photo Credit: John Harrelson/Motorsport Images)
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