JOLIET, ILL. — After a seven-year absence, NASCAR Cup Series racing returned to Chicagoland Speedway this past weekend to a sold-out crowd.
Just as fast the green flag went up into the air. the yellow followed before a lap could be completed when a four-wide situation on the exit of turn 2 went horribly awry for Ryan Preece and rookie Connor Zilisch.
When Denny Hamlin left the restart zone on lap 7, the cars fanned out three and four-wide behind him, arguing for position like cars in a high-speed traffic jam. Hamlin’s launch failed to secure the lead as Kyle Larson screamed by to got P1 on the scoring pylon.
After working the defending Cup champion over for a handful of laps, the Progressive Toyota Camry XSE powered by the HendrickCars.com Chevy Camaro on lap 19 and started to pull away until Zane Smith bowled through Carson Hocevar on lap 32, wrecking both cars.
The field retreated to pit road for service with little change at the front of the field. Larson led the field back to the starter’s stand, and a short run ensued before being interrupted once more, this time by Shane van Gisbergen and Austin Hill coming together for the third time in the past month.
Hill’s zOne Chevy found itself on the receiving end this time, sliding backwards into the turn 3 wall and prematurely ending his race on lap 48.
Some drivers deep in the field chose to stay out while the frontrunners ducked back into the pits, handing Austin Cindric and Riley Herbst the front row for the lap 54 restart.
The race ran green until the end of the first stage with the Hendrick teammates of Byron and Larson storming by Cindric with 12 laps remaining, handing Byron his second stage win of 2026.
Stage 1 Results:
1. William Byron
2. Kyle Larson
3. Bubba Wallace
4. Austin Cindric
5. Chase Briscoe
6. Chris Buescher
7. Riley Herbst
8. Denny Hamlin
9. Ty Gibbs
10. Tyler Reddick
William Byron shot out of a cannon on the restart, but the No. 23 Space Jam Toyota of Bubba Wallace wheeled around the Anduril Chevy, taking the lead on lap 92. Shortly after though, Larson lost traction in turn 3, jumping the seam and spinning into the infield.
An infield waterlogged from a brutal Saturday shower prevented the 5 car from continuing under his own power, losing two laps due to being retrieved from the infield.
Though he suffered little in the way of visible cosmetic damage, Larson dragged his car on several flat tires the length of the race track, inevitably ruining his underbody and his night.
The caution saw Ryan Preece awarded the free pass, putting him back on the lead lap after his opening-lap incident. He rebounded to finish 32nd, one lap down.
Wallace sprinted out to a two-second advantage over Byron while JGR stablemates Hamlin and Briscoe picked their way through the field. Just as green-flag pit stops began, the 23 found himself surrounded by his Toyota teammates.
Hamlin and Briscoe split Wallace three-wide with the 11 surging ahead on the bottom. Just as the leaders cycled through pit road while some stragglers held out for a caution, their prayers were answered when Tyler Reddick’s radiator came apart in turn 2 on lap 134.
Ryan Blaney and Christopher Bell were among the stragglers, bringing their cars into the pits under yellow and ceding the advantage back to William Byron.
After getting clear on the restart, Byron never looked back, even as the two-time Southern 500 winner hounded him, taking a stage 2 victory.
Stage 2 Results:
1. William Byron
2. Chase Briscoe
3. Denny Hamlin
4. Ty Gibbs
5. Ryan Blaney
6. Christopher Bell
7. Chase Elliott
8. Alex Bowman
9. Austin Cindric
10. John Hunter Nemechek
Stage 3 kicked off with much of the same from the two-time Daytona 500 winner as he torched his competition until Briscoe dipped into the pits for the undercut with 52 laps remaining.
Byron followed suit the next lap, but a slight delay on the left-rear tire of the 24 gave the 19 the lead when he merged back onto the track.
Briscoe held the advantage that yo-yoed between seven tenths and one second, but as Byron started top fade, his teammate Christopher Bell entered the fray.
The 20 team battled back from an early pit-road skirmish with Todd Gilliland that put him behind the 8-ball until the pit sequence got turned on its head in stage 2 when Reddick’s radiator blew.
With just a two-lap tire advantage over Briscoe, Bell put on a furious charge over the final 40 laps, gradually nibbling away at the five-second gap.
Despite Denny Hamlin initially running in Bell’s tire tracks, the series points leader almost knocked the turn 2 wall down with less than 10 laps to go, forcing him to cede the battle for the victory.
Bell focused forward, making quick work of Byron and locking onto his teammate. To make matters harder on Briscoe, lapped traffic came to play late in the race, flashing pace and stubbornness.
Briscoe held serve as Bell started creeping into his rearview mirror, eating chunks out of the gap. When the race hit three laps to go, Bell found himself on Briscoe’s bumper, looking for somewhere to go.
Aero games came into play as Briscoe let off early and waited for his teammate to make a move, cutting the air off of the 20’s nose as much as possible.
The maneuver paid off in the short term, letting the Bass Pro Shops machine to eke back out to a short lead, but Bell pulled back up to the 19’s spoiler coming to the white flag.
As the two JGR Toyota dove into turn 1, Briscoe repeated the move from two laps before, baiting Bell into a move that got him caught in his wake. Bell’s car lost grip and couldn’t find the other three tenths in the final turn, handing the win to Chase Briscoe and the 19 team, their first of 2026.
Bell, Hamlin, Byron, and Alex Bowman rounded out the top-10 while Bubba Wallace, Ryan Blaney, Ty Gibbs, Corey Heim, and Riley Herbst filled out the top-10 positions. Here is a link to the full results.
Next up for the NASCAR Cup Series is a trip down to the Peach State and EchoPark Speedway (formerly Atlanta), which will air on TNT next Sunday, July 12 at 7pm Eastern Time.
(Top Photo Credit: Jonathan Bachman/Getty Images)
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