2024 NASCAR Cup Series Race Twenty Chicago

Cars in field: 40
Pole: Kyle Larson (5)
Outside Pole: Ty Gibbs (54)
Stages: 20-25-30
Weather: Mostly Cloudy, 78°F, Feels like 86°, Wind SSW 5 mph, Gusts 8 mph

Congratulations to Lewis Hamilton on his first win since 2021 at today’s British Grand Prix.

Congratulations to Pato O’Ward on winning at Mid-Ohio today.

Lovely, a choir doing the anthem. Oh, actually they’re singing ‘America’. The choir sounds lovely and their composition/rendition is wonderful.

Another song? Oh yeah, the actual anthem. The previous song was so good we didn’t really need another song. We particularly didn’t need this rather bland, icky version of the song. For a change we’re getting a chance to see the fly-over. That’s a surprise.

At 1653 eastern time it’s raining and the cars have been covered.

NASCAR has declared the track wet at 1655 eastern and the teams now have the option to put on the wet weather tires. It isn’t raining all over the 2.2 mile track, but some areas are getting a heavy rain according to MRN’s Jeff Striegle and Alex Hayden.

1700 eastern MRN reports the rain has stopped. The weather continues to the north of the track.

MRN’s Steve ‘Postie/Postman’ Post reports the teams have wet weather tires on. NASCAR will send them around one lap, then the teams will have the option to change to the slicks without losing position.

At 1705 eastern the cars are rolling off pit road.

In turns one and six there’s still some precipitation falling according to Dave Moody of MRN.

MRN’s Kurt Becker says it’s relatively dry through turns four and five – the backstretch portion of the track

MRN’s Dan Hubbard says they’re getting intermittent sprinkles in turns ten and eleven though seven and eight look fine.

NBC is starting with the idiot shots of the pavement before they reach the green flag. That doesn’t bode well for the watchability of the television broadcast.

They finally get the green flag.

Current Weather at the green flag: Light rain, 70°F, RealFeel® 75°, Wind NNE 4 mph, Gusts 8 mph.

The idiot shots abound. There was a shot of the tops of some skyscrapers. It was so far away they cars were only barely visible. There are lots of shots of groups of cars, but no context to indicate the relevance of the shots. Lots of shots of bumpers and pavement of random cars driving around. Again no context.

Some teams have pitted to change tires under green. William ‘WilliB’ Byron’s (24) crew-chief Rudy Fugle says more rain is on the way.

At 1728 eastern the turn announcers on MRN report the rain is beginning to fall harder and teams are pitting to change tires on lap 4 of 75. The track seems very long, not very passable, and too tight for real, competitive racing until possibly the final lap.

The television coverage is indecipherable. Other than a windshield-wiper, the trees lining the streets, the street surface itself, the walls, and the skyline I have no idea what we’re seeing on the television coverage since there are no identifying features that indicate what car’s windshield we’re viewing and the car in front of that car is too far away to identify the bumper. Show me the race MRN.

MRN reports the rain is coming and going around the track.

Shane ‘SVG’ Van Gisbergen (16) passes Ty ‘MyGrandfatherIsTeamOwnerJoeGibbs’ Gibbs (45) for the lead on lap 12 of 75.

Caution on lap 15 of 75 for a spin by Corey LaJoie (7).

MRN reports it’s pouring at various points on the racetrack. Postman says he’s getting very wet on pit road. He says we won’t race in conditions like this. Some teams changed to wet weather tires just as the caution came out, so they could possibly cycle through during this caution period if cars come down for wet weather tires.

The cars are equipped with rear lights, the defogger, and the windshield wiper. MRN’s Jeff Striegle and Dave Moody refer to the passage of the cars as a parade. Alex Hayden is talking about the fact that some of the advertising decals have been ripped by cars touching the walls. He says they have to retrieve the decals that are hanging half onto the track. They were also describing how the streets were open on Friday, closed late Friday afternoon and they built the track that evening.

Fast lap of the race so far – SVG at 88.275 mph on average according to Alex Hayden’s MRN. They are going as slowly as they appear.

MRN’s Jeff Striegle says he’s holding Alex Hayden responsible for the drenched track, because Alex said the rain would stay north. Instead it has drenched the track. Alex loves to play meteorologist on the broadcasts, but he’s absolutely terrible at it. He can occasionally tell listeners what the weather is doing currently, but he’s almost always wrong with his predictions.

Stage one ends under caution. Shane ‘SVG’ Van Gisbergen wins his first stage in the Cup Series.

There’s a traffic jam at the end of pit road as they came to a stop trying to leave pit road. There were lapped cars and jet-dryers passing as they tried to leave forcing them to stop. A couple of cars, Kyle Larson (5) and Darrelll ‘Bubba’ Wallace (23) got tapped by the cars behind them.

MRN reports Christopher Bell (20) wins the ‘race’ off pit road. They also report the turn announcers say the rain has stopped around the track.

MRN pit reports Chris Wilner says its starting to rain harder now. He mentioned the pit-crew members don’t have tread on the bottom of their official pit-crew shoes.

Restarting on lap 24 of 75 with Zane Smith (71), Christopher Bell (20), Ty Gibbs (54), Kyle Larson (5), Shane Van Gisbergen (16), Alex Bowman (48), Chase Briscoe (14), Bubba Wallace (23), Tyler Reddick (45), Todd Gilliland (38) at the front of the field. Those that changed tires earlier took the wave-around, as well as Corey LaJoie (7) and Harrison Burton (21) who are on slicks.

Turn one sent a lot of rear-ends askew.

Bubba Wallace (23) and Daniel Suarez (99) gets turned into the wall on lap 24 of 75

Shane ‘SVG’ Van Gisbergen (16) and Chase Briscoe (14) bring out the caution on lap 24 of 75 getting into the wall and tire barrier, respectively, in turn six. Moody reports SVG’s window net has come down. He says he hit hard and killed the car. MRN says Briscoe may have clipped SVG. Briscoe said he stalled the motor and locked it up because he went into five too hard. Darrell ‘Bubba’ Wallace said he killed the race car when he hit the wall. Alex Bowman turned Wallace around and into the wall. Chase Briscoe (14) was out of control when he went into the tire barriers. Shane ‘SVG’ Van Gisbergen (16) tackled the wall hard shortly after Briscoe skated past SVG. It looked like he tapped Shane – the car seemed to move a bit as Briscoe passed. MRN says Briscoe didn’t actually get into SVG. SVG said, in his tv interview, he got smashed by someone. Turns out it was Kyle Larson (5) who smashed him. They were both turning and Larson pinched him into the wall. NBC finally found a camera shot showing Larson knocking/dooring him into the wall.

NASCAR is bringing the field to the pit lane at 1823 eastern due to standing water on the track. The cars can run on wet streets, but cannot handle the large puddles. NASCAR is concerned about them hydroplaning at 150 mph down Lake Shore drive. The red flag is out. It’s pouring on some of the fans in the grandstands. The crews are running to cover the cars. The drivers can get out of the cars if they choose. They were able to see inside the cars and saw the rain dripping on Christopher Bell (20) while he was sitting in his car.

Martin ‘MTJ’ Truex Jr (19) says he couldn’t see anything except the flashing red light occasionally and tried to make sure he didn’t hit that. He said it’s going to be hard to get track position with the track wet.

Christopher ‘CBell’ Bell (20) said it was fun to have lapped traffic on a road course. He jokingly said he’s confused, do we race in the rain, or do we not race in the rain. He said he’s out front so he has the best visibility, but he wants to race. He said the conditions are the same for everybody. You just have to be smart and not bomb it off into the braking zone. He says it’s hard to see with the visor and he flipped it open immediately. He doesn’t know if its the rake of the windshield or what. He was talking to Parker Kligerman in his tv interview. He said Postman is soaked in his radio interview. He said the track is literally changing by the lap and it’s all about improvising and it’s a lot of fun. He said it was very hard to see up front, and he’s sure it was much harder in the back.

MRN’s Alex Hayden says it’s 69 degrees now at 1842 eastern.

Chase Elliott (9) said the beginning had a lot of grip and it kept getting better and then when it really rained a minute ago you couldn’t see the car in front of you and it was really hard to get a gauge of the grip level. He said with the spray, you couldn’t really see the car in front of you. He said you’d hit a puddle and hydroplane and then hit a dry patch and the grip would be normal. He said he thinks ‘we were really too far into the wet to race right there’. He said it was survival at that point. Chase said he and Kyle ‘KyBu’ Busch (8) had a gentleman’s agreement to go as slow as they needed to at the end. He said he thinks Kyle was using him as a guinea pig.

Joey Hand (60) says he’s having a lot of fun in the RFK car.

Seems like since Carson Hocevar (77) got a $25k fine for spinning Harrison Burton (21) under caution last week, the media wants to talk to him this week about his view in the rain. Postman seems to be following the tv reporters. I keep seeing him in the background of camera shots and he and Wilner are talking to the same folks I’m seeing in the tv interview.

Looks like the majority of the rain has passed the track, but the radar on NBC shows a bit more yet to pass.

Chase Briscoe (14) said he hit SVG and ended his day. He likely didn’t see Larson hit SVG after he went across the rear-end of Shane Van Gisbergen’s (16) car. He and his wife are expecting twins, so he says he’s trying to spend as much time as possible with Brooks because his life is going to change drastically when the twins get here.

NBCSports says there will be a time-limit on the race when/if they get going again.

Jeff Striegle says the rain is about to move out unless something pops up behind the current drizzle.

Alex Bowman (48) said he couldn’t see and all four tires locked up and he smashed the 23 (Darrell ‘Bubba’ Wallace) and ended their day. He said they had been having fun racing each other before that. He put some rear brake to it, but probably not enough. He said he’s pretty embarrassed about that.

It’s nice that NBC is talking to the drivers for a change in a red flag/rain delay period. Usually the NBC folks talk to each other mostly during rain delays, before throwing it to some old, recorded show, or to the old dudes (Dale Jarrett and Brad Daugherty) on the desk, or to a discussion amongst the booth guys. It kind of reminds me of the good old days of watching racing.

NBC reports the drivers have been told they are to be back at their cars at 1830 local time, 1930 eastern.

The old dudes are on at 1928 eastern as the pit crews are squeegeeing their stalls.

Alex Bowman (48) and Kyle ‘KyBu’ Busch (8) are getting strapped in at 1930.

NBCSports’ Parker Kligerman is showing the crosswalks have been painted black and the water is sitting on top of the paint causing handling issues for the drivers. Those painted crosswalks are in the restart zone.

Current Weather, Light rain, 69°F, Feels like 67°, Wind NE 4 mph, Gusts 7 mph.

MRN’s Postman says the lights have come on on the Pace Car and he believes they’re going to go single file for a few laps and will have single-file restarts for now.

NBC Sports is discussing and showing the rear-view camera on the car and the camera display in the car. It looks quite like the setup in a passenger car. The camera is placed above the rear-windshield. The display is to the right of the steering wheel in CBell’s car. Corey LaJoie mentioned, in his Stacking Pennies podcast, that the drivers can choose the placement of the display.

MRN’s Curt Becker says the skies have opened up again in turns ten and eleven and it’s raining hard.

NBC is showing the radar showing a quick pop-up shower.

The engines have been turned off. The car covers are getting put back on at 1943 eastern as it rains harder. The drivers remain sitting in the covered cars. It’s storming here – rain, lightning and thunder – now, as the rain reportedly slackens in Chicago. It’s raining very hard here.

MRN’s Curt Becker outside turn four says it’s still raining, but it has lessened. He says there are puddles that will need to be addressed.

The cut-off time is 2020 local time. So the crew chief who’s talking, Phil Surgen (1), says they likely won’t go to regulation due to the time limit. I understand why the race has to have a time limit since the course uses city streets, but I also think they should start the race earlier, especially with all of the extra pomp and circumstance during the pre-race ceremonies.

At 1958 eastern the teams are uncovering the cars and drying windshields.

Moody says the track is in reasonable shape – about where it was 30-45 minutes ago. It’s wet and will be for a while, but the track drying teams have mopped up the puddles in his area. Curt Becker says there’s a puddle of water on Lakeshore Drive and in turn five. He says we should be nearing the point of restarting. Dan Hubbard says turn ten is being stubborn with standing water. He says turns seven through eleven will be race ready and no one will be flying through here, but they will be able to go back to the race.

At 2006 eastern the engines have been re-fired according to MRN’s Steve ‘Postman/Postie’ Post.

At 2008 the caution flag is out.

The Pace Car begins to roll down the street at 2008 eastern.

Moody says the race fans are applauding loudly as the cars pass.

MRN says that NASCAR is reporting the race will be complete in 1 hour and 9 minutes from now – 2011 eastern. They will put the white flag in the air at that time, then they will have one lap to go.

There is a fuel situation for some teams including Ty ‘LittleJoe’ Gibbs (54) and Chase Elliott (9), who say they won’t be able to make the entire hour.

Now MRN is reporting that Chase Briscoe (14) clipped SVG taking him out of the race as they are re-capping the incident.

Restarting on lap 30 of 75 with Ty ‘LittleJoe’ Gibbs (54), Christopher ‘CBell’ Bell (20), Kyle Larson (5), Zane Smith (71), Tyler ‘TyRed’ Reddick (45), Todd Gilliland (38), John Hunter ‘JHN’ Nemechek (42), Chase Elliott (9), Kyle ‘KyBu’ Busch (8), Ross ‘WatermelonBoy’ Chastain (1) up front.

‘Desperate’ Denny Hamlin (11) and new dad Ricky ‘WreckySpinhouse’ Stenhouse (47) get into the tire barrier in turn six. Hamlin started to go, then killed his engine and it wouldn’t re-fire. Stenhouse got started and drove away. Then Hamlin drove away.

Christopher ‘CBell’ Bell (20) takes the lead from Ty ‘LittleJoe’ Gibbs (54) on lap 30 of 75.

Caution on lap 33 of 75 for Kyle Larson hitting the tire barrier. His car is buried up to the windshield. He’s smoking the tires trying to back the car out of the barrier. It looked like he got into the back of Ty Gibbs car then went head-on into the tire barrier. The wheels never turned. MRN says the concrete walls are 10,000 pounds each and Larson moved at least two of them when he hit the tire barrier. They have pulled his car out of the tire barrier. He started it and is driving away, passing the tow truck with sheet metal hanging off the the car and the hood buckled.

Larson has come to a stop. MRN says it’s due to the damage on the car.

Larson shoved the tires so far to the left there’s an area without tires. There is a forklift moving tires into the correct position. They also have to reattach the rubber skin that holds the tires together when hit.

We are currently 41 minutes from the end of the race at 2039 eastern time.

Larson said he assumes he just locked up. He said as soon as he hit the brakes it didn’t slow even a little.

Restarting, single-file, on lap 37 of 74 at 2040 eastern with Christopher Bell (20), Ty Gibbs (54), Tyler Reddick (45), Todd Gilliland (38), John Hunter Nemechek (42), Chase Elliott (9), Ross Chastain (1), Aj Allmendinger (13), Alex Bowman (48), Zane Smith (71) up front. They have to stay in line until the cross a white line after turn twelve.

The field is mostly staying single-file as they race. Occasionally when there’s a wide portion of the course a car might pass.

Josh Berry (4) hits the tire barrier and Stewart Haas Racing (SHR) teammate Chase Briscoe (14) spins in turn four on lap 37. The race stays green.

SHR’s Ryan Preece (41) hit the tire barrier and was able to back of and continue on lap 39.

Cars are pitting under green on lap 44 under green.

Josh Berry (4) hits the tire barrier, backs it out, spins around and heads in the right direction.

Christopher Bell, among others, apparently changed to slick tires though the track is still wet.

Joey Hand (60) wins stage two, holding off Alex Bowman (48).

Restarting on lap 4 with Joey Hand (60), Alex Bowman (48), Brad Keselowski (6), Carson Hocevar (77), Martin Truex Jr. (19), Noah Gragson (10), Daniel Hemric (31), Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (47), Harrison Burton (21), Ryan Preece (41) at the front.

AJ Allmendinger (13) in the tire barrier on lap 48. He’s trying to get it out of the barrier and headed in the right direction.

Alex Bowman (48) takes the lead from Joey Hand (60) on lap 50.

Josh Berry (4) brings out the caution on lap 50 buried in the tire barrier.

NASCAR says the white flag will fly after the leader crosses the start-finish line, once the time expires, followed by the checkered flag. There will be no overtime.

Restarting on lap 53 with Alex Bowman (48), Joey Hand (60), Brad ‘It’ Keselowski (6), Martin ‘MTJ’ Truex Jr. (19), Carson Hocevar (77), Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (47), Noah Gragson (10), Daniel Hemric (31), Christopher Bell (20), Harrison Burton (21) up front.

Chase Briscoe (14) is in the tire barrier, he continues. The race stays green.

CBell (20) turns into the wall in front of Hocevar (77). Both keep going.

John Hunter ‘JHN’ Nemechek (42) gets turned sideways. He tries to keep going.

Hamlin (11) and Austin Hill (33) get into the barrier on lap 55. They get back going the right direction

The clock expires 2120 eastern. Alex Bowman (48) is out front.

<– 2122 eastern –>White flag at 2122 eastern for Alex Bowman (48) as Tyler Reddick (45) chases him down.

Alex Bowman (48) wins on lap 58! He breaks an 80 race winless streak.

Darrell ‘Bubba’ Wallace (23) door-slammed Alex Bowman (48) on his cool-down lap.

Alex Bowman (48) gave a shoutout to Chloe during his tv interview. He said this is the only race she’s missed this year. She’s at home with the puppies. He mentioned breaking his back and having a brain injury and pretty much sucking ever since. This is his crew-chief Blake Harris’ first Cup series win as a crew-chief. Alex’s first comment was to apologize to Bubba in his tv interview. He said he was trying to get his windshield wiper on and is still embarrassed by that.

The race before the red flag was boring. The race after the red flag was messy. It was a relief that Hamlin wasn’t allowed to bring out the caution everytime he had an issue. That’s a nice change. The finish was exciting with Joey Hand staying close, then Tyler Reddick chasing him down.

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GO Hendrick 48 & 9!!!!