Chicago Street Course Review, Atlanta and Mid-Ohio Preview, and More | Chasing The Cup S2:E17

In this episode of Chasing the Cup, the host reviews the races at the Chicago Street Course. The NASCAR race had a surprising winner, Shane Van Gisbergen, and the Xfinity series was affected by severe weather and a race cancellation. The host discusses the success of the cup race and the challenges faced during the weekend, including a security breach at the track. The host also gives a preview of upcoming races at Atlanta and Mid-Ohio. The news segment includes updates on sponsorships, a new fan campaign, and potential future developments in NASCAR. Sadly, a worker died while setting up the street course in Chicago. The host concludes with race predictions for the upcoming weekend. Hello everyone, and welcome back to another episode of Chasing the Cup, I'm your host Will England, and in this episode, I'm going to be reviewing the races from the Chicago Street Course. I'll also go over the news that I'm going to preview this weekend's races at Atlanta and Mid-Ohio, but first, let's take a look at the results. From Chicago, this race led to one of NASCAR's biggest upsets in modern history, as supercar champion Shane Van Gisbergen wins the inaugural running of the Grant Park 220, and he's followed by Justin Haley in 2nd, Chase Elliott in 3rd, Kyle Larson in 4th, Kyle Busch in 5th, Austin Sendrick in 6th, Michael McAdow in 7th, Joey Logano in 8th, Ty Gibbs in 9th, and Chris Buescher rounds out the top 10, and in my opinion, this was a very good race for road course standards. There was plenty of passing going on, compared to Sonoma, and it was probably on the same level as Coda, but with a surprise winner, and you had some notable moments, such as the big pileup in Turn 11, when everyone just piled in after Kevin Harvick spun, as well as Austin Dillon battling for the lead with Justin Haley and hitting the tire barrier off of Turn 12, and of course, Shane Van Gisbergen battling hard with Justin Haley for the win, and in my opinion, this race was a success. The weekend itself was not a success, I'll talk about that later, but the main event that was hyped on NBC for weeks, in my opinion, was a huge, overwhelming success, including on the TV side, which I'll cover with the news, but it was not so in the Xfinity series, as Cole Custer wins a rain-swerting race, before the race even reached halfway, or completing stage 2, and he was followed by John Hardywiczek in 2nd, Justin Allgaier in 3rd, Brett Moffat in 4th, Austin Hill in 5th, Sammy Smith in 6th, Daniel Hemrick in 7th, Chandler Smith in 8th, Parker Kligerman in 9th, and Kaz Brawler rounds out the top 10, and in my opinion, for the race thing that did happen, it wasn't as good as the cup race, in my opinion, that was to be expected, because I don't think these Xfinity cars can handle these tight corners as these streetcars like the cup cars can, the next-gen cars are designed for streetcars and other roadcars in mind, but not so for the Xfinity series, which are basically COTs and Gen 6s, but in a smaller format, but in my opinion, this race was an absolute disaster. Basically what happened is that lightning struck nearby, and that led to NASCAR red-flagging the race to wait out the lightning delay, and usually it'd be just a quick 30-minute wait and we'll be back under running, but due to city law, which said that if there is a threat of severe weather, the park must evacuate, and evacuate it did, all the fans were forced to evacuate, and even the fans were told that the race was cancelled, but NASCAR did not make that decision until much later, when they caught word of what was happening, and so they postponed it to the next day, but the next day, a drought-ending storm parked itself over Chicago, and it rained for hours, it even delayed the cup race, that left NASCAR with no choice than to call the race before halfway, and Colchester ends up getting the victory, in my opinion, it wasn't really NASCAR's fault, it was just bad timing, as well as Chicago's very strict policy when it comes to weather at its parks, which in my opinion, is probably way too strict, and I hope next time NASCAR does not have that happen again, and because of that, all the big concerts, which probably all the normies came to see, were all cancelled, which probably left a bad taste in the normies' mouths, but us NASCAR fans, eh, we don't really care about the shows that much, they're just a nice side to the main meal, which is the race, but the race was the side to the main course of the normie, which was the concerts, like the Chainsmokers and Miranda Lambert, but they didn't play because of the disaster that played out over the course of the Xfinity race, from the lightning strike, to calling the race due to rain, and then this happened basically during the time of the Xfinity race, during the night between Saturday and Sunday, during the Xfinity race's red flag, someone broke into the track and drove around in their Corvette, and after he was caught by the guards, he was escorted out and arrested, which is another thing that you need to look at, and that is that there is a crime problem in Chicago, probably not with violent crimes, such as homicides and murders, most of the crime is burglary, larceny, and trespassing, which is what happened in this case, so NASCAR really needs to up its security game, they did hire 900 security guards, but they need to work on the track to make sure it is sealed up from trespassers, while not sealing the storm drains, which caused flooding on Pitt road before the cup race, so in my opinion, this weekend overall was 50-50, the first half was a disaster, but the second half was an overwhelming success, and in my opinion, I think Chicago deserves a second chance. I was very skeptical, and so many other critics were, such as Danny Hamlin, who thought it was too narrow, but afterward, I think this could work out, in my opinion, according to how things go in Chicago, but with most of Chicago voting extreme left right now, I think we'll continue to see the Chicago street course, as long as someone like Brandon Johnson, or someone else that's extreme to the left, is in control, and in my opinion, I think NASCAR should go to more street courses, such as going to other cities, or maybe going international, after what we saw, I think the cup series could go international now, without having to build a track in that country, like having to build the good gear thunderdome in Australia, or having to build a track in Japan, like they did in the 90s at Motegi, I think now NASCAR can run anywhere it pleases, all they need is just talk to the cities, and make up deals, but we'll see what happens, there's many rumors going around right now, and who knows what we'll see in the future, and so with that out of the way, let's get to the news, Cambridge has agreed to a multi-year partnership with Spire Motorsports, and will sponsor Corey LeJoy and Ty Dillon in multiple races, also, Spire announced that Marco Andretti would run in the meet ohio truck race, NASCAR and it's premier partners have launched a new thank you fans campaign, as part of the 75th anniversary celebration, which includes a sweepstakes to win an all expense paid trip to the finale at Phoenix, as well as other perks, and something to think about for a silly season, Shane Van Gisbergen would be allowed to move to NASCAR in 2024, right now Van Gisbergen is still under contract with 888 until the end of 2024, after that he is free to pursue a deal outside of the series, and next we have the Chicago street course TV ratings, NBC got it's most watched cup series race in 6 years, NBC's coverage of the Chicago street course got 4.795 million viewers on NBC and Peacock, and is NBC sports 8th most watched race under it's current rights agreement, so that adds to the success that Chicago street course got, Cole Custer has joined Rick Ware racing for 3 cup series races this year in the 51, Richard Childress has been named the grand marshal for the baker state 400 at Atlanta, pace car driver Kip Childress has retired from the role and has joined the cars tour as executive director, Austin Wainself will return to the truck series at mid Ohio, Sunseeker resorts will be sponsoring Grant and Finger at mid Ohio, Brad and Paige Keselowski are expecting their third child, and finally some tragic news from Chicago, one of the workers died while setting up the street course, the 53 year old man was an employee of a staging and lighting company, initial reports said that the man may have been electrocuted, but an autopsy will determine a cause of death, an Escar's spokesperson confirmed that a contractor suffered a fatal medical emergency, but declined to confirm the nature of the incident, according to WGN, so that's it for this week's news, now it's time to preview this weekend's races at Atlanta, and mid Ohio, starting off with a truck race at mid Ohio, we have the O'Reilly Auto Parts 150 at mid Ohio, the race will be 67 laps and 151 miles, and the race will be on July 8th at 1.30pm eastern time, and so for my pick, I'm going to go with Zane Smith, Zane Smith won at COTA earlier this year, and he's been a force to be reckoned with on the road courses, thanks to that 3018, and I think, this time I think, Zane Smith will win at mid Ohio, next up for the XFINITY race from Atlanta, we have the Osco Uniforms 250, the race will be 163 laps and 251 miles, and the race will be on July 8th at 8pm eastern time, and so for my pick, I'm going to go with Sam Mayer, Sam Mayer has come close a few times to doing his first win at Super Speedways, and I think this time he's going to do it, I think Sam Mayer will get his first career win by winning at Atlanta, and finally for the Cub race, we have the Quaker State 400 available at Walmart, the race will be 267 laps and 400 miles, and the race will be on July 9th at 7pm eastern time, and so for my pick, I'm going to go with the guy that almost won the last race in Atlanta in March, I'm going to go with Brad Kieslowski, Brad has been very fast on these plate tracks with his new team, and when he was running at Penske, but I think this time Brad is going to get his first win with RFK by winning at Atlanta, and so that's it for this week's episode, if you enjoyed it, please like and subscribe for more, and if you're going out to Atlanta this weekend, I hope you have a good time, and if you're not, have a good time wherever you are, and I'll see you next week. you