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Thinkin’ Out Loud in Chicago: NASCAR in the Wet Remains a Diamond in the Rough

What Happened?

Another rain-affected NASCAR Cup Series race at the Chicago street course came to a close with Alex Bowman in victory lane. Bowman triumphed on wet-weather tires over Tyler Reddick and Ty Gibbs, finishing second and third on slicks.

With the victory, Bowman snapped an 80-race winless streak, dating back to his Las Vegas triumph in the spring of 2022.

See also
Alex Bowman Beats The Clock In Chicago

What Really Happened?

Unfortunately, Mother Nature rained on the Chicago party once again. The race — and track — that has produced an incredible atmosphere and awesome action in its short lifespan can’t seem to catch a break from the weather.

The Chicago street course, or something like it at least, absolutely deserves another race next season. I’ll do one better: It needs a more permanent place on future schedules.

In both the Cup Series and the Xfinity Series, the street circuit has put on a show, even with limited action.

Additionally, the tire strategy added yet another fascinating element of team strategy and driver skill to the afternoon and evening. However, NASCAR may have missed another opportunity to plot a data point in this wet weather experiment. 

We’ve seen NASCAR push the limit with wet-weather tires a few times before, first in the Xfinity Series at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in 2016 and again at the Charlotte Motor Speedway ROVAL in 2020. The Cup Series experiment went pretty far at the Circuit of the Americas in 2021 until we learned about visibility issues due to spray.

In that moment, the “rain” tires changed to “wet-weather” tires, and NASCAR has been hesitant to push too far in wet conditions.

This weekend, however, NASCAR faced a bind. Constrained by a late start and an inability to delay to Monday, the race had to run in some way, shape or form. Oh, and it HAD to get past halfway. Another redo of last year’s Xfinity Chicago experience could not happen to the Cup Series.

It looked like the teams and drivers would push as far as they could into the rain until the favorite got taken out. A questionable double-file restart remained fairly tame for the first corner. Bowman spun Bubba Wallace, but no yellow allowed the field to get spread out. But then, Chase Briscoe slid into the turn 6 tires and nipped Shane van Gisbergen, and the yellow immediately flew.

It’s a tough line to walk. Safety absolutely should be a priority. At the same time, how are the drivers supposed to grow their wet-weather racing skills if they don’t get any true opportunities to race in the wet?

On one hand, it makes sense that NASCAR doesn’t want to throw a caution every half-lap, and they don’t want half of the teams upset after crashing on a wet track. However, when the field went back to racing, NASCAR wound up letting a lot of crashes, spins, and incidents go anyway because the window for green-flag racing was rapidly closing, and that added yet another intriguing element to the race.

Watching the teams and drivers manage wets versus slicks brought so much fun, nervous energy to the finish that only NASCAR can provide.

These wet-weather tires have so much potential, and they have already made such a positive impact in this sport. Sitting on pit road, not even making pace laps brought a lot of disappointment and frustration yet again.

However, another fun finish on an incredible track certainly made up for it.

Who Stood Out?

Not only did Bowman win the race, he had an impressive weekend. The No. 48 showed speed all weekend. His team made a great strategy call, and he had to pass another road course ringer, Joey Hand, to win. Bowman is a darn good road racer, he just hadn’t had the trophies before this weekend to show for it. 

Hand also stood out. Running a similar strategy, Hand won stage two, led eight laps and held on at the end to finish fourth on wets in the RFK Racing No. 60 machine.

Further back, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. earned another top 10 in seventh. Stenhouse has had a solid summer streak, with three top-10 finishes in the last four races.

Did Kyle Busch finally break his streak of bad luck? Busch finished ninth, his first top-10 finish in the last seven races.

See also
Shane van Gisbergen Wrecks Out Of Chicago Cup Race

Who Fell Flat?

Quite possibly the three top favorites for the Chicago Street Race all finished in the last three positions. SVG did not get taken out of his own doing. An unfortunate tap from an out-of-control Briscoe shot van Gisbergen just past the tires and into the concrete, relegating the defending race winner to dead last.

Surprisingly, with the Kiwi out, Kyle Larson did not take advantage. Instead, he made yet another mistake, sliding nose-deep into the tire barriers and ending his race. Larson kindly avoided Gibbs, but now he falls behind teammate Chase Elliott in the regular season points battle.

Another driver who made a shocking mistake was AJ Allmendinger. The road ringer should have had a leg up on his competition in the rain, and he made steady progress to the front until a mistake of his own in turn 12 stuck him in 38th place.

Better Than Last Time?

When the cars are on track, the Chicago street course experiment is an overwhelming success. I’m not sure how much of that is because of the rain both years, but the on-track product has been enough to overcome any rainy blues or frustrations.

As much action as we saw this year, the race itself couldn’t hold a candle to the electrifying drive of van Gisbergen to the front to do the unthinkable and win in his first-ever NASCAR start.

See also
Monday Morning Pit Box: Mother Nature Puts Crew Chiefs to the Test at Chicago

This track has been so good so far. While we, the fans may not be deserving of such greatness, the streets of Chicago need to see a race weekend fulfilled to its advertised distance.

Paint Scheme of the Race

The best-looking car nearly won the race. Sporting the original image of Michael Jordan jumping, legs split, reaching the ball up for a dunk, Reddick’s No. 45 machine had the cleanest paint scheme of the race.

This scheme debuted as a show car last season, but seeing it on the track was so much better.

What’s Next?

Surprise, but there’s more weather in the weekend forecast when the NASCAR Cup Series heads to Pocono Raceway. Fingers crossed, the Great American Getaway 400 Presented by VisitPA.com is scheduled for Sunday, July 14 at 2:30 p.m. ET on USA Network.

Caleb began sports writing in 2023 with The Liberty Champion, where he officially covered his first NASCAR race at Richmond in the spring. While there, Caleb met some of the guys from Frontstretch, and he joined the video editing team after graduating from Liberty University with degrees in Strategic Communications and Sports Journalism. Caleb currently work full-time as a Multi-Media Journalist with LEX 18 News in Lexington, Kentucky and contributes to Frontstretch with writing and video editing. He's also behind-the-scenes or on camera for the Happy Hour Podcast, live every Tuesday night at 7:30!

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12 Comments
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Shayne

The Xfinity race on Saturday was outstanding. Great job NASCAR.

In contrast, the Cup race on Sunday was another embarrassment for NASCAR.

It’s rather obvious these cars don’t need to be running in the rain. I would love to see the Cup cars racing Chicago’s road course on a dry track. No doubt I’d be talking about an outstanding follow-up to Saturday’s Xfinity race.

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, expecting a different result. NASCAR never learns from their mistakes.

Racing in the rain is a total crapshoot, much akin to the demolition derby racing we witness at Daytona and Talladega.

Now we have to listen while the media fawns all over NASCAR and Goodyear about the tires.

Maybe the 3rd time will be a charm.

Bill B

I can’t say much good about this race. It was a total crapshoot from beginning to end. Assuming the network is forcing the ridiculous late start time, I blame them. This race could have started at 1:00 local time and been finished before the rain came. I’m almost to the point of not even watching anymore. I’m tired of the races not ending until late Sunday night.

janice

i didn’t bother rejoining the race after the red flag. taking forever to start the race, then taking forever to start the race, then taking forever to decide wet tires/slicks, then green flag, then bam rain, rain and more rain.

maybe if when they lay out the street course if they could permit the drains to be effective instead of blocked with the barriers the racing surface wouldn’t have that standing water. i felt really sorry for the crews that had to service the cars in the wet pit road conditions. they’re lucky no one fell or were injured.

so mother nature wins 2 cup races in chicago.

DoninAjax

You gotta love what the Rain Gods think of a street event in Chicago. Maybe NA$CAR will get the message. NAH!

Charlie

Great venue. NBC is the problem, and not its coverage. They are responsible for the late start time. Because of the constraints, NASCAR needs to TELL them it will START at 2:15 EDT. That way, the rain delays that can happen in the summer around a major (Great) lake can be absorbed and finished.
Sometimes, you need to stand your ground. The television folks need the summer content.

Kevin in SoCal

I called it last week about the late start time this week. Race should have started at 1pm local time.
At least they didn’t switch to USA network.

Echo

I told Janice on here that the Sunday forecast was for thunderstorms. Last week also. I agree with Bill B, those networks didn’t pay that huge increase for tv rights and not have control of the start time. And we all know money is all that talks to the France family.

janice

indeed you did. and this weekend they’re at pocono, another track that had had weather issues in the past. this hot, humid oppressively crappy summer weather is getting old.

Brian

If the race started at the advertised 3:30CDT start time would have had fewer issues and as it turns out might have been able to finish the race.
NASCAR and the TV suits need to get some common sense.
Summer time, late afternoon, climate change or patterns equals late afternoon t-storms or rain chances almost every day.

Kicks

Anybody from the area can tell you that rain is always a possibility on any late summer afternoon. It started hitting the north and west suburbs earlier than it hit downtown and I could tell from the local radar that the race would be affected. The rain was over and sun was shining in the western burbs before the downpour hit downtown. Had NA$CAR used the old traditional 1:00 local starting time, the race would have been completed before the heavy downpour. Had the race been held at Chicagoland Speedway, the lights could have been turned on to avoid the darkness curfew. But NA$CAR can’t come up with any logical thinking and bows down the TV gods.

Kevin in SoCal

The TV gods pay the bills with their advertising dollars, so I can’t fault them too much.

Steve

Is this more shilling for the sanctioning body by the Frontstretch staff? Correct me if I’m wrong but the Cup series has never had a full race in dry weather on this track? So how can you hype this as an awesome track when the only racing done was on a wet track.

To me it was interesting due to the wet track, different tire options and the complete crap shoot that it made at the end (start the damn race earlier). Judging by the lack of fans in the stands after the rain delay, not everyone bought the hype.

Last edited 7 months ago by Steve