Was the time limit rule for the NASCAR Cup Series’ Chicago Street Race a good idea? Should it be tweaked?
Kevin Nix: Yes, with only a small tweak of knowing even sooner in advance when the hard cutoff is. Ideally, if there is a chance of inclement weather, NASCAR would have a time set before the race even starts. As it was, the limit was executed very well during the race and allowed drivers and teams to work backward strategically from race’s end. Alex Bowman and Tyler Reddick were on different strategies in the final laps, and if Reddick hadn’t hit the wall on the final lap, the two drivers would’ve raced down to the wire with a photo finish possible. It’s a much better idea than previous things NASCAR has tried.
James Krause: The time limit rule is excellent, and I’m glad that NASCAR has started setting hard times to end races that have the potential to end by sundown. The format from a time standpoint was perfect, and while I understand the thought of throwing out stage breaks to get more of the race in, keeping them was the best thing NASCAR could do to not upend pit strategies. I hope we don’t see too many time-limit races in the future, but Sunday (July 7) was exciting in part because of the set time limit.
Vito Pugliese: Yes, with the sun going down in a city surrounded by buildings — and one that needed to go back to normal for 5 million people — it was the best option available. I take that back; the best option available would have been starting at 1 p.m. ET and giving itself another couple of hours with which to work.
Phil Allaway: This is something that was all but forced on NASCAR due to the fact that its policies on racing the next clear day really don’t work with street races. Going forward, it will need to inform teams earlier. That said, it wasn’t dropped on everyone during the red flag.
Mike Neff: The time limit was a good idea just because we were running out of time. The greater travesty is starting the race at nearly 5 p.m. Everyone knows that the weather in the summer frequently includes afternoon showers. If you start the race at 2 p.m. ET, you will avoid rain delays.
Samuel Stubbs: Yes. In the future, there needs to be a rule about start times regarding tracks without lights. TV may dictate start times, but NASCAR can’t like poor TV ratings when races are rain-shortened.
Seventy percent of Cup winners at Pocono Raceway have started inside the top 10. Why does qualifying matter so much there?
Krause: Part of it goes into setup and getting the best car you can for all three corners. If you can get a car strong in all three turns, you’re going to have an edge over those who struggle to get their car right in one or more turns. Another factor to consider is pit road selection. Fuel strategy is big at Pocono, with a decent amount of events determined by who can stretch their fuel. A good pit selection can be the difference for either a final round of caution stops or a quick gas-and-go.
Nix: Track position, track position, track position. It is incredibly difficult to pass with this car at Pocono after the first four or five laps of the run, which means teams will always want to be as close to the front of the field as possible. Clean air is big everywhere, but it’s especially important at Pocono. Also, if you’re at the front, you can pit under green and not lose a lap and cycle back to the front when everyone else pits. Qualifying is like a race in itself at the Tricky Triangle.
Pugliese: Traditionally, passing is hard in the era of aero push and wake turbulence. Another part of that too is if you’re fast in qualifying, you’ll be fast in the race. Neverending straights and fast, flat, sweeping corners reward horsepower over mechanical grip, and that’s hard to overcome once the field gets strung out by almost a minute a lap.
Stubbs: It’s a track where the field gets spread out over long runs, and it’s difficult to make up large amounts of ground at a track that takes 50 seconds to traverse. Add in the fact that Pocono seems to lend itself to veteran drivers and it makes sense that it’s the best drivers who consistently conquer the Tricky Triangle in both qualifying and the race.
Allaway: It matters due to how the field gets spread out. If you start 25th with a good car in the race, you’ll need a caution to make much progress. Without it, you might be 18 seconds back once you get to 10th.
Neff: Fuel strategy is often a play. There are usually a few different fuel strategies in the top 10. Someone may come from further back, but the odds are that someone starting top 10 will pull off the win.
Will Rodney Childers make a difference in Corey LaJoie’s performance in 2025?
Stubbs: The No. 7 team will improve, but it will be a question of whether or not the improvements warrant another season of Corey LaJoie being in the car. If he can’t crack the top 20 in points next year, Spire Motorsports may be wise to kick an aging LaJoie to the unemployment line and seek the talents of Connor Zilisch or Rajah Caruth in 2026.
Krause: Not enough to make all that much of a difference. Rodney Childers is a great crew chief and adds to Spire, but I just don’t see the LaJoie-Spire combination being able to accomplish much. The No. 7 has had a great amount of success on superspeedways, even coming close to winning at Atlanta Motor Speedway a few times. Outside of that, he’s been a borderline top-20 car at best. Childers might put LaJoie in the top 20 more consistently and fix his struggles on short tracks, but I don’t see him being enough of a difference to put LaJoie in a spot to contend.
Nix: Childers was crew chief for both of David Reutimann‘s Cup wins and for Brian Vickers when he won at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in 2013. As Scott Riggs‘ crew chief, he contended for the win on speed at multiple tracks in 2006. Childers elevates the performance of every driver he works with, and it’s fair to say he will do the same with LaJoie. If he can get Vickers and Reutimann to win, he can also get LaJoie to do so.
Pugliese: Childers transformed Michael Waltrip Racing into a winning organization and brought Stewart-Haas Racing a championship in 2014 with Kevin Harvick at the wheel. Spire has money and stability; it just needs some winning experience to help guide LaJoie in the right direction.
Neff: Childers is a racer. LaJoie is a racer. If you put two guys like that together, good things evolve. LaJoie used to build his cars when he ran late models and the ARCA Menards Series East. Between the two, look for good things to happen.
Allaway: It might. Childers is considered a top-flight crew chief in Cup these days. He’ll improve the team at the track and help it build better cars. Let’s put it this way: If LaJoie isn’t better next year, we’ll know what the problem is in the No. 7.
Who was the problem in the AM Racing-Hailie Deegan relationship? Who would you like to see in that ride going forward?
Pugliese: It’s not limited to one person. The biggest issue with Hailie Deegan‘s career seems to be a complete absence of guidance. She’s been a rookie three of the last five seasons and was thrown in the deep end during the no-practice, COVID-19-impacted years of 2020 and 2021. She always impresses in one-offs like the Camping World SRX Series races at Berlin Raceway and Eldora Speedway, her first NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at Kansas Speedway and her first NASCAR Xfinity Series start in the No. 07. Then she gets with a team, there are some struggles, a crew chief changes … and the team bails on her. She has potential, but she needs a support system around her to get her up to pace quicker. The fact that Joey Logano had to walk the crew chief through adjustments after practicing in 28th and qualifying 15th wasn’t a good look for AM.
Nix: Both Deegan and the team were the problem. Deegan was not able to elevate the equipment the same way Brett Moffitt did last year, and she did not run toward the front at any point. She has not proven that she can run competitively in NASCAR’s national divisions. However, AM played a hand in her struggles as well. Logano drove the car at Chicago had to teach his (and Deegan’s former) crew chief how to adjust the car. It is inexcusable that a crew chief does not know how to adjust a racecar. If Deegan cannot articulate how to make the car better, the crew chief should be able to make some changes to the car. For AM to survive at all, it needs to keep putting Cup drivers like Logano and Josh Berry, who is driving it this weekend, in the car to make the team as a whole better. Maybe it can get Logano in a few more times, as well as Michael McDowell. AM will fail if it does not know how to make its cars better instead of banking on its drivers overachieving.
Allaway: It’s probably a combination of both parties. The team probably wasn’t set up correctly to handle a rookie driver. Deegan likely had high expectations going in, then realized that the equipment wasn’t as good as she thought and didn’t have the experience to compensate. Alternately, Moffitt could have been outperforming his equipment last year and no one realized it.
Stubbs: The reason for Deegan’s tumultuous tenure with AM can’t be placed on a single person or event. She wasn’t ready for the NASCAR Xfinity Series, the team made myriad personnel changes that didn’t work, the cars started falling apart, etc. The blame can’t be placed all on the team or Deegan. Some team/driver marriages just aren’t built to last, and that seems to be the case here.
Neff: This just in, Deegan is not good. She is good with off-road trucks, but those do not require precision driving. Until she can cut uber-consistent laps, she will struggle at the national stock car level. If you want to put someone in that car and give them a chance, give Connor Hall a shot.
Krause: Most of the blame can be placed on AM. For starters, it’s undergone a lot of changes — Joe Williams being replaced as crew chief by Matt Lucas in May — in just its second season running in Xfinity. Continuity, or lack thereof, is key. On top of that, I don’t know what this organization expected when it replaced Moffitt with Deegan. We all knew what Deegan was able to do in her time in the Truck Series and that she’s still a ways away from being a top performer at that level, let alone Xfinity. I hope she gets to join a team that will have the tools in place to develop her, not just throw her out there and hope results finally come.
About the author
Phil Allaway has three primary roles at Frontstretch. He's the manager of the site's FREE e-mail newsletter that publishes Monday-Friday and occasionally on weekends. He keeps TV broadcasters honest with weekly editions of Couch Potato Tuesday and serves as the site's Sports Car racing editor.
Outside of Frontstretch, Phil is the press officer for Lebanon Valley Speedway in West Lebanon, N.Y. He covers all the action on the high-banked dirt track from regular DIRTcar Modified racing to occasional visits from touring series such as the Super DIRTcar Series.
Vito is one of the longest-tenured writers at Frontstretch, joining the staff in 2007. With his column Voice of Vito (monthly, Fridays) he’s a contributor to several other outlets, including Athlon Sports and Popular Speed in addition to making radio appearances. He forever has a soft-spot in his heart for old Mopars and presumably oil-soaked cardboard in his garage.
Kevin Nix has been with Frontstretch since February 2023. Hailing from Gilbert, Arizona, his dream is to be in the NASCAR media sphere full-time. He is a video assistant, working on the back end to streamline video and audio quality of all at-track interviews. Nix also writes about news every Monday for the site.
Nix graduated with a Master's Degree in Sports Journalism from ASU's Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication in Phoenix, Arizona. He also has bachelor's degrees in Communications and Political Science. In his downtime, he likes to read, play video games and take walks in the Arizona weather - when it's not too hot.
James Krause joined Frontstretch in March 2024 as a contributor. Krause was born and raised in Illinois and graduated from Northern Illinois University. He currently works in La Crosse, Wisconsin as a local sports reporter, including local short track racing. Outside of racing, Krause loves to keep up with of football, music, anime and video games.
What is it that Mike Neff doesn’t do? The writer, radio contributor and racetrack announcer coordinates the site’s local short track coverage, hitting up Saturday Night Specials across the country while tracking the sport’s future racing stars. The writer for our signature Cup post-race column, Thinkin’ Out Loud (Mondays) also sits down with Cup crew chiefs to talk shop every Friday with Tech Talk. Mike announces several shows each year for the Good Guys Rod and Custom Association. He also pops up everywhere from PRN Pit Reporters and the Press Box with Alan Smothers to SIRIUS XM Radio. He has announced at tracks all over the Southeast, starting at Millbridge Speedway. He's also announced at East Lincoln Speedway, Concord Speedway, Tri-County Speedway, Caraway Speedway, and Charlotte Motor Speedway.
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NA$CAR “tweaks” every decision they have made since the end of the 2003 season! How has that worked out?