Welcome back to the winner’s circle, Chase Briscoe.
The driver of the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota became the 10th different winner in the NASCAR Cup Series in 2026, taking the checkered flag in the eero 400 at Chicagoland Speedway on Sunday (July 5). Briscoe snapped a 20-race winless streak to notch his sixth career victory in his 199th career start.
With that, the first NASCAR race weekend at Chicagoland since 2019 is in the books. So let’s crunch the data and look at the notable numbers behind the Cup Series’ return to Joliet, Ill.
7 – Toyotas in the Top 10
It has been evident from opening weekend at the Daytona 500 that Toyota is the manufacturer to beat in the Cup Series this season. In fact, it’s a topic that we’ve already covered in Stat Sheet a few months ago.
But yesterday’s race in Chicagoland might have been the clearest display of Toyota’s recent dominance. Toyota put not one, not three… but seven cars in the top 10, a new record for the manufacturer. Keep in mind only 10 Camrys total were entered in the race.
In addition to Briscoe, Christopher Bell finished in the runner-up spot, followed by Denny Hamlin in third, Bubba Wallace in sixth, Ty Gibbs in eighth, Corey Heim in ninth and Riley Herbst completing the top 10. Additionally, Toyota had three of the top four lap leaders on the day in Briscoe (51), Wallace (35) and Hamlin (30).
With that performance, Toyota’s already considerable lead in the manufacturer standings grew to 120 points over Chevrolet, with Ford a distant third at 270 points behind. It’s not if they’ll win the title this season… it’s by how much.
94 – Laps Led by William Byron
While Toyotas owned the race overall, the driver who led the most laps at Chicagoland drove a Chevrolet. That honor went to William Byron, who paced the field for 94 of 267 laps Sunday night.
For Byron, it was perhaps his best race of the season. The driver of the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet led just 42 laps across the first 18 races of 2026 prior to Chicagoland. More importantly, Byron translated his speed into a fourth-place finish as the one-time title contender tries to salvage his year. Compare that to drivers like Tyler Reddick and Hamlin, who have at least four wins to Byron’s zero.
An additional shout-out goes to Kyle Larson, who led 23 laps before his stage two spin-out relegated him to 34th, two laps down.
In recent weeks, it appears that Hendrick Motorsports has begun to figure out the new Chevrolet body and show improvement in their results. They could be the team that gives the Toyota fleet a run for its money come Chase time.
4 – Runner-up Finishes Since Christopher Bell’s Last Win
The final laps at Chicagoland became a duel between two JGR drivers seeking their first win of the season. Ultimately, it was Briscoe who took the victory while Bell’s winless streak extended to 26 races.
In that span, Bell has finished second on four different occasions. In addition to Chicagoland, Bell was the runner-up at Phoenix Raceway behind Ryan Blaney, the Coca-Cola 600 to Daniel Suarez and at Nashville Superspeedway trailing teammate Hamlin.
Despite the disappointment, Bell has shown resilience in the wake of his wrist injury at Michigan International Speedway last month and has managed back-to-back top-five finishes. If Bell continues to put himself in contention, the next win will likely come soon for the native of Norman, Okla.
22.4% – Percent of Laps Completed by Connor Zilisch in the Last Five Cup Series Oval Races
On this week’s episode of Connor Zilisch and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Season, the rookie in the No. 88 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet did not make it a full lap around Chicagoland. Instead, Zilisch got caught up in an accident when Ryan Preece spun and got into him. Zilisch, in turn, hit the inside wall on the backstretch, ending his race in 38th place, dead last in the field.
As a result of the early exit, Zilisch has completed just 291 out of 1,300 laps at the past five Cup Series oval races, amounting to a mere 22.4% of possible laps.
For a rookie like Zilisch who is trying to rack up experience, this stat may be the toughest pill to swallow, even more so than the finishing position. Without laps logged to gain knowledge of the Next Gen car and Cup competition, Zilisch’s learning curve becomes steeper, making it tougher to dig out of the hole he currently finds himself in.
52 – Career Poles for Denny Hamlin
Though it did not translate into a win, Hamlin captured his fourth pole award of 2026 in Saturday’s qualifying session, including his third consecutive pole on an oval. For his Cup career, Hamlin now has 52 career poles, passing Ryan Newman for ninth on the all-time list.
Whenever you’re being mentioned in the same tweet as The Rocketman himself for qualifying prowess, you’re doing something right, and Hamlin has certainly done a lot of things right in 2026.
28 – Lead Changes
In the aftermath of Chicagoland, people will be making cases for or against returning to the 1.5-mile oval in future seasons. Here’s a stat that the pro-Chicagoland crowd will probably cite in their arguments.
Sunday’s race saw 28 different lead changes, which marks the third-most in a non-superspeedway Cup race this season. Only the Coca-Cola 600 (32) and Nashville Superspeedway (31) had more over the course of their event.
The eero 400 was another example of the Next Gen car producing great racing on the intermediate tracks. As long as that is the case, I say the more the merrier. It would be great to see NASCAR return to Chicagoland in 2027 and beyond.
Andrew Stoddard joined Frontstretch in May of 2022 as an iRacing contributor. He is a graduate of Hampden-Sydney College, the University of Richmond, and VCU. He works as an athletic communications specialist at Eastern Mennonite University in Harrisonburg, Va.
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