“I was catching Alex (Bowman) by a large margin there,” said Reddick Sunday night. “I don’t know. That puzzles me. I clearly just screwed up. Trying to stay in the dry groove and I had more than enough room of dry groove. Yeah, I cut the wheel a little too hard -- just not focused enough, I guess. I knew I was going to get to him and the earlier I could get to him the more options I would have, and it was going to get a little bit more slick off line beyond turn 8. Yeah, just didn’t even give ourselves a shot to race him unfortunately. I hate it. Not what this Jordan Brand Toyota Camry is about and what this team is about. Just got to start capitalizing on these ones.”
- Tyler Reddick
Tyler Reddick and Ty Gibbs finished second and third, falling just short of victory on the streets of Chicago in Sunday’s rain-shortened race.
NASCAR
For the second year in a row, the Cup Series’ Chicago Street Race was impacted by weather, causing the originally scheduled 75 lap race in the Windy City streets to only run 58 laps on Sunday. The adjustment in the race distance threw a curveball in strategy, impacting drivers such as Christopher Bell, Tyler Reddick and Ty Gibbs, who were three of the strongest cars Sunday afternoon. Right before the end of Stage 2, after a lengthy weather delay, the Camry XSE drivers came into the pits to put on slick tires and take full fuel as the city street circuit appeared to be drying up. However, with many cars to pass before darkness fell on the city, Reddick and Gibbs came just short of capturing eventual winner, Alex Bowman, finishing second and third, respectively. Bell was part of an on-track incident, which resulted in a 37th-place finish. The results mark the eighth top-five for Reddick, his third top-10 finish in a row, and the fifth top-five for Gibbs this season.
“We had a bad pit stop that one time and got behind. We had a (tire) gun blow out, so it was nobody’s fault -- just part of it,” said Gibbs, following the race. “We just got behind. I had to use, I feel like, a good bit of my stuff to get back all the way to the front. Then, I was just too loose – we were kind of loose the whole time. It was just hard there at the end. The top restart is really hard because it’s super dirty up there so you’re just up in the fuzz the whole time off of (turn) 12. I don’t know what I could’ve done different there. Just needed to be a little bit better, a little tighter. I felt like we were pretty solid all day.”
- Ty Gibbs
On Saturday afternoon, Ty Gibbs led Toyota drivers with a second-place finish in the Xfinity Series race on the streets of downtown Chicago. The Joe Gibbs Racing driver ran up front most of Stage 1 in his No. 19 GR Supra, finishing third by the stage’s end, before having an issue with a right rear tire gun on the ensuing pit stop, forcing him towards mid-pack. Gibbs methodically made his way back up through the field in the ladder half of the race to be in contention for the victory, falling short to race-winner Shane van Gisbergen by just over a second as the checkered flag flew.
Gibbs’ JGR teammates, John Hunter Nemechek and Sheldon Creed, also found themselves inside the top-10 in the final stage, but on-track incidents towards the end of the race for both led to finishes of 25th and 26th, respectively.
ARCA
Sean Hingorani swept the ARCA Menards Series West races at Irwindale Speedway over the weekend. Hingorani led every lap in Thursday’s race and held off Toyota Development Driver Isabella Robusto in a late charge to earn a one-two finish for Venturini Motorsports.
On Saturday night, Robusto led late in the race, but had a right-front tire go down with 31 laps remaining to fall out of contention. Hingorani held on to the lead for two late restarts to earn the sweep.
What’s Next
NASCAR travels to Pennsylvania where all three series are set to compete at Pocono Raceway this weekend. The NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series kicks off racing action on Friday, July 12 at 5:30 p.m. ET on FS1. The NASCAR Xfinity Series competes on Saturday, July 13 at 3:00 p.m. ET on USA Network and the NASCAR Cup Series race is scheduled for Sunday, July 14 at 2:30 p.m. ET on USA.