The king of the Chicago Street Course was here to collect yet another again win both Xfinity and Cup by none other than SVG.
He’s not just fast, he also played his cards right where he outsmarted the whole Cup field and never looked back ever since.
Second Cup win of 2025 btw.
Look further with Tyler Reddick in 3rd for the 23XI Toyota who did indeed dominate the third stage alone as if it did not count towards the final race result but still he had a front row afternoon.
So does Kyle Busch in the No.8 for Childress in 5th where he had a flying start up to 2nd in Stage 1 before he lost his way in between but slowly & surely regained a lot of ground with credit to those 2nd half and late yellows.
And the best mid-running Ford driver of the day goes to Roush-Brad K once again but it’s Ryan Preece in the No.60.
Now Ryan would’ve loved nothing more than a front row finish like his team-mate did last week after Brad K finished a close second to race winner Chase Elliott at Atlanta having gone with his own strategy.
Even though that may not have panned out in spite of 2nd half yellows, Ryan still had a Top 10 car to bring that home all afternoon from 7th to finishing 7th.
All in all, it’s been a huge fight both physically and mentally from start to finish with a series of yellows along the way – despite the last lap yellow flag call which is up for debate after Cody Ware crashed into the wall, and it took a while for NASCAR officials to go with that decision.
Although bummer for pole sitter Michael McDowell over in the No.71 Chevy for Spire when he got away with the Stage 1 win but then had problems once he made his way for a stop and that spelled unlucky not long after with a DNF.
Sometimes it’s just unpredictable when a few Cup regulars are being put to test by another Cup regular that knows about road courses all too well both left and right turns & once SVG hugs the lead lap baton, it’s going to be a much tougher fight getting a grip of him to pass from here.
He will have another opportunity to make it win No.3 when road course racing continues next weekend this time out West at Sonoma Raceway. Love his rugby kick victory lap there with the ball where one random fan gets to take that home whichever it lands off the boot as always.
Going off track now and earlier this week, there were also good news from SVG but not so much though in Daniel Suarez when it comes to solving that selection headache going into 2026 by Trackhouse.
That means, Daniel and Trackhouse reached an agreement to mutually go their separate ways that goes back to its foundations back in 2021. He’s so grateful of the good times they’ve achieved over time with two regular-season wins in 2022 at Sonoma and 2024 during the 1st of two Atlanta races.
At the same time, Trackhouse needed a new direction that focuses more on being one of the new Big 3/4 teams. With that said, it makes sense for Trackhouse to bring young gun & Xfinity Series regular Connor Zilisch onboard in his place, which is expected to happen days to weeks from now.
All the best Daniel Suarez either elsewhere within Cup or back to Xfinity.
Plus, glad to hear that Stellantis has re-upped their performance game lately on top of Ram’s return to Track Series racing next year, with thanks to the returning boss Tim Kuniskis in charge.
Here comes the return of the road-going brand SRT aka Street Racing Technology that will apply across its core brands Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep and Ram Trucks.
Don’t know when the first models will come out mainly from Ram and Dodge’s side with the 1500 and Charger respectively but should be in a few months time & who knows if those sales go up?
Just like the win on “Sunday, Sell on Monday” approach if Ram can get the ground running.
