TC Daily Pit Stop: Lightning Postpones End of Xfinity Street Race to Sunday Morning; Cup Race Start Moved Up; Hamlin on Cup Pole; Chase Elliott, Kevin Harvick Crash Hard in Qualifying
TC Daily Pit Stop: Sunday, July 2nd, 2023
Finish of NASCAR Xfinity Series The Loop 121 Postponed to Sunday at 11:00 AM ET
With 30 laps remaining in Saturday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series The Loop 121 Street Race at the Chicago Street Course, Lightning brought a halt to the action. After several hours of attempting to wait out the lightning clock, the conclusion of the race was officially postponed.
The end of The Loop 121 will now take place on Sunday morning at 11:00 AM ET. USA Network will continue the live television broadcast of the conclusion of the Xfinity race. MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio will also carry the remainder of the race on radio.
When the race resumes, Cole Custer will lead the field to the green flag with John Hunter Nemechek, Justin Allgaier, Brett Moffitt and Austin Hill all sitting inside the top-five.
READ MORE
NASCAR TV Schedule: Sunday, July 2, 2023
The Xfinity Series race finish has been moved to Sunday morning, but the green flag of the NASCAR Cup Series Grant Park 220 has also been moved.
Originally scheduled to go green at 5:55 PM ET, NASCAR has opted to move the green flag of the event up by 50 minutes due to potential thunderstorms in the Chicago area on Sunday as well.
The NBC broadcast will kick off at 5:00 PM ET and the NASCAR Cup Series race will go green at 5:05 PM ET.
FULL SUNDAY TV SCHEDULE
Denny Hamlin Scores Historic Pole Position on Streets of Chicago
Denny Hamlin narrowly defeated Tyler Reddick and Shane van Gisbergen in the second round of Saturday’s NASCAR Cup Series qualifying session at the Chicago Street Course to score the historic pole position for the first-ever NASCAR Cup Series street race.
The pole, Hamlin’s third of 2023 and 39th of Hamlin’s career came by just 0.044 sec. over Reddick. Christopher Bell will join van Gisbergen in Row 2, while Daniel Suarez, Michael McDowell, Kyle Larson, Jenson Button, Joey Logano and AJ Allmendinger rounded out the top-10 qualifiers for the Grant Park 220.
READ MORE
STARTING LINEUP
Video: Chase Elliott Clips Turn 7 Barrier, Collides Hard With Turn 8 Barrier in Qualifying
Disaster for Chase Elliott, who had tucked in behind Shane van Gisbergen in the opening round of NASCAR Cup Series qualifying at the Chicago Street Course. Elliott, who was attempting to pick up his speed by mirroring SVG’s line, clipped the inside wall in Turn 7, which shot him hard into the inside wall of Turn 8.
WATCH VIDEO
Video: Kevin Harvick Crashes Hard in Final Seconds of Cup Series Qualifying at Chicago
Chase Elliott was not the only big-name driver to find trouble in qualifying, as Kevin Harvick crashed hard in Turn 1 in the closing moments of his Round 1 qualifying session. Harvick just missed the padded tire barrier and slammed into the concrete barrier in Turn 1.
WATCH VIDEO
Trevor Huddleston Outlasts the Competition to Score Upset Win in ARCA West Race at Irwindale
On a night where the two dominant drivers — Landen Lewis and Sean Hingorani — fell by the wayside, Trevor Huddleston was there to pick up the pieces as he scored the ARCA Menards Series West victory in Saturday’s NAPA Auto Parts BlueDEF 150 at Irwindale Speedway.
Eric Nascimento Jr. would finish runner-up, which marks a career-best finish for the driver.