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Bubba Wallace leads Ryan Preece by 23 points for the final playoff spot heading into Sunday\u2019s Chicago Street Race.<\/p>\n
Front Row Motorsports \u2014 Good news: <\/b>Zane Smith has finished seventh in two of the last four races. \u2026 Smith scored a season-high five stage points at Atlanta. \u2026 Noah Gragson finished eighth at COTA earlier this year for his best road course result. \u2026 Todd Gilliland has three top-10 finishes in his last six road course starts. \u2026 Gilliland was seventh last year at Chicago. Bad news: <\/b>Gilliland has placed 22nd or worse in the last five races this season.<\/p>\n
Haas Factory Team \u2014 Good news: <\/b>Cole Custer finished eighth at Mexico in the most recent Cup road course race. \u2026 Custer won the 2023 Chicago Xfinity race. Bad News: <\/b>Custer ranks 34th in points.<\/p>\n
Hendrick Motorsports \u2014 Good news: <\/b>Hendrick Motorsports drivers rank 1-2-3 in the points. \u2026 Hendrick Motorsports has won five of the last nine road course races. \u2026 William Byron leads the points and is followed by Atlanta winner Chase Elliott (-37 points) and Kyle Larson (-42 points). \u2026 Elliott has scored three consecutive top-five finishes this season. \u2026 Elliott finished third at Mexico and fourth at COTA in the two road course races this season. \u2026 Elliott leads all drivers with 10 top-five finishes on road course races in the Next Gen era. \u2026 Alex Bowman is the defending winner of the Chicago Street Race. \u2026 Larson won the pole for last year\u2019s Chicago Street Race. \u2026 Byron has five top-five finishes, including two wins, in his last nine road course starts. Bad news: <\/b>Larson has not led a lap in the last five races, his longest drought since going six races without leading a lap in a stretch that included the end of the 2019 season and beginning of the 2020 season. \u2026 Byron has finished 27th or worse in three of the last four races.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n Denny Hamlin and Chase Elliott led the way in June.<\/p>\n Hyak Motorsports \u2014 Good news: <\/b>Ricky Stenhouse Jr.\u2019s sixth-place finish at Atlanta tied for his second-best result this season. \u2026 Stenhouse finished sixth at Chicago last year. Bad news: <\/b>Stenhouse has finished 27th or worse in three of the last five races.<\/p>\n Joe Gibbs Racing \u2014 Good news: <\/b>Denny Hamlin averaged the most points per race in June at 40.3. \u2026 Christopher Bell has a win (Circuit of the Americas) and two runner-up finishes (Mexico, Charlotte Roval last year) in the last three road course races. \u2026 Ty Gibbs has scored the most points in the two races on the streets of Chicago. \u2026 Gibbs has an average finish of 6.0 in two Chicago races, his best among all tracks. \u2026 Chase Briscoe has led 134 laps in the last five races (he had led 75 laps in the previous 59 races). Bad news: <\/b>Hamlin has one top-10 finish in 18 road course starts in the Next Gen era.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n Chris Gabehart, competition director at Joe Gibbs Racing, served as the racing strategist for Ty Gibbs\u2019 team at Atlanta and is expected to continue in that role.<\/p>\n Kaulig Racing \u2014 Good news: <\/b>Ty Dillon finished a season-best eighth last weekend at Atlanta. \u2026 As the No. 32 seed in the In-Season Challenge, Dillon eliminated No. 1 seed Denny Hamlin and afterward told TNT: \u201cAll you Denny fans out there, I just knocked your favorite driver out.\u201d \u2026 All three of AJ Allmendinger\u2019s Cup wins have come on road courses. \u2026 Will Brown, the reigning Supercars champion, will drive the No. 13 this weekend for his first Cup start of the year. Bad news: <\/b>Allmendinger has finished no better than 17th in the two streets races in Chicago. \u2026 Dillon\u2019s best finish on a road course is 15th at the Charlotte Roval in 2019.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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