No. 32 seed Ty Dillon’s Cinderella run in the In-Season Challenge continued in the Chicago Street Race as his competitor, No. 17 seed Brad Keselowski, bowed out early in the Lap 3 wreck that mangled multiple cars. That was good enough for Dillon, who finished 20th at Chicago and upset Denny Hamlin last week, to advance to the third round at Sonoma. How far Dillon can take it is anyone’s guess at this point (he’ll face Alex Bowman next week), but his story added some flair to what was another dramatic weekend in NASCAR’s inaugural tournament on TNT Sports.
Here’s where we stand after Chicago and before Sunday’s Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway:
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Chicago Street Race winner: Shane van Gisbergen made it two wins in three races at Chicago as the driver of the No. 88 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet continued to exert his dominance at the road courses. However, his victory had no bearing on the In-Season Challenge because SVG wasn’t among the top 32 drivers in points after Nashville who qualified for the tournament.
Who advances to Round 3 in Sonoma: (6) Ty Gibbs, (8) Alex Bowman, (12) John Hunter Nemechek, (14) Zane Smith, (15) Ryan Preece, (20) Erik Jones, (23) Tyler Reddick and (32) Ty Dillon.
Bowman pushed Bubba Wallace out of the way with six laps to go at Chicago and went on to win their matchup in what was one of the most dramatic moments of Sunday’s race. It was the second straight season where Bowman and Wallace had a dust-up at Chicago with Bowman benefitting both times (including last year’s win). The drivers gave each other a good-natured ribbing in the lead-up to Sunday’s race, but the tone post-race didn’t sound as chummy. There could be plenty of chances for Wallace to spoil Bowman’s fun next week on the winding road course at Sonoma.
For the second straight year at Chicago, Ty Gibbs ran up front and had one of his better races of the season, finishing second to SVG and beating out noted road-course ace AJ Allmendinger (who finished sixth). Gibbs, who was second on the final restart, held off Allmendinger, in third, and pulled away from him to win their matchup comfortably. Up next is No. 14 seed Zane Smith, a California native. Gibbs will be the favorite, but only slightly if you consider his previous finishes at Sonoma of 18th and 37th.
Most interesting matchup in Round 3 of the challenge: No. 12 seed John Hunter Nemechek vs. No. 20 seed Erik Jones. Legacy Motor Club teammates will battle it out in Wine Country with a trip to the final four on the line. Nemechek finished 15th and just ahead of Chase Elliott in 16th to advance, while Jones’ 25th-place result was good enough to beat Ricky Stenhouse Jr., who spun in the final stage and finished 31st. Jones has an average finish of 17.7 in 10 races at Sonoma. Nemechek has just one start at Sonoma in the Cup Series, but in the Xfinity Series, he had a best finish of eighth place in two races. In head-to-head matchups against each other, Jones has prevailed 30 times to Nemechek’s 25 times, according to Racing Insights.
Who’s up
Tyler Reddick, No. 45 23XI Racing Toyota. Reddick finished third at Chicago to easily take down Carson Hocevar, who ignited the Lap 3 multicar wreck that ended the No. 77’s day. It was the continuation of a hot start to the In-Season Challenge for Reddick, who finished fourth last week at EchoPark Speedway (formerly Atlanta Motor Speedway). Reddick appears to have recovered from his lull at Mexico City and Pocono that led to him getting the No. 23 seed. Reddick will face No. 15 seed Ryan Preece at Sonoma, a driver he holds a 58-35 advantage over head-to-head.
Who’s down
Chris Buescher, No. 17 RFK Racing Ford. With several top seeds knocked out at EchoPark, the In-Season Challenge seemed to be there for the taking for the No. 3 seed Buescher, especially with two road courses on tap. However, Buescher found himself on pit road with the hood up in Stage 1 at Chicago thanks to a problem with the electronic control unit, and although his team worked hard to get him back in the race, he couldn’t recover enough to get past No. 14 seed Zane Smith, who finished 14th to Buescher’s 18th. In addition, Buescher remains winless this season and in a dogfight just to make the playoffs.
