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Notebook Items:
- Denny Hamlin: Experience has minimal value in return to Chicagoland
- Battle of the “Christophers” adds intrigue to Sunday’s race
- Carson Hocevar faces “mystery” In-Season Challenge opponent in 100th Cup start
July 4, 2026
By Reid Spencer NASCAR Wire Service
Photo by James Gilbert/Getty Images
Denny Hamlin: Experience has minimal value in return to Chicagoland
JOLIET, Ill. — Denny Hamlin is one of three drivers in the field for Sunday’s eero 400 who has won a NASCAR Cup Series race at Chicagoland Speedway.
But Hamlin says his experience at the 1.5-mile intermediate speedway won’t amount to a significant edge when drivers take the green flag for the 19th race of the season (6 p.m. ET on TNT, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
For one thing, the asphalt at Chicagoland has weathered for seven years, and the bump over the tunnel in Turns 3 and 4 is perhaps more pronounced.
And though 18 drivers on the entry list for the race have never driven Cup Series race cars at the Joliet track, it’s also true that no driver in the field has ever raced a Gen 7 Cup car at Chicagoland.
The Gen 7 car debuted in the series in 2022, three years after Alex Bowman outdueled Kyle Larson to win the most recent race at the speedway.
Even though Hamlin represented Toyota drivers in a Goodyear tire test at Chicagoland in April, he doesn’t think that experience or his history at the track will be a decisive factor on Sunday.
“I ran some laps here during the test but it’s still one line,” Hamlin said before Friday’s Cup practice. “I’ve been around long enough to know that a test race track and a race weekend track are two vastly different things. So, lots of unknowns, just what line are we going to run?
“What’s going to be the fastest? And as Kyle (Larson) mentioned, we didn’t really go up the race track at all during the test, so we don’t know whether the bump is more or less the higher you go. I have some old notes I had in the book that I looked at, but it’ll be something small, nothing big.”
Battle of the “Christophers” adds intrigue to Sunday’s race
Christopher Bell and Christopher Buescher share at least one thing beyond driving in the NASCAR Cup Series.
“Longest first name in the garage, right?” Buescher quipped after Friday’s NASCAR Cup Series practice.
Currently, however, the drivers have one other thing in common. After winning their opening-round In-Season Challenge matchups last Sunday at Sonoma Raceway, Buescher and Bell will face each other in Round 2, with the victor meeting the winner of Sunday’s Denny Hamlin vs. Erik Jones contest July 12 at EchoPark Speedway near Atlanta.
“We’ve got a battle going,” Buescher said. “They (Bell’s team) have been really good on mile-and-a-halfs this year, as have we, but we’ve been somewhere about fifth to eighth—that’s kind of been our stuck point.
“I felt really good about practice today. It’s really a bit of a different animal, given that we’ve been gone from this place so long… But (the battle against Bell) is not something that you go in and use as a primary focus. It’s a secondary part of the race, and we’ll do everything we can to figure how to win.”
Buescher was 10th fastest in Friday’s practice, and Bell was 17th. Despite breaking his wrist in a devastating crash June 7 at Michigan, Bell fashioned an impressive fifth-place finish last Sunday at Sonoma, where Buescher ran ninth.
For the first time since the accident, Bell will race without a cast this weekend.
Carson Hocevar faces “mystery” In-Season Challenge opponent in 100th Cup start
To say Carson Hocevar hasn’t been focused on the In-Season Challenge is putting it mildly.
Last Sunday at Sonoma Raceway, the driver of the No. 77 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet finished 11th to Zane Smith’s 18th to eliminate Smith in the opening round of the tournament.
Asked after Friday’s practice about his second-round matchup, Hocevar responded, “Who is it?”
In fact, Hocevar will face Todd Gilliland, who eliminated Daniel Suarez in the first round at Sonoma.
“Oh, it’s Todd?” said Hocevar, who will make his 100th NASCAR Cup Series start on Sunday at Chicagoland Speedway. “I don’t know. Hopefully he’s slow.”
In Friday’s practice, Hocevar was ninth fastest to Gilliland’s 27th.
About his 100th start in NASCAR’s top division, Hocevar was equally nonchalant.
“Yeah, you just kind of blink and you’re at a hundred,” he said. “Blink twice, and you’re at 200. “I just try to enjoy as many as possible. I’m just glad I have a win in the win column before a hundred, right?”
Hocevar picked up his only career victory so far on April 26 at Talladega Superspeedway.
