#Nascar

I posted yesterday that in my opinion, NASCAR should continue to mix up the types of tracks it races on.

Now it's your turn.

DuSable Lake Shore Drive is back open. The flooding has, hopefully, receded. The drivers are no doubt thinking about Atlanta.

Yet the Grant Park 220 that took place here in Chicago last weekend is still very much on my mind.

This week's video will be pretty straightforward -- just some videos I shot during the race that let you get up close and personal.

NASCAR's first foray into racing on the streets of downtown Chicago was met with criticism from the public and skepticism from the drivers before the race even took place. Most, if not all, of the drivers sounded a positive tune after being on track. Fans, too, seemed pretty happy with the event.

There’s always a first for everything. In the case of NASCAR’s Grant Park 220, there were a lot of firsts.

Shane van Gisbergen may not have much NASCAR experience -- he was making his first-ever start on Sunday in Chicago at the Grant Park 220 -- but he has plenty of street-race experience. And it showed.

Showed in a big way, as the New Zealand native took home the trophy in the first-ever NASCAR race on the streets of Chicago, which was also the first-ever NASCAR street race.

I remember reporting on the news that NASCAR was coming to Chicago. It was less than a year ago when the news broke. It started as a rumor that I saw bouncing around somewhere, probably on the Tweet machine, and by the time I finished writing the post it was confirmed.

Now I am here, at the event's media center, typing up this post while waiting for the rain to stop so the racing can start.

I will be leaving in a few minutes to head to downtown Chicago to work on our coverage of NASCAR's Grant Park 220 race. So, with that in mind, I have a question for you.

NASCAR veteran Jimmie Johnson will not be racing in this coming weekend's Grant Park 220 in Chicago after his in-laws were found dead in Oklahoma.

Here's the transaxle breaking, courtesy of friend of TTAC Bozi Tatarevic. This was repaired and the car did finish.

Sunday's NASCAR Clash at the Coliseum in Los Angeles was a crash-filled affair, as one might expect from a track that was just a quarter-mile to a lap.

Matt covered it yesterday, but we can't stop watching it -- it's Ross Chastain going full video-game mode in NASCAR.

You probably missed it, but one of the most exciting moments in modern motorsport occurred over the weekend. Ross Chastain needed to make up five positions on the last lap of the Xfinity 500 if he wanted to make it to the playoffs and opted to throw his car into the outside wall of Martinsville Speedway, remembering that he’d seen that strategy work in old video games. The resulting moment is genuinely surreal to watch, primarily because it worked so well.

A bit of racing news has crossed the wire — news that is admittedly close to my heart since I live in the Windy City.

NASCAR is apparently coming to Chicago.

We reported on Monday that NASCAR said driver Brandon Brown’s team had jumped the gun when it announced it had paired with a cryptocurrency that referenced the “Let’s Go Brandon” chant that has become popular in conservative circles as a sort of code for “f–k Joe Biden”.

Reports now indicate that NASCAR has rejected the sponsorship.