September 18th marked the first day of the first race of the Chase, the National Association of Stock Car Auto Racing NASCAR’s, playoff. The Chase is the last ten races of the season starting in Joliet, IL at the Chicagoland Speedway to Miami Homestead, FL, where the top sixteen drivers race for the Sprint Cup Championship. The feature race was the TMNT 400, staring the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
There were four races for NASCAR at the Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet, IL starting on Thursday September 15th with the ARCA racing series with the Scott 150. Chase Briscoe of Mitchell, IN where he started in the second position to win the 100 lap race.
Friday September 16th NASCAR’s Camping World Truck Series, with Kyle Busch winning and Daniel Hermic in second. Chicago marked the final race before the chase playoffs began. Hermic is seventh in the point standings for the Truck Series, with William Byron leading the chase grid.
Saturday September 17th hosted NASCAR’s Xfinity Series, with rookie Erik Jones winning number four. Erik Jones is leading in the chase standings and will start their chase at Kentucky on September 24th.
On Sunday the gates, Champion Park, and the infield fan zone opened at 7:30 am. On the outside of the grandstands there were booths, tents, and food and drink stops all around Champions Park. There was an Xfinity tent set up for anyone to try out being an announcer, win prizes, play the NASCAR video game, and riding along with drivers by way of virtual reality. The race track also, brought in the Toyota performance test drivers. You were either placed in a Toyota Tacoma, Toyota Tundra, and Toyota Land Cruiser. We were placed in the Toyota Tundra and taken around the track through the mud then up and down a dirt pile back to the front.
There was also a tent, Miller Lite Pit Stop tent where there was food from a firetruck food truck and drinks of all kinds surrounding one of the number two Miller Lite from Joe Gibbs Racing. There was also, a tent set up like a garage for all drivers fans to buy any kind of race gear. The tent was set up by Fanatics, which Concordia’s cheer and dance team were working for a fundraiser.
There were several driver appearances from 10:00 am to 10:45 am, including Denny Hamlin, Martin Truex Jr., and Casey Mears. Autographs were given out along with free t-shirts and hats. At 11:00 am all drivers appeared on the red carpet for the drivers meeting. There was a country concert staring Chase Rice, which started right after the drivers meeting around 11:45 am.
After the concert was driver introductions with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles leading the drivers out. Once driver introductions were done we were taken back to our seats to start the race. Kyle Busch lead the field to the green flag where he lead 21 laps of 270. Jimmie Johnson led the most laps with 118 out of 270 and teammate, rookie, Chase Elliott led 75 out of 207. Hendrick Motorsports led the most lap between three of the four drivers with a total of 199 of 207. With all four drivers finishing in the top ten.
207 laps, Three to four hours later Martin Truex Jr. wins his third race of the season. Joey Logano number 22 driver came in second followed by, two rookies, Chase Elliott number 24, Ryan Blaney number 21, Brad Keselowski number 2, Denny Hamlin number 11, Kasey Kahne number 5, Kyle Busch number 18, Matt Kenseth number 20, and Alex Bowman filling in for Dale Earnhardt Jr. in the number 88 rounding out the top ten finishers.
