Over the weekend NASCAR ran its first ever street course race in Chicago.  Known as the Windy City, it was the rains that caused some major issues for both the Xfinity and Cup Series races.  Both races were shortened due to rain, lightning, and darkness. 

Reports are that 70 to 80 percent of the people who attended the race had never seen a NASCAR race before and as soon as the rains dried up, they lined the entire 2.2 mile course leaning on fences, light poles, trees, and anything else they could find to get a view of the action.

While there were several caution flags during the race, most of them were due to drivers not only getting into the tire barriers, but UNDER them and needed help getting unstuck before continuing on.

Christopher Bell dominated the race early winning both stages for his first stage wins of the season, but it was a newcomer to NASCAR that took home the inaugural Chicago Street Course trophy.  Not only driving in his first NASCAR race New Zealander Shane van Gisbergen was driving a car completely opposite to what he is used to driving – in most English speaking countries outside of North America, the steering wheel is on the right side of the car and drivers shift with their left hand.  Gisbergen is a three time Supercars champion with 80 wins to his credit.

When it comes to stage points three time winner this season William Byron has the lead with seven stage wins and a total of 179 stage points.

Cup Series Stage Point Standings:
William Byron – 7 wins – 179 points
Ross Chastain – 5 wins – 148 points
Denny Hamlin – 4 wins – 136 points
Martin Truex Jr – 1 win – 131 points
Christopher Bell – 2 wins – 125 points
Tyler Reddick – 3 wins – 122 points
Kyle Larson – 2 wins – 115 points
Kevin Harvick – 1 wins – 101 points
Ryan Blaney – 2 wins – 98 points
Kyle Busch – 2 wins – 90 points
Joey Logano – 2 wins – 83 points
Brad Keselowski – 1 win – 76 points
Alex Bowman – 0 wins – 66 points
Daniel Suarez – 0 wins – 54 points
Chris Buescher – 1 win – 52 points
Michael McDowell – 0 wins – 44 points
Austin Cindric – 1 win – 41 points
Ty Gibbs – 0 wins – 39 points
Bubba Wallace – 0 wins – 37 points
Ricky Stenhouse Jr – 0 wins – 37 points
Austin Dillon – 0 wins – 36 points
Chase Elliott – 1 win – 35 points
AJ Allmendinger – 0 wins – 33 points
Ryan Preece – 1 win – 33 points
Chase Briscoe – 0 wins – 29 points
Aric Almirola – 1 win – 25 points
Shane van Gisbergen – 0 wins – 15 points
Noah Gragson – 0 wins – 14 points
Erik Jones – 0 wins – 11 points
Harrison Burton – 0 wins – 6 points
Todd Gilliland – 0 wins – 5 points
Jimmie Johnson – 0 wins – 4 points
Justin Haley – 0 wins – 4 points
Ty Dillon – 0 wins – 3 points
Jordan Taylor – 0 wins – 3 points
Corey LaJoie – 0 wins – 2 points
Jenson Button 0 wins – 1 point

While second in the point standings with 582 points, William Byron has a one point lead in the Playoff Standings with 2.027 points.

Cup Series Point Standings:
Martin Truex Jr – 591
William Byron – 582
Ross Chastain – 573
Christopher Bell – 570
Kyle Busch – 560
Denny Hamlin – 538
Kevin Harvick – 523
Kyle Larson – 521
Ryan Blaney – 506
Joey Logano – 491
Chris Buescher – 476
Tyler Reddick – 463
Brad Keselowski – 463
Ricky Stenhouse Jr – 418
Bubba Wallace – 387
Ty Gibbs – 378
Daniel Suarez – 368
Michael McDowell – 368
AJ Allmendinger – 354
Alex Bowman – 352
Justin Haley – 333
Austin Cindric – 333
Corey LaJoie – 331
Chase Elliott – 323
Ryan Preece – 312
Todd Gilliland – 299
Aric Almirola – 297
Austin Dillon – 248
Harrison Burton – 242
Erik Jones – 241
Chase Briscoe – 207
Noah Gragson – 166
Ty Dillon 153
BJ McLeod – 88
Cody Ware – 65
Shane van Gisbergen – 55
Jenson Button – 36
Travis Pastrana – 26
Jordan Taylor – 16
Andy Lally – 13
Jimmie Johnson – 12
Ryan Newman – 9
Conor Daly – 9
Kimi Raikkonen – 8
Jonathan Davenport – 1

In the Playoff Standings, three time race winner William Byron leads with 2,027 points.

Despite his third place finish at Chicago, Chase Elliott currently sits in 24th place 55 points below the cut line.  While there are some who say that Elliott still has a mathematical chance of making the playoffs, it is looking more and more like he will have to win at least one race in order to make it this years after missing a total of seven races due to injury and suspension.

Playoff Standings:
William Byron – 2,027
Martin Truex Jr – 2,026
Kyle Busch – 2,023
Ross Chastain – 2,018
Kyle Larson – 2,015
Denny Hamlin – 2,014
Christopher Bell – 2,014
Ryan Blaney – 2,009
Joey Logano – 2,008
Tyler Reddick – 2,008
Ricky Stenhouse Jr – 2,005
Kevin Harvick – 2,005
Brad Keselowski – 2,001
Chris Buescher – 2,001
Bubba Wallace – 2,000
Ty Gibbs – 2,000

At the inaugural Xfinity Series Chicago race, Cole Custer took home the trophy in an extremely shortened race 25 of 55 laps after lightning halted the race on Saturday and torrential rains left copious amounts of standing water on the streets Sunday morning.  It was Custer’s first win of the season to become the eighth different Xfinity Series race winner this season.

John Hunter Nemechek leads the standings in both the points and playoffs with Austin Hill in second.

Xfinity Series Point Standings:
John Hunter Nemechek – 638
Austin Hill – 622
Cole Custer – 594
Justin Allgaier- 593
Chandler Smith – 498
Josh Berry – 484
Sam Mayer – 448
Sheldon Creed – 445
Daniel Hemric – 436
Sammy Smith – 435
Riley Herbst – 429
Parker Kligerman – 403
Jeb Burton – 369
Brett Moffitt – 361
Brandon Jones – 355
Ryan Sieg – 315
Parker Retzlaff- 301
Kaz Grala – 293
Jeremy Clements – 264
Anthony Alfredo – 213
Joe Graf Jr – 202
Josh Williams – 201
Ryan Truex – 197
Kyle Sieg – 186
Brennan Poole – 162
Ryan Ellis – 162
Kyle Weatherman – 160
Jeffrey Earnhardt – 146
Alex Labbe – 141
Blaine Perkins – 126
Connor Mosack – 109
Gray Gaulding – 104
Patrick Emerling – 96
Derek Kraus – 88
Joey Gase – 84
Myatt Snider – 67
Stefan Parsons – 66
Garrett Smithley – 58
Miguel Paludo – 48
Patrick Chase – 45
Josh Bilicki – 44
Leland Honeyman – 43
CJ McLaughlin – 34
Caesar Bacarella- 32
Preston Pardus – 32
Sage Karam – 32
David Starrr – 24
Alex Guenette – 22
Brad Perez – 21
Dylan Lupton – 21
Jade Buford – 13
Spencer Pumpelly – 9
Jesse Iwuji – 7
Mason Massey – 5
Natalie Decker – 3
Brent Sherman – 3
Dexter Stacey – 2
Andre Castro – 1
Justin Marks – 1
Dawson Cram – -7