WORLD WIDE TECHNOLOGY RACE REVIEW

Date: 6-5-2022.
Name of the race: Enjoy Illinois 300.
Track: World Wide Technology Raceway.
Laps: 245.
Pole winner: Chase Briscoe.
Outside pole: Austin Cindric.
Stage 1 winner: Austin Cindric.
Stage 2 winner: Kurt Busch.
Stage 3 winner (won the race): Joey Logano.
Top 5: Joey Logano, Kyle Busch, Kurt Busch, Ryan Blaney, and Aric Almirola.
FYI: NASCAR's inaugural race at Gateway in St. Luis was the talk of the week leading up to Sunday afternoon, and everyone, fans, drivers, crew members, and the media were all watching intently, hoping for a good race, all with one question in mind; "will Gateway be on the schedule in the next coming years?" Not many knew what to expect going into the race, except for former truck series drivers of course. From 1998 to 2010 and again from 2014 to present day, the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series has been visiting Gateway and putting on a show annually, with current Cup Series drivers such as Kevin Harvick, Bubba Wallace, and Ross Chastain being past winners at the track in the lower division. Chase Briscoe, another former truck series driver, would take pole position with Austin Cindric starting second. The green flag dropped and the action went underway. Drivers would divebomb into turn 1 and constantly be right next to each other off of the restart, and the chaos was just getting started. Austin Cindric would take the top spot from Briscoe and win the first stage with teammate Ryan Blaney finishing in second and Tyler Reddick in third. On lap 64 in the first stage, current points leader Ross Chastain would drive too hard into 1 and would put Denny Hamlin in the fence, and eventually, he would go 11 laps down. Hamlin, obviously angry with the way Chastain raced him, would come back out onto the track and run Chastain down, shoving him up and down the racing surface for a long few laps for the #1 team. Chastain would say over the radio to his team "We'll handle that after the race. Don't worry about it." A few laps later on lap 101, Chastain would "claim another one" and would dump Chase Elliott down the backstretch. On the restart, both Elliott and Hamlin, two drivers with past run-ins of their own, would give the 1 a double whammy, with Elliott driving Chastain up into the wall, and Hamlin doing the same just a few seconds later. It takes a lot for Elliott and Hamlin to agree on something, and this series of events with Chastain would for once have the pair work together to teach the 1 a lesson. The enemy of my enemy is my friend, right? During the same stage and to add insult to Hamlin's injury, Ricky Stenhouse would run down 23XI driver Bubba Wallace and spin him around, running for 30th place. Denny would show his displeasure after the restart with Stenhouse a few laps later.  Kurt Busch would win the second stage beating out Martin Truex Jr. and Kyle Busch on lap 140. With the final 95 lap stage looming, it was crunch time for the drivers on the lead lap to get it done and win the cup series' first race in St. Luis. Shortly before what everybody thought would be the final pit stop, Ryan Blaney's #12 Dent Wizard Ford Mustang was the fastest thing on the track, that was at least until Tyler Reddick spun himself out and brought out the yellow yet again. With 40 to go, Stenhouse would spin and bring out the yellow flag after a one-car incident, once again bunching up the field. As the race wound down, long-time rivals Kyle Busch and Joey Logano would enter a slugfest shootout for the top spot, both drivers hungry to win at the new track, and after a pair of two more yellow flag cycles brought out by SHR teammates Cole Custer and Kevin Harvick respectively, Logano would pull ahead and win his second race of the year! As the cars pulled off the track, everyone expected there to be fireworks in the pits, with Chastain and his team fending off the #9 and #11 crews. Instead, Chastain would state that he "owed half of the field an apology" after the way he raced. So, do you think Gateway put on a good show? And how long will this three-way feud with Ross Chastain, Chase Elliott, and Denny Hamlin go on? Do you think NASCAR should intervene? We'll have to wait and find out.
Next race: Sonoma Raceway on Sunday afternoon (6-12-2022).