{"id":780322,"date":"2026-07-04T19:00:14","date_gmt":"2026-07-04T19:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/780322\/"},"modified":"2026-07-04T19:00:14","modified_gmt":"2026-07-04T19:00:14","slug":"nascar-fantasy-fusion-eero-400-at-chicagoland-speedway","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/780322\/","title":{"rendered":"NASCAR Fantasy Fusion: eero 400 at Chicagoland Speedway"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a><\/p>\n

Track Size: 1.5-miles
Track: Asphalt Paved Oval
Race Length: 267 laps \/ 400.5 miles<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Shane van Gisbergen’s win last win at Sonoma didn’t seem nearly as dominating as past performances. Sure he led 74 of the 110 laps, but Chase Briscoe was nipping at his lead in the closing laps and no one knows what could have happened if they had gotten door to door. I do believe it would have been a masterful example of clean racing, but we’ll never know.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The victory was SVG’s second of the season and his eighth on road courses. He is now\u00a0tied for second with Tony Stewart for all-time in road-course wins and sits just one behind\u00a0Jeff Gordon.\u00a0Now let’s see what he can do this week at Chicagoland.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

This Week’s Pick Strategy: It’s super challenging to do fantasy picks for a track that hasn’t been on the circuit since 2019. After all, nearly half the field (18 drivers) entered in the eero 400 have never run a NASCAR Cup series race at Chicagoland. Pretty mind-blowing, but it should certainly make things interesting.<\/p>\n

My pick strategy is selecting a combination of drivers who performed well here when the track was on the NASCAR circuit, plus drivers who are wheelmen, have well-honed skills to manage tire wear, possess an undeniable knack for studying and searching to find the best lines for speed, and absolutely love to ride the high line. Oh, and it’s just icing on the cake if they are good at mile-and-a-half tracks.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Active Cup Drivers with Most Top 10s at Chicagoland<\/p>\n

2014 to 2019:\u00a06 Races
Both with 6 – Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano<\/p>\n

Both with 5- Kyle Larson and Denny Hamlin\u00a0\u00a0
Alex Bowman – 3<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Active Cup Drivers with Most Top 3s at Chicagoland<\/p>\n

2014 to 2019:\u00a06 Races<\/p>\n

Kyle Larson – 4
Both with 3 – Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano
Both with 2 – Chase Elliott and Denny Hamlin<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Active Cup Drivers with Most Top 3s at Chicagoland<\/p>\n

2014 to 2019:\u00a06 Races
Kyle Larson – 3<\/p>\n

Both with 2 – Chase Elliott and Joey Logano<\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Recent Cup Series Performance <\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Intermediate & Large Oval Tracks Since 2023<\/p>\n

<\/a>SOURCE: driveraverages.com<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

2019 Pole Winner (most recent race): Austin Dillon
\u00a0<\/p>\n

2019 Race Winner (most recent race):\u00a0Alex Bowman<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Likely Suspects:\u00a0This week’s likely suspects are Kyle Larson, Chase Elliott,\u00a0Denny Hamlin,\u00a0Joey Logano, Brad
\nKeselowski, and William Byron.<\/p>\n

My 2 Cents:\u00a0My no-brainer pick is a tie between Kyle Larson and Denny Hamlin. My next
\npicks are Brad Keselowski, Tyler Reddick, Erik Jones, and Ty Gibbs. I will complete my team with Corey Heim and Carson Hocevar.<\/p>\n

My Final Four:\u00a0Kyle Larson, Ty Gibbs, Tyler Reddick, and Carson Hocevar.<\/p>\n

Second-Look Driver:\u00a0This week’s second-look driver is Erik Jones. Sunday’s race will mark Erik’s fourth Chicagoland Cup race. In the most recent race here, he finished seventh after starting 21st. Erik ranks 11th among all active drivers at Chicagoland, just one spot below Denny Hamlin. He has two Top 10s in three Cup starts there, and two O\u2019Reilly Auto Parts Series wins at the track in 2015 and 2016.
\u00a0<\/p>\n

Points to Ponder:<\/p>\n

Brad Keselowski leads all active Cup Series drivers in wins at Chicagoland Speedway with two (2012, 2014). He also leads all active NASCAR Cup Series drivers in Top-5 finishes here with five and in Top 10s with nine.\u00a0Nearly 43% (42.11%) of all wins at Chicagoland have come from the Top 10 starting positions.\u00a0Joe Gibbs Racing leads the NASCAR Cup Series in wins at Chicagoland Speedway with six victories among four drivers: Tony Stewart (two), Kyle Busch (two), Matt Kenseth (one) and Denny Hamlin (one).\u00a0Kyle Larson leads all active drivers in runner-up finishes at Chicagoland Speedway with two. Both Chase Elliott and Joey Logano are tied with one runner-up finish each. Larson also leads all active drivers in the NASCAR Cup Series in average finishing position here with a 6.2 in six starts.\u00a0Jimmie Johnson holds the Cup Series record for laps led at Chicagoland Speedway with 705 laps in 18 starts, though oddly enough, he never won at the Joliet, Illinois track.\u00a0<\/p>\n

If
\n you are playing Driver Group Game, remember to make your partial picks
\nby 3 p.m. ET today and and your final picks by 6 p.m. ET
\n on race day, Sunday, July 5th.<\/p>\n

Enjoy the race!<\/p>\n

________________________________________________________\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

<\/a>Carol D’Agostino has been playing Fantasy NASCAR for 19 years. She launched NASCAR
\nFantasy Fusion for Skirts & Scuffs in October 2011. Each week, Carol
\n pores through statistics and combs through her personal notebooks to
\narm fans with analysis
\nand picking strategies that will leave their friends wondering how they
\ngot so
\nsmart. Carol also does race coverage for Skirts & Scuffs at Richmond
\nRaceway and occasionally at her home track, Dover International
\nSpeedway. She is
\nalso part of the distinguished NASCAR Expert Picks panel at frcs.pro<\/a>. formerly called Fantasy Racing Cheat Sheet. When she isn\u2019t wielding her fantasy-racing superpowers, you\u2019ll find
\nCarol hammering out a news release or creating a marketing strategy at a
\n small niche public relations firm she founded called Purple Cat or
\nexecuting downtown revitalization projects for a small town on
\nMaryland\u2019s Eastern Shore. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Track Size: 1.5-milesTrack: Asphalt Paved OvalRace Length: 267 laps \/ 400.5 miles \u00a0 Shane van Gisbergen’s win last…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":780323,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[49,48,634,82,168927],"class_list":["post-780322","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nascar","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nascar","tag-sports","tag-your-keywords-here"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/780322","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=780322"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/780322\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/780323"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=780322"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=780322"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=780322"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}