MADISON, Ill. — The NASCAR Cup Series is ready for race two of the playoffs with 240 laps in the shadow of St. Louis’ Gateway Arch.
Follow here for live race updates on the NASCAR Cup Series’ Enjoy Illinois 300 from World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway.
STAGE TWO
LAP 94: Bubba Wallace leads Joey Logano, Denny Hamlin, Ryan Blaney, Alex Bowman and Christopher Bell, who restarted 18th and drove through the field on new tires. Rounding out the top 10 are John Hunter Nemechek, Ross Chastain, Kyle Larson and Austin Cindric. Larson also is on new tires.
LAP 77: Bell is the first off pit road, then it’s Elliott, Larson, Reddick, Hocevar, Jones, Gibbs. The top 17 didn’t pit, led by Bubba, Logano, Hamlin and Bowman. Then it’s the 2, 12, 42, 6, 1, 17, 71, 47, 35, 4, 60, 34 and 19. They all pitted on lap 61 thereabout.
LAP 76: Caution for Ty Dillon crashing in turn one. Looks like his brother Austin turned him (awkward…) Now everyone can make it on fuel to the end of Stage 2.
Austin Dillon: “I got f-cking loose, I don’t ever wanna do that. I’m so sorry.”
Shane van Gisbergen has sunk to 24th. It looked like he had an incident with Allmendinger in turn 1 that killed his momentum. SVG reports he may have a flat tire as he drops to 26th… Lap 72.
LAP 60: Chase Briscoe locks up the brakes entering turn one and gets into Daniel Suarez while running in the middle of him and Christopher Bell. Suarez hits the outside wall and brings out the caution. Briscoe believes he may have flat-spotted his tires and pits.
Only Larson, Byron, Elliott, Zane Smith, Reddick, Erik Jones, Hocevar, Allmendinger, Bell and SVG stayed out on lap 61. Everyone has 33-lap older tires than the guys who pitted. Bell and SVG have 14-lap older tires.
Briscoe has an issue with getting the left-rear tire on. They call for four tires after the slow stop.
LAP 59: Chase Briscoe and Christopher Bell are up to 15th and 16th after pitting for fresh tires. They restarted 25th and 27th.
LAP 55: Tyler Reddick is flying! He moved from 15th to sixth in just four laps on the restart. He is fast.
Briscoe, Hamlin, Bell, Blaney, Chastain, Cindric, SVG, Cindric, Stenhouse, Ware, McDowell and Haley pitted and will restart 25th through 35th. The top 10 is now Larson, Byron, Wallace, Zane Smith, Elliott, Gibbs, Jones, Buescher, Logano and Hocevar. Larson has had, by far, the fastest car.
STAGE ONE WINNER at GATEWAY: Chase Briscoe
Photo: Ryan Kemna/TRE
STAGE ONE TOP-10 (LAP 45): Chase Briscoe, Kyle Larson, Denny Hamlin, William Byron, Ryan Blaney, Bubba Wallace, Christopher Bell, Ross Chastain, Zane Smith and Chase Elliott.
Elliott grabbed 10th with a last-corner pass on Shane van Gisbergen for the final stage point. SVG finished the stage in 12th.
LAP 44: Austin Cindric dropped to 15th on older tires after Shane van Gisbergen moved him out of the way. SVG is 10th.
LAP 36: Josh Berry crashes in turn two again and is going to the garage. That was almost deja vu of his Darlington crash a week before. Berry is now in a must-win situation at Bristol, essentially.
Top 10 is Briscoe, Hamlin, Larson, Blaney, Bell, Chastain, Byron, Wallace, Cindric, McDowell. There is under eight laps to go in the stage.
LAP 33: Kyle Larson jumps up to fourth after a bold, three-wide move on the restart on fresh tires. Chase Briscoe and Denny Hamlin lead as Larson goes for third on Ryan Blaney. Christopher Bell, Ross Chastain, Austin Cindric, Michael McDowell, Bubba Wallace, William Byron and Shane van Gisbergen round out the top 11.
LAP 27: Kyle Busch spins off of turn two and taps the inside wall. He had been running 17th.
Under caution, Hamlin, Briscoe, Blaney, Bell, Chastain, Cindric, McDowell and Haley stay out. Buescher took two tires, along with Zane Smith and Shane van Gisbergen. Tyler Reddick had a loose wheel and went to the rear of the field.
LAP 16: Christopher Bell takes fifth from Ross Chastain as Ryan Blaney looks for third on Chase Briscoe who is locked into the next round of the playoffs.
LAP 14: Playoff drivers Shane van Gisbergen, Austin Dillon and Alex Bowman are outside of the top-20. SVG is 24th (-5 since the start), Dillon is 26th (-11) and Bowman is 29th (-4).
LAP 8: Kyle Larson jumps to the lead. He leads nine playoff drivers up front:
Kyle Larson, Denny Hamlin, Chase Briscoe, Ryan Blaney, Ross Chastain, Christopher Bell, William Byron, Tyler Reddick, Austin Cindric. Non-playoff driver Zane Smith is 10th.
Just outside of the top-10 and in the playoffs are: Josh Berry in 12th, Bubba Wallace 13th, Joey Logano 14th, Chase Elliott 19th, Shane van Gisbergen 21st, Austin Dillon 24th, Alex Bowman 29th.
LAP 6: Denny Hamlin jumped out to a quick lead over Kyle Larson but Larson has closed to his bumper.
Actor Bill Murray gave an enthralling command to get the engines fired before the Enjoy Illinois 300. Denny Hamlin and Kyle Larson will start on the front row. Justin Haley will start from the rear of the field.
What to know: NASCAR Cup Series’ 2025 Enjoy Illinois 300 at Gateway
Broadcast: USA, MRN, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio
240 laps / 300 miles
Stages: 45 / 140 / 240
Average time of race: 3:07:58
Pit road speed: 40 mph
Caution vehicle speed: 50 mph
Fuel Window: 75 laps