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Chicago Tribune
2 hours ago
- Chicago Tribune
Letters: Chicago should rethink NASCAR possibilities
There is something that is not quite right about doing the same thing repeatedly and expecting different results. This brings to mind the NASCAR race on Chicago's lakefront streets for the past three years. Since the city of Chicago and NASCAR agree there will be no race in 2026, that gives everyone a chance to take a deep breath and start thinking outside the box or, in this case, outside the makeshift road course that doesn't seem to make anybody happy. How about a NASCAR Festival at Navy Pier or even at McCormick Place? Think Chicago Auto Show but for NASCAR devotees and all kinds of car geeks. Giant screens showing historic NASCAR races and highlights. Cars, drivers, pit crews, vendors, entertainers and even sponsors could be showcased over a couple of days along our magnificent lakefront. Navy Pier has tons of space outdoors and inside. McCormick Place already has a blueprint for showcasing cars and trucks, plus all the neat car stuff you can imagine. If the whole purpose of what transpired in Chicago over the past three years was to build the NASCAR brand and get Chicagoans to fall in love with everything NASCAR, while bringing revenue to the city, then think what a festival could do. More people could possibly attend. Chicago's weather would be much less of a factor. There could be ample opportunities to let folks actually touch the cars and listen to, or talk to, those who are devoted to everything NASCAR. The people on both sides who are responsible for what will happen here in 2027 have ample time to figure out the actual opportunities and costs without shutting down a single learning that NASCAR decided not to return to Chicago in 2026, my first reaction was: 'Yeah!' My second reaction was: Thanks for returning Grant Park back to Chicago. My third reaction was: Now let's return the Taste of Chicago to Grant Park in July, when it is supposed to be, and let's return it to at least a full-week schedule and with more activities, like it used to be, and not the measly, reduced-size, three-day weekend as is scheduled this year. And also, let's return the Fourth of July fireworks to the Grant Park lakefront instead of the out-of-the-way, hard-to-get-to, overcrowded Navy their July 23 op-ed ('How do we help America's national parks? Make global visitors pay more'), Tate Watkins and Sharon Suiwen Zou advocate making international visitors to our national parks pay higher admission fees. They embrace the administration's 'America First' policy under the pretense of generating more revenue to 'sustain our most treasured public lands for visitors of all types' — you know, those foreign types! This is the same administration cutting national parks staff, looking to open up parks for private development and starting global tariff wars (with many countries that have been America's biggest source of tourism). How do you think that's going to play out? Want to visit the Eiffel Tower, the Vatican or Tower of London? Oh, you're an American? You have to pay more. America's 85 million acres of national parks are places where everyone is welcome to experience the natural beauty of the United States. Raising fees for global visitors would drive more tourism away than add any meaningful funding for the park system. Throughout our history, presidents, Congress and leaders of industry have protected and invested with pride in keeping national parks pristine and accessible. They didn't scheme to make a land grab for mining minerals, drilling for oil or building condos. This isn't about budgetary constraints or political correctness. It's a foreign policy message. Let's not hide behind 'America First' and wind up 'America Last.'Thank you for the article regarding Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church ('Will Pope Leo XIV forge greater LGBTQ+ inclusion?' July 20). Our Lady of Mount Carmel has been a keystone of LGBTQ+ inclusivity for decades. I remember 40 years ago turning to the church after an egregious life event and was welcomed by one of the deacons there, who not only was empathetic but also invited me and my partner to the rectory and his own home. I will never forget this kindness and the empathy extended to us! Thank you so much for highlighting this wonderful community you for the 'Sundae school' article in the Wednesday Food & Health section. My wife and I went that day to the Karak Cafe on Ogden Avenue in Lisle to congratulate them on their being highlighted in the article and try the Dubai chocolate sundae that was featured. The very friendly and gracious family there was unaware of your front-page section article but was pleased that we let them know about it. Also, the Dubai chocolate sundae is not on the cafe's posted menu, but fortunately, it is available upon did I sit on a bus bench recently for over an hour, contemplating the dire future of our planet that is heating up at an alarming rate? I'll tell you why: because no bus came, neither a city bus nor a free bus, while a thousand cars and trucks trundled by or stopped to idle noisily at a red light before continuing on. Four other people joined my vigil, each staring at their phone, naturally. Every person I asked about a possible arrival time for the bus had a different version: five minutes, 12 minutes, 14 minutes, etc. Finally, a fifth soul came along whose phone told her that the bus was 'canceled.' I don't mind that I simply walked back home without completing my little shopping trip. I do mind that we should be cutting down on traffic, thereby helping prevent dangerous air pollution. We encourage people to take public transportation to help save our planet. But who wants to take buses and trains that can't be relied upon? And can we blame people for taking their cars knowing they can make three or four stops in an hour and still be home by lunchtime? Future public transportation is going to have to be some kind of wonderful if we have any hopes of reducing the number of cars and trucks on the streets of our cities.
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Yahoo
NASCAR Saturday Brickyard schedule at Indianapolis
Indianapolis Motor Speedway will feature qualifying sessions for the Cup and Xfinity series Saturday, which will be capped with a 100-lap Xfinity race. It's the 10th time that Xfinity has raced on the 2.5-mile oval. Riley Herbst is the defending race winner but won't be in this year's field after moving full time to the Cup Series this season. A 30-minute Cup practice at 2 p.m. ET was added to the Saturday schedule after a 50-minute session Friday was canceled because of rain. Indianapolis Brickyard Saturday schedule (All Times Eastern) Saturday, July 26 Garage open 8 a.m. - 10 p.m. — Xfinity Series 9 a.m. - 4 p.m. — Cup Series Track activity 1 - 1:55 p.m. — Xfinity qualifying (CW App) 2 - 2:30 p.m. — Cup practice (truTV, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) 2:35 - 3:30 p.m. — Cup qualifying (truTV, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) 4:30 p.m. — Xfinity race (100 laps, 250 miles; Stage 1 at Lap 30, Stage 2 at Lap 60; CW, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) Weather Saturday: Scattered afternoon thunderstorms with a high near 90 degrees and winds from the south to southwest at 5 to 10 mph and a 40% chance of rain. It's expected to be 87 degrees with a 24% chance of rain at the start of the Xfinity race.
New York Times
3 hours ago
- New York Times
NASCAR Cup Series at Indianapolis odds, predictions for Brickyard 400 and In-Season Challenge Championship
NASCAR heads to the iconic oval at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the 'most hallowed track in North America,' as Jordan Bianchi says below. It's time for the Cup Series to race the Brickyard 400, which this year doubles as the championship round of the inaugural In-Season Challenge. Bianchi and Jeff Gluck, our NASCAR experts, break down the stakes for the final round of the challenge, assess its relative success or failure and make predictions for that and the Brickyard 400. Take it away, guys! We've reached the In-Season Challenge final! And *record scratch* it's down to two 'Ty's?? Ty Dillon and Ty Gibbs. Is the simulation real? Jeff: Pretty wild that NASCAR's two Tys — both grandsons of NASCAR Hall of Fame team owners (Richard Childress and Joe Gibbs) are the last ones standing in the inaugural bracket. But the Gibbs part isn't much of a stretch; yes, he struggled earlier this year, but he drives for one of NASCAR's two best teams. The Dillon factor, though, with Kaulig Racing, is a true underdog story. Kaulig is one of the Cup Series' smaller organizations and is vastly out-manned compared to Gibbs or Hendrick Motorsports, and Dillon has just done a survive-and-advance run with top-20 finishes while his opponents faltered. But 15th-to-20th-place finishes, for that team, are actually really solid. Dillon is 30th in the point standings with only one top-10 all year (the eighth-place finish that got him through Round 1 at Atlanta). That's enough, though, and it shows why a bracket is such a unique thing in racing — and also why it should only ever be used for situations like this instead of something with championship implications. Advertisement Jordan: It's been fun watching Dillon have his moment and show a side of himself that not many people have seen. In a way, this is exactly what this tournament was designed to do: showcase drivers who otherwise would not get much spotlight and allow them to have a moment. And Dillon has certainly done this by both his driving and with his sarcastic quips about the competition he just knocked out. OK, serious question, though: Who you got for the winner of the inaugural in-season challenge? Jeff: I know Jordan is going to keep picking Dillon — why not? It's worked so far — but in reality, this is a racetrack that rewards elite speed. And Gibbs will have it with his car. Dillon's only chance is if something happens to Gibbs (a wreck, a blown tire, etc.); a Kaulig car isn't going to beat a Gibbs car on straight-up pace. That's fantasy at Indianapolis. So in that sense, I have to pick the car with more speed to end Dillon's underdog run. Jordan: Every conventional reason points toward Gibbs being the overwhelming favorite on Sunday to claim the $1 million prize. And his doing just that is expected for all the reasons Jeff laid out above. But forget logic, because everything about Dillon's magical run has defied logic. We're talking about the last seed in the tournament, who's needed all sorts of fortuitous breaks to go his way to advance this far. So, somehow, some way, Dillon will once again pull the upset because this is what he does. Do you think it's been 'successful'? Define success however you want. Jeff: Not really, honestly. I think Atlanta in Round 1 made it too much of a joke. There was only one remaining race winner from this season after the first round, everyone's bracket got destroyed and it turned into something that felt more of a cute novelty than an actual competition. It would have been much more compelling if there had been strength-on-strength battles; imagine a final four with the likes of Denny Hamlin, Kyle Larson, Ryan Blaney and William Byron (or something like that). But none of those drivers even made it past the first week, thanks to the Atlanta scheduling move. NASCAR wanted some chaos in Round 1, but it got too much and ended up taking away from what this was supposed to be. That said, it was very cool to see Dillon and Kaulig get highlighted during this process and that's the legacy of Year 1. Advertisement Jordan: Yes, it's been a success because without this tournament, we wouldn't have spent any time talking about Dillon as he would've continued racing in relative obscurity. This allowed for new and different storylines to emerge. And while having big names in the latter rounds may have added to the pizzazz, having the usual cast of characters going head-to-head isn't all that novel because in many respects we see this numerous times throughout the year, be it for a race win, regular-season points title, advancing in the playoffs or the overall championship. We're at the iconic Indianapolis Motor Speedway this week. What are some of your predictions for the race? Jeff: The Brickyard 400 is arguably NASCAR's second-most prestigious race, only behind the Daytona 500. I'd accept third behind the Southern 500. But either way, this is a big one — and you can expect all the top teams to bring their absolute best and latest equipment for a battle of all-out speed and power. That said, there are situations (like last year) when conserving fuel is the way to go, based on how the cautions fall. So it doesn't always turn out the way you think. But this figures to be a Hendrick vs. Gibbs battle for supremacy, similar to Dover. Jordan: Winning at Indianapolis is special, a bullet point on a driver's resume when their career wraps. Adding in the fact that this race is often a showcase between the sport's best drivers and teams only heightens the significance of the Brickyard 400. In a long season where races sometimes lack buzz, this is certainly not the issue anytime NASCAR visits the most hallowed track in North America. Who do you pick to win? Jeff: I'm picking Chase Briscoe for the second straight week after he nearly won at Dover. If you haven't noticed, Briscoe and the No. 19 team (formerly Martin Truex Jr.'s car and crew) have started picking up the pace lately. They won Pocono last month and have had back-to-back second-place finishes the last two weeks (Sonoma and Dover). Briscoe is an Indiana native and, as a Hoosier, badly wants to win at the Brickyard more than any other track. Imagine the scene if he could follow in the footsteps of his childhood hero, Tony Stewart, by winning at Indianapolis and kissing the bricks. The race favorite, Denny Hamlin, is a tempting pick, but I'll go with Briscoe for the win. Jordan: Is it OK to just say Hendrick Motorsports? Because any of its four drivers (Alex Bowman, William Byron, Chase Elliott and Kyle Larson) have a realistic chance to win Sunday. And the reason is simple: Indy is a track where the Hendrick cars are always strong, with Larson being the defending race winner. Among this grouping, Elliott is performing at a considerably high level as of late and is looking very much like the driver who made the Championship 4 three consecutive years (2020-22) and won the 2020 championship. Advertisement Who is a long shot you like? Jeff: For me, I saw this question and thought, 'I'll just pick whoever the lowest Hendrick or Gibbs car is.' Sure enough, Alex Bowman is +3500 with the 15th-best odds. No, he's never had a top-20 finish at Indianapolis or led a lap there in six starts (four with Hendrick). So I get why he's so low. But part of those bad results is due to crashes. Last year, Bowman qualified 13th and finished seventh in Stage 1; he ultimately was caught in an overtime crash while running 18th and finished 31st. I'm just not sold that you can overlook a Hendrick car like that, especially since Bowman has never qualified outside of the top 15 there since joining Hendrick. Other than that, unless you think there's going to be a Paul Menard-like stunner with fuel mileage, I would stay away from long shots this week. Jordan: Jeff is spot-on tabbing Bowman as the best sleeper pick this weekend. No way should he be listed at +3500. Him winning on Sunday would not be a surprise at all. Betting/odds links in this article are provided by partners of The Athletic. Restrictions may apply. The Athletic maintains full editorial independence. Partners have no control over or input into the reporting or editing process and do not review stories before publication. (Photo of Kyle Larson after his Brickyard win in 2024: James Gilbert / Getty Images)
