We’ve got a VERY different Cup Series installment this week: it’s not an oval, it’s not a road course, it’s not some hybrid mix of them (like the ROVAL), but it’s a Street Course! Yeah! I’ve never actually seen the Cup Series tackle a Street Course, though I know that the old Watkins Glen course definitely ran down the streets. How will Chicago handle NASCAR?
Here’s what to look for:
–Denny Hamlin won the Pole..isn’t that two straight non-Oval Poles for him? Who had Hamlin circled for the Street Course Pole? He’ll have the best view on Sunday, starting ahead of everyone else who isn’t too fond of traffic.
–Tyler Reddick will start 2nd here, and will have the second best view! A lot of times we see that drivers prefer to start inside or outside on restarts, which means that some would actually prefer to start 3rd than 2nd in some instances. What will the outside hold for the drivers in this race?
-This may be a name you’re unfamiliar with: Shane van Gisbergen. I can tell you that he’s born in ’89, Auckland, New Zealand, and he’s done most of his racing in the Supercars series. I can also tell you that he’s had 28 Wins on Street Courses, and 35 Wins on Road Courses. AND, I can tell you that he’s starting 3rd, making his first start in NASCAR, driving the #91 car, teammate to Ross Chastain and Daniel Suarez (starting 5th) today. Feeling good about this guy?
–Joey Logano has won new events a bunch in the last few seasons, though he missed the All-Star Race trophy at North Wilkesboro. This is a new event: can he secure the Win?
-We saw AJ Allmendinger knock down a victory last year when people thought “oh, maybe..,” but now he’s a full-time driver again. How will his Road Course acumen translate to surface streets of a major metropolitan center? Good enough, it seems; he’ll start 10th.
Lisa and I are in Aruba for our Honeymoon. Took a while to get here with all kinds of junk blocking us, but once we got here things have been great. Here are a few pics!
Heck yes! Convertible Mustang! AND it comes in Oriole Orange?! WHAT!? (Let’s Go O’s!)
Here’s the best steak I’ve ever eaten. It is located at El Gaucho Steakhouse. If you ever make it down, be sure to swing on by. And tell ’em the people on their Honeymoon who showed up late without a reservation who took most of their meal home in doggy bags sent ya!
Did you think that Aruba is all pretty beaches and blue water? It’s not! We went off-roading! It looked like the Australian Outback with cacti, brown dirt galore, all sorts of rocky terrain — it was nuts!
And then we stopped at this famous chapel, a church out in the middle of nowhere and had some legit coconut water.
And then we DID stop at a beach…but look at this gnarly wave, I look like I’m commanding it like Nandor!
And this is what it looks like at night time on Palm Beach (near our hotel).
Now we’ve gotta get ready for some horseback riding on the beach. This morning we had some open water (ocean action, not beach) snorkeling action with a scuttled German ship from the 40’s! So much going on, and so much more to do still. Yowza!
Coverage of the race today starts on NBC at 5:00pm, green flag scheduled for 5:05pm — it has been moved up!
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