Alex Bowman is heading back to the streets of Chicago with the wind in his sails after a third-place finish in Saturday night’s In-Season Challenge opener at EchoPark Speedway. And with three straight top-15 finishes, perhaps Bowman has finally shed the horrible luck he had through the spring after pushing Hendrick Motorsports teammate Chase Elliott to the win at the track formerly known as Atlanta Motor Speedway.
NASCAR.com’s Zach Sturniolo ranks the top 20 Cup Series contenders after The Quaker State 400 at EchoPark Speedway and before Sunday’s Chicago Street Race (2 p.m. ET, TNT Sports/truTV, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
RELATED: 2025 Cup Series schedule | Full Cup Series standings
Analysis: Welcome back to Victory Lane, Mr. Consistency. The man with the best average finish in the NASCAR Cup Series (10.3) finally has a win to go along with it after a last-lap pass on Brad Keselowski for his second win at his hometown track. The No. 9 team has been hot lately and heads to Chicago with three straight top-five finishes after snapping a 44-race winless streak. The city streets have been hit-or-miss for Elliott in NASCAR’s two trips — third in 2023 and 21st in 2024 — but with seven career road-course wins, Elliott is still the series’ current road-course king. And oh by the way — Elliott is the only race winner this year to advance to Round 2 of the In-Season Challenge.
Analysis: By the No. 5 team’s (unrealistically high) standards, the last month and a half has been a roller coaster for Larson. In six races since winning on May 11 at Kansas, Larson has three top 10s and two finishes of 36th or worse with zero laps led since the Coca-Cola 600 on Memorial Day Weekend at Charlotte. He was caught in a couple of melees in Saturday’s calamity at Atlanta but recovered enough for a 17th-place finish. The good news is he was very good in his street-racing debut at Chicago in 2023 and finished fourth. The bad news is the rain got the best of him in 2024, leading to a head-on collision with the tire barriers en route to a 39th-place finish last year.
Analysis: Another team that’s a victim of its own success is the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports team with driver Byron. The scoresheet doesn’t tell the full picture here. Yes, he has now finished 27th or worse in three of the last four races. But the Cup Series points leader led 98 laps at Michigan just four races ago and was just two laps of fuel short of scoring his second win of the season, instead finishing 28th after needing to hit pit road. Strategy gone wrong at Pocono and the ‘Big One’ at EchoPark have ultimately cost Byron significant points in his chase for the regular-season championship, but the Chicago Street Course offers a reset for the No. 24 team, which has finished 13th (2023) and eighth (2024) in two starts.
Analysis: Hamlin’s white-hot streak of top-three finishes cooled off pretty abruptly when his No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota was turned to trigger the 19-car melee at EchoPark on Saturday night. With 57 career Cup wins, Hamlin has proven he can win just about anywhere. But in 57 combined starts across road courses and street courses, Hamlin has just one victory — a Watkins Glen win in 2016. Still, Hamlin qualified on pole for the inaugural Chicago Street Race in 2023, so maybe the vet still has some tricks up his sleeve.
Analysis: A fourth-place finish at EchoPark was exactly what Reddick needed. That marked the No. 45 team’s first top five since Darlington back in April and only its second top 10 within that 10-race stretch. The defending regular-season champion could use a turn of momentum here and he just might get it, returning to the streets of Chicago where he finished second one year ago — which could be bad news for his next opponent in the In-Season Challenge, No. 26 seed Carson Hocevar.
Analysis: The last stretch of races have been relatively quiet for Bell and Co., who have finished 16th or worse in three of the past four races. The one exception? A runner-up result at Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez in Mexico City, the most recent road course on the schedule. It sure doesn’t hurt that Bell is averaging a 1.5 finish on road courses this year after his March win at Circuit of The Americas. The question remains, though, whether he can score his first Chicago top 10 this weekend.
Analysis: The steady climb up the leaderboard continues for Buescher, who now sits ninth in the regular-season standings. In fact, according to Racing Insights, nobody has scored more points across the past five races than Buescher and the No. 17 RFK Racing team with 183 points scored in that frame. Buescher heads to Chicago with four straight top 10s behind him, eyeing yet another one ahead at another road course, where Buescher has been excellent. He’ll also have extra incentive this weekend as Buescher goes head-to-head with Front Row Motorsports’ Zane Smith in Round 2 of the In-Season Challenge.
Analysis: Even with a win and two top fives in his last five races, it feels like there is just no luck lately for the No. 12 team. Blaney finished shotgun on the field Saturday night after a wreck at Lap 57 ended his night early for his sixth DNF of the year. Chicago was decent for him a year ago with a 10th-place finish, and things aren’t all bad for the 2023 Cup champ: Blaney has scored the fifth-most points of all drivers over the past five races.
Analysis: The Pocono winner had nowhere to go at Atlanta when the field wrecked in front of him, relegating Briscoe to a 35th-place finish at EchoPark Speedway and ousting the No. 2 seed from the In-Season Challenge in an upset to No. 31 Noah Gragson. Road and street courses typically haven’t been Briscoe’s forte in years past, but he has fit into the No. 19 JGR team well in two efforts so far this year, finishing 14th at COTA and seventh in Mexico City. There’s a chance his first Chicago top 10 is next.
Analysis: It’s been a tough few weeks for Chastain with three straight finishes outside the top 15, and two straight beneath the top 25 with just 15 total points scored in the past two weeks. Deuces are wild, though, because in two starts at Chicago, Chastain has finished 22nd both times. Maybe he breaks that streak this time around.
MORE: Watch NASCAR video highlights
Analysis: Bowman has finally put the doldrums of spring in his rearview mirror. After a dismal spell that featured seven finishes of 27th or worse in nine weeks, Bowman has turned things around with two top fives in the last three races, separated only by an 11th-place finish at Pocono. The No. 48 Hendrick Chevy has led 15 or more laps in each of the last two races and netted 41 points exactly in two of the past three events. Bowman still sits 15th in the playoff standings, only 39 points above the provisional elimination line, but the best news for him is the next track on the schedule is the Chicago Street Course, where he won in 2024 to snap an 80-race winless drought. Can he end a 34-race spell this time around?
Analysis: In recent years, EchoPark has treated Logano pretty wonderfully. Not Saturday night. The No. 22 Team Penske Ford was another one of the many drivers collected in the ‘Big One,’ dropping Logano to a 36th-place finish — his fifth finish of 16th or worse in the past six races. It’s hard to say whether his fate his due to change in Chicago, where he finished eighth in Year 1 but 23rd in Year 2.
Analysis: EchoPark was fairly forgettable for Wallace after a 22nd-place finish, but now the focus shifts to the streets of Chicago, where Wallace had a strong run going in 2024 until late contact with Bowman cost the No. 23 Toyota critical track position. While Bowman scurried to the win, Wallace finished 13th that day. In a wonderful coincidence, No. 9 seed Wallace and No. 8 seed Bowman now head to Chicago as In-Season Challenge rivals for Round 2 of the bracket-style tournament.
Analysis: Despite spinning through the ‘Big One,’ Preece left EchoPark Speedway with another solid day in the No. 60 RFK Racing entry and escaped with a 15th-place finish, his sixth top 15 in the past seven races. Preece is on track for his best career average finish at 17.8, three full positions better than his previous best of 20.8 set in 2023. He was 15th that year in Chicago, too. And his current RFK Racing team with crew chief Derrick Finley charged to a fourth-place result with driver Joey Hand in last year’s street race.
Analysis: Jones and Legacy Motor Club continue to impress with a mighty charge up the standings leaderboard in full swing. After finishing fifth at EchoPark, Jones is averaging an 11.0 finish across the past six races, and according to Racing Insights, has scored the fourth-most points of any driver in the last five races. Jones was 29th in points leaving Kansas Speedway on May 11. He enters Chicago 16th in the standings — a 13-spot leap — second beneath the provisional elimination line to the playoffs by 49 points.
Analysis: Another quiet and steady week at EchoPark left Allmendinger 12th at the checkered flag for his sixth straight finish of 21st or better. The No. 16 Kaulig Racing crew still has work to do to make the postseason, entering Chicago with Allmendinger as the third driver outside the provisional playoff field by 59 points. But two road courses are directly in front of Allmendinger, a road-course ace. And there’s no better way to make a dent in your postseason dreams than by winning now to clinch a playoff spot early.
Analysis: EchoPark Speedway proved to be a step backward for Cindric, an unusual result considering his past prowess on the Georgia high banks. Of course, it was no fault of his own after the field wrecked in front of him. But the No. 2 team’s results have been quite up and down lately: In the eight races since winning at Talladega Superspeedway, Cindric has four top 20s and four finishes of 25th or worse. That victory means he doesn’t have to worry about points, but he and his team would love to build some consistency over the next eight weeks in the buildup to the playoffs.
Analysis: Similarly to Cindric, Berry doesn’t have a ton of momentum on his side heading to the streets of Chicago. The No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing team has three finishes of 30th or worse in its last five starts — but that’s coupled with four finishes of 12th or better in their last seven races. Road courses have never been great for Berry, who finished 26th at both COTA and Mexico City this year, so these next two weeks could be tough for this spring’s Las Vegas winner.
Analysis: EchoPark wasn’t a horrible day for Busch, but he’s sure had better ones after a 21st-place result and a spin into the wall during the ‘Big One.’ That marks three straight weeks finishing 20th or worse for Rowdy as he falls to 21st in the provisional playoff standings, 72 points beneath the elimination line. But fear not, Rowdy Nation: Chicago could be the place he turns things around. The streets have been surprisingly kind to Kyle, who has finished fifth and ninth in his two visits to the Windy City.
Analysis: SVG found himself in trouble at EchoPark a couple of times but persevered for a 24th-place finish. The oval results aren’t great as the rookie still finds his footing there, but this weekend returns Van Gisbergen to his street-course roots. He wowed the stock-car world in 2023, winning his Cup Series debut in NASCAR’s first trip to the city streets and reminding everyone in Mexico City he’s just as good now as he’s ever been. Don’t be surprised if Van Gisbergen storms to his second Chicago win Sunday afternoon.