NASCAR Cup Series race at Chicagoland live updates, highlights, leaderboard

NASCAR is back at Chicagoland Speedway.

The NASCAR Cup Series is at the 1.5-mile track in Joliet, Illinois, southwest of downtown Chicago, for the first time since 2019 to run the eero 400 on July 5.

The first weekend of July is a normal inflection point for serious attention toward the Chase bubble.

Shane van Gisbergen won at Sonoma last week to vault back into the top 16, now 36 points ahead of 17th. Keep an eye on Brad Keselowski, 25 points back of the cutline but with a top-5 starting spot at Chicagoland.

Denny Hamlin, on the pole, enters the weekend as the points leader for the first time this season.

The NASCAR in-season challenge tournament continues this weekend with eight second-round matchups.

Follow along with the Tennessean’s race updates below:

CHICAGOLAND PICKS: NASCAR Chicagoland predictions 2026, expert picks for Cup Series race

LIVE LEADERBOARD: Full field leaderboard of NASCAR Cup Series eero 400

1. Chase Briscoe
2. Christopher Bell
3. Denny Hamlin
4. William Byron
5. Alex Bowman
6. Bubba Wallace
7. Ryan Blaney
8. Ty Gibbs
9. Corey Heim
10. Riley Herbst

See the full results here.

Christopher Bell got to the rear bumper of Chase Briscoe going into turn 1 on the final lap, but loses the air and had to let off the throttle for a moment.

Briscoe holds Bell off on the final turn and wins at Chicagoland, his first win of the season.

Toyota claims the top three and seven of the top 10 spots.

Denny Hamlin brushes the wall behind William Byron and loses a lot of time. Meanwhile, Christopher Bell is closing fast on Chase Briscoe with six to go.

Christopher Bell makes the pass on William Byron for 2nd and is 1.3 seconds behind leader Chase Briscoe. 10 to go.

Denny Hamlin is nearly a half-second better than the top two cars with 13 laps to go. Christopher Bell is closing too from 3rd on William Byron.

William Byron was about 1.6 seconds behind Chase Briscoe a couple laps ago, but it’s now cut in half. Lap traffic is a factor with 25 laps to go.

Hat tip to Alex Bowman, up to 5th and a couple seconds ahead of 6th place Bubba Wallace.

Joey Logano is maxing out at the right time, up to 15th with good lap times.

Chase Briscoe leads William Byron by 0.8 seconds with 45 laps to go, with Christopher Bell more than 5 seconds behind in 3rd.

Chase Briscoe pits one lap before William Byron as the final pit cycle begins with 52 laps to go. Briscoe ends up ahead of Byron after both complete their stops.

Corey Heim moves around teammate Riley Herbst for 10th. He’s only getting better as the sun sets in Joliet.

Chase Briscoe brushed the wall and lost nearly a full second to leader William Byron. Briscoe tells his team that he’s worried about a bent toe link.

Chase Briscoe is keeping up with leader William Byron, 0.8 seconds behind. Ty Gibbs and Denny Hamlin battle for 3rd.

A note further back: Corey Heim is up to 12th and running top-10 lap times.

William Byron holds the lead ahead of Toyota Racing. In order, Chase Briscoe, Ty Gibbs, Christopher Bell and Denny Hamlin are behind the No. 24.

William Byron wins Stage 2 over Chase Briscoe. The top 10:

1. William Byron
2. Chase Briscoe
3. Denny Hamlin
4. Ty Gibbs
5. Ryan Blaney
6. Christopher Bell
7. Chase Elliott
8. Alex Bowman
9. Austin Cindric
10. John Hunter Nemechek

Kyle Larson, on very old tires, lost a lap to go two laps down but will get the free pass. The No. 5 team radioes in that they’ll need to fix some damage to the underbody from the previous spin.

Tyler Reddick’s team has completed the installation of a new radiator and clean up, and he re-joins the race at 29 laps down.

Kyle Larson got a lap back during the caution period, and is a lap down now with about 120 laps to go.

Several cars had to take a wave-around after that mid-cycle caution, with about 8 cars that benefitted by staying out later including Ryan Blaney and Christopher Bell. Those cars made a stop under caution and will have track position over those cars that were a lap down after stopping under green.

William Byron takes the lead on the restart after Bubba Wallace wobbles through turns 3 and 4. Chase Briscoe is 2nd, while Denny Hamlin and Chase Elliott battle for 3rd.

Tyler Reddick is losing fluid at a massive rate, with smoke coming out of the right-front side. Oil is all over the right side of the No. 45 and down pit road. Caution is out.

“I never heard anything, never saw anything,” Reddick tells his team.

A 23XI Racing crew member tells the TNT race broadcast that something hit the radiator.

Chris Buescher, who needs help with turn in the corner, is among the first to pit under green. Austin Cindric also pits, as does Chase Elliott.

Buescher had to stop and back up into his stall again after the No. 17 crew needed to check a lug nut.

Bubba Wallace’s 1.5-second lead is now down to a half-second as Chase Briscoe has moved into 2nd with William Byron and Denny Hamlin close behind. All four cars are within 0.8 seconds of one another.

Chase Elliott is up to 5th. Chris Buescher has faded later in the run, back to 8th.

Chris Buescher has been in or near the top five for the majority of the first half of the race, and Austin Cindric moved into the top 10 a couple laps ago.

Otherwise, the Fords are struggling today. Brad Keselowski is 15th, the only other Ford inside the top 15. Ryan Blaney hasn’t really moved up, and Joey Logano is back to 27th and struggling mightily.

Bubba Wallace keeps the lead on the restart ahead of William Byron and Chris Buescher.

Behind them, Alex Bowman emerges in 8th. Erik Jones has also entered the top 10.

Ryan Preece is back on the lead lap with the free pass. The No. 60 radio is much happier now.

Kyle Larson lost two laps but has eventually made his way around to pit road. The No. 5 team is worried about the underbody after Larson rode around on flat tires for a lap after getting out of the grass.

Larson will look to do what Preece just did, with two less laps to get back.

Kyle Larson, in 3rd, spins into the frontstretch grass and gets stuck. He lost the car on his own off of turn 4.

“I’m beached,” Larson says on the radio. All four tires are flat.

Bubba Wallace drives under William Byron for the lead. The Toyotas seem very capable early on in the bottom lane.

William Byron keeps the lead ahead of Bubba Wallace and Kyle Larson.

Note: Ryan Preece took the wave-around on that stage break caution to get another lap back. He is now one lap down.

NASCAR is telling teams they’ll need about three minutes to make repairs to a part of the pit-road surface.

William Byron wins Stage by about 0.6 seconds. The top 10:

1. William Byron
2. Kyle Larson
3. Bubba Wallace
4. Austin Cindric
5. Chase Briscoe
6. Chris Buescher
7. Riley Herbst
8. Denny Hamlin
9. Ty Gibbs
10. Tyler Reddick

Well done by Cindric and Herbst on older tires to preserve stage points. The other three drivers finished that stage in 25th or worse.

William Byron takes the lead from Austin Cindric, and Kyle Larson also makes a pass around the No. 2. 12 laps to go in the first stage.

Austin Cindric, with the benefit of clean air, has remained the leader ahead of Chase Briscoe. Riley Herbst is the only other car that stayed out and remains in the top 10.

Joey Logano slipped quickly from 3rd to 14th.

Five cars stayed out, led by Austin Cindric, Riley Herbst and Joey Logano. Cindric surges in front on the restart.

Chase Briscoe and Christopher Bell take advantage with two new tires and quickly move back into the top five.

Christopher Bell spins Todd Gilliland around on pit road as the former was leaving his stall and the latter was pulling into his stall.

Bell’s team is worried about damage to the splitter.

Austin Hill backs into wall in turns 3 and 4, suffering a lot of rear damage.

Hill was turned around after contact from Shane van Gisbergen into the corner.

“Somebody ought to talk to NASCAR about that,” Richard Childress said on the radio. “It’s blatant.”

Hill is taking the No. 33 to the garage.

William Byron drives around Denny Hamlin for 2nd. So, two Hendrick Chevrolets lead five Toyotas at the moment.

Kyle Larson edges ahead of Denny Hamlin on the restart after restarting on the inside lane. William Byron is 3rd.

By the way, Ryan Preece took the wavearound to get one lap back. He’s now three laps down and will need a caution in the next 15-20 laps before needing to pit under green.

Carson Hocevar and Zane Smith both get sideways up against the wall in turn 2. Caution is out. Smith was eagerly on Hocevar’s rear bumper through the corner.

Both continue, but caution is out.

Denny Hamlin is showing strength on the inside, driving under Chris Buescher then Kyle Larson on separate laps to take the lead.

Hamlin says his car is neutral in turns 1 and 2 but may need to be tighter.

“Yeah, needs to be a little tighter,” Hamlin radioes in again a couple laps later.

Tyler Reddick is up to 6th, +9 since the restart. He’s going to be a factor today.

Brad Keselowski slipped nine spots after getting the wrong end of the restart and is 13th.

Kyle Larson leads ahead of Chris Buescher and Denny Hamlin on the restart. All four lanes at work on the restart.

Ryan Preece was towed back to the DVP area in the garage despite not hitting anything. He will be four laps down once he gets back on track. Preece and his team were very unhappy with that development on the team radio.

Green flag at Chicagoland, and there’s a caution down the backstretch on Lap 1. Ryan Preece and Connor Zilisch spin off of turn 2. Zilisch makes hard contact with the inside wall. Preece can’t get re-fired despite not hitting anything.

Erik Jones made contact with Preece, but it looked like the line got backed up.

Cup Series engines have fired at Chicagoland Speedway for the first time since 2019. 267 laps tonight on the 1.5-mile oval.

Michael McDowell’s No. 71 Chevrolet failed pre-qualifying inspection three times, so he was unable to post a qualifying time and will have to serve a pass-through penalty after taking the green flag tonight.

• 16-seed Austin Cindric vs. 32-seed Alex Bowman
• 9-seed Carson Hocevar vs. 25-seed Todd Gilliland
• 5-seed Ty Gibbs vs. 12-seed Chase Briscoe
• 4-seed Chase Elliott vs. 20-seed Michael McDowell
• 6-seed Kyle Larson vs. 11-seed William Byron
• 3-seed Ryan Blaney vs. 14-seed Shane van Gisbergen
• 7-seed Chris Buescher vs. 10-seed Christopher Bell
• 2-seed Denny Hamlin vs. 15-seed Erik Jones

The top 10:

1. Denny Hamlin, No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota
2. Kyle Larson, No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet
3. Chris Buescher, No. 17 RFK Racing Ford
4. Brad Keselowski, No. 6 RFK Racing Ford
5. Ty Gibbs, No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota
6. Christopher Bell, No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota
7. Chase Briscoe, No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota
8. Bubba Wallace, No. 23 23XI Racing Toyota
9. Chase Elliott, No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet
10. William Byron, No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet

Find the full starting lineup here.

The eero 400 will be aired on the radio by the Motor Racing Network. MRN has affiliates all across the country, including 102.5 The Game (102.5 FM) in Nashville, and their feed can also be streamed on NASCAR.com as well as the NASCAR app. The race can also be heard on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, channel 90.

• Green Flag Time:  Approx. 5:15 p.m. CT on Sunday, July 5
• Track:  Chicagoland Speedway (1.5-mile oval) in Joliet, Illinois
• Length: 267 laps, 400.5 miles
• Stages: 80 laps, 85 laps, 102 laps
• TV coverage: TNT
• Radio: MRN (102.5-FM The Game in Nashville)
• Streaming: HBO MAX app for full broadcast feed and in-car cameras (subscription required); NASCAR.com and SiriusXM on Channel 90 for audio (subscription required)

The eero 400 will be broadcast nationally on TNT. Other streaming options for the race include HBO MAX for the full broadcast and in-car cameras for each driver.

• 2019: Alex Bowman
• 2018: Kyle Busch
• 2017: Martin Truex Jr.
• 2016: Martin Truex Jr.