NASCAR Race Today: Winners, Losers from eero 400 at Chicagoland
Sunday night’s eero 400 at Chicagoland Speedway demonstrated why NASCAR made the right decision to return to this track. We got a few surprises in the NASCAR race tonight, with Tyler Reddick and Kyle Larson finishing near the back of the field, and some standouts delivering great finishes under the lights with Chase Briscoe getting the win.
Let’s dive into our winners and losers from the NASCAR race today at Chicagoland.
Winner: Christopher Bell
Pitting a few laps after Chase Briscoe in the final stage didn’t quite work out for the No. 20 team, but Christopher Bell should still feel good about the outcome tonight. Still racing with a fractured wrist that is essentially making him drive left-handed, Bell finished second on Sunday night at Chicagoland and that gives him consecutive top-five finishes. Pulling that off seemed impossible a few weeks ago when many assumed the wrist injury might keep him out of action. With 90 total points in the last two races, Bell has given himself a 101-point advantage above the cutline.
Related: NASCAR Standings Right Now, The Chase Cutline after Chicago
Loser: Connor Zilisch
Connor Zilisch is the unluckiest driver in NASCAR, perhaps ever. It had already been a disastrous rookie season for Zilisch coming into Chicagoland. At a minimum, the No. 88 team just wanted him to get laps in so he could gain a lot more experience after picking up six DNFs this season. Seconds into the eero 400, still on Lap 1, Ryan Preece got turned down the track after contact, collected the No. 88, and sent Zilisch’s car skidding into the inside wall with race-ending damage. Another last-place finish for the 19-year-old, who might need to hire an Etsy witch at this point.
Winner: William Byron
William Byron needed that Stage 1 win. Coming into the NASCAR race tonight, he sat 12th in regular-season points. While he was in no danger of missing the 10-race chase, his positioning would prove costly for the points reset at the end of the regular season. The No. 24 team needed to start prioritizing stage points and they came through tonight. In addition to the 10-point grab in Stage 1, Byron won Stage 2 to maximize his day with 20 stage points. The No. 24 team desperately needed this and they should feel great about the 53-point night.
Loser: Ryan Preece
Similar to Zilisch, Ryan Preece got caught up in the wreck on Lap 1 that wasn’t created by his doing. What makes it costly is the impact it has on his chances of making The Chase. Entering the NASCAR race tonight, Preece sat 15th in points with a 13-point advantage over the cutline. Unfortunately for him, the No. 60 car needed to be towed and that required a trip to the garage. He returned and spent most of Stage 1 multiple laps down, resulting in a poor finish that dropped Preece below the cutline.
Related: Ryan Preece Reveals If He’ll Be Back with RFK Racing in 2027
Winner: Chase Briscoe
We nearly picked Chase Briscoe to win the NASCAR race tonight before making a last-second flip to Tyler Reddick. Let it be a lesson to trust your gut. Briscoe was able to hold off Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Christopher Bell on fresher tires, all the while dealing with traffic from lapped cars in the closing laps of the eero 400. With the win, the No. 19 team jumps up to 10th in regular-season points, a remarkable feat considering they started the regular season with 25 points in the first three races combined.
Loser: Kyle Larson
Kyle Larson and the No. 5 team came to Chicagoland with a golden opportunity to snap their winless streak. Those hopes came crashing down in Stage 2, when Larson hit the bump and spun out into the grass. Getting stuck in the mud, he immediately fell a lap down and had to get pulled out of it. Unfortunately for Larson, he also had four flat tires and that required a push to pit road that put him 2 laps down. They never recovered and Larson now leaves Chicago a whopping 68 points back of a top-three spot, with those bonus points viewed as critical to winning the championship this year.
Winner: Corey Heim and Riley Herbst
Corey Heim shocked the world with his first-ever Cup Series win two weeks ago at Naval Base Coronado. In his first Cup race since the trip to victory lane, he demonstrated why he’s going to be so dangerous as a full-time Cup driver in 2027. Heim snagged a ninth-place finish in the NASCAR race tonight and even led a lap at Chicago.
We also have to tip our cap to Riley Herbst. 23XI Racing already announced he won’t be back with the team in 2027, but Herbst is proving why he’ll be racing in the Cup Series next year. Remarkably, Herbst has two top-10 finishes in the last three weeks with an average finishing position of 15.7 in the last six races following tonight’s 10th-place finish.
Related: Denny Hamlin Praises Riley Herbst Ahead of 23XI Racing Exit
Loser: Tyler Reddick
In the first half of the season, everything went right for Tyler Reddick. Things change quickly in NASCAR, as recent weeks have demonstrated. A week removed from a 36th-place finish at Sonoma due to an issue with the car, bad luck literally struck the No. 45 car when a piece of debris came up and hit the radiator. It led to a constant leak of oil, requiring a lengthy trip to the garage to replace the radiator. He never recovered, finishing 30 laps down. Just over a month ago, Reddick led Denny Hamlin by more than 100 points. He now leaves Chicago trailing Hamlin by 44 points.
Winner: Alex Bowman
There’s a reason Hendrick Motorsports won’t voluntarily move on from Alex Bowman next year. It’s been a turbulent year for the driver of the No. 48 car, with the vertigo issues keeping him out for nearly a month and still causing him issues when he returned to the track. Retirement is clearly on the table and, given his history of injuries, no one would blame Bowman if he walked away. However, Sunday night’s fifth-place finish demonstrated what he’s capable of. It’s especially noteworthy given Toyota largely dominated on the track tonight. Fingers crossed that Bowman decides to race in 2027.
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