Chicagoland Recap

Welcome back to Captain Josh's Pit Stop. Today I recap the action from Chicagoland. Also in other news, Christopher Bell won the ARCA race at Chicagoland on Friday night. Johnny Sauter won the final regular season race at Chicagoland on Friday night. And Lewis Hamilton won the F1 Singapore Grand Prix after polesitter Sebastian Vettel crashed on the opening lap along with teammate Kimi Raikkonen and Max Verstappen. And one last note, Josef Newgarden won the 2017 Indycar championship on Sunday afternoon. Now onto the Cup race. Photo courtesy of Google images.

The first race of the 2017 Monster Energy Cup Series ran on Sunday with the Tales Of The Turtles 400 at Chicagoland Speedway. Kyle Busch won the pole with a lap that was 4 tenths ahead of everyone else, thus going back to the comments that Brad Keselowski had made on Twitter. He commented on Toyota having an unfair advantage over everyone else. Denny Hamlin shared the front row alongside Busch. The first and second stages consisted of 80 laps, with the final stage making up the final 107 laps. Photo courtesy of Google images.

Polesitter Kyle Busch won stage 1 after leading the whole stage. Photo courtesy of Google images.

The day wouldn't go quite as smooth as Kyle Busch would've thought. His day would start to unfold at lap 96 in stage 2, as Busch would have to pit due to a loose wheel. Busch would later have to come back to pit road at lap 99 after his crew was over the wall too soon during his stop for the loose wheel.

Chase Elliott took home the stage 2 win after Kyle Busch and Martin Truex Jr had problems on pit road. Truex had a problem with a tire and then was caught speeding. This gave Elliott the stage win. Photo courtesy of Google images.

As usually the case, the action began to heat up in the final stage as the playoff drivers tried to get the best spot they could. Jamie McMurray would try a bit too hard on the restart after the stage 2 ending at lap 168. McMurray made contact with Ryan Newman and went for a spin on the backstretch. Photo courtesy of Google images.

The day also went wrong for rookie Erik Jones. Jones had his air conditioner brake and it blew hot air into his helmet for most of the race. This could of caused him to spin off turn 4 in the final stage at lap 210. Photo courtesy of Google images.

At the end of the day, Martin Truex Jr came back through the field to win the first race of the playoffs. Great win for Truex and his team after coming close to winning the last two weeks. Photos courtesy of Google images.

Here are the standings after race 1 of the playoffs. Chase Elliott received a points penalty after his car failed post race inspection. Next race is New Hampshire. For continued coverage of all things racing and the 2017 playoffs, tune in to Captain Josh's Pit Stop. Photo courtesy of Fox Sports Facebook page.