Practice report
NASCAR Cup Chicago
Riley Herbst leads Cup practice in NASCAR's return to Chicagoland
23XI Racing drivers Herbst and Wallace topped the speed charts as NASCAR returns to Chicagoland Speedway for the first time in seven years
Nick DeGroot
Edited: Jul 4, 2026, 4:28 AM
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For the first time since 2019, NASCAR is racing at Chicagoland Speedway. Because of that fact, series officials went with a more traditional race weekend format through a 50-minute practice on Friday.
Topping the speed charts was Riley Herbst in the No. 35 23XI Racing Toyota, followed by teammate Bubba Wallace. Herbst lapped the intermediate oval in 30.326 seconds (178.065mph), just 0.023s ahead of Wallace in the No. 23 Toyota.
Kyle Larson was one of three Cup drivers who took part in a test at Chicagoland earlier this year (along with Hamlin and Blaney), and he led the way for Chevrolet in third. Behind the Hendrick Chevy was the Joe Gibbs Racing duo of Denny Hamlin and Ty Gibbs.
All four 23XI drivers ended the session in the top eight, with Corey Heim sixth and Tyler Reddick eighth. Reddick also led the way in the ten-lap, 15-lap, 20-lap, and 25-lap averages. Additionally, Reddick ran more laps than any other driver at 61.
There were no incidents, but Erik Jones felt like something broke after going over the rough bumps, and took his No. 43 to the garage. Several drivers also missed the tight turn-in to get onto the pit lane as they practiced their pit-in, which will be something to watch on Sunday.
"Today was a bit weird"
Few drivers ventured into the higher grooves, and no one dared to run right along the outside wall. Reddick hopes that the NASCAR O'Reilly cars (which race on Saturday) will widen out the racing groove. He was also confused by the lack of tire falloff, even with the aged surface.
"I think our Camry is really good," said Reddick. "We don't get a lot of 50 minute practices anymore, but today was a bit weird. The falloff was pretty flat. This is the tire we run at other intermediates where we see a lot of tire falloff. The surface has age to it, but it was just strange. It didn't act like the surface is as old as it is. You're just trying to understand what we can fine tune on our Toyota Camry.
"In general, pretty happy. Feeling pretty good about where we're at. I guess the only thing I'm holding back on -- just confused about -- I thought we were going to be ripping the top today, but it just took forever to clean up. Hopefully those O'Reilly boys will go clean it up for us and we have a wide race track to work with."
NASCAR Cup practice results at Chicagoland
Cla Driver # Manufacturer Laps Time Interval Mph 1 R. Herbst23XI Racing 35 Toyota 43
30.326
178.065 2 B. Wallace23XI Racing 23 Toyota 54
+0.023
30.349
0.023 177.930 3 K. LarsonHendrick Motorsports 5 Chevrolet 42
+0.032
30.358
0.009 177.877 4 D. HamlinJoe Gibbs Racing 11 Toyota 40
+0.032
30.358
0.000 177.877 5 T. GibbsJoe Gibbs Racing 54 Toyota 47
+0.053
30.379
0.021 177.754 6
C. Heim23XI Racing
67 Toyota 56
+0.059
30.385
0.006 177.719 7 A. CindricTeam Penske 2 Ford 42
+0.072
30.398
0.013 177.643 8 T. Reddick23XI Racing 45 Toyota 61
+0.092
30.418
0.020 177.526 9 C. HocevarSpire Motorsports 77 Chevrolet 55
+0.144
30.470
0.052 177.223 10 C. BuescherRFK Racing 17 Ford 52
+0.150
30.476
0.006 177.189 11 C. ElliottHendrick Motorsports 9 Chevrolet 59
+0.207
30.533
0.057 176.858 12 B. KeselowskiRFK Racing 6 Ford 40
+0.218
30.544
0.011 176.794 13 Z. SmithFront Row Motorsports 38 Ford 50
+0.235
30.561
0.017 176.696 14 C. BriscoeJoe Gibbs Racing 19 Toyota 55
+0.244
30.570
0.009 176.644 15 M. McDowellSpire Motorsports 71 Chevrolet 43
+0.247
30.573
0.003 176.626 16 W. ByronHendrick Motorsports 24 Chevrolet 56
+0.260
30.586
0.013 176.551 17 C. BellJoe Gibbs Racing 20 Toyota 57
+0.278
30.604
0.018 176.448 18 A. AllmendingerKaulig Racing 16 Chevrolet 43
+0.285
30.611
0.007 176.407 19 R. PreeceRFK Racing 60 Ford 49
+0.290
30.616
0.005 176.378 20 C. CusterHaas Factory Team 41 Chevrolet 37
+0.309
30.635
0.019 176.269 21 J. NemechekLegacy Motor Club 42 Toyota 50
+0.357
30.683
0.048 175.993 22 R. BlaneyTeam Penske 12 Ford 58
+0.376
30.702
0.019 175.884 23 A. BowmanHendrick Motorsports 48 Chevrolet 49
+0.385
30.711
0.009 175.833 24 D. SuarezSpire Motorsports 7 Chevrolet 49
+0.387
30.713
0.002 175.821 25
C. ZilischTrackHouse Racing
88 Chevrolet 50
+0.388
30.714
0.001 175.816 26 S. van GisbergenTrackHouse Racing 97 Chevrolet 41
+0.401
30.727
0.013 175.741 27 T. GillilandFront Row Motorsports 34 Ford 29
+0.412
30.738
0.011 175.678 28 N. GragsonFront Row Motorsports 4 Ford 48
+0.423
30.749
0.011 175.615 29 R. ChastainTrackHouse Racing 1 Chevrolet 29
+0.437
30.763
0.014 175.536 30
J. BerryWood Brothers Racing
21 Ford 42
+0.482
30.808
0.045 175.279 31 A. DillonRichard Childress Racing 3 Chevrolet 50
+0.517
30.843
0.035 175.080 32 T. DillonKaulig Racing 10 Chevrolet 41
+0.526
30.852
0.009 175.029 33 C. WareRick Ware Racing 51 Chevrolet 33
+0.527
30.853
0.001 175.023 34 J. LoganoTeam Penske 22 Ford 53
+0.568
30.894
0.041 174.791 35 E. JonesLegacy Motor Club 43 Toyota 15
+0.618
30.944
0.050 174.509 36 R. Stenhouse JrHyak Motorsports 47 Chevrolet 33
+0.648
30.974
0.030 174.340 37 A. HillRichard Childress Racing 33 Chevrolet 39
+0.742
31.068
0.094 173.812 38 J. YeleyNY Racing Team 44 Chevrolet 14
+1.025
31.351
0.283 172.243
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