After seven long years, NASCAR finally returns to Chicagoland this weekend. But interestingly, the weather could once again do what it did in the last race there in 2019.

The 2019 Camping World 400 witnessed Alex Bowman’s first Cup Series victory, one that came with a more than 3-hour-long red flag delay caused by rain. NASCAR had moved the start time by 14 minutes, yet the race was halted just 11 laps after starting and sat under red for 3 hours 18 minutes.

The weather this weekend is somewhat showing similar signs; let’s take a look and hope it doesn’t repeat.

Weekend weather at Chicagoland

According to multiple forecasts, including AccuWeather, the weather’s going to be cloudy over the weekend with thunderstorms and precipitation chances.

Friday will see temperatures go high up to 90 degrees and down to 71 degrees, and there’s a 90 percent precipitation chance.

Saturday is almost guaranteed to see rainfall as there is a 99 percent chance of rain on the day. Afternoon will see thunderstorms with a 40 percent rain chance. The highest temperature would be 85 degrees and the lowest 69 degrees.

On the Cup race day on Sunday, there’s a 55 percent precipitation chance. Isolated thunderstorms will continue, with temperatures ranging from 87 to 65 degrees. The probability of rain in the day is 10 percent higher than that in the night.

Apart from the 2019 race, in 2015 too, rain had washed out Cup qualifying and threatened the Truck Series race during the September weekend as well. Let’s hope this weekend breaks the pattern.

Weekend schedule

According to NASCAR.com, Friday, July 3, will see the day begin with ARCA practice and qualifying from 2 p.m. ET onwards, followed by the main race at 8 p.m. ET covered by FS1. In the middle, O’Reilly and Cup practices will take place at 4:30 p.m. ET and 6 p.m. ET, respectively.

Saturday, July 4, will begin with O’Reilly and Cup qualifying at 1 p.m. ET and 1:30 p.m. ET, respectively. The O’Reilly coverage is handled by the CW, including the main race, the Cuervo 300, at 5:30 p.m. ET. The Cup qualifying can be seen on truTV.

Sunday evening will see the main race, the eero 400, go green at 6 p.m. ET. TNT Sports and HBO Max will cover the same. MRN SiriusXM is as usual the radio partner for all races.

The race will see the In-Season Challenge move to the Round of 16 in the second of the five races in the $1 million prize tournament. The matchup of the week is between the Hendrick Motorsports drivers Kyle Larson (5^th) vs William Byron (12^th), while the Ryan Blaney vs Shane van Gisbergen is being touted as an upset watch.

You can read more on the Daytona Racing Digest!

Written by

Suyashdeep Sason

Edited by

Suyashdeep Sason