Lightning forces The Loop 121 postponement

The NASCAR Xfinity Series‘ inaugural race on a street circuit didn’t even make it halfway before lightning ruined everyone’s Saturday. After completing twenty-five of fifty-five laps, lightning strikes within the radius of the Chicago area forced the remainder of The Loop 121 to be pushed to Sunday at 10 AM Central Time.

While NASCAR can race street and road courses in the rain, a lightning strike automatically causes a thirty-minute delay. The strikes occurred within eight miles of the Chicago Lakefront on which the track is located, hampering track drying efforts.

Pole sitter Cole Custer led all twenty-five laps prior to the delay, with points leader John Hunter Nemechek in tow. At the back, Sheldon Creed worked his way up from last to eleventh; he was forced to start at the rear in a backup car after crashing while over-driving his car in qualifying despite already being the second fastest driver.

Andre Castro and Justin Marks are the lone retirements so far. Marks, running his first Xfinity race since 2018, suffered an engine failure after just three laps. Castro’s NASCAR début came to an end when he spun into the tyre barrier on lap 18.

Running order at delay

Finish	Start	Number	Driver	Team	Manufacturer	Laps	Status
1	1	00	Cole Custer	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	25	Running
2	3	20	John Hunter Nemechek	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	25	Running
3	6	7	Justin Allgaier	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet	25	Running
4	7	25	Brett Moffitt	AM Racing	Ford	25	Running
5	5	21	Austin Hill	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	25	Running
6	8	18	Sammy Smith	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	25	Running
7	9	11	Daniel Hemric	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	25	Running
8	16	16	Chandler Smith	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	25	Running
9	10	48	Parker Kligerman	Big Machine Racing Team	Chevrolet	25	Running
10	25	26	Kaz Grala	Sam Hunt Racing	Toyota	25	Running
11	2	2	Sheldon Creed	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	25	Running
12	13	50	Preston Pardus	Pardus Racing	Chevrolet	25	Running
13	17	88	Miguel Paludo	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet	25	Running
14	32	4	Kyle Weatherman	JD Motorsports	Chevrolet	25	Running
15	18	36	Alex Guenette	DGM Racing	Chevrolet	25	Running
16	26	24	Parker Chase	Sam Hunt Racing	Toyota	25	Running
17	29	02	Blaine Perkins	Our Motorsports	Chevrolet	25	Running
18	4	19	Connor Mosack	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	25	Running
19	14	1	Sam Mayer	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet	25	Running
20	31	27	Jeb Burton	Jordan Anderson Racing	Chevrolet	25	Running
21	37	51	Jeremy Clements	Jeremy Clements Racing	Chevrolet	25	Running
22	19	35	Alex Labbé	Emerling-Gase Motorsports	Toyota	25	Running
23	11	44	Sage Karam	Alpha Prime Racing	Chevrolet	25	Running
24	23	8	Josh Berry	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet	25	Running
25	15	98	Riley Herbst	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	25	Running
26	24	39	Ryan Sieg	RSS Racing	Ford	25	Running
27	33	6	Brennan Poole	JD Motorsports	Chevrolet	25	Running
28	34	78	Anthony Alfredo	B.J. McLeod Motorsports	Chevrolet	25	Running
29	22	07	Spencer Pumpelly	SS-Green Light Racing	Chevrolet	25	Running
30	21	31	Parker Retzlaff	Jordan Anderson Racing	Chevrolet	25	Running
31	30	9	Brandon Jones	JR Motorsports	Chevrolet	25	Running
32	20	43	Ryan Ellis	Alpha Prime Racing	Chevrolet	25	Running
33	27	53	Brad Pérez	Emerling-Gase Motorsports	Chevrolet	25	Running
34	35	38	Joe Graf Jr.	RSS Racing	Ford	25	Running
35	38	28	Brent Sherman	RSS Racing	Ford	25	Running
36	36	92	Josh Williams	DGM Racing	Chevrolet	22	Running
37	28	34	Andre Castro	Jesse Iwuji Motorsports	Chevrolet	16	Accident
38	12	10	Justin Marks	Kaulig Racing	Chevrolet	3	Engine
DNQ		91	Dexter Bean	DGM Racing	Chevrolet
DNQ		45	Jeffrey Earnhardt	Alpha Prime Racing	Chevrolet
DNQ		08	Joey Gase	SS-Green Light Racing	Ford
DNQ		74	Dawson Cram	CHK Racing	Chevrolet
DNQ		66	Dexter Stacey	MBM Motorsports	Toyota

Italics – Competing for Rookie of the Year
* – Ineligible for points