NASCAR’s Xfinity Series was scheduled to race through downtown Chicago on Saturday, capping off a large weekend of events celebrating the sport, which was to include concerts and other forms of entertainment. However, Saturday’s race was interrupted after 25 laps as lightning struck the region. Seeing this, NASCAR intended to restart it on Sunday morning, but weather and a Cup Series race made that concept untenable.

The governing body put out a statement that due to “standing water and flooding being a significant issue at the race track and throughout the city,” returning to racing was not an option before switching to NASCAR Cup Series race operations. However, a few spectators, like the NASCAR drivers’ spotters, including Freddie Kraft, Bubba Wallace’s spotter, provided some interesting insights into life in the World?s Center of Commerce.

Freddie Kraft, the Spotter for Bubba Wallace, Shared His Experience on the Point From Where It Went Downhill for NASCAR

Stewart-Haas Racing driver for the Xfinity team, Cole Custer had been in the lead for the opening 25 laps of Saturday’s race before lightning forced the event’s postponement until Sunday. Second place went to John Hunter Nemechek, then the remaining top 5 slots were filled by Justin Allgaier, Brett Moffitt, and finally Austin Hill.

After heavy rain swamped the street course in downtown Chicago, the preliminary results showed that Custer had won the first Xfinity Stage.

NASCAR stated in a statement that returning on Monday “was an option we chose not to employ,” noting the fact that roughly half of the Xfinity race had already been completed. Due to floods at Lower Hutchinson Field, NASCAR was forced to cancel performances by Miranda Lambert and Charley Crockett.

On a similar front, a few outsiders in Chicago at the time spoke out about their impressions of the city. On the latest episode of the Door Bumper Clear podcast, Freddie Kraft, Bubba Wallace’s spotter, let some clues go about the mood in Chicago before and after the Xfinity series was put on hold. He said that the hotel and surrounding region of the race track made Chicago an attractive destination. The Buckingham Fountain impressed him. However, when the Yellow Flag came out during the Xfinity race due to lightning, it was like having the day and perhaps the weekend taken right out of your hands.

Regardless, he and his team remained on the spotter stand for some time after the racec was called, which led to an argument between security and his officials.

According to him, Chicago, although a wonderful city, was quite different from anything they had seen up to that point.
As Freddie put it, “I?ve never been to Chicago; I don?t know anything about the city. Where we were staying was beautiful, the area around the race track. Julie [Giese], Tim Bermin, and the NASCAR side of things, they did a phenomenal job. The place looked amazing, super easy to navigate.”

“The Fountains were awesome where the team deal was, and I was like, wow! This is going to be a phenomenal weekend. And then that Yellow flag came out in the middle of the Xfinity race for lightening, and it?s like it sucked all the wind out of the sails for that day and potentially the weekend. I thought we were trending in such a great direction,” he added.

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Kraft Talked About Some Strange Encounters at Chicago

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Freddie also highlighted how Chicago was unique in comparison to other places he had visited. He said that despite the hoopla of the Chicago Street Race series, the city was running pretty well, which he attributed to the Yellow flag lowering everyone’s expectations. According to him, getting around wasn’t difficult at all. Freddie and his gang were out and about in Chicago when they came across some fans who were clearly thrilled to see their favorite heroes and teams.

However, one thing that stood out was how terrible the housing options in Chicago seemed to be. Freddie related many incidents in which members of his crew who had been staying in suites were evicted. The owners said this was because unauthorized individuals were using the suite’s entrance and exit.

In the same podcast, Freddie said, “Then hearing some of the stories from some of the team members down in Suites, I mean they are paying 120 dollars for these suites to essentially get kicked out. They?re like, You can leave your stuff here, and there are people going in and out of the suite that don?t belong in there. So that was unfortunate, but everything was perfect up until that lightening delay, and then kind of all hell broke loose from that point on.”

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It seems people have had conflicting sentiments about visiting Chicago for the first time. As for NASCAR fans, it was definitely one of those weekends when the Xfinity Series races failed to live up to expectations. Thanks to the NASCAR Cup Series that went down come rain or shine, die-hard NASCAR enthusiasts witnessed Shane Van Gisbergen take the checkered flag.