The wait is finally over, as the inaugural Xfinity Series race took place in the streets of Chicago on Saturday. However, the race had to be postponed due to bad weather conditions after the yellow flag was waved on Lap 25. Although it is the most anticipated weekend in the ongoing season, it can be asserted that so far, the weather has played spoilsport. However, the atmosphere has been charged, with spectators showing up in large numbers for the practice and qualifying races. Though the races quickly became a nightmare for several drivers. 

Moreover, the drivers are indeed up for a test as they are pushed to their limits while keeping in check their aggressive level and competitive streaks. In traditional tracks, bumping into others and slight contacts are quite common and even necessary, a similar approach can quickly result in a multi-car pile up in the narrow street track that has several blind spots.  

Joey Logano is already apprehensive of the fact that the track can turn deadly owing to minute miscalculations. He revealed this in the post-qualifying interview with the other Ford drivers.

Joey Logano divulges the level of aggression that he expects on the tracks of Chicago

Among the three OEM suppliers in the Cup Series, it was Toyota who faired the best results. Both Denny Hamlin and Tyler Reddick locked their spot in the front row. The other two manufacturers and their teams tried to round off the top 10 positions for Sunday’s race. Moreover, adding to the woes of Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolets and Stewart-Haas Racing Fords, both their star drivers faltered in the qualifying after colliding with the inside wall.

Amidst all the tribulations on the track, it was the two debutants that stole the show in the qualifiers. The 3x winner of the Supercars Championship, Shane Van Gisbergen, recorded the fastest lap time in practice and qualified third, while F1 champion Jenson Button finished 8th. Both these drivers have a lot of experience in driving on street courses whereas the Cup Series drivers are complete amateurs when it comes to racing on unpolished asphalt. And the defending Cup Series champion, Joey Logano, could not agree more.

While talking to the media about the level of aggression that could prevail on the track during the race, Logano said, “I don’t know what to think. Probably the two guys that have run street courses before, that are really fast, they probably know a lot more than us at the moment. They kind of showed [in qualifying], kicked all our b***s for jumping into these cars.”

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The Formula 1 champion reveals the struggles he faced during the qualifying

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There is no arguing the fact that the Formula 1 champion Jenson Button is much more accustomed to the intricacies of driving on street tracks, given his experience in open-wheel racing. And his experience did come in handy during the qualifying. Driving for the Rick Ware Racing, Button was the second-highest qualifying driver for Ford. 

Button was a part of the LeMans program for Garage 56 and also took part in the race at the Circuit of The Americas, revealed to the press post-qualifying “It’s been a good day. He added, “You always want more than what you have. It’s the way of life, it seems. But no, it was a good run in terms of, I don’t think we did anything wrong. I think the balance was a little bit out. We’ve been fighting a tight car so for me, I’d call it understeer. I really struggled to get a lap on that one, and most people are doing the time on lap one. So, that hurts me quite a bit.”

After finishing P8, Button revealed, “P8 isn’t too bad. I’m pretty happy with that. I just wish we got a clean run in Q2. I would have had a couple more spots. It wouldn’t have been top-three, but it would have been a couple more spots.”

As the race finally starts on Sunday, it will be interesting to see whether the debut racers are able to use their past experience to use and show the Cup Series drivers what it takes to drive on the rough asphalt. But for now, fans are left to speculate as to who shall take the chequered on Sunday in the historic race of NASCAR.

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