PREVIEW: Independence Day return of Chicagoland will see new ventures in both Cup and O’Reilly garages
by Brock Beard / LASTCAR.info Editor-in-Chief
PHOTO: Dawson Cram, @dawsoncram41
Saturday, July 4, 2026 (Green Flag 5:35 P.M. ET, CW)
O’REILLY Race 20 of 33
Cuervo 300 at Chicagoland
2019 Last-Place Finisher: Christopher Bell
ENTRY LIST
There are 38 drivers entered for as many starting spots as the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series marks the 250th anniversary of the United States with the return of racing to Chicagoland following a seven-year absence.
DRIVER CHANGE: #0-SS-Green Light Racing / Haas Factory Team
The first of three Cup Series regulars set to compete tomorrow is Cole Custer, back with his Haas Factory Team support and Sysco sponsorship for the #0 Chevrolet. Custer takes the place of Alex Labbe, who finished 19th at Sears Point.
DRIVER SWAP: #9-JR Motorsports
DRIVER CHANGE: #91-DGM Racing x JIM
While the preliminary entry list showed “TBA” in the driver’s column for Mario Gosselin’s #91 Chevrolet, the ride has since gone to pit spotter Myatt Snider, who will make his fourth series start of the year and first since a 24th-place showing in Dover with the same team. The #91 became available as Carson Kvapil, who finished 6th at Sears Point, will return to JRM in the #9 entry that won the race with Shane Van Gisbergen, but in the Arby’s tattoo paint scheme that Sammy Smith ran at San Diego.
DRIVER SWAP: #32-Jordan Anderson Racing
DRIVER CHANGE: #88-JR Motorsports
The next Cup regular in the field is 2020 series champion Chase Elliott, who will make his 88th series start in car #88 and his first of the season. He takes the place of 14th-place Sears Point finisher Rajah Caruth, who this week takes the place of another Cup regular in Ross Chastain, whose rear end trouble left him next-to-last after taking two bizarre paths to the garage.
MISSING: #35-Joey Gase Motorsports with Scott Osteen / Mike Harmon Racing
RETURNING: #47-Mike Harmon Racing / Team Stange Racing
After running a joint venture with Joey Gase’s team since Texas, the Mike Harmon Racing effort has this week joined efforts with Team Stange Racing. The Stange effort was supposed to make their Cup debut in 2022 with Tarso Marques driving, but have since focused on other racing series with various drivers. Tomorrow will mark the team’s first NASCAR national series start, which will again be a joint effort with Harmon. The team will field the #47, a car number Harmon has run in the past for its second team, giving a brand-new paint scheme for Harmon’s driver Dawson Cram.
RETURNING: #38-RSS Racing
The preliminary entry list also didn’t have a driver listed for the RSS Racing team’s part-time third effort, the #38, which last ran with Patrick Emerling back at Pocono. The team did indicate they would run a Chevrolet to match their other two cars rather than the Ford they ran during the month of May. Returning to the driver’s seat is J.J. Yeley, who will make his 401st series start and first since Nashville.
DRIVER CHANGE: #42-Young’s Motorsports
Will Rodgers showed impressive speed in Sears Point, where he remarked that slow pit stops resulted in his 17th-place finish. Looking to keep the momentum going is Garrett Smithley, who was in a supporting role for a team last weekend, and has up until now only driven SS-Green Light Racing’s #0 in 2026, most recently a 33rd in Nashville. This time, Smithley will make his first start for Randy Young.
DRIVER CHANGE: #53-Joey Gase Motorsports with Scott Osteen
Despite a failing alternator that required multiple battery changes, Kyle Kelley made his first NASCAR start in 13 years and came home 34th, two laps down to Shane Van Gisbergen. Taking his place this week is Tyler Tomassi, who made his only previous O’Reilly start with the Gase team last summer at Iowa, taking 34th in the team’s #35. With the #35 not entered for the first time this year due to the Harmon team’s deal with Stange, Tomassi drives the #53.
DRIVER CHANGE: #55-Joey Gase Motorsports with Scott Osteen
It was a frustrating and exhausting couple days in Sears Point for the Gase team, which had to change engines, only to discover they didn’t have all the parts they needed. The result was a car pushed onto the grid for the command, then pushed right back to the garage without allowing Brad Perez to complete a lap. Gase, who himself steered the car to the grid last Saturday, will drive this week.
MISSING: #71-DGM Racing x JIM
DRIVER SWAP: #92-DGM Racing x JIM
Last Saturday, Josh Williams finished 27th in his first race back since Texas, an absence due to reported issues obtaining sponsorship. Williams was pleased to be back, high-fiving his crew as he returned to the hauler after the race. But once again, Williams isn’t running this week. Taking his place is Leland Honeyman, Jr., who last week ran DGM’s returning #71 entry before battery issues left him 35th.
DRIVER CHANGE: #87-Peterson Racing Group
The last two road course races resulted in gutsy performances for young Austin Green. At San Diego, he earned a hard-fought 8th in a car decorated with battleships. And at Sears Point, where a catastrophic brake failure sent him hurtling into the Turn 11 barrier, he drove Austin Hill’s backup car to a solid 12th. Regardless, Green again finds himself on the sidelines as the team’s pre-arranged series of oval starts for Nick Sanchez continues. Sanchez, who finished 23rd in his series return at Pocono, will make his 50th career start in a new patriotic paint scheme.
CUP INVADERS: #0-Cole Custer, #1-Connor Zilisch, #88-Chase Elliott
Sunday, July 5, 2026 (Green Flag 6:19 P.M. ET, TNT)
CUP Race 19 of 36
eero 400 at Chicagoland
2019 Last-Place Finisher: Quin Houff
ENTRY LIST
There are 38 drivers entered for 40 starting spots, marking the 17th short field in 19 races this season and the ninth in a row, but this time with two “open” entries joining the action.
RETURNING: #44-NY Racing Team
J.J. Yeley will run double-duty with Saturday’s reunion with RSS Racing as he will again pilot John Cohen’s #44 Chevrolet, his next start with Fanatics Casino as sponsor. This will be Yeley’s seventh series start at Chicagoland and his first since 2015, when he finished 35th out of 43 starters for BK Racing. He finished 10th in his track debut in 2006, driving for Joe Gibbs Racing.
WITHDREW: #66-Garage 66
Josh Bilicki was set to run double-duty as well, seeking only his second Cup start of the year and first since his 34th-place showing in Watkins Glen. But after the team’s appeal for sponsorship, team owner Carl Long decided to withdraw the car from what would have been a guaranteed starting spot, bringing the field from 39 starters to 38.
RETURNING: #67-23XI Racing
Corey Heim returns to the Cup Series for the first time since his stunning victory in San Diego, and again runs a red-white-and-blue paint scheme, this time for Shield AI, on the #67 entry for 23XI Racing. The entirety of Heim’s success has occurred in such recent years that he’s among the drivers who has never made a NASCAR national series start at Chicagoland.
Saturday, July 11, 2026
TRUCKS Race 14 of 25
LiUNA 150 at Lime Rock Park
2025 Last-Place Finisher: Alex Labbe
The Truck Series returns to action next Saturday in Lime Rock Park.
TODAY IN LASTCAR HISTORY (July 3, 1954): Speedy Thompson picked up the 1st last-place finish of his NASCAR Grand National Series career in a 200-lap race at the Piedmont Interstate Fairgrounds when the fuel pump failed on Buckshot Morris’ #12 1953 Oldsmobile, leaving Thompson last in the 21-car field.
