It’s time for another first for the NASCAR Cup Series, as the sport’s premier division heads to World Wide Technology at Gateway for its first-ever race at the track. And, to paraphrase Tom Cruise’s character Pete “Maverick” Mitchell in the original 1986 Top Gun, they’re feeling the need for speed this weekend (the quote isn’t replicated in the legacy sequel Top Gun: Maverick, but I also cannot emphasize how phenomenal the film is).
Both Cup and the Camping World Truck Series take to the lightly-banked, 1.250-mile Illinois speedway this weekend. Trucks returned to its surface in 2014 after a several-year hiatus, having raced there from 1998-2010.
The Xfinity Series, meanwhile, is where a number of current Cup drivers have gotten experience at Gateway, with the series competing there from 1997-2010. That first 2010 race, the penultimate at Gateway for Xfinity to date, is its most infamous, with the Carl Edwards-Brad Keselowski feud coming to a head as the two made contact while battling for the win on the last lap.
Keselowski led out of the final corner, but Edwards’ No. 60 hooked the No. 22 and sent it into the outside wall. Edwards sailed under the checkered, claiming the win while Keselowski hit the inside wall and was clobbered by Shelby Howard’s No. 70.
There’s four active Cup drivers who scored Xfinity wins, including two-time winner Kevin Harvick with his back-to-back victories in 2000 and 2001. Keselowski rebounded from that first ’10 event to win the second, while Martin Truex Jr. and Kyle Busch also both have a triumph there.
Additionally, Harvick has a Truck Series win at Gateway, as do Bubba Wallace, Cole Custer, Christopher Bell, Justin Haley and Ross Chastain. Defending (and back-to-back) winner Sheldon Creed moved up to Xfinity competition after 2021, and that series travels to the West Coast to Portland International Raceway instead of Gateway.
Let’s break…
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