TEAM CHEVY ADVANCE World Wide Technology RacewaySeptember 6-7, 2025

As the playoff pressure builds for NASCAR’s premier series, the Xfinity Series has finally reached one of the most pivotal moments of the season with the grand finale of its regular season.

MEDIA RESOURCES: Photo Gallery | Race Advances Chevrolet Newsroom

World Wide Technology Raceway, one of the newest venues on the NASCAR circuit, will play host to both divisions this weekend. First to hit the 1.25-mile oval will be the Xfinity Series in Saturday’s Nu Way 200 Sauced by Blue Hog to fill the final three playoff positions, as well as crown the 2025 regular season champion. Part two of the doubleheader weekend will feature the Cup Series in Sunday’s Enjoy Illinois 400 – the second of three races in the Round of 16.

Chevrolet at WWTR: It took just three visits for World Wide Technology Raceway to find a spot on the NASCAR Cup Series playoff schedule. The series’ short history at the 1.25-mile Midwest oval has seen Chevrolet make one trip to victory lane – coming alongside Kyle Busch during his debut season with Richard Childress Racing in 2023. In the series’ three appearances at the track, four Team Chevy playoff contenders have tallied at least one top-10 result – led by Hendrick Motorsports’ Kyle Larson, who’s back-to-back top-10s have earned him an average finish of 8.7 heading into the weekend. Currently sitting on the outside looking in, Austin Dillon has an opportunity to chip away at his cutline deficit – returning to the track as Team Chevy’s leading driver in last year’s event. The Xfinity Series’ history at World Wide Technology Raceway dates back to July 1997. Elliott Sadler drove Chevrolet to victory lane in the series’ debut at the Illinois venue – a win that kickstarted a streak of five-straight triumphs for the Bowtie brand at the track. Departing from the series’ schedule following the 2010 season, the track has found its way back to the circuit with the homecoming marking the final race of the series’ regular season.

LARSON, CHASTAIN ADD TO POINTS CUSHION In a race plagued with problems for much of the playoff field, Team Chevy’s Kyle Larson and Ross Chastain both managed to escape the ‘Lady in Black’ with an added points cushion heading into the second stop of the Round of 16. Chastain and the No. 1 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet team were among the top movers in the playoff rankings following the postseason opener – going from 11th position and just one-point above the cutline to the eighth position and a 21-point advantage. The 32-year-old Alva, Florida, native spent much of the crown jewel race in the top-10 to earn an average running position of 5.5 – going on to collect top-six points in each stage en route to an 11th-place finish. Despite a disappointing 19th-place finish, Larson and the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet team leaned onto a strong first-two stages to make a double-digit boost in their cutline cushion to a now 38-point advantage heading into the weekend. Leading the Bowtie brigade with a fifth-place qualifying effort, the 33-year-old Elk Grove, California, native remained a steady fixture in the top-10 through the first-half of the race – earning top-six points in each stage.

NXS REGULAR SEASON TITLE GOES TO…. The battle for the 2025 NASCAR Xfinity Series Regular Season Championship will finally come to a close this weekend at World Wide Technology Raceway. With yet another masterful road course performance, Connor Zilisch put together a race-high 60-point day en route to his series-leading eighth win of the season at Portland International Raceway – pushing the ‘Rookie of the Year’ contender back to the top of the standings by 20-points over his JR Motorsports teammate, Justin Allgaier, heading into the regular season finale. While it’s a new track for much of the field, Allgaier will be able to lean on his veteran experience of three previous starts at the Illinois venue, with his most recent (2010) ending in a pole win and third-place finish.

BOWTIE BULLETS:· Active Chevrolet drivers with a NASCAR Cup Series win at World Wide Technology Raceway: Kyle Busch – one win (2023) · Chevrolet paces its manufacturer competitors in both driver and organization representation in the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs with seven drivers from three different Chevrolet organizations set to compete for this season’s driver championship title. · Chevrolet has earned at least half of the top-10 finishing results in 12 of the 27 points-paying races thus far this season, including a season-high seven top-10 finishes at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and Talladega Superspeedway. · In 135 points-paying races in the Next Gen era, Chevrolet leads all manufacturers with 64 victories – a winning percentage of 47.4%.
· With its 43 NASCAR Cup Series Manufacturer Championships, 33 NASCAR Cup Series Driver Championships, and 878 all-time NASCAR Cup Series wins, Chevrolet continues to hold the title as the winningest brand in NASCAR Cup Series history.

TUNE-IN:NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs Round of 16: Race TwoEnjoy Illinois 300Sunday, September 7, at 3 p.m. ET(USA Network, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90) NASCAR Xfinity Series Regular Season FinaleNu Way 200 Sauced by Blue HogSaturday, September 6, at 7:30 p.m. ET(CW, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90)

QUOTABLE QUOTES:Austin Dillon, No. 3 Richard Childress Racing ChevroletWhat are your thoughts leading into World Wide Technology Raceway. Is that a track you circle as one of the tracks you’ll be a threat at during the NASCAR Playoffs?“I can’t wait to get the Dow Dayglo car on the track at World Wide Technology Raceway. It’s probably one of the brightest and coolest cars I’ve ever driven, and I know my daughter Blaize will be really excited about the bright colors on our Chevy. World Wide Technology Raceway is one of my favorite tracks that we go to. We had one of our best runs of the season in 2024 at the track and it’s a NASCAR Playoffs race, so I’m excited to get it out there and give it all we got.” Is there anything from Richmond Raceway that you can transfer over to World Wide Technology Raceway?“I think with World Wide Technology Raceway being in between a short track and a bigger track makes it interesting. It has long straightaways, but it has flatter corners. You’re in the corner for a long time. Turns 1 and 2 have a little bit more banking, similar to Richmond Raceway, but truthfully the pavement and asphalt are so different than Richmond that I don’t think everything will crossover. However, I feel good about what we’re bringing.” What’s it going to take to transfer to the next round of the NASCAR Playoffs?“I think the first round of the NASCAR Playoffs is all about execution. If we can be consistent in our performance the first three weeks, we’ll transfer to the next round. Darlington didn’t go the way we wanted to, but we’re still within striking distance.” Kyle Larson, No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet“We had a great test at Gateway earlier this year that led us down a different path with our short-track program. We feel we have learned some things that have made that program a little bit better since then. We should be more competitive and at least start the weekend better than we have. If we can be good at Gateway, that will give us some confidence going to Phoenix.” Justin Haley, No. 7 Spire Motorsports ChevroletYou qualified 13th at Darlington and ran pretty well until you had to make an unscheduled pit stop under green. What are your thoughts heading into this weekend?“Our car was fast last weekend at Darlington and I’ve had some success at World Wide Technology Raceway so I’m definitely looking forward to this weekend. Hopefully, we’re fast when we unload and can put together a solid weekend.” World Wide Technology Raceway has a unique layout with its tight corners and long straightaways. How does it compare to some of the other tracks on the schedule?“The track is flat and tricky because both ends of the race track are so different. The challenge is what makes it different and interesting for me. Gateway has always been a good track for me, personally. I won my first CRAFTSMAN Truck Series race there in 2018 and finished top 10 in the Cup Race last year so this is definitely one I’ve had circled on my calendar.” Kyle Busch, No. 8 Richard Childress Racing ChevroletWorld Wide Technology Raceway is the home of your last Cup Series win in 2023. What did it mean to you to get a win at a track that was new to the Cup Series?“It was fantastic. I was oh so close to having it the first year but was able to repeat that success with RCR and to be able to get it there in 2023. It was a fun racetrack. I remember racing on it in the Xfinity Series back when and won some races there in the era of 2009-2010, and now being able to come back and run there again, I would certainly love to get back to Victory Lane in the Rebel Bourbon Chevrolet and put a one in the win column.”   You’re the only one that’s been able to stop the Penske Express there. Why do you think that group is so solid on those short, flatter tracks?“I’m not sure exactly, but they certainly do have their short, flat track program going. I remember Logano talking about testing at North Wilkesboro and going through set up changes and things and how they ran 400 laps or whatever it was of just continually of evolving their set up and trying to figure something out. Maybe that had something to do with it, maybe the Indy car program has something to do with it. They’re always oh so strong with the Indy car stuff, so who knows?” Last year you battled Kyle Larson and it’s always cool when the two Kyles are together because you are just two of the elites in the sport. What went wrong with that battle between the two of you, while you were fighting for, I think, seventh place?  “I would have to go back and watch it again, but from what I recall, Kyle caught me from a ways back and it’s hard to pass with these cars, obviously, so I guess he felt it when he got to me, he needed to nerf me a little bit and get me up out of the groove. I guess I just wasn’t too happy with that and crowded him a little bit getting into Turn 1, he lost his race car and we both ended up crashed. I guess that’s part of the course. I should have learned my lesson on how crowding somebody will crash somebody because my brother did that to me in 2007 at Charlotte. We both made mistakes in that race, but we certainly came out on the worst end of it.” After Dover, your team owner Richard Childress, he comes over the radio and vows to change things. One of the things they’ve changed is bringing Jeff Curtis in, better known as Jazzy. Your brother considered him a secret weapon of sorts because of what he’s able to do. Have you seen any changes since two months ago at Dover?“A little bit. I mean, I would say that Jazzy is a key component of that, Johnny Klausmeier is a key component of that, there’s a bunch of guys in the fab shop that are also. There’s no reason why we shouldn’t be able to go out there and win races. It’s about putting all the pieces together and having the right setups. I feel like sometimes, we hit the racetrack with what we think we know is right because we see our other key partner friends that are running those setups and it just doesn’t work for us. It’s fine to run a key partner setup that’s good, that has proven itself, that wins races. Like Austin ran his same set up at Richmond from last year, ran really good with it, it won both times. We tried it on the 8 car as well, too, and I just burned the right rear tire off it. So there has to be a concession or a delta made for me to be able to race somebody else’s setups. Whether I’m too hard on the right rear or too hard on the right front, there’s got to be some different values within those setups that you can say, ‘okay, that’s our base setup, but we know Kyle needs X for right rear spring, so let’s rebuild the setup around that, and that’ll be good for what Kyle needs’. And I just don’t think we’ve scienced that out yet.”   You said last Saturday at Darlington that over the next 10 races, the only thing on your mind is winning. How do you get there, how do you achieve that?“I mean I think just being able to put everything together, all pieces of the puzzle. Being able to have good cars when we go to the racetrack and maintain those good cars all through practice, all through the race, and try to qualify up front as well, too. We got burned at qualifying at Darlington a little bit with the Daytona crash that we had, being knocked out in the first stage and the metric that sets qualifying, so that wasn’t a benefit to us, but it happens.” Chase Elliott, No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet“I haven’t really jived great with Gateway. There’s not many tracks that as a company I feel like we’ve struggled at, but I do think that’s been one of them. Why that is I don’t really know. But I do think that we’ve put a lot of emphasis as a company on trying to get better at those style of race tracks. We have a good opportunity to do that, so hopefully it’s another step in the right direction for us.” AJ Allmendinger, No. 16 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet“Gateway (World Wide Technology Raceway) is a very unique racetrack where I’ve enjoyed driving the Cup car. Both ends of the track are very different. In Darlington last weekend, our team executed like we needed to all day long and that is something we are proud of. Our group is looking to continue carrying that momentum and keep improving for these last nine races.” William Byron, No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports ChevroletByron on strengths and weaknesses in the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs: “I think our strength is just that we’re fast at all the different tracks. So, I think at the same time, though, you never know what everyone else is going to bring and how fast they’re going to be. So, we’ve just got to keep working. We can keep getting better, but that’s our strength. And then I guess the area we can improve is… I don’t know. There’s not a huge glaring area. We could always be faster on pit road. We could always be faster, have a better-balanced car. But I think the underlying theme of the playoffs is just you’ve got to get to the Round of 8, and then you’ve got to start peaking as that round goes. October is the most important time of the year.”

Ricky Stenhouse Jr., No. 47 Hyak Motorsports Chevrolet“My guys have worked hard in the shop this week to get the car ready for Gateway. I’m excited to have Ram Self Storage back on board for another race.” Alex Bowman, No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet“I‘m happy for everyone at WWT Raceway. They have worked really hard to get a playoff race and are great to us when we go there. We have not been very good there in the past so, I’m looking forward to trying to be better there. I think we lost the brakes last year, so it looked really bad. (Kyle) Larson tested there a few months back so we will probably lean on them to see what they learned and go from there.” Michael McDowell, No. 71 Spire Motorsports ChevroletYou have shown speed at Gateway in the past. How do you build on that this weekend?“World Wide Technology was fun last year — sitting on the pole, setting the track record and leading a bunch of laps. We weren’t great in the race, but we had a lot of speed leading up to that. So we’ve got things to work on for sure, but I feel confident about St. Louis in general — the track and having good speed there. You always feel like when you’ve had success, you have something to build on, so I’m looking forward to getting back to St. Louis this weekend.” Carson Hocevar, No. 77 Spire Motorsports ChevroletWorld Wide Technology Raceway has been the site of some very high and very low points of your career. Is there a certain feeling you get when you pull into the track on race weekend?“I try not to think about the wreck and the injury. I think that’s what most drivers would do, you just can’t worry about that. The Cup debut and then coming back last year to kind of make up for how that first race ended, means a lot more to me. That’s where all of this started. It’s where Spire Motorsports and Jeff Dickerson first saw something in me that made them think it might be good for me to move up. Whether other people think it was good or not doesn’t really matter, but Gateway is a special place for me and I love racing there every year.” You’ve come a long way since that first Cup Series race in 2023. If there was anything you’d tell that version of yourself, what would it be?“Just keep being you. There will be a lot of tough days, but the good ones make up for them. You’ll piss off a lot of drivers, and that isn’t always fun, but you’ll end up with a good group of guys on the No. 77 who have your back and believe in you.” Connor Zilisch, No. 88 JR Motorsports Chevrolet“I’m excited to go to World Wide Technology Raceway for the first time this weekend. It’s a track that JRM has never won at. I got their first win at Portland this past weekend, which was really cool for me, and we were able to keep up our momentum. Hopefully, we can do the same thing this weekend and continue to build on our streak of top-five finishes. It’s been fun to win a lot of races lately, but we still have to go out and execute and do our job every week. I have no doubt that our No. 88 WeatherTech team will do that this weekend at WWTR. It’s been cool to go to a bunch of new tracks for the first time this season. This track looks similar to Phoenix since it’s flat and tight. I’m looking forward to figuring it out with my team and hopefully we can have a good, clean race.”

TEAM CHEVY ADVANCEWorld Wide Technology RacewaySeptember 6-7, 2025

As the playoff pressure builds for NASCAR’s premier series, the Xfinity Series has finally reached one of the most pivotal moments of the season with the grand finale of its regular season.

MEDIA RESOURCES: Photo Gallery | Race Advances Chevrolet Newsroom

Chevrolet NASCAR Cup Series Statistics Manufacturers Championships:Total (1949-2024): 43First title for Chevrolet: 1958Highest number of consecutive titles: 13 (2003-15)Most recent: 2024 Years Won: 1958, 1959, 1960, 1961, 1972, 1973, 1974, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1993, 1995, 1996, 1998, 2001, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024 Drivers Championships:Total (1949-2024): 33First Chevrolet champion: Buck Baker (1957)Highest number of consecutive titles: 7 (2005-11)Most recent: Kyle Larson (2021) Years Won: 1957, 1960, 1961, 1973, 1976, 1977, 1979, 1980, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1990, 1991, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 2001, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2013, 2014, 2016, 2020, 2021 Event Victories:Record for total race wins in single season: 26 (2007) 2025 STATISTICS: Wins: 12Poles: 10Laps Led: 3,132Top-Fives: 53Top-10s: 114Stage Wins: 22 CHEVROLET IN NASCAR CUMULATIVE STATISTICS:Total Chevrolet race wins: 878 (1949 to date)Poles won to date: 763Laps led to date: 255,843Top-fives to date: 4,422Top-10s to date: 9,121 Total NASCAR Cup Wins by Corporation, 1949 to Date: General Motors: 1,212 Chevrolet: 878 Pontiac: 154 Oldsmobile: 115 Buick: 65 Ford: 845 Ford: 745 Mercury: 96 Lincoln: 4 Fiat Chrysler Automobiles: 467 Dodge: 217 Plymouth: 191 Chrysler: 59 Toyota: 199

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TEAM CHEVY ADVANCE World Wide Technology RacewaySeptember 6-7, 2025

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