World Wide Technology Raceway will host the third Enoy Illinois 500 on June 3, 2024 – which would seem a distant way away except for the fact it was 80 degrees on Tuesday.
Included in that field will be Bubba Wallace, driver of the No. 23 23XI Toyota car and still lone Black driver on the NASCAR Cup Series.
With 12 races between this weekend’s Penzoil 400 in Las Vegas and the Enoy Illinois 300, Wallace has a chance to capture his first checkered flag since a win at Talladega in October 2021. Personally, I would love for him to do it here.
Track owner Curtis Francois, John Bisci, public relations director, and the entire staff deserve it because their partnership with David Steward, founder and chair of World Wide Technology, has led to this race being a showcase of diversity and opportunity.
You see it amongst fans in the stands, on pit row, and throughout the infield where numerous minority vendors are on the scene.
I’m sure Wallace would love to already have a win under his chassis when he gets here, and his 2024 season seems headed to a historic victory.
In the two NASCAR Series events in 2024, Wallace posted a 5th place finish at the rain-delayed Daytona 500 and followed that at No. 5 again in last weekend’s Ambetter Health 400 at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
He is the only driver with top-10 finishes in both races and both were top five. Wallace is currently in fourth place in points, three back of leader Kyle Busch and two behind a second-place tie between William Byron and Austin Cindric.
Following the grueling race, Wallace wrote on X. “May sound like a joke but my brain is mush. The psychological piece to plate racing is massive. Yes it’s [as] big as any other race but receiving and digesting the info from [spotter Freddie Kraft] lap by lap, corner by corner to make sure you’re in the right spot is intense.”
““You have to be ON from start to finish…Proud of this 23 team There is something special with this group this year! Time to really lock in and get the stars aligned. Back to back top five is a great start… but there is 24 more left. Y’all enjoy it for me.”
Noted NASCAR reporter Nilavro Ghosh wrote this week, “Wallace has probably had the best start of his career in any Cup Series campaign.”
“Racing super-speedways is one of the most physically and mentally taxing jobs a NASCAR driver can ever think of. For the entirety of the event (which lasts more than 3 hours), Bubba Wallace experienced all the emotions and came out with flying colors.”
The Reid Roundup
Lewis Hamilton will be leaving Mercedes and joining Ferrari after the 2024 Formula 1 season. He won six of his seven world titles with Mercedes (one with McClaren) and as he prepared for Sunday’s Bahrain Grand Prix he said he’s ready for a new challenge. “It’s all about a new chapter in my life and I really feel like I’ve done everything I could possibly do with [Mercedes} and I’m on the back end of my career.”…It’s almost March and free-agent Tommy Pham is not on an MLB roster. Some team is going to get a bargain with a bang…I confess to being a San Francisco Giants fan. It dates back to seeing Juan Marichal tangle with Bob Gibson on a steamy hot Sunday afternoon….I like former Giant Brandon Crawford signing with the St. Louis Cardinals but he’s 38 and hit .194 last season…If the NBA season ended today, the Minnesota Timberwolves and Oklahoma City Thunder would tie for best record in the Western Conference with 41-17 records. I got no problem with that…The problem those teams have is that they could easily be facing LeBron James and the L.A. Lakers or Steph Curry and the Golden State Warriors in the first round of the playoffs…Jayson Tatum and the Boston Celtics continue to make a shambles of the Eastern Conference. At 46-12, they are eight games better than the Miami Heat. Tatum is averaging 27 points and 81/2 rebounds a game…Meanwhile, the Detroit Pistons, which had a 28-game losing streak this season, and the Washington Wizards have just nine wins.
