2024 Enjoy Illinois 300 Preview: NASCAR Goes to Gateway

After all of the excitement of Kyle Larson attempting the double, the historic weekend ended in failure thanks to poor weather in both Indianapolis and Charlotte. A rain-shortened Coca-Cola 600 saw Christopher Bell end up in Victory Lane and Larson left without a single lap completed behind the wheel of his #5 Chevrolet. Next up – NASCAR heads to the St. Louis area to tackle World Wide Technology Raceway (formerly known as Gateway Motorsports Park) for the 2024 Enjoy Illinois 300.

Meanwhile, the NASCAR Xfinity Series ventures all the way out west for road course racing in Portland. The weekend features a full slate of racing you won’t want to miss.

2024 Enjoy Illinois 300 Entry List

The entry list for Sunday’s race at WWT features almost no changes other than in the #15 and #16 machines. Cody Ware will hop behind the wheel of the #15 while Derek Kraus mans the #16.

Unfortunately for NASCAR, most of the storylines around this week don’t revolve around on-track action. The biggest bombshell came when Stewart-Haas Racing announced its closure following the conclusion of the 2024 season. This leaves Chase Briscoe, Josh Berry, Ryan Preece, and Noah Gragson without full-time rides for next season. More importantly, this news is real a bummer for the folks working behind the scenes at the shop at SHR as it means they will be left to pick up the pieces.

The other big piece of news circulating around NASCAR this week is whether they will or won’t grant a waiver for Kyle Larson’s missing the Coca-Cola 600. To qualify for the NASCAR post-season, drivers must run every scheduled NASCAR race. However, waivers have been granted in the past for injuries to Kyle Busch, Chase Elliott, and Alex Bowman. Obviously, Larson’s circumstances aren’t injury-related but I’d be shocked if NASCAR didn’t grant a waiver given the amount of publicity his attempt to run the double generated. In my opinion, the waiver situation should have been sorted prior to the event but now it’s become a talking point. We’ll see what decision NASCAR ultimately makes.

For now, we head to WWT where my expectations for the racing sit low thanks to the NASCAR struggles at short tracks. Though Gateway isn’t a true short track, it runs very similarly thanks to the low-banked corners. Passing will likely be extremely difficult on Sunday meaning track position comes at a premium.

2024 Enjoy Illinois Race Odds and Predictions

The theme of the entire season continues with Kyle Larson (+550) and Denny Hamlin (+600) perched atop the odds list for Sunday’s race. Christopher Bell at +800, William Byron at +900, and Martin Truex Jr. at +900 all deserve mention for Sunday’s race as well.

However, given what seems to be a resurgent Penske team on short tracks with Joey Logano’s success at North Wilkesboro, I expect both Logano (+900) and his teammate Ryan Blaney to end up near the front. I’m riding with Blaney at +850 as my winner pick for this weekend. While Kyle Busch won last year’s race, the RCR struggles have been brutal this year. I’d stay away from picking Busch to repeat.

.@KyleBusch knows how to have an impressive weekend at @WWTRaceway. pic.twitter.com/hWpDTSDTKO

— NASCAR (@NASCAR) May 30, 2024

If you really want to go down the list for a dark horse candidate, consider Chris Buescher at +1500. The driver of the #17 seems more hungry than ever after coming tantalizingly close at both Darlington and Kansas. I also might consider putting money on Ford to win at +225 given the value there.

I also want to take this opportunity to really drive home that you ought to watch the Xfinity Series from Portland as well. The racing in that series right now? Exceptional. Whether on a short track or a road course like this weekend, those drivers and cars consistently deliver. You won’t want to miss the action from Portland.

Check out the schedule below so you don’t miss any on-track action!

Friday 05/31

NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Qualifying – 5:35 p.m. CT on FS1 (Gateway)

Portland 112 (ARCA Menards West Series) – 6:00 p.m. CT on FloRacing (Portland)

Saturday 06/01

NASCAR Cup Series Qualifying – 9:15 a.m. CT on FS1 (Gateway)

NASCAR Xfinity Series Qualifying – 11:00 a.m. CT on FS1 (Portland)

Toyota 200 (NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series) – 12:30 p.m. CT on FS1 (Gateway)

Pacific Office Automation 147 (NASCAR Xfinity Series) – 3:30 p.m. CT on FS1 (Portland)

Sunday 06/02

Enjoy Illinois 300 (NASCAR Cup Series) – 2:30 p.m. CT on FS1 (Gateway)

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