B.J. McLeod made his third start of the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series for Live Fast Motorsports, the team he co-owns, at Atlanta Motor Speedway this past weekend, and it went fairly well for the team known to run toward the back, to say the least.
McLeod took full advantage of the "equalizer" nature of superspeedway racing, stayed out of any sort of significant trouble, and finished in 16th place, which is the third best finish in the history of the organization and best since McLeod secured their top finish ever, seventh, at Daytona International Speedway in 2022. He also finished in ninth at Daytona in 2021.
Live Fast Motorsports are set to make their second consecutive Cup Series appearance, but McLeod will not be behind the wheel of the No. 78 Chevrolet on the streets of Chicago, Illinois this weekend.
Instead, Katherine Legge is set to make her third appearance of the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season.
Legge, who made her much-maligned Cup Series debut at Phoenix Raceway in March, returned for the recent road course race at Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez and finished in 32nd place. Now she is set to return for Sunday afternoon's Grant Park 165 at the Chicago Street Course.
However, she is not actually guaranteed to compete, as there are five non-chartered (open) cars going for the last four spots in the 40-car field, meaning that for the first time since the race at Texas Motor Speedway in November 2018, there will be somebody who fails to qualify for a non-Daytona 500 race.
The others are the No. 13 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet, the No. 33 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet, the No. 66 Garage 66 Ford, and the No. 67 23XI Racing Toyota, which are set to be driven by Will Brown, Austin Hill, Josh Bilicki, and Corey Heim, respectively.
Legge must beat at least one of those four drivers to get into the race. With three of them set to drive for teams that also run multiple full-time entries, the battle for the 40th and final spot could very well come down to Legge and Bilicki.
Live coverage of the Grant Park 165 is set to be provided by TNT Sports from the Chicago Street Course starting at 2:00 p.m. ET on Sunday, July 6.