Regan Smith out, Ty Dillon in at Chicagoland

Fatherhood will keep Regan Smith out of the No. 7 Chevrolet for Tommy Baldwin Racing for Sunday’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 400 at Chicagoland Speedway and give Ty Dillon another opportunity in the Sprint Cup series.

Smith has made all 26 starts in the No. 7 this year with two top-10 finishes, but remains in North Carolina with wife Megan as they await the birth of their second child.  Dillon, who has eight starts this season in the Cup Series and served as a relief driver for Tony Stewart at Talladega in the spring, has practiced the No. 7 all weekend.

The team announced the driver swap Sunday morning on social media.  The car will roll off 33rd. The driver’s last Tweet came on Saturday indicating that they were still waiting. When the new baby finally does arrive it will have an older brother, Rhett who was born in February of 2015.

Ty Dillon competes fulltime in the NASCAR Xfinity Series and is part of this year’s inaugural championship Chase which starts next weekend at Kentucky Speedway.

NEWS: @tydillon will drive the No.7 @NikkoRC / @TMNTMaster Raphael Chevrolet in today’s #TMNT400. #TeamTurtle 🐢

— Tommy Baldwin Racing (@TBR_Racing) September 18, 2016

No baby yet, still a waiting game and as anybody with kids knows this process is completely unpredictable.

— Regan Smith (@ReganSmith) September 17, 2016

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Greg Engle

Greg is a published award winning sportswriter who spent 23 years combined active and active reserve military service, much of that in and around the Special Operations community.

Greg is the author of "The Nuts and Bolts of NASCAR: The Definitive Viewers' Guide to Big-Time Stock Car Auto Racing" and has been published in major publications across the country including the Los Angeles Times, the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He was also a contributor to Chicken Soup for the NASCAR Soul, published in 2010, and the Christmas edition in 2016. He wrote as the NASCAR, Formula 1, Auto Reviews and National Veterans Affairs Examiner for Examiner.com and has appeared on Fox News. He holds a BS degree in communications, a Masters degree in psychology and is currently a PhD candidate majoring in psychology. He is currently the weekend Motorsports Editor for Autoweek.

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