Shane van Gisbergen Sweeps Chicago Street Race Weekend With Cup Win
Story By: REID SPENCER / NASCAR – CHICAGO, IL – Once again, Shane van Gisbergen asserted his superiority on the streets of Chicago, and in doing so, he matched a major NASCAR milestone.
In winning the Grant Park 165 on the Chicago Street Course, the New Zealander completed a weekend sweep of the NASCAR Cup Series and Xfinity Series races, both from the pole position.
Taking the checkered flag under caution, after Cody Ware plowed into the Turn 6 tire barrier as van Gisbergen charged through Turn 12 on the next-to-last lap, SVG matched Kyle Busch’s sweep of both races from the pole at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in July of 2016. No other driver has won races in NASCAR’s top two divisions from the pole on the same weekend.
The three-time Australian Supercars champion said he was panicked at the possibility of a caution and potential overtime after Ware’s wreck, but he reached the start/finish to start the final lap before NASCAR called the caution.
“What an amazing weekend for me,” said van Gisbergen, who drove the No. 88 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet to his second Cup victory on the 2.2-mile, 12-turn circuit, his second win this season and the third of his career.
“Lucky guy to drive some great cars. I thank Trackhouse, WeatherTech Chevy and all these guys and girls here — what an amazing weekend. Thanks everyone for coming out, and hope we put on a good show.”
Ty Gibbs ran second, equaling his career-best finish last year at Darlington. Tyler Reddick restarted 15th on fresh tires with nine laps left and climbed to third before he ran out of time.
Van Gisbergen took the lead for the final time on Lap 60, moving to the inside of front-running Chase Briscoe in Turn 2, racing side-by-side with the recent Pocono winner through Turn 3 and out-braking him into Turn 4 to gain the top spot.
From that point, SVG had to survive two cautions and restarts, the latter for Austin Cindric’s stalled car.
After that sixth yellow, Gibbs, running second, didn’t get a strong launch on the final restart and fell a car-length behind before reaching Turn 1. SVG pulled away from the No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota from that point on.
“Well, it really depends on the restart zone, because it’s right in that last corner, and the dude on the outside gets shafted every single time,” said Gibbs, who restarted on the outside approaching Turn 12.
“If you watch every one of them, the inside guy wins almost every time. He just got a good enough gap, had a good restart. I had a little bit of rear tire degradation that didn’t really help me on my launch off the corner. (He) just got a good gap and got away from me.”
For Reddick, the race was a case of déjà vu. Last year, he chased race winner Alex Bowman with a faster car over the closing laps and finished second.
“We kind of ended up in a tough spot there on the penultimate restart, I guess,” Reddick said. “Some of the cars were spinning — I can’t name them all, but unfortunately we kind of just got stuck in the wrong lane where I had to check up. I got behind those cars that we were on the same tire strategy as us, so we just lost a bit of time there passing those cars back.
“It’s great to finish third, but it’s for sure a bummer when you look at how much ground you made up.”
For the first time in the three years of the Chicago Street Race, rain didn’t play a role — but anticipation of possible thunderstorms did.
As the race neared conclusion, fog and storm clouds began to roll in from the north, but rain didn’t reach the track until after the checkered flag.
“The strategy was a bit all over the place, as we knew it would be today, racing the weather, racing cars and different (pit) stops,” Van Gisbergen said. “Stephen (Doran, crew chief) did a really good job on the box all day of just painting the picture in my head of who I was up against.
“We had two great pit stops. Just so stoked to get (sponsor) WeatherTech in Victory Lane for their home race.”
Michael McDowell got past SVG at the start of the race and led the first 31 laps and won Stage 1, but he had to take his car to the DVP (damaged vehicle policy) area to repair a stuck throttle and lost 22 laps in the garage.
A massive eight-car crash on Lap 3 blocked the track between Turns 10 and 11 and forced a stoppage of 14 minutes, 42 seconds. Carson Hocevar started the melee when he clipped the inside wall in Turn 10 and crashed into the opposite wall with enough force to move the Jersey barrier.
Hocevar’s No. 77 Chevrolet turned sideways, and the cars of Brad Keselowski, Daniel Suárez, Todd Gilliland, Will Brown and Riley Herbst piled into the wreck. Only Herbst and Suárez were able to continue.
“I didn’t see it until the last second,” Keselowski said. “I slowed down, and I actually felt I was going to get stopped, and then I just kind of got ran over from behind. It’s just a narrow street course, and sometimes there’s nowhere to go.”
Keselowski’s early exit made a winner of No. 32 seed Ty Dillon in the In-Season Challenge. Dillon will face Bowman in next Sunday third-round event at Sonoma Raceway, after Bowman traded shot after shot with his Chicago opponent, Bubba Wallace, until Wallace spun in the closing laps to lose the head-to-head battle.
John Hunter Nemechek finished 15th, one spot ahead of Chase Elliott, to eliminate the driver of the No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet from the In-Season Challenge. Nemechek will face his Legacy Motor Club teammate Erik Jones, who advanced when Ricky Stenhouse Jr. retired after colliding with a barrier.
Ryan Preece ran seventh and eliminated 30th-place finisher Noah Gragson. He’ll face Reddick, who ousted Hocevar. Gibbs prevailed over sixth-place finisher AJ Allmendinger and will race against Zane Smith at Sonoma.
Smith came home 14th and knocked out 18th-place Chris Buescher, who ran most of the race with an engine down on power.
Series leader William Byron was out of the race with a broken clutch after one lap and finished 40th. His lead in the Cup Series points standings over second-place Elliott shrank to 13 points.
The Cup Series continues its road-course stretch with a westward trip to Sonoma Raceway next Sunday (3:30 p.m. ET, TNT Sports, truTV, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
NOTE: Post-race technical inspection concluded without issue, confirming van Gisbergen as Sunday’s winner.
NASCAR Cup Series Chicago Street Race Results:
- Shane van Gisbergen, No. 88 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet
- Ty Gibbs, No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota
- Tyler Reddick, No. 45 23XI Racing Toyota
- Denny Hamlin, No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota
- Kyle Busch, No. 8 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet
- AJ Allmendinger, No. 16 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet
- Ryan Preece, No. 60 RFK Racing Ford
- Alex Bowman, No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet
- Austin Hill, No. 33 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet
- Ross Chastain, No. 1 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet
- Joey Logano, No. 22 Team Penske Ford
- Ryan Blaney, No. 12 Team Penske Ford
- Kyle Larson, No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet
- Zane Smith, No. 38 Front Row Motorsports Ford
- John Hunter Nemechek, No. 42 Legacy Motor Club Toyota
- Chase Elliott, No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet
- Riley Herbst, No. 35 23XI Racing Toyota
- Chris Buescher, No. 17 Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing Ford
- Katherine Legge, No. 78 Live Fast Motorsports Chevrolet
- Ty Dillon, No. 10 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet
- Josh Bilicki, No. 66 Garage 66 Ford
- Justin Haley, No. 7 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet
- Chase Briscoe, No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota
- Christopher Bell, No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota
- Erik Jones, No. 43 Legacy Motor Club Toyota
- Cody Ware, No. 51 Rick Ware Racing Ford
- Austin Cindric, No. 2 Team Penske Ford
- Bubba Wallace, No. 23 23XI Racing Toyota
- Daniel Suarez, No. 99 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet
- Noah Gragson, No. 4 Front Row Motorsports Ford
- Ricky Stenhouse Jr., No. 47 HYAK Motorsports Chevrolet
- Michael McDowell, No. 71 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet (out)
- Josh Berry, No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing Ford (out)
- Cole Custer, No. 41 Haas Factory Team Ford (out)
- Carson Hocevar, No. 77 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet (out)
- Austin Dillon, No. 3 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet (out)
- Brad Keselowski, No. 6 Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing Ford (out)
- Todd Gilliland, No. 34 Front Row Motorsports Ford (out)
- Will Brown, No. 13 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet (out)
- William Byron, No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet (out)
