It was on this weekend, two years ago, that Shane Van Gisbergen stormed onto the NASCAR Cup Series scene for a one-off drive in the inaugural Chicago Street Race. With an impressive victory, the Auckland, New Zealand-native’s life changed forever.
The 2.2-mile street course that opened the door for Van Gisbergen to pursue a career in NASCAR’s National Series has also been instrumental in making it successful, with a pair of victories this weekend in the NASCAR Cup and Xfinity Series events.
Van Gisbergen started Sunday’s 75-lap contest from the pole, but when the race got started, the 36-year-old was simply outclassed by Michael McDowell in the No. 71 Chevrolet, who led the opening 31 laps.
McDowell was the first of multiple drivers who mounted a challenge to Van Gisbergen on Sunday; however, the Spire Motorsports driver experienced issues with the throttle that ultimately took him out of contention.
Once the strategy worked itself out at the end of the second stage, the driver of the No. 88 WeatherTech Chevrolet had to drive through some traffic, led by Chase Briscoe, of drivers who didn’t come to pit road.
Making several passes that proved difficult for just about any other driver on the circuit Sunday, Van Gisbergen got to the race lead at Lap 60, just moments before a caution was displayed for a spectator medical emergency.
RACE RESULTS: 2025 NCS Grant Park 165 at the Chicago Street Course
There was no stopping the three-time Supercars champion, who continued to pace the field in the race’s closing laps — as daunting weather loomed closer and closer and more restarts continued to pop up.
While the challenges weren’t immense in the closing laps, a final lap caution triggered by a crash from Cody Ware ended the race prematurely, giving the win to Shane Van Gisbergen.
For Van Gisbergen, it’s his third win in the NASCAR Cup Series, two of which have come this season. The New Zealander is now the winningest foreign-born driver in the history of NASCAR’s top level.
“Yeah, I love this place,” said Van Gisbergen. “What an amazing weekend for me. Lucky guy to drive some great cars. I thank Trackhouse, WeatherTech, Chevrolet, and all of these guys and girls here, what an amazing weekend.”
With a runner-up result in Sunday’s Grant Park 165, Ty Gibbs matches a career-best finish in the No. 54 Monster Energy Toyota Camry XSE. In third place, Tyler Reddick made a valiant charge on brand-new tires, but fell just a little bit short when the checkered flag was displayed.
After detonating an engine in the opening seconds of NASCAR Cup Series practice on Saturday, Denny Hamlin drove through the field for a fourth-place result. Similarly, Kyle Busch rebounded from a mid-race spin to finish fifth.
AJ Allmendinger was sixth, with Ryan Preece, Alex Bowman, NASCAR Xfinity Series regular Austin Hill, and Ross Chastain rounding out the top-10.
For the first time in the history of the Chicago Street Course event, the NASCAR Cup Series event featured dry conditions for the entire event. However, the race still featured several instances of adversity.
On just the second lap of the race, top-10 runner Carson Hocevar made contact with the inside wall at the entrance to Turn 10 and slammed hard into the outside wall.
That early wreck was the biggest incident of the afternoon and included the likes of Will Brown, Austin Dillon, Brad Keselowski, and Todd Gilliland.
After a mechanical issue from the initial start of the race, William Byron finished 40th, and watched his regular-season points lead dwindle from 39 to 13 points, leaving the Chicago Street Course.
William Byron, Chase Elliott, Kyle Larson, Denny Hamlin, and Tyler Reddick are all inside the top five in NASCAR Cup Series point standings, and sit within 50 points of the leader.
Next for the NASCAR Cup Series is a trip to Sonoma Raceway for the Toyota/Save Mart 350, the fourth road course event of the 2025 campaign. Coverage will be on TNT Sports on Sunday, July 13, at 3:30 pm ET.
