Van Gisbergen Leads Cup race

NASCAR News: Van Gisbergen cleans up on the streets of Chicago

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 Xfinity and NASCAR Cup races, both from the pole position.

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Shane Van Gisbergen, driver of the #88 WeatherTech Chevrolet, and crew celebrate after winning the NASCAR Cup Series Grant Park 165 at Chicago Street Course on July 06, 2025 in Chicago, Illinois. (Photo by James Gilbert/Getty Images)

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 at Darlington last year. 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 first to get an ambulance across the track for a spectator medical emergency and the second 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, 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, weather in the form of 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, 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 Suarez, Todd Gilliland, Will Brown and Riley Herbst piled into the wreck. Only Herbst and Suarez 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 32nd 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 Erik Jones, who advanced when Ricky Stenhouse Jr. retired after colliding with a tire 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 standings over second-place Elliott shrank to 13 points.

Chicago NASCAR Cup Race Results

Fin Str No. Driver Team Laps Led Laps Status
1 1 88 Shane Van Gisbergen WeatherTech Chevrolet 26 75 Running
2 9 54 Ty Gibbs Monster Energy Toyota 0 75 Running
3 4 45 Tyler Reddick Jordan Brand Toyota 0 75 Running
4 40 11 Denny Hamlin Progressive Toyota 0 75 Running
5 6 8 Kyle Busch Slurpee Chevrolet 0 75 Running
6 16 16 AJ Allmendinger Celsius Chevrolet 2 75 Running
7 7 60 Ryan Preece BuildSubmarines.com Ford 0 75 Running
8 11 48 Alex Bowman Ally Chevrolet 0 75 Running
9 30 33 * Austin Hill United Rentals Chevrolet 0 75 Running
10 22 1 Ross Chastain Busch Light Apple Chevrolet 0 75 Running
11 12 22 Joey Logano Shell Pennzoil Ford 0 75 Running
12 17 12 Ryan Blaney Menards/Dutch Boy Ford 3 75 Running
13 14 5 Kyle Larson Valvoline Chevrolet 0 75 Running
14 26 38 Zane Smith Vermeer Midwest Ford 0 75 Running
15 25 42 John Hunter Nemechek Dollar Tree Toyota 0 75 Running
16 39 9 Chase Elliott NAPA Auto Parts Chevrolet 0 75 Running
17 21 35 Riley Herbst Lucy Toyota 0 75 Running
18 8 17 Chris Buescher Body Guard Ford 0 75 Running
19 33 78 * Katherine Legge e.l.f. Cosmetics Chevrolet 0 75 Running
20 36 10 Ty Dillon Sea Best Chevrolet 0 75 Running
21 31 66 * Josh Bilicki(i) PureKick Ford 0 75 Running
22 28 7 Justin Haley Gainbridge Chevrolet 0 75 Running
23 5 19 Chase Briscoe Bass Pro Shops Toyota 13 75 Running
24 13 20 Christopher Bell CRAFTSMAN Racing For A Miracle Toyota 0 74 Running
25 34 43 Erik Jones AdventHealth Toyota 0 74 Running
26 35 51 Cody Ware Arby’s New Angus Cheesesteak Ford 0 73 Accident
27 27 2 Austin Cindric Discount Tire Ford 0 72 Running
28 37 23 Bubba Wallace McDonald’s Toyota 0 70 Running
29 18 99 Daniel Suarez Jockey Chevrolet 0 69 Accident
30 24 4 Noah Gragson Rasmussen Air & Gas Energy Ford 0 68 Running
31 32 47 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Rate Chevrolet 0 62 Accident
32 2 71 Michael McDowell DePaul Chevrolet 31 53 Running
33 23 41 Cole Custer Haas/Andy’s Ford 0 29 Accident
34 29 21 Josh Berry Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford 0 28 Accident
35 3 77 Carson Hocevar Zeigler Auto Group Chevrolet 0 2 Accident
36 10 3 Austin Dillon Breztri Chevrolet 0 2 Accident
37 15 6 Brad Keselowski Kroger/Blue Buffalo Ford 0 2 Accident
38 20 34 Todd Gilliland Grillo’s Pickles Ford 0 2 Accident
39 19 13 * Will Brown Mobile X Chevrolet 0 2 Accident
40 38 24 William Byron All-Pro Auto Reconditioning Chevrolet 0 1 Clutch

Average Speed of Race Winner:  66.764 mph.

Time of Race:  2 Hrs, 28 Mins, 17 Secs. Margin of Victory:  Under Caution Seconds.

Caution Flags:  7 for 15 laps.

Lead Changes:  6 among 5 drivers.

Lap Leaders:   M. McDowell 1-31;S. Van Gisbergen # 32-41;A. Allmendinger 42-43;R. Blaney 44-46;C. Briscoe 47-59;S. Van Gisbergen # 60-75.

Leaders Summary (Driver, Times Lead, Laps Led):  Michael McDowell 1 time for 31 laps; Shane Van Gisbergen # 2 times for 26 laps; Chase Briscoe 1 time for 13 laps; Ryan Blaney 1 time for 3 laps; AJ Allmendinger 1 time for 2 laps.

Stage #1 Top Ten: 71,8,45,19,60,1,42,38,33,4

Stage #2 Top Ten: 12,19,45,48,23,11,9,42,43,20