Van Gisbergen sweeps the streets of Chicago in Cup Series win
The New Zealander swept both pole awards and races in Chicago
(CHICAGO) - Shane van Gisbergen broke out the broom on Sunday afternoon as he once again proved his dominance on the streets of Chicago, completing a rare weekend sweep of both the NASCAR Xfinity and NASCAR Cup Series races, both from the pole position.
The New Zealander took the checkered flag under caution in Sunday's Grant Park 165 at the Chicago Street Course, matching Kyle Busch's feat of winning both NASCAR's top two divisions from the pole in July 2016 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Van Gisbergen's victory came after Cody Ware crashed into the Turn 6 tire barrier on the penultimate lap as van Gisbergen approached Turn 12.
The three-time Australian Supercars champion, piloting the No. 88 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet, admitted he was "panicked" about a potential caution and overtime after Ware's wreck. However, he crossed the start/finish line to begin the final lap before NASCAR officially called the caution.
"What an amazing weekend for me," said van Gisbergen, who secured his second Cup Series victory on the 2.2-mile, 12-turn circuit, his second win of the 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 finished second, tying his career-best finish from Darlington last year. Tyler Reddick, who restarted 15th on fresh tires with nine laps remaining, climbed to third but ran out of time to challenge for the lead.
Van Gisbergen took the lead for good on Lap 60, moving to the inside of Chase Briscoe in Turn 2, racing side-by-side through Turn 3, and out-braking him into Turn 4. From there, he navigated two caution periods and subsequent restarts: one for a spectator medical emergency and another for Austin Cindric's stalled car.
Following the sixth caution, Gibbs, running second, struggled on the final restart, falling a car-length behind before Turn 1, allowing van Gisbergen to pull away in the No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota.
"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 echoed last year's event when he finished second to Alex Bowman despite having a faster car late in the race.
"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 Chicago Street Race's three-year history, rain didn't affect the race itself, though the anticipation of thunderstorms was a factor. Fog and storm clouds rolled in as the race concluded, but rain held off 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. "(Crew chief) Stephen (Doran) 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 initially led the first 31 laps after passing van Gisbergen at the start but fell 22 laps down after taking his car to the damaged vehicle policy area to repair a stuck throttle.
A significant eight-car crash on Lap 3 blocked the track between Turns 10 and 11, causing a delay of 14 minutes, 42 seconds. Carson Hocevar triggered the incident by clipping the inside wall in Turn 10 and crashing into the opposite wall, shifting the Jersey barrier. Hocevar's No. 77 Chevrolet turned sideways, collecting Brad Keselowski, Daniel Suarez, Todd Gilliland, Will Brown, and Riley Herbst. 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 run over from behind. It's just a narrow street course, and sometimes there's nowhere to go."
Keselowski's early exit benefited 32nd seed Ty Dillon in the In-Season Challenge. Dillon will face Alex Bowman next Sunday in the third round at Sonoma Raceway. Bowman advanced after Bubba Wallace spun in the closing laps of their head-to-head battle.
John Hunter Nemechek finished 15th, one spot ahead of Chase Elliott, eliminating the No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet driver from the In-Season Challenge. Nemechek will race Erik Jones, who advanced when Ricky Stenhouse Jr. retired after hitting a tire barrier.
Ryan Preece finished seventh, eliminating 30th-place Noah Gragson. Preece will face Reddick, who ousted Hocevar. Gibbs defeated sixth-place A.J. Allmendinger and will race Zane Smith at Sonoma.
Smith finished 14th, knocking out 18th-place Chris Buescher, who ran most of the race with a down-on-power engine.
Katherine Legge who had to race to qualify just to get in the Cup Series Street Race finished 19th after starting 33rd. It was the best finish for a female driver in the Cup Series since Danica Patrick at Texas in 2017 and the first non-superspeedway Top 20 for Live Fast Motorsports in more than three years.
With the Chicago Street Race came anger and frustration. Alex Bowman and Bubba Wallace exchanged pleasantries on the track before Wallace spun out. After the race, Wallace walked down pit road past Bowman but no words were exchanged.
The difference in post-race communication went from non-speaking to full on animated anger between Joey Logano and Ross Chastain as the Cup Series champion complained and voiced his displeasure to a smiling and grinning Chastain. Logano told members of the media that if anyone deserved a penalty or punishment from the race, it should be Chastain for the way he drove Logano during the race.
Series leader William Byron exited the race on Lap 1 with a broken clutch and finished 40th. His lead in the standings over second-place Elliott shrunk to 13 points.
NASCAR Cup Series Race - Grant Park 165 Chicago Street Race Chicago, Illinois Sunday, July 6, 2025
(1) Shane Van Gisbergen, Chevrolet, 75.
(9) Ty Gibbs, Toyota, 75.
(4) Tyler Reddick, Toyota, 75.
(40) Denny Hamlin, Toyota, 75.
(6) Kyle Busch, Chevrolet, 75.
(16) A.J. Allmendinger, Chevrolet, 75.
(7) Ryan Preece, Ford, 75.
(11) Alex Bowman, Chevrolet, 75.
(30) Austin Hill (i), Chevrolet, 75.
(22) Ross Chastain, Chevrolet, 75.
(12) Joey Logano, Ford, 75.
(17) Ryan Blaney, Ford, 75.
(14) Kyle Larson, Chevrolet, 75.
(26) Zane Smith, Ford, 75.
(25) John Hunter Nemechek, Toyota, 75.
(39) Chase Elliott, Chevrolet, 75.
(21) Riley Herbst, Toyota, 75.
(8) Chris Buescher, Ford, 75.
(33) Katherine Legge, Chevrolet, 75.
(36) Ty Dillon, Chevrolet, 75.
(31) Josh Bilicki (i), Ford, 75.
(28) Justin Haley, Chevrolet, 75.
(5) Chase Briscoe, Toyota, 75.
(13) Christopher Bell, Toyota, 74.
(34) Erik Jones, Toyota, 74.
(35) Cody Ware, Ford, Accident, 73.
(27) Austin Cindric, Ford, 72.
(37) Bubba Wallace, Toyota, 70.
(18) Daniel Suarez, Chevrolet, Accident, 69.
(24) Noah Gragson, Ford, 68.
(31) Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Chevrolet, Accident, 62.
(2) Michael McDowell, Chevrolet, 53.
(23) Cole Custer, Ford, Accident, 29.
(29) Josh Berry, Ford, Accident, 28.
(3) Carson Hocevar, Chevrolet, Accident, 2.
(10) Austin Dillon, Chevrolet, Accident, 2.
(15) Brad Keselowski, Ford, Accident, 2.
(20) Todd Gilliland, Ford, Accident, 2.
(19) Will Brown, Chevrolet, Accident, 2.
(38) William Byron, Chevrolet, Clutch, 1.
Race Statistics:
Average Speed of Race Winner: 66.764 mph.
Time of Race: 2 Hours, 28 Minutes, 17 Seconds.
Margin of Victory: Under Caution.
Caution Flags: 7 for 15 laps.
Lead Changes: 6 among 5 drivers.
