Bob Pockrass
FOX Motorsports Insider
CHICAGO, Ill. — Shane van Gisbergen made a little more history again on Sunday in the city where he made his biggest history.
Shane van Gisbergen and crew celebrate after winning the NASCAR Cup Series Grant Park 165
The New Zealand driver, who won the inaugural Chicago street race in his Cup debut in 2023, earned his second win in three years at the track, as he had a comfortable lead on Ty Gibbs when the caution came out on the final lap on Sunday afternoon.
SVG, as he is known, became only the second driver to sweep an Xfinity and Cup weekend by winning both races from the pole. The other was Kyle Busch at Indianapolis in 2016.
And with his third win, he is the most-winning foreign-born driver in NASCAR Cup Series history.
Shane van Gisbergen celebrates in victory lane after winning the NASCAR Cup Series Grant Park 165 at Chicago Street Course
Not bad for a driver who didn’t expect to race in NASCAR, except for that one-off for Trackhouse Racing two years ago.
“This joint, it changed my life,” said three-time Australian Supercars champion van Gisbergen, who says he isn’t a fan of cities as he likes his space and grass. “I didn’t have any plans to do more NASCAR races when I first came over here, and I never thought I’d be in NASCAR full time.”
Rain barely fell on the cars minutes after the checkered flag. So here are the takeaways from a mostly dry Chicago race:
Controversial Caution
As van Gisbergen was completing his next-to-last lap, Cody Ware blew a brake rotor and slammed into the Turn 6 tire barrier. It was a hard hit, but NASCAR didn’t throw the caution until van Gisbergen had passed the start-finish line and taken the white flag.
Because van Gisbergen had taken the white flag, the final lap was completed under caution and the race was official. If the caution came out before he had taken the white, there would have been an overtime restart and a two-lap dash to the finish.
Ricky Stenhouse Jr., driver of the #47 Rate Chevrolet, and Cody Ware, driver of the #51 Arby’s New Angus Cheesesteak Ford, race during the NASCAR Cup Series Grant Park 165 at Chicago Street Course
NASCAR had waited to see if drivers could move their cars after hitting the tire barrier previously and had no idea how hard the impact was for Ware. So race officials didn’t throw the caution until they realized he wasn’t going to get it restarted.
The hit was hard enough that van Gisbergen could see the smoke from several hundred feet away (it came in an area visible from the frontstretch).
“I came out of the last corner and just saw a heap of smoke straight ahead of Turn 6, and I just held my breath until I crossed the line really,” van Gisbergen said. “When I got the white flag, I came around the next couple of corners and the yellow came out. It was a massive relief.”
Ty Gibbs, who finished second, and Tyler Reddick, who was third, would have loved another shot at van Gisbergen on a restart.
“I would have been all for that 100 percent, but … I don’t know [if it should have been thrown],” Gibbs said. “That would have been awesome.”
Angry Drivers
Road courses often bring out the tempers. This is especially true on street courses where there is little run-off room if a driver makes an error.
The angriest appeared to be Joey Logano, who yelled at Ross Chastain for a couple of minutes after the race.
As he left the track, Logano said that Chastain admitted he turned him intentionally and Chastain should be fined. What made Logano especially angry is that it was actually Austin Cindric who started the accident.
Joey Logano drives during the NASCAR Cup Series Grant Park 165 at Chicago Street Course
“Typical Ross. He just sees red and does dumb stuff,” Logano said. “That’s twice this year on road courses at the end of these things, I’ve been cost by Ross. I’m over it.”
Bubba Wallace and Alex Bowman had a short conversation after they tangled near the end of the race as well.
“He shipped us into (Turn) 12, ran us into the fence in [Turn] 1 and ran us into the fence off of [Turn] 2,” Bowman said. “And then we just sort of pin-balled off of each other and he ended up on the worse side of it. But we’re just trying to go straight off the corner. I don’t know why we did that … I wasn’t expecting that to happen or to get raced like that, but we did.”
The drivers likely won’t forget. And they have another road course coming next week at Sonoma.
NASCAR likely won’t forget either. The league will likely look at both incidents to determine if there should be any sanctions against the drivers.
Last Year of Chicago?
The deal with the Chicago Parks department with NASCAR was a three-year deal, with some options. But NASCAR appears ready to potentially move its street race to San Diego.
NASCAR officials reiterated Sunday that they are still in conversations with Chicago, and they have a couple of months to make a decision (although NASCAR typically likes to get its schedule out by late summer). Chicago mayor Brandon Johnson addressed the drivers prior to the race, just as he did last year.
Drivers seem mixed, as they like the street race but they also see value in moving this race around.
“Street races are something this sport should commit to wherever it is, whether it’s in Chicago or San Diego or wherever it is,” Trackhouse Racing team owner Justin Marks said. “I’ve always been a fan of finding ways to take the product to the people.
“If you can take what we do and plop it right in the middle of a city so people can come see it and have never seen a race before, I think that can only be good for the sport.”
Bob Pockrass covers NASCAR and INDYCAR for FOX Sports. He has spent decades covering motorsports, including over 30 Daytona 500s, with stints at ESPN, Sporting News, NASCAR Scene magazine and The (Daytona Beach) News-Journal. Follow him on Twitter @bobpockrass.
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