Van Gisbergen sweeps Chicago race weekend
- NZ Sports Wire
- Jul 7
- 3 min read
Updated: Jul 7
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 on Sunday (Monday NZ Time), the New Zealander completed a weekend sweep of the Nascar Cup Series and Xfinity Series races, both from pole position.
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Taking the chequered flag under caution, after Cody Ware plowed into the Turn 6 tyre 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 line 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 tyres 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, did not 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.
For the first time in the three years of the Chicago Street Race, rain did not 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 did not reach the track until after the chequered 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 Suarez, Todd Gilliland, Will Brown and Riley Herbst piled into the wreck. Only Herbst and Suarez were able to continue.
The Nascar Cup Series continues its road-course stretch with a westward trip to Sonoma Raceway in California next Sunday (7.30am Monday NZT).
