Shane van Gisbergen notches third Cup career pole at Chicago

Rookie Shane van Gisbergen doubled down for the day in the Windy City by notching the Busch Light Pole Award for the third annual Grant Park 165 at the Chicago Street Course on Saturday, July 5.

The event’s qualifying format on Saturday featured a single round. The 41 participants were split into two groups and each group had 20 minutes to qualify.

Van Gisbergen was the seventh-fastest competitor during the event’s practice session. He carried that momentum into the qualifying session, posting a pole-winning lap at 88.338 mph in 89.656 seconds. He claimed the top-starting spot over Michael McDowell and his No. 71 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet team.

With the pole, van Gisbergen, who also claimed the pole position for Saturday’s Xfinity event at Chicago, claimed his third career pole in NASCAR’s premier series. It was also his second of the 2025 season and his first since Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez in Mexico City in June. As a bonus, van Gisbergen joined Dan Gurney as the only competitors to win their first three Cup Series career poles on road courses.

“That was epic,” van Gisbergen said. “The [No. 88] guys did a great job. I’m a lucky boy. I’ve got some great cars today. Xfinity pole, Cup pole. It’s pretty special. Looking forward to the race tomorrow. What a tune-up. Practice wasn’t that great. [I] Went out in qualifying. The car felt really good and laid down two pretty good laps.”

Michael McDowell, who was the fifth-fastest competitor in practice, clocked in his best qualifying lap at 87.879 mph in 90.124 seconds. McDowell’s lap was enough for him to start on the front row for a second time in 2025 and his first since he started on the pole at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in March.

Carson Hocevar, McDowell’s teammate at Spire Motorsports, will start in third place. Tyler Redick and Chase Briscoe will round out the top-five starting spots in fourth and fifth, respectively. Kyle Busch, Ryan Preece, Chris Buescher, Ty Gibbs and Austin Dillon completed the top 10 starting spots.

Alex Bowman, the reigning Chicago winner, will line up in 11th place and share the sixth row with the reigning three-time Cup Series champion, Joey Logano.

Notably, Bubba Wallace, the fastest competitor in practice, will start in 37th place after he spun while qualifying. In addition, Hendrick Motorsports’ Chase Elliott and William Byron will start 38th and 39th, respectively.

This was due to both drivers damaging their primary cars while practicing. Unfortunately, neither driver was able to repair their entries before the qualifying session. Denny Hamlin also experienced issues in practice after his engine blew up and will start in 40th place.

With 41 competitors vying for 40 starting spots, Corey Heim, who was piloting 23XI Racing’s No. 67 Toyota Camry XSE entry, was the lone competitor who did not qualify for the main event after he scrubbed the wall and broke the toe link on his entry.

Qualifying position, best speed, best time:

1. Shane van Gisbergen, 88.338 mph, 89.656 seconds
2. Michael McDowell, 87.879 mph, 90.124 seconds
3. Carson Hocevar, 87.824 mph, 90.180 seconds
4. Tyler Reddick, 87.779 mph, 90.227 seconds
5. Chase Briscoe, 87.734 mph, 90.273 seconds
6. Kyle Busch, 87.639 mph, 90.371 seconds
7. Ryan Preece, 87.481 mph, 90.534 seconds
8. Chris Buescher, 87.471 mph, 90.544 seconds
9. Ty Gibbs, 87.391 mph, 90.627 seconds
10. Austin Dillon, 87.303 mph, 90.719 seconds
11. Alex Bowman, 87.241 mph, 90.783 seconds
12. Joey Logano, 87.239 mph, 90.785 seconds
13. Christopher Bell, 87.190 mph, 90.836 seconds
14. Kyle Larson, 87.181 mph, 90.845 seconds
15. Brad Keselowski, 87.181 mph, 90.846 seconds
16. AJ Allmendinger, 87.166 mph, 90.861 seconds
17. Ryan Blaney, 87.142 mph, 90.886 seconds
18. Daniel Suarez, 87.119 mph, 90.910 seconds
19. Will Brown, 86.990 mph, 91.045 seconds
20. Todd Gilliland, 86.961 mph, 91.075 seconds
21. Riley Herbst, 86.870 mph, 91.171 seconds
22. Ross Chastain, 86.837 mph, 91.205 seconds
23. Cole Custer, 86.751 mph, 91.296 seconds
24. Noah Gragson, 86.714 mph, 91.335 seconds
25. John Hunter Nemechek, 86.691 mph, 91.359 seconds
26. Zane Smith, 86.671 mph, 91.380 seconds
27. Austin Cindric, 86.459 mph, 91.604 seconds
28. Justin Haley, 86.459 mph, 91.604 seconds
29. Josh Berry, 86.416 mph, 91.650 seconds
30. Austin Hill, 86.403 mph, 91.663 seconds
31. Josh Bilicki, 86.097 mph, 91.989 seconds
32. Ricky Stenhouse Jr., 85.951 mph, 92.146 seconds
33. Katherine Legge, 85.744 mph, 92.368 seconds
34. Erik Jones, 85.584 mph, 92.541 seconds
35. Cody Ware, 85.454 mph, 92.681 mph
36. Ty Dillon, 84.876 mph, 93.313 seconds
37. Bubba Wallace, 75.585 mph, 104.783 seconds
38. William Byron, 0 mph, 0 seconds
39. Chase Elliott, 0 mph, 0 seconds
40. Denny Hamlin, 0 mph, 0 seconds.

The 2025 Grant Park 165 at the Chicago Street Course is scheduled to occur on Sunday, July 6, at 2 p.m. ET on TNT.