Rookie Shane van Gisbergen capped off a clean sweep in Windy City by scoring a NASCAR Cup Series victory in the third annual running of the Grant Park 165 at the Chicago Street Course on Sunday, July 6, from pole position.
The three-time Supercars champion from Auckland, New Zealand, led twice for 26 of 75-scheduled laps in an event where he started on pole position, but quickly lost the lead to Michael McDowell through the first 31 laps. During a caution period just past the Lap 30 mark, van Gisbergen cycled into the lead after McDowell dropped out of contention due to a throttle issue. Van Gisbergen would then lead the next 10 laps before he strategically pitted with three laps remaining in the second stage period.
Despite getting shuffled to 12th place following the second stage’s conclusion, van Gisbergen commenced the third and final stage period in 10th place. From there, he methodically carved his way to the front and he returned atop the leaderboard with 16 laps remaining following a late overtake on Chase Briscoe.
After enduring a final restart period with nine laps remaining, van Gisbergen rocketed away from the field. From there, he never looked back as he kept both Ty Gibbs and a hard-charging Tyler Reddick behind in the rearview mirror for the remainder of the event. Once Cody Ware concluded the event by wrecking on the final lap, van Gisbergen cruised his entry under a cautious pace before he proceeded to notch both his second Cup Series victory of the 2025 season and second on the Chicago Street Course.
With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Saturday, July 5, rookie Shane van Gisbergen notched his third Cup Series career pole position with a pole-winning lap at 88.338 mph in 89.656 seconds. Joining van Gisbergen on the front row was Michael McDowell, the latter of whom posted his best qualifying lap at 87.879 mph in 90.124 seconds.
Prior to the event, the following names that include Noah Gragson, Kyle Larson, Chase Elliott, Ty Dillon, Bubba Wallace, William Byron, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Alex Bowman and Katherine Legge dropped to the rear of the field due to unapproved adjustments to their respective entries. Denny Hamlin also dropped to the rear due to an engine change to his No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota entry.
When the green flag waved and the event commenced, pole-sitter Shane van Gisbergen and Michael McDowell dueled for the lead through the front straightaway until McDowell gained the first advantage through the first left-hand turn. As a result, McDowell led through the first turn (E. Ballbo Dr.) and fended off van Gisbergen through the second turn to retain the lead. McDowell proceeded to lead from Turns 2 to 12 (which included stops at S. Lake Shore Dr., S. Columbus Dr. and S. Michigan Ave.) as the field behind fanned out and jostled for early spots. Amid the early battles, McDowell proceeded to lead the first lap.
Two laps later and as McDowell led by more than a second over van Gisbergen, the event’s first caution flew when Carson Hocevar, who was racing in the top 10, slammed into the wall in Turn 10. After smacking the wall on the driver’s left side, Hocevar’s wrecked No. 77 Zeigler Chevrolet entry then spun back in the middle of the track.
This ignited a multi-car stack-up in Turn 11. Austin Dillon, Brad Keselowski, Daniel Suarez, Todd Gilliland, Will Brown, rookie Riley Herbst and AJ Allmendinger were involved. Meanwhile, the rest of the competitors racing towards the mid-pack region slammed on the brakes to avoid the carnage. The carnage was enough for the event to be placed in a red flag period for 14 minutes and 42 seconds.
Prior to the carnage, William Byron, who started at the rear of the field and was dealing with early clutch issues at the event’s launch, had taken his No. 24 All-Pro Chevrolet entry to the garage. When the red flag lifted and the field led by McDowell proceeded under a cautious pace, Buescher, who was racing in the top five, pitted to have the motor in his No. 17 Body Guard Ford Mustang Dark Horse entry addressed, an issue that would take him out of contention for the victory.
The start of the next restart on the sixth lap featured McDowell fending off van Gisbergen for a second consecutive time through the front straightaway as the former led through the first two turns. As a series of on-track battles within the field for positions ensued, McDowell retained the top spot throughout the remaining 10 turns of the course before he returned to the front straightaway and led the next lap.
Through the first 10-scheduled laps, McDowell was leading by half a second over van Gisbergen while Kyle Busch, Tyler Reddick and Chase Briscoe followed suit in the top five. Behind, Ty Gibbs occupied sixth place over Ryan Preece, Christopher Bell, AJ Allmendinger and Joey Logano while Ross Chastain, Ryan Blaney, Zane Smith, Josh Berry and John Hunter Nemechek trailed in the top 15 ahead of Justin Haley, Kyle Larson, Bubba Wallace, Austin Cindric and Alex Bowman, respectively.
Four laps later, Alex Bowman, who was fiercely battling Austin Cindric for 19th place, got loose and spun his No. 48 Ally Chevrolet entry in front of Austin Hill in Turn 12. Despite dropping back to 26th place, Bowman continued without drawing a caution. Meanwhile, McDowell stabilized his lead to seven-tenths of a second over van Gisbergen while Kyle Busch, Reddick and Briscoe continued to trail in the top five, respectively.
With four laps remaining in the first stage period, select names that included Ryan Blaney, Kyle Larson and Josh Berry strategically pitted their respective entries under green. Another lap later, more names that include Ty Gibbs, Allmendinger, Joey Logano, Wallace, Haley, Cindric, Stenhouse, Erik Jones, Ty Dillon, Bowman and Bell pitted, with Bell getting penalized for speeding on pit road not long after pitting. Then with nearly two laps remaining, van Gisbergen surrendered the runner-up spot to pit his No. 88 WeatherTech Chevrolet entry while the rest led by the leader McDowell remained on the track.
When the first stage period concluded on Lap 20, McDowell notched his first Cup stage victory of the 2025 season. Kyle Busch settled in second ahead of Reddick, Briscoe and Preece while Chastain, Nemechek, Zane Smith, Austin Hill and Noah Gragson were scored in the top 10, respectively. Meanwhile, van Gisbergen had carved his way up to 11th place. Under the stage break, multiple competitors that include Zane Smith, Gragson and Bell pitted their respective entries while the rest led by McDowell remained on the track.
The second stage period started on Lap 24 as McDowell and Kyle Busch occupied the front row. At the start, McDowell fended off Busch through the front straightaway and entering the first turn to retain the lead. As McDowell led Busch and Reddick from Turns 2 to 6, Preece outdueled Briscoe for fourth place in front of Chastain, Austin Hill, Nemechek and Ty Gibbs while van Gisbergen was trying to carve his way back to the front from 10th place. Amid the battles and as Wallace spun in Turn 11 without drawing a caution, McDowell led the following lap.
At the Lap 30 mark, the caution flew due to Josh Berry wrecking in Turn 7 after he made contact with Erik Jones in Turn 7. By then, McDowell was leading by more than a second over van Gisbergen. In addition, select names that include initial runner-up competitor Reddick, Nemechek, Ty Dillon, Riley Herbst and Briscoe pitted their respective entries prior to the caution being displayed. During the caution period, McDowell surrendered the lead to pit and to have a throttle issue in his No. 71 DePaul Chevrolet entry addressed while most of the field led by the new leader van Gisbergen remained on the track.
At the start of the next restart on Lap 33, van Gisbergen muscled ahead of AJ Allmendinger to lead through the front straightaway before he proceeded to lead through the first two turns. As McDowell returned to pit road due to having more throttle issues, van Gisbergen led from Turns 3 to 6 while Ty Gibbs muscled his way up to fourth place behind Preece. Shortly after, trouble occurred for Kyle Busch as he spun his No. 8 Slurpee Chevrolet entry from sixth place in Turn 7. Despite Busch’s spin, he was dodged by the oncoming field and he continued without drawing a caution. Meanwhile, van Gisbergen led the following lap over Allmendinger, Preece, Gibbs and Chastain, respectively.
Just past the lap 35 mark, van Gisbergen was leading by more than half a second over Allmendinger while Preece, Gibbs and Chastain continued to trail in the top five over Blaney, Logano, Erik Jones, Larson and Bowman, respectively. During the halfway mark between Laps 37 and 38, Chastain pitted from the top-five mark under green while McDowell had his entry pushed behind the wall. As more names that include Preece and Hill pitted while Katherine Legge also hit the wall in Turn 1 without drawing a caution, van Gisbergen stretched his lead to two seconds over Allmendinger by Lap 40.
Then during the Lap 41 mark, Larson made a strategic pit stop from 16th place. The leader van Gisbergen along with more names that include Ty Gibbs, Logano, Cindric, Gragson and Haley would also pit their respective entries by Lap 42 before Allmendinger, who led during the following lap, pitted during the next lap and just as pit road closed to mark the closure of a stage. Meanwhile, Blaney, who has yet to pit, cycled into the lead.
When the second stage period concluded on Lap 45, Blaney steered his No. 12 Menards Ford Mustang Dark Horse entry to his fourth Cup stage victory of the 2025 season. Briscoe followed suit in second ahead of Reddick, Bowman and Wallace while Denny Hamlin, Chase Elliott, Nemechek, Erik Jones and Bell were scored in the top 10, respectively. Meanwhile, van Gisbergen was scored in 12th place behind Buescher while Allmendinger, who endured a slow pit service, was mired back in 15th place behind Stenhouse and Gibbs. During the stage break, mixed pit strategies ensued as some led by Blaney and including Elliott pitted their respective entries while the rest led by Briscoe remained on the track.
With 27 laps remaining, the final stage period commenced as Briscoe and Reddick occupied the front row. At the start, Briscoe launched ahead through the front straightaway as he led through the first turn while 23XI Racing’s Reddick and Wallace followed suit. As Bowman and Hamlin battled for fourth place in front of van Gisbergen and a stacked field, Briscoe led from Turns 2 to 12 before he led the next lap. As Briscoe led by four-tenths of a second over Reddick with 25 laps remaining, Hamlin, van Gisbergen and Gibbs moved up into the top-five mark while Wallace was mired back in sixth place ahead of Nemechek.
Down to the final 20 laps, Briscoe stabilized his lead to six-tenths of a second over a hard-charging Reddick while third-place van Gisbergen trailed by more than a second. With teammates Ty Gibbs and Hamlin occupying the remaining top-five spots, Allmendinger, Wallace, Nemechek, Chastain and Logano were scored in the top 10, respectively. Earlier, Ty Dillon and Blaney pitted separately due to both having flat right-front tire issues.
Then with 16 laps remaining, the caution flew due to a spectator medical emergency that involved an ambulance getting across the course. At the moment of caution, van Gisbergen, who had reeled in and was intimidating Briscoe for the lead over the previous two laps, assumed the lead from Briscoe in Turn 5 and was scored the leader while Reddick, Gibbs and Allmendinger were scored in the top five. During the caution period, some including Reddick, Gragson, Blaney, Nemechek, Busch, Justin Haley, Hill, Zane Smith, Katherine Legge, Suarez, Elliott and Josh Bilicki pitted their respective entries while the rest led by van Gisbergen and Briscoe remained on the track.
With the race restarting with 13 laps remaining, van Gisbergen rocketed ahead of Briscoe and Gibbs to lead from the front straightaway to the first turn. Through the first two turns, a series of on-track chaos ensued as Chastain hit the tire barriers and Cindric was knocked sideways while Stenhouse and Logano endured an incident in Turn 2, with Stenhouse facing the course backwards. Amid both incidents, the race remained under green flag conditions as van Gisbergen led the following lap. The caution, however, returned with 12 laps remaining due to Cindric stopping on the course with a broken toe link to his No. 2 Discount Tire Ford Mustang Dark Horse entry.
The next restart with nine laps remaining featured van Gisbergen rocketing away from Gibbs to lead through the front straightaway and through the first turn. As van Gisbergen led through the second turn, Gibbs fended off Allmendinger to retain the runner-up spot while Hamlin and Briscoe followed suit. With van Gisbergen leading the following lap, he proceeded to stretch his advantage to a second over Gibbs with seven laps remaining while Hamlin, Preece, Wallace, Larson, Bowman, Chastain and Briscoe all followed suit in the top 10, respectively. Shortly after, however, Briscoe fell off the pace after contact from Preece cut Briscoe’s right-front tire entering the front straightaway.
Then with six laps remaining, Wallace, who had made repeated on-track contact with Bowman while fighting for seventh place, starting from Turn 8 during the previous lap, got turned by Bowman as he wrecked through S. Lake Shore Dr. As Wallace plummeted below the leaderboard, Bowman fell back to ninth place in front of a stacked field and the race remained under green flag conditions. Meanwhile, van Gisbergen continued to lead by more than a second over Gibbs with five laps remaining.
When the white flag waved and the final lap started, van Gisbergen remained in the lead by more than two seconds over a battle for the runner-up spot that involved Gibbs and Reddick. Shortly after, the caution flew and the event was ruled official due to Cody Ware colliding and getting his No. 51 Arby’s Ford Mustang Dark Horse entry stuck beneath the tire barriers in Turn 6. As a result, van Gisbergen was able to cautiously coast his way around the Chicago Street Course for a final time before he returned to the front straightaway and claimed the checkered flag.
With the victory, van Gisbergen notched his third career win in NASCAR’s premier series, his first since he won the inaugural Cup event at Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez in Mexico City in June and he became the fourth multi-race winner of the 2025 Cup season.
In addition, van Gisbergen, who became the first repeat winner at Chicago, became the first competitor to sweep both the poles and the race victories between the Xfinity and Cup Series divisions in Downtown Chicago. Van Gisbergen’s victory was also the eighth of the 2025 season for the Chevrolet nameplate and the third seven races for Trackhouse Racing.
“I love this place,” van Gisbergen said on the frontstretch on TNT. “What an amazing weekend for me. [I’m] A luck guy to drive some great cars. I have to thank Trackhouse [Racing], WeatherTech, Chevy. All these guys and girls here. Thanks for everyone for coming out. [I] Hope we put on a good show. I guess we made no mistakes [today]. There was some really fast cars. We just seem to get it right here. Make no mistakes, be smooth every lap and really cool.”
Ty Gibbs, who made his 106th career start, tied his career-best result by finishing in second place on the Chicago Street Course, which also marked his first runner-up result since Darlington Raceway in May 2024. Tyler Reddick charged his way to a third-place result for his fifth top-five result of the 2025 season while Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch finished in fourth and fifth, respectively
AJ Allmendinger, Ryan Preece, Alex Bowman, Austin Hill and Ross Chastain completed the top 10 in the final running order.
Notably, Joey Logano, who exchanged harsh words with Chastain following the event and following a late run-in, ended up in 11th place ahead of teammate Ryan Blaney, Kyle Larson, Zane Smith, John Hunter Nemechek and Chase Elliott, respectively. In addition, Chase Briscoe was the last competitor scored on the lead lap in 23rd place while Bubba Wallace, who lost five laps amid his late-race incident and run-in with Alex Bowman, fell back to 28th place.
*Following the second round of NASCAR’s In-Season Tournament that consisted of 16 competitors and eliminated another half of the field, the following competitors will contend in the second In-Season Tournament next weekend at Sonoma Raceway: Alex Bowman, Ty Dillon, John Hunter Nemechek, Erik Jones, Ryan Preece, Tyler Reddick, Ty Gibbs and Zane Smith.
The Chicago Street Course event featured six lead changes for five different leaders. The race featured seven cautions for 15 laps. In addition, 23 of 40 starters finished on the lead lap.
Following the 19th event of the 2025 Cup Series season, William Byron leads the regular-season standings by 13 points over teammate Chase Elliott, 19 over teammate Kyle Larson, 43 over Denny Hamlin and 48 over Tyler Reddick.
Results – Chicago Street Course:
1. Shane van Gisbergen, 26 laps led
2. Ty Gibbs
3. Tyler Reddick
4. Denny Hamlin
5. Kyle Busch
6. AJ Allmendinger, two laps led
7. Ryan Preece
8. Alex Bowman
9. Austin Hill
10. Ross Chastain
11. Joey Logano
12. Ryan Blaney, three laps led, Stage 2 winner
13. Kyle Larson
14. Zane Smith
15. John Hunter Nemechek
16. Chase Elliott
17. Riley Herbst
18. Chris Buescher
19. Katherine Legge
20. Ty Dillon
21. Josh Bilicki
22. Justin Haley
23. Chase Briscoe, 13 laps led
24. Christopher Bell, one lap down
25. Erik Jones, one lap down
26. Cody Ware – OUT, Accident
27. Austin Cindric, three laps down
28. Bubba Wallace, five laps down
29. Daniel Suarez – OUT, Accident
30. Noah Gragson, seven laps down
31. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. – OUT, Accident
32. Michael McDowell, 22 laps down, 31 laps led, Stage 1 winner
33. Cole Custer – OUT, Accident
34. Josh Berry – OUT, Accident
35. Carson Hocevar – OUT, Accident
36. Austin Dillon – OUT, Accident
37. Brad Keselowski – OUT, Accident
38. Todd Gilliand – OUT, Accident
39. Will Brown – O UT, Accident
40. William Byron – OUT, Clutch
Next on the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the Toyota Save/Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway in Sonoma, California, for the third In-Season Tournament event of the year. The event is scheduled to occur next Sunday, July 13, and air at 3:30 p.m. ET on TNT.
