Multiple cars were involved in a Lap 3 crash during Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race on the Chicago Street Course.
Carson Hocevar contacted both the right- and left-side walls exiting Turn 10 while running seventh. With damaged suspension, the No. 77 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet then spun back across the track and created a block ahead of the majority of the field.
Austin Dillon was the first bystander to be collected before others like Brad Keselowski, Todd Gilliland, Daniel Suárez, Riley Herbst and reigning Supercars champion Will Brown piled in with nowhere to go on Michigan Avenue.
AJ Allmendinger, Josh Berry, Austin Cindric and Cole Custer also sustained damage in the incident. The race was red-flagged and brought to a halt to allow crews to clear the wrecks.
Hocevar, Dillon, Keselowski, Gilliland and Brown were unable to continue and were ruled out of the race. Finishing 35th, Hocevar was the No. 26 seed in the second round of the In-Season Challenge and did not advance over No. 23 Tyler Reddick, who finished third. Keselowski entered Sunday as the No. 17 seed but finished 37th and will not advance over 20th-place finisher and No. 32 seed Ty Dillon, who along with Reddick advances to the third round Sunday, July 13 at Sonoma Raceway (3:30 p.m. ET, TNT Sports/truTV, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
Keselowski, Brown, Dillon and Gilliland were all evaluated and released from the infield care center after mandatory trips. The early exit ended a two-race stretch of top-10 finishes for Keselowski, the 2012 Cup champion.
“I didn’t see it until the last second,” Keselowski said. “I slowed down and I actually felt I was gonna get stopped and then I just kind of got ran over from behind. It’s just a narrow street course and sometimes there’s nowhere to go.”
Dillon qualified 10th in the No. 3 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet for Sunday’s race but quickly became a victim of circumstances ahead of him as he directly trailed Hocevar when the No. 77 Chevrolet impacted the walls and spun.
“Disappointing day in the No. 3 Breztri Chevrolet at the Chicago Street Race,” said Dillon, whose only other DNF this year came at Circuit of The Americas in March. “Crew chief Richard Boswell and everyone on the RCR team brought a really fast Chevrolet to the streets of Chicago. We qualified 10th and thought we would be a contender today in the race. A car spun in front of us on the first lap and it ended our day before we could even get it started. It’s a shame and I’m just at a loss for words at this point. We’ll just keep bringing cars like this and hope our luck turns around for us at some point.”
Can’t wait any longer to go Inside the Race following each NASCAR Cup Series event?
Visit our NASCAR YouTube page Sunday evening following the Chicago Street Race to get a breakdown and analysis from veteran crew chief and broadcaster Steve Letarte, alongside additional co-hosts and reporters from the track.
Sunday’s post-race show will analyze all the twists and turns of the Grant Park 165, with Letarte and host Alex Weaver dissecting the winning and losing moves, plus other top story lines, all from the Sunoco Content Station.
CHICAGO — The fans got their money’s worth with two world-class road racers and teammates in Connor Zilisch and Shane van Gisbergen on the front row with a two-lap shootout to decide the winner.
The No. 9 of van Gisbergen didn’t hesitate to move the No. 88 Chevrolet in Turn 1 on the final restart, which bounced Zilisch off the wall. Fortunately, Zilisch was able to recover to finish second, but after an adversity-filled day, the JR Motorsports driver was left to watch van Gisbergen’s burnout from pit road, wishing he had one more lap to get SVG back.
“By no means does he have to leave the room. I expected it, but I won’t expect it next time,” Zilisch said. “I’m not mad about it, but like I said, I just wish I could have him back. I would have done it differently.”
And what exactly was his plan if he could go back in time and relive the final start?
“I was clear by a foot just before the breaking zone. I would have taken it and not let him get to my left side. I wanted to be on the right side, though, exiting [Turn] 1 to be on the inside for [Turn] 2,” Zilisch added. “So that’s kind of my plan, and why I let him get to my left side. But had I known he was just going to not let me stay outside of him out of one, I would have blocked and not let him get to my inside. So, yeah, live and learn. But I mean, it’s just part of it. He’s got a lot more experience than me. These are the moments I can learn from him and make myself better.”
Though Zilisch has continuously turned heads since his national series debut, the 18-year-old phenom — who’s just weeks away from turning 19 — lamented his battle with van Gisbergen only sharpens him to have elbows out in late-race situations.
“That’s racing, and you know, it wasn’t dirty. It was just aggressive and something I’ll take note of,” Zilisch said. “I was trying to race him as respectful as possible. But when it comes to racing for the win, you know, all of us are going to do whatever we can to win, and I should have done more.”
Both Zilisch and van Gisbergen had to make their way from deep in the field to get back up front. For Zilisch he started 35th after crashing in practice and not setting a time in qualifying earlier in the day. While van Gisbergen had to restart 19th after a strategy call to stay out late and pit halfway through the race, he also had to battle a cool shirt malfunction around the same time.
Zilisch’s march from worst to first was complete by Lap 38 once he passed Sheldon Creed in Turn 5, and just four laps later, SVG was second 3.7 seconds behind, starting his hunt on the rookie. However, once the caution came out with five to go, the final restart was set to determine whether Zilisch would earn his third win of the season or if SVG would remain supreme on the streets of Chicago.
“I thought our teammate ran him pretty wide off the corner right there. I thought that was a difference in a race,” Mardy Lindley, Zilisch’s crew chief told NASCAR.com. “Me, personally, should have left him [Zilisch] a lane, because we were clear here, and we just didn’t want to chop him and get in front of him, we chose not to do that. Then he used us up down there. So whoever got the lead on the restart was going to win the race.”
Zilisch won’t have to wait long for a shot at redemption, as next week the Xfinity Series heads west to Sonoma Raceway, where he will no doubt be a favorite and aim to collect his third checkered flag of 2025.
Track: Chicago Street Course Location: Chicago Track length: 2.2 miles When: Sunday, 2 p.m. ET Where to tune in: TNT Sports/truTV, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Race purse: $11,704,450 Race distance: 75 laps | 165 miles Stages: 20 | 45 | 75 Defending winner: Alex Bowman, July 2024 Starting lineup: Shane van Gisbergen seals Busch Light Pole
Street-savvy Shane van Gisbergen still the Chicago benchmark
“I’m a lucky boy,” Shane van Gisbergen beamed Saturday afternoon after claiming two NASCAR national-series pole positions in the span of about three hours on the Chicago Street Course. The darling of the Windy City was referencing his good fortune at having top-notch equipment for the weekend doubleheader, but luck may have very little to do with his show of speed.
Plenty of headlines have been scratched out in the days leading up to Sunday’s Grant Park 165, touting, “Can anyone beat SVG?” Trackhouse Racing teammate Ross Chastain says it’s a fair question.
“Very fair. Good luck,” Chastain said with a laugh, this after qualifying 22nd — 1.549 seconds off van Gisbergen’s fast time. “I mean, I just want to be second. Yeah, I just wanted to be within, like, my goal today was … try to go as fast as him, but realistically, I wanted to be within like a second, and I wasn’t. I thought once I got here, I thought I could get it to like half a second after all of our prep, and just not the case. So yeah, it’s just incredible. We have identical cars. He’s that good.”
Recent results and another powerful qualifying effort suggest that SVG could be celebrating with another rugby-ball kick into the Chicago bleachers come Sunday afternoon. The inaugural Chicago Street winner has momentum after prevailing three weeks ago in Mexico City, where he dusted the field by a whopping 16½ seconds to lock up his first-ever berth in the Cup Series Playoffs. He tacked on a triumph from the pole in Saturday’s Xfinity Series matinee.
Chase Briscoe could only shake his head after briefly snaring the provisional pole, only to have van Gisbergen knock him off by 0.617 seconds. Briscoe has more poles (four) than any Cup Series driver this season but was fifth-fastest in Saturday’s session.
Despite all the recent headway, SVG hasn’t been infallible when NASCAR goes to road-racing circuits. Van Gisbergen started and finished sixth at Circuit of The Americas in March when a two-horse race went to Christopher Bell over a fading Kyle Busch. Just last September, Chris Buescher pounced on a final-lap mistake to top SVG head-to-head at Watkins Glen, and the RFK Racing veteran holds a Next Gen-best average finish of 8.79 on road courses.
Even still, van Gisbergen remains the standard that the field is aiming to reach.
“I’ve been able to hang around with him at the Legends Car track, right, and it’s been fun to see just how his brain operates and what he looks forward to on ovals versus road courses,” said Bubba Wallace, referencing Charlotte Motor Speedway’s Summer Shootout Series. “But yeah, I mean, he’s the benchmark. He’s on top of the Xfinity board right now for a reason, because he’s pretty damn good. Yeah, he gets humbled when we go back to ovals, though.”
Several drivers were humbled by Chicago’s tight confines during Saturday’s practice and qualifying, putting a fair share of big names deep in the 40-car field for Sunday’s green flag. Wallace was among those after an adventure-filled session that left his No. 23 Toyota 37th on the grid. Behind him are Hendrick Motorsports teammates William Byron (38th) and Chase Elliott (39th) — ranked first and second respectively in Cup Series points — after separate contact in practice kept them from making qualifying attempts. Denny Hamlin is set to start last after the engine on his No. 11 Toyota expired just minutes after practice began. Hendrick will make a clean sweep of cars at the back of the pack after the No. 48 team of Alex Bowman and the No. 5 team of Kyle Larson opted to make repairs — both unapproved adjustments that will force them to the rear during pace laps.
A scarcity of extensive runoff area on the temporary course took its toll in Saturday’s preliminaries. A lack of grip didn’t help.
“The track’s very treacherous. It’s slick,” said Brad Keselowski, who starts 15th Sunday. “There were a lot of areas that had new pavement last year that have had a summer and a winter, and that had an effect. For whatever reason, the tires didn’t take to the track like I felt it would. It’s supposed to be a softer tire and it’s been very, very slick.”
What do crew chiefs have in focus to win Sunday’s race?
Race tracks age. The complexion of each racing surface on the circuit changes year over year, with climate and use altering its character. Both of those factors reach extremes with the Chicago Street Course.
The wear and tear of traffic coursing through the third-largest city in the country has accelerated the rough nature of the 2.2-mile layout, where Cup Series teams will compete in Sunday’s Grant Park 165. Combine that with the harsh Midwest winters commonplace here, and it’s another wrinkle to conquer on the already snug circuit.
“I think the biggest thing from a setup standpoint is just the content of the track, right?” said Richard Boswell, crew chief for Austin Dillon’s No. 3 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet. “The track surface itself is roads that big dump trucks are driving on every day, and from a content standpoint, there’s just so much more, so it requires you to set your car up a little more compliant so that the driver is not all over the limiters and rub blocks. So from that standpoint, I would say that’s the biggest difference. These are just everyday roads that are not in the greatest of shape, not in the same shape that the tracks we typically race on are, for sure, and then on the other side of that, there’s zero forgiveness on track. Like there’s barriers around you on both sides, there’s very few runoffs, so just everything has to be a bit more precise.”
NASCAR competition officials have tried to mitigate the rough nature of the circuit with patches where the streets are at their bumpiest, repairing the concrete in an area between Turns 5 and 6. Teams have also found new pavement in Turn 11, the result of city maintenance between last year and now.
The changes made Friday’s pre-race track walk a well-attended affair, with drivers and crews being extra observant.
“Most of that just comes with the street config, and what’s happened to the pavement over the year,” said Blake Harris, crew chief for the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevy and defending race winner Alex Bowman. “Like, this is where 18-wheelers run up and down the road every day. … So I think they’ve done a little bit of repaving in some sections, so how will that affect the handling of car? I think from the car perspective, that’s the biggest thing.”
The other major factor has been a variable weather forecast, which has wavered with the area’s precipitation chances each day leading up to Sunday. Teams have had to bolt on wet-weather Goodyear tires in each of the previous two runnings of the Chicago Street Race, and both editions have been shortened by rain delays and darkness.
Trying to game-plan around those uncertainties has made calling an effective race strategy more complex.
“We haven’t had a race go the distance yet, right? So it’s definitely been unique the first two years, and I think that uniqueness has come from being rain-shortened or time-shortened,” Boswell said. “So I think it’s hard to sit there and look at any certain strategy and say, ‘hey, that’s the one,’ simply because we haven’t run a full event yet. And quite frankly, it looks like on Sunday, we could have another similar situation. So from that standpoint, I think it is very similar to any other road course. Track position is going to be king. Anything you can do to get the track position, even if you don’t have a P1 car, just having P1 position is probably worth 15 spots. So trying to get track position and keep it is the No. 1 priority, and then I think you just kind of have to be fluid.”
Harris echoed that sentiment, noting how wildly the forecast has fluctuated this week.
“I’m banking on right now the set of decisions that come along with that,” Harris said. “You look back on the stuff that you think made your car good in the wet. OK, how much do you keep it like that versus a complete dry race? But I believe we went into last year Sunday, the day before, not thinking it was going to rain, and it rained. So I just assume every time we come here, it’s going to rain at some point. So we’ll be looking at those rain tires and the rain setups and all those strategies. I think right now, we’ve probably got seven different strategies in play for Sunday right now, and it just kind of depends on what Mother Nature does to us.”
If he’s not first, he’s last. The Windy City streets are the site of Shane van Gisbergen’s tied-for-best finish in the Cup Series and his worst. SVG burst onto the stock-car scene with a career-altering victory in his Cup debut in 2023 in the inaugural Chicago Street Race. He returned the next year as a heavy favorite but ended up as the event’s first retiree in 40th place after jolting a barrier in a ricochet wreck with Chase Briscoe in wet-weather conditions.
He may not be the favorite to win, but watch out for …
MICHAEL McDOWELL. The stature of SVG heading into Sunday’s event has dwarfed the odds of several strong road-course racers, and McDowell is among the best of that bunch. The Spire Motorsports driver has placed seventh and fifth in his two previous Chicago Street efforts, starting from the first three rows in both of those instances. He was also fifth in the Cup Series’ most recent road-course go, the inaugural visit to Mexico City, and he will start second Sunday.
James Gilbert | Getty Images
Fantasy update
NASCAR Fantasy Live expert Dustin Albino provides insight for your Sunday lineup.
Treacherous is the word of the weekend on the streets of Chicago, with the margin of error being slim due to a lack of grip. The quartet of Hendrick Motorsports teammates, including two who were in my original lineup, found out the hard way during practice and qualifying and will have to start at the rear of the field. A lot can happen over 165 miles, but track position is crucial. I’ve dropped both Chase Elliott and Alex Bowman in favor of Tyler Reddick and road-course menace Chris Buescher. Kyle Busch is another driver worth considering for your lineup, as the No. 8 Chevrolet qualified a season-best sixth at a road course.
Lineup: Shane van Gisbergen, Michael McDowell, Ty Gibbs, Tyler Reddick, Chris Buescher. Garage: Christopher Bell.
Our biggest pieces of the week — get covered for race day from all angles.
• NASCAR at Chicago: Key info, practice reports and more from doubleheader weekend | Read more
• In-Season Challenge: Your hub for everything related to the 32-driver showdown | Read more • Racing Insights: Where your favorite driver is projected to finish Sunday | Read more
• Field of 16: Bowman, Gibbs aiming for a postseason plus in Chicago | Read more • Turning Point to Chicago: Picking up bracket pieces post-Atlanta | Read more
• At-track photos: Scenes, sights from the Chicago streets | View gallery
• NASCAR Classics: Rewind with full race replays from Chicago Street, Chicagoland Speedway
• Paint Scheme Preview: Windy City designs ready to rip through Chicago | View gallery
• Power Rankings: Post-Atlanta pecking order, including a new No. 1 | This week’s Top 20
CHICAGO — In a dream matchup between the veteran road-course king and the 18-year-old pretender to the throne on the streets of the “Windy City,” Shane van Gisbergen schooled his young JR Motorsports teammate in winning Saturday’s The Loop 110.
With his cool suit malfunctioning on a hot day on the 2.2-mile, 12-turn Chicago Street Course, van Gisbergen out-braked runner-up Connor Zilisch and ran him wide into Turn 1 with two laps left in the marquee event.
With Zilisch in determined but futile pursuit, van Gisbergen crossed the finish line 0.823 seconds ahead of his fellow Red Bull athlete to post his first NASCAR Xfinity Series victory in his only start this season, his second straight win in Chicago and the fourth of his career.
Van Gisbergen, the pole winner, had to overcome not only the heat but also a balky carburetor and questionable strategy that kept him on the track before the end of Stage 1, while the vast majority of cars behind him came to pit road for tires and fuel.
“The strategy went wrong, but it worked out well,” said van Gisbergen, who also will start on the pole in Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race. “The car was a rocket. (Zilisch) is a great young driver, and that was the first time I’ve really raced him. I knew that was my opportunity, and I took it. Awesome 1-2 for the team.”
The 36-year-old New Zealander, a three-time Australian Supercars champion, is the sixth different driver to win for JR Motorsports this year, the most in series history for an organization in a single season. Due to the heat and malfunctioned cool suit, SVG visited the infield care center and was later treated and released.
Zilisch acknowledged he was surprised at the aggressiveness of van Gisbergen’s attack in Turn 1, though he insisted it wasn’t a dirty move.
“I was clear there, just barely, on the front straight, and I just let him get to my inside, and he took advantage of it,” said Zilisch, who started 35th after hitting a tire barrier during practice earlier in the day. “I should have been a little more aggressive there. I just thought he was going to race me a little cleaner.
“I’ve just got to be better and not let that stuff happen. I’ll learn from it and move on.”
Third-place Sheldon Creed was the best of the rest, finishing 3.141 seconds behind the race winner. Creed led the field to green for a restart with 13 laps left but lost the top spot to Zilisch before he got back to the start/finish line.
“I’ve got to get better at road-course racing,” Creed said. “Those guys are really good, and when SVG got to me, I just let him go because he had way more pace. Maybe I could get them racing and give me a shot.”
Clearly, that didn’t happen.
By staying on the track late in the 15-lap first stage, van Gisbergen was mired mid-pack when he eventually pitted on Lap 26. He restarted 19th on Lap 29 after an inopportune debris caution and quickly worked his way forward.
By Lap 36, he was seventh and began a determined pursuit of Zilisch, who led Laps 38 to 48. On Lap 44, with Zilisch saving fuel, van Gisbergen ran the fastest lap of the race (90.947 seconds) and cut Zilisch’s lead from 3.5 seconds to 2.3 seconds before Andre Castro planted his car in the Turn 6 tire barrier to cause the sixth and final caution and set up the two-lap shootout.
On fresher tires, the one benefit of the later pit stop, van Gisbergen prevailed. Van Gisbergen led 27 laps to Zilisch’s 11 and Creed’s nine.
Austin Hill ran fourth and Atlanta winner Nick Sanchez finished fifth. Jesse Love, Sammy Smith, Sam Mayer, Austin Green and Brennan Poole completed the top 10.
Justin Allgaier, who finished 23rd after suffering brake issues late in the race, leads second-place Hill by 49 points in the series standings.
The Xfinity Series heads west for its annual trip to Sonoma Raceway next Saturday (4:30 p.m. ET, The CW, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
NOTE: Post-race technical inspection concluded without issue, confirming SVG as the race winner.
All four Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolets will start from the rear for Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race on the Chicago Street Course (2 p.m. ET, TNT Sports/truTV, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) due to incidents sustained in practice and qualifying on Saturday.
The four-car fleet joined a sizable list of 10 cars that will drop to the rear during pace laps, according to NASCAR competition officials. Of those, nine will drop to the back for unapproved adjustments. The No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota for Denny Hamlin will fall to the rear because of an engine change, stemming from an issue that halted his on-track time just minutes into opening practice.
The full list of teams dropping to the rear of the field:
No. 4 Front Row Motorsports Ford, driver Noah Gragson
No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, driver Denny Hamlin
No. 23 23XI Racing Toyota, driver Bubba Wallace
No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, driver William Byron
No. 47 Hyak Motorsports Chevrolet, driver Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, driver Alex Bowman
No. 78 Live Fast Motorsports Chevrolet, driver Katherine Legge
Byron posted the fastest time in Group 1 practice, but with less than two minutes remaining, the No. 24 machine hit the outside wall in Turn 10. In an interview with truTV, Byron explained that he carried too much speed into the corner and consequently suffered heavy left-rear damage. Byron did not turn a lap in qualifying as the team repaired its primary car.
In Group 2 practice, Elliott hit the wall in the short chute between Turns 3 and 4, just after the long back straightaway and past a heavy braking zone. He suffered left-side damage and, like Byron, did not turn a qualifying lap.
Bowman caught the wall and suffered suspension damage later in Group 2 practice. The No. 48 car turned a qualifying lap to better pit selection and posted the 11th-fastest time, but the team elected to repair the car before Sunday’s 75-lap race.
Larson qualified 14th but sustained damage during his run. Like Bowman, the No. 5 team chose to repair the car and forfeit starting position.
Byron, Elliott and Larson own the top three spots in Cup Series points with five combined victories this season, including a win last weekend at EchoPark Speedway (formerly known as Atlanta Motor Speedway) for Elliott. Bowman, the defending winner in Chicago, is 12th in points.
CHICAGO — After upsetting top-seeded Denny Hamlin in the first round of the In-Season Challenge last Saturday at EchoPark Speedway (formerly Atlanta Motor Speedway), Ty Dillon fired the parting shot heard around the NASCAR world.
“For all you Denny fans out there, I just knocked your favorite driver out,” Dillon said, borrowing a turn of phrase Hamlin himself made famous.
Dillon, the 32nd seed, acknowledged Saturday that he had planned the trash talk after Hamlin wrecked out of the Atlanta race on Lap 69.
“It was planned when I knew he was eliminated,” Dillon said. “When I knew we had him, I told (pit reporter) Mamba (Smith) for the interview, I said, ‘Hey, give me a second after this interview, I got something to say.’
“So, somewhat spontaneous, I guess you could call it that, but it was there. It was always there, and I just wanted to lean into it a little bit.”
Dillon will face 17th-seeded Brad Keselowski in the second round on the Chicago Street Course, and he likes his chances against the 2012 NASCAR Cup Series champion.
“Honestly, I feel good,” Dillon said. “We’re going to do our best starting today and all through the race tomorrow to put pressure on him. This is a place that, if you feel like you can pressure people, they can make mistakes.
“Obviously, you’re seeing in practice in Xfinity cars, a little bit more (aggression) can get you in a lot of trouble. And I enjoy road-course racing. We ran really good in Mexico City, another one of the races that we ran up front. A lot of people credit it to being good in the rain, but we also ran really well when it turned dry, too.”
Dillon and the rest of the Cup Series field will tackle the street course on Sunday in the Grant Park 165 (2 p.m. ET, TNT Sports/truTV, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
The NASCAR Cup and Xfinity series head to the Great Lakes this weekend for a stop at the Chicago Street Course for the third time. Bookmark this page and come back often for your race-week essentials — from links to qualifying order, average practice speeds, results and more.
Race day: Sunday at 2 p.m. ET on TNT Sports. The categories listed below will be filled out with links as the information becomes available.
Tires: Six sets for the race (five race sets plus one set transferred from qualifying). Teams also have one set for practice, plus six total rain sets for the weekend, if needed.
Race day: Saturday at 4:30 p.m. ET on The CW. The categories listed below will be filled out with links as the information becomes available.
Tires: Four sets for the race (three race sets plus one set transferred from qualifying). Teams also have two sets for practice, plus four total rain sets for the weekend, if needed.
CHICAGO — Road-course superstar Shane van Gisbergen pulled off the second qualifying double of his NASCAR career during Saturday’s time trials on the Chicago Street Course.
After securing the pole position for Saturday’s Xfinity Series race, Van Gisbergen blitzed the rest of the field on his final run for the top starting position in Sunday’s Grant Park 165 on the 2.2-mile, 12-turn street circuit (2 p.m. ET, TNT Sports/truTV, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
Van Gisbergen posted a respectable lap on his second run, only to see it surpassed by Pocono Raceway winner Chase Briscoe. But van Gisbergen responded with a lap at 88.338 mph (89.656 seconds) to beat eventual second-place qualifier Michael McDowell (87.879 mph) by 0.468 seconds.
The Busch Light Pole Award was van Gisbergen’s first on the Chicago Street Course, his second this season (Mexico City) and the third of his career. Last fall, he swept the Cup and Xfinity poles at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval.
“I’m a lucky boy. I got some great cars today,” said the three-time Australian Supercars champion. “Xfinity pole, Cup pole, pretty special. Hopeful for the race tomorrow.
“Practice wasn’t that great, and I went out in qualifying, and the car felt really good … I learned a lot in the Xfinity car this morning, and that just gives you a great leg up for the Cup car.”
Carson Hocevar, McDowell’s Spire Motorsports teammate, will start third after a lap at 87.824 mph. Tyler Reddick claimed the fourth spot on the grid, followed by Briscoe, who was second fastest behind van Gisbergen in the first of two qualifying groups.
Hocevar and Reddick are head-to-head opponents in the In-Season Challenge, with the second round taking place on the same Chicago streets.
Kyle Busch, Ryan Preece, Chris Buescher, Ty Gibbs and Austin Dillon claimed the sixth through 10th starting positions, respectively. Defending race winner Alex Bowman will start 11th.
Bubba Wallace, facing an In-Season Challenge matchup against Bowman, spun twice and backed into a Turn 2 tire barrier during time trials and will start 37th.
William Byron, EchoPark Speedway (formerly Atlanta Motor Speedway) winner Chase Elliott and Denny Hamlin will start 38th, 39th and 40th, respectively.
Katherine Legge will be the first female driver to compete in the Chicago Street Race after knocking Corey Heim out of the field late in the Group B session. Legge earned the 33rd spot on the grid with a lap at 85.744 mph.
Bubba Wallace paces eventful practice session
23XI Racing’s Bubba Wallace turned the fastest lap in practice, a session split between two groups for roughly 25 minutes each. Wallace turned a lap of 87.080 mph in Group 2, besting William Byron (87.027) out of Group 1.
Chase Elliott, Ty Gibbs and Michael McDowell completed the top five. Carson Hocevar, Shane van Gisbergen, Chris Buescher, Tyler Reddick and Brad Keselowski completed the top 10.
Denny Hamlin suffered an apparent engine issue in the opening moments of Group 1 practice, looping his car in Turn 5 after dropping fluid on the racing surface. The failure came on the up-to-speed lap and never posted a time.
In the final minutes of the opening group, Byron hit the outside wall in Turn 10, suffering damage to his left rear. In an interview with truTV, Byron explained that he simply carried too much speed through the corner.
During Group 2 practice, Elliott pancaked the outside wall in the short chute between Turns 3 and 4. Alex Bowman also suffered suspension damage.
The cars of Hamlin, Byron and Elliott went to the garage area, and none turned qualifying laps, meaning they will start from the rear in Sunday’s 75-lapper.
CHICAGO — With the air now finally cleared, Daniel Suárez feels “relief” with the news that he and Trackhouse Racing will officially part ways after the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season. He expressed that after four full seasons in the No. 99 Chevrolet, the chemistry faded and a change was needed after months of knowing he would not return to the organization in 2026.
“I have known this for six or seven months, this was going to happen,” Suárez said before Saturday’s practice got underway. “It’s just like everything in life, things change, people change, companies change, and that’s OK, there’s nothing wrong with that. There just wasn’t really love anymore, but there is no hard feelings at all.”
Despite earning both of his Cup wins under the Trackhouse banner, Suárez could slowly feel the love fading over time, and the distraction of having an uncertain future in the Cup Series over the past two seasons made it difficult for him to remain a contender.
When asked about what led to both sides drifting apart, Suárez opened up candidly about the factors that led his situation to reach this point.
“Since my new crew chief [Matt Swiderski] came to Trackhouse, he told me a lot of things that he didn’t think were right within the organization and a lot of things that needed to be changed,” Suárez said. “I’ve been very vocal with the team on we need to address this, we need to address that, and I’m not the only one seeing it. There are more people seeing it. I don’t think that’s the only reason. I think there are more things. I just think that lately, there have been things that have made me feel that I’m not as important.”
Knowing open seats for next season are limited, the Monterrey, Mexico, native remains confident he will be on the Cup Series grid next year and has no plans of moving down to the Xfinity Series for a year to reestablish his market for 2027.
“I’m confident about [staying in Cup Series], but by contract, I couldn’t talk to anyone about this, even though I knew it was going to happen for a while,” Suárez added. “Everything is still very early, and there are a lot of things that are in the air still. It’s pretty early. Most of the time, these kinds of moves happen a little bit later. I have had a lot of conversations with a lot of people, and there are going to be opportunities. We just have to see how things play out. I’m not going to lie. I believe that if this was happening next year, it was going to be way easier because next year, there’s a lot of more openings, but there is going to be some, and I’m confident that things are going to work out.
“In my mind, I don’t have anything to prove in the Xfinity stuff. I mean, I love the Xfinity Series. I had probably one of the best weekends of my career, winning in Mexico City in there. … It’s an amazing series. I love it. I like to compete with the best of the best.”
Admittedly, Suárez feels “lighter” having this weight off his shoulders, and though the last few seasons haven’t gone the way he hoped for, he still looks back at his time at Trackhouse with fondness.
“I wasn’t very happy anymore, and it was just a matter of time to end this chapter,” Suárez said. “But at the end of the day, we are still in the middle of the season, so we have a lot of things that we still have to work on with my 99 team. I love the 99 team. It’s probably one of the best teams I’ve ever had, and I’m going to miss that group so much. That group is very special to me.”
Ross Chastain, Suárez’s longstanding teammate, reflected on the impact Suárez had on him when he first signed with the team in 2022 and how they connected on and off the track.
“It’s been incredible. It’s been four years together, my entire time at Trackhouse, and really, once we moved into the Concord building, it was him and I,” Chastain said. “He’s the most like-minded person outside of the car of a teammate that I’ve ever had. We were at the same, I feel like, parts in our careers where we had something to prove — when Justin [Marks, team owner] hired us. We put the time in the gym, weights-wise, and available effort in the gym, we were like, line-over-line the same.”
His most special memory with Suárez is, of course, the celebration and genuine excitement each shared when the other scored their first career Cup win three years ago.
“Both of us winning, seeing his excitement for me at COTA (Circuit of The Americas), and then me when he won at Sonoma,” Chastain said. “I parked the car where I had to, and then I ran up to the start/finish line where he was celebrating. Just seeing that come full circle for both of us.
“Our path to get to Trackhouse were both relatively similar timelines, I’d say. So I feel like that, just seeing all that pay off with Cup wins, I mean, just can’t get over our first wins, and we were there for each other. We were there leading into that, into both of those wins that year in ’22.”
