CHICAGO — On a wet-and-dry day on the streets of Chicago, crew chief Blake Harris made the right call, and driver Alex Bowman promised to wet his whistle after ending an 80-race drought.
“The last time we won, we didn’t really get to celebrate — we’re going to drink so much damn bourbon tonight,” said Bowman, who clinched a spot in the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs with his victory in Sunday’s Grant Park 165 at the Chicago Street Course.
“It’s going to be a bad deal. I’m probably going to wake up naked on the bathroom floor again. That’s just part of this deal sometimes.”
Driving the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, Bowman claimed the eighth victory of his career with a pass of sports car ace Joey Hand on Lap 51 — moments before Josh Berry plowed into the tire barrier in Turn 2 of the 2.2-mile, 12-turn course to cause the fifth and final caution.
At that point, the race was on the clock, thanks to heavy rain that had caused a lengthy stoppage after Lap 25. Facing a deadline of 8:20 p.m., with two laps to follow that point in the race, Bowman held off runner-up Tyler Reddick to win an event shortened from 75 to 58 laps because of the delay.
Harris got his first win as a crew chief by keeping Bowman out on older wet tires after the final caution. Neither Christopher Bell, who arguably had the best car in the race, nor Reddick could catch Bowman over the closing laps.
Bell’s charge to the front was blunted by a five-car melee, and Reddick nicked the wall and lost momentum on the final lap.
“We were catching Alex by a large margin there, and, I don’t know, that puzzles me,” said Reddick, who finished second for the second straight week. “I clearly just screwed up. Trying to stay in the dry groove, and I had more than enough of dry groove… I cut the wheel a little too hard.”
Bowman crossed the finish line with a 2.863-second edge over Reddick to score his first win since March 6, 2022, at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
“Man, I broke my back (in a sprint car accident), had a brain injury and we’ve kind of sucked ever since,” Bowman said. “I didn’t … you start to second-guess if you’re ever going to get a chance to win a race again.”
Enhancing Bowman’s opportunity on Sunday was the ill fortune that befell the top two contenders.
Halfway through the restart lap for Stage 2 (Lap 25), the complexion of the race changed dramatically. Chase Briscoe, out of control in his No. 14 Ford, slid toward the tire barrier in Turn 6 and clipped the rear of the Chevrolet of defending winner Shane van Gisbergen.
The impact propelled van Gisbergen’s Camaro nose-first into the outside wall at the exit from the corner, and the car came to rest, unable to continue. Van Gisbergen’s exit suddenly raised the stakes for the drivers who trailed him to the finish line in Stage 1.
After leaving the infield care center, van Gisbergen watched a replay of the incident.
“Just sort of turned in, looked pretty good and then just got smashed by someone (Briscoe),” the New Zealander said. “Just gutting. The car was really good. We were in the lead for a lot of that race and, you know, felt good taking off in the rain. That sucks—an unfortunate mistake by him, but I’m sure he didn’t mean it.
“But, yeah, when he just clipped me, there was nothing I could do. Of course, I’m disappointed. We had a pretty amazing Camaro there… I felt like I was driving well within myself. It’s a shame to be out so early and a shame we couldn’t have a proper crack at it at the end.”
By the time Briscoe delivered the coup de grace to the No. 16 Chevy, Gibbs had wrested the lead from Zane Smith, who stayed out on older wet tires, and Bell, who was first off pit road during the stage break.
The field didn’t complete Lap 25 before NASCAR called the second caution of the race for heavy rain. After a red-flag period of 1 hour, 43 minutes and one second, the race resumed and went green on Lap 31, with Bell retaking the lead from Gibbs before completion of that circuit.
In a race where late strategic calls scrambled the field, Gibbs led a race-high 17 laps and came home third, followed by Hand and Michael McDowell. Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Todd Gilliland, William Byron, Kyle Busch and Ryan Blaney completed the top 10.
Bell led 14 circuits, but he, Gibbs and Reddick pitted for slick tires on Lap 43 and couldn’t get back to the front.
For the second straight year, rain-shortened the NASCAR Cup race at the Chicago Street Race, but the wet weather did little to diminish the festival atmosphere that captivated the Windy City throughout the weekend.
“I’ve raced about every street course in the country and a lot around the world, and you won’t find a backdrop like this,” said Hand, who led seven laps on wet tires before Bowman led the final eight.
The Cup Series heads to Pennsylvania next Sunday for a trip to Pocono Raceway (2:30 p.m. ET, USA, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App).
NOTE: Post-race inspection was completed without issue in the Cup Series garage, confirming Alex Bowman as the winner.
Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at the Chicago Street Course was delayed for close to two hours because of inclement weather in the area.
At the time of the red flag (6:24 p.m. ET), 25 of a scheduled 75 laps had been completed around the 2.2-mile circuit in the Windy City. Engines were re-fired at 8:05 p.m. ET, and the race resumed at 8:21 p.m. ET in Stage 2.
At the time of the red flag, Ty Gibbs was scored the leader and had led 12 laps. Christopher Bell, Kyle Larson, Zane Smith and Tyler Reddick completed the top five. The race started on wet conditions with drivers having the option to either start on slick or wet tires.
NASCAR declared that the race end time will be 9:20 p.m. ET if the full length of the event can’t be completed. At that point, once the race leader crosses the start/finish line after this time expires, the next lap will be the white flag, followed by the checkered flag (no overtime).
NASCAR also announced that single-file restarts were to be the procedure until further notice.
It will not be back-to-back Chicago Street Course victories for Shane van Gisbergen as he exited Sunday afternoon’s race on Lap 26 in the Grant Park 165.
After taking the restart for Stage 2 in wet conditions, van Gisbergen’s No. 16 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet was clipped by an errant Chase Briscoe in Turn 6 as the No. 14 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford careened into the tire barrier. The bump from Briscoe launched van Gisbergen into the wall, causing heavy right-side damage and ending the day for the defending Chicago winner. As a result, van Gisbergen was scored with a 40th-place finish.
Van Gisbergen won Stage 1 and led nine laps before the incident. He was running inside the top five as the incident happened.
“I just sort of turned in; it looked pretty good and then just got smacked by someone,” van Gisbergen said. “It’s gutting. The No. 16 Wendy’s Saucy Nuggs Camaro was really good. We were in the lead for a lot of that race. I felt good taking off in the rain, so that sucks. It’s an unfortunate mistake by him. I’m sure he didn’t mean it. But yeah, when he just clipped me, there wasn’t anything I could do.”
The three-time Supercars champion was aiming to go a perfect 3-for-3 in Chicago, winning the inaugural event in 2023 in addition to Saturday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series race. Instead, his No. 16 Chevrolet was towed back to its hauler with a destroyed right-front suspension that ultimately ended his day.
“Of course I’m disappointed,” said van Gisbergen, who started fifth. “We had a really amazing Camaro there. Kaulig Racing and Trackhouse Racing, they gave us a great car. We were able to lead and I felt like I was driving well with it, so yeah, it’s a shame to be out so early. It’s a shame we couldn’t have a proper crack at it at the end.”
The race began with some drivers on slick Goodyear tires and some on wets once rain overcame the street course moments after the command was given to fire engines. That mix of weather and strategy produced a challenge SVG and his fellow competitors had to navigate.
“It was fun. On slicks, it got a bit dodgy. I hated being the leader,” van Gisbergen said. “Whoever was the leader, you could see them slowing up, not knowing what the condition would be. As soon as you got to the front, you were unsure of what was happening and had to take it a bit easy. But yeah, I had a lot of fun until then.”
CHICAGO — Nine cars will start Sunday’s Chicago Street Race from the rear of the field.
Among those to begin at a deficit are Josh Berry, Brad Keselowski, Corey LaJoie, defending NASCAR Cup Series champion Ryan Blaney, Chris Buescher, Harrison Burton, William Byron, Erik Jones and Josh Bilicki.
Berry, Keselowski, LaJoie, Buescher and Burton all crashed during Saturday’s on-track sessions, necessitating repairs to their vehicles. The unapproved adjustments nullified their respective qualifying efforts, dropping them to the back of the pack.
Byron’s No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet suffered a power-steering failure, resulting in a full change of the car’s steering system. Jones’ No. 43 Legacy Motor Club Toyota had a clutch issue the team needed to address.
Josh Bilicki’s No. 66 MBM Motorsports Ford failed pre-race technical inspection three times, invalidating the team’s qualifying time and additionally resulting in a pass-through penalty down pit road at the beginning of Sunday’s Grant Park 165 (4:30 p.m. ET, NBC, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App).
Editor’s note: Projections have been updated after Saturday’s practice and qualifying sessions.
The Cup Series is back in the Windy City for the highly anticipated Grant Park 165 (4:30 p.m. ET, NBC, MRN Radio, Sirius XM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App).
Shane van Gisbergen is the man to beat this weekend after his stellar performance on the streets last year. SVG opened the week as one of the betting favorites to win the Chicago Street Race, tied with Kyle Larson and Christopher Bell.
While the Cup regulars will be getting their second bite at racing on a street course and are expected to close the gap to van Gisbergen, there’s a good chance it won’t be any easier to pass SVG this time. As a current NASCAR Xfinity Series rookie, the Kiwi driver has been gaining experience this season. He locked himself into the playoffs after winning back-to-back road-course races at Portland International Raceway and Sonoma Raceway — before capturing Saturday’s race in the Windy City. You also can’t knock the fact his race craft on street circuits is more fine-tuned compared to the Cup field from his Australian Supercars career, which really prevailed when he was battling Justin Haley for the win last year.
So, who is SVG’s biggest threat heading into the weekend?
Racing Insights initially projected Chase Elliott to take van Gisbergen’s street crown. Elliott continued his top-20 streak after a wild race at Nashville Superspeedway and seems to maximize his opportunities through chaotic races on a weekly basis. His road-course numbers in the Next Gen era are impressive, with a series-best seven top fives and an average finish of 9.62, second only to Chris Buescher’s 8.0. The only thing he’s missing is a win. He had seven road-course wins before the 2022 season — could this be his weekend to break back into the win column on a road course?
After practice and qualifying, however, a Kyle Larson run to the pole switched things up a bit and Elliott’s No. 5 Hendrick teammate is now projected to win.
OTHER DRIVERS TO WATCH
TYLER REDDICK: One of the best road-course drivers at the Cup level, Reddick finished inside the top three in both stages and even jumped to the lead over Denny Hamlin on Lap 1 last year at Chicago.
CHRISTOPHER BELL: Bell was on a hot streak up until his incident last weekend at Nashville. He swept both stages last year on the streets and should be a factor again on Sunday.
CHRIS BUESCHER: Buescher has the most top 10s on road courses in the Next Gen era (12), meaning he’s due to break through soon. He’s also in the playoff picture on points but could use a win at this point in the season to solidify his postseason position.
MICHAEL MCDOWELL: McDowell earned a spot in the playoffs last year after winning on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course. He finished seventh last year in the inaugural Chicago race and was runner-up at Sonoma this year.
JOEY HAND: Here’s your pick if you’re looking for another upset win. Hand has a decorated endurance racing career, including an overall win in the 2011 Rolex 24 at Daytona, a 2016 victory in the 24 Hours of Le Mans and two wins in the 12 Hours of Sebring. Hand also appeared at all six Cup Series road-course races in 2022, so he has Next Gen car experience.
RACING INSIGHTS’ PROJECTIONS FOR GRANT PARK 165
Racing Insights’ advanced statistical formula includes current track, current track type, recent performance, team data and pit-crew data to arrive at a projected winner and full race results.
This weekend’s NASCAR Chicago Street Race will capture the attention of thousands of newcomers to the sport, with first-time attendees lining the fencing and watching from the temporary grandstands, eyes affixed to Next Gen cars parading through the streets of downtown Chicago.
Important to the decision to host NASCAR’s first-ever street race in America’s third-largest city was exposing the sport to new audiences. And as NASCAR hopes, inspire new race fans.
“He’s really excited to see the trophy,” said Jamie Metcalf, of Naperville, Illinois, whose son, Franklin, 7, will be in attendance to experience his first NASCAR race on Sunday.
Like many others, Jamie, Franklin and two family members will make the 30-mile trip this weekend from the Chicago suburbs to Michigan Avenue, the city’s most iconic thoroughfare and home to four of the race course’s 12 turns.
“He asked about monster trucks,” said Metcalf. “There won’t be monster trucks there, will there?”
No. Sadly not.
But if speed, horsepower, or the thunderous roar of 40 Next Gen engines are any consolation, Franklin will be in for a treat Sunday. And so will thousands of other Chicagoland families planning to spend their Independence Day weekends with NASCAR.
For Jamie and Franklin Metcalf, however, this first-time NASCAR memory – like all other family memories over the last five years – will take place without their beloved husband and father, David Metcalf.
David was a decorated Navy SEAL combat operator who spent nearly 20 years in the military, and during that time served tours in Iraq, Afghanistan and the Pacific. He met Jamie while stationed in San Diego and the couple were married in 2012.
Over the course of his military career, David developed a series of symptoms that made his days increasingly difficult, and particularly so as he entered his 40s. Headaches, memory loss, anxiety, paranoia and mood swings were among the worsening symptoms that ultimately led David to take his own life, in the garage of his home in North Carolina in 2019.
The Metcalf family
As detailed in a June 30 article in the New York Times, David left a note near a stack of books on brain injuries, his written words listing his symptoms and pleading for greater attention to the impact of weapons blast exposure on brain health.
David shot himself in the heart, preserving his brain which was studied and analyzed by a Defense Department laboratory in Maryland. He is one of at least a dozen active or veteran Navy SEALS that have died by suicide over the last decade.
While it’s believed that David’s tragic death was tied to brain injury, after repeated exposures to weapons blasts across five deployments, it is just one pathway leading to the deteriorating mental health of veterans and service members at large in the United States.
According to the Department of Veteran Affairs, on average 17 veterans die by suicide every day. Approximately 500 active-duty service members die by suicide each year, on average. Many were known to have battled PTSD, depression, severe anxiety or other medically diagnosed mental health issues. Tragically, in most cases, these battles are happening in silence.
More than 60% of veterans who die by suicide had not recently engaged with the Veterans Health Administration, according to the VA.
“We really emphasize a number of studies looking at post-9/11 veterans and service members,” said William Negley, founder of Sound Off, a non-profit organization focused on reducing veteran suicide by providing mental health support for veterans. “They all say half or more of those who really need help, actively choose not to seek help for fear of cultural stigmatization and professional blowback.”
It’s a truth that cripples efforts to aid veterans and service members in dire need of effective care and support.
“There are many who were close to him that would say this, and truly, David was the last person you would think would take his own life,” said Jamie Metcalf. “He was a positive individual, happy and upbeat.”
“David didn’t vocalize or express his struggles. And since his passing I’ve heard from military brothers of his who privately shared that they, too, don’t talk about their issues because of fear and how it might affect their relationships or careers.”
Prior to his death, David Metcalf taught a course on suicide awareness and prevention to Marines through a program with the U.S. Marine Corps. No one could’ve predicted his own tragic passing.
For Negley, an ex-CIA officer, the subject of veteran mental health and suicide became even more resonant a few years after he founded Sound Off. His brother-in-law, Bill Mulder, also a Navy SEAL, died by suicide in June of 2017 – just months after retiring from the Navy.
Bill was a family man, a loving husband to William’s sister, Sydney, and doting father of three children. Late in his career and into retirement he suffered bouts with alcoholism, insomnia, anxiety and combat fatigue.
Bill, too, suffered quietly.
“We were devastated, the many of us that loved and were close to Bill,” said Negley. “And we were frustrated. Here this man who had dedicated his life to serving this nation, had access to all these resources, yet he felt alone. He felt unable to engage with care in an open and honest fashion.”
With her husband’s death in 2017, Sydney Mulder joined her brother in working to address this fundamental issue.
“The anonymity is essential,” said Mulder. “If Bill could have talked to someone without his teammates, leadership, family, or even me knowing, I know it would have made all the difference.”
Sound Off, with roots in Negley’s hometown of San Antonio, Texas, is one of more than 40,000 veteran services organizations in the U.S. According to Negley, the number of organizations prioritizing mental health support is far lower.
“We’re all aiming for the same thing, a viable solution to a very complicated problem,” said Negley. “With Sound Off, we sought to get to the heart of the issue. What are the roadblocks? What specifically is preventing veterans and service members from seeking treatment? And then how do we remove those barriers?”
Negley and his team focused on two key insights. The first centered on stigma and the understanding that military members are more likely to accept mental health support if they felt safe doing so.
Secondly, many veterans and service members are more comfortable discussing their challenges and emotions with others that served in the Armed Forces. When veterans are talking to other veterans, the shared lived experience creates a connection and level of empathy that otherwise may prevent them from seeking care.
Guided by these truths, Sound Off developed a fully encrypted mobile app that provides anonymous mental health support for veterans and service members who are struggling by pairing them with other veterans, enlisted as peer supporters.
Once registered with the app, the veteran or service member in need of support is provided with a unique and anonymous digital identity as well as access to Sound Off’s database of clinicians and veteran peer supporters.
Once a match has been made, communication between the veteran and peer supporter takes place within the mobile app’s protected environment. No FaceTime or need for a phone number. All messages are shared within the app’s anonymous system.
The early results are promising. Of those who have sought help through Sound Off thus far, 38% reported they had not previously sought help, and were unwilling to do so elsewhere.
“Our survey asks why they are unwilling to seek help elsewhere, and it’s exactly what we know – concern of professional blowback, as well as the concern of friends, family or the community finding out,” said Negley. “It’s very clear. We are reaching the people who up until now have been suffering alone.”
As she continues to grieve her late husband, Jamie Metcalf believes David and others like him lost to suicide would’ve benefitted greatly from a resource like the Sound Off app.
“I wish he knew about this,” said Metcalf. “What so many who are dealing with these issues want is a safe place to go for help. An outlet for them to talk and share and communicate what they’re going through.”
“The work that William and Sound Off are doing is so incredibly important. It’s creating a lifeline.”
Built within the app’s framework is a network of partner organizations, contract and volunteer clinicians, and hundreds of peer supporters who registered veterans and service members have access to seven days a week. The goal is to provide access to varying levels of care depending on military member needs.
The challenges for Sound Off, like so many other non-profits, are visibility, growth and scaling the app’s user base – not just those seeking help, but also clinicians and peer supporters. The organization announced NASCAR as its first major corporate partner last fall – a collaboration designed to bring awareness to Sound Off and recruit peer supporters from the sport’s massive fan base.
The partnership represents of a key component of NASCAR IMPACT, the sport’s new social responsibility platform that focuses on veteran services among other areas of community engagement and support.
“As our fans know, NASCAR is a patriotic sport and we have a long history of celebrating and showing appreciation for the military,” said Pete Stuart, NASCAR’s managing director, impact strategy and development. “With NASCAR IMPACT, we’re leaning into areas of critical need for veterans and service members and, very importantly, that includes mental health.”
“We believe in the vision of Sound Off and the progress that’s been made to date, so now it’s about activating veterans who are NASCAR fans to rally around this organization and support.”
This spring, in conjunction with NASCAR Salutes Together with Coca-Cola, NASCAR IMPACT launched a multi-channel campaign to amplify the mission of Sound Off and encourage veterans among the fan base to sign up as peer supporters. The campaign includes a PSA, social media content, digital advertising and video signage at NASCAR racetracks.
After the launch, Sound Off began seeing spikes in registered peer supporters – more than six times as many compared to the same period in 2023. In addition, there has been growth in terms of veterans and service members seeking aid.
“NASCAR has the audience and reach that we need to grow our impact,” said Negley. “We’re so grateful for the support, and it’s partnerships like these that will ultimately turn our long-term vision for Sound Off into a reality.”
This weekend, Negley and Metcalf will attend NASCAR Chicago Street Race Weekend with their families to share the stories of their lost loved ones and bring awareness to Sound Off and the issue of veteran suicide. Along the track footprint and fan areas, there will be Sound Off signage with QR codes directing veterans to download the app on Apple and Android devices.
To learn more about Sound Off and its efforts to reduce veteran suicide in America, visit Sound-off.com. Veterans can become peer supporters by downloading the Sound Off app and registering with code ‘NASCAR.’
CHICAGO — Shane van Gisbergen and Kyle Larson took turns crossing each other over for the race lead. Ty Gibbs tried to chase SVG for the win.
Ultimately, it was van Gisbergen who enjoyed Chicago’s spoils all over again, this time in the NASCAR Xfinity Series on Saturday on the Chicago Street Course. But it’s safe to say the thrill of the show was even fun for the drivers performing.
“I was having a blast,” said Larson, who finished third in his first Xfinity start on the city roads.
Van Gisbergen agreed, jumping to the point as soon as he sat down for his press conference inside The Art Institute of Chicago.
“That was a pretty awesome race,” van Gisbergen said, now boasting a 2-for-2 record on the 2.2-mile street course.
The first stage produced the most dazzling of SVG’s and Larson’s head-to-head battles. They swept the front row in qualifying but wasted zero time in slicing and dicing through DuSable Lake Shore Drive, Roosevelt Road and Columbus Drive.
For all of Larson’s success — which includes earning the Busch Light Pole Award for Sunday’s Grant Park 165, the feature race of Chicago Street Race Weekend — he knew there would be plenty of takeaways from any straight-up contests between himself and van Gisbergen’s No. 97 Chevrolet.
“Obviously, I wanted to win today, but I wanted to learn more than anything,” Larson said. “And I wanted to get to battle with him because he’s just really good at creating shapes and angles and passing, and that was an objective of mine. The first opportunity I got, I wanted to get racing because I just didn’t know if you’d ever have another opportunity to race with him.
“My car seemed to be a little bit better than his for maybe a lap or two, which helped me get by him and then able to protect and stuff. But he was so much better than me. He was just being patient and playing with me, I think. But it was it was good fun and probably made for great TV. And yeah, the whole race was really exciting, I thought.”
There was perhaps a little less patience than Larson gave SVG credit for, the New Zealander said, attributing a slower car under re-fires that forced him to play a little catch-up.
“The first stage race with Kyle there, my car was really weak,” van Gisbergen said. “I couldn’t get going at the start or the restarts, and then take two or three laps, and he’d always pass me. Then, when my car would come on with, I’d be attacking him and yeah, just awesome. Awesome, fun racing with him. His car was a little better over the bumps and under braking, and he was driving very well as well. But yeah, gave him a thumbs up, he was waving back, and yeah, had a blast.”
Brittney Wilbur | NASCAR Digital Media
But in the end, pit strategy placed multiple cars between the two. And while Larson felt he got through traffic quicker than SVG, van Gisbergen had the ever-important track position that gave him a better shot to chase victory.
On a restart with three laps remaining, van Gisbergen was able to clear Gibbs for second and hunt then-leader Jesse Love for the win. SVG charged to Love’s right on entry to the 90-degree, left-handed Turn 6 from Columbus onto Balbo Drive, then continued to drive shallower and shallower to the right-handed Turn 7 onto Michigan Avenue — forcing Love to either leave a lane or get crashed.
Love left the lane, SVG drove through and Gibbs followed through into second place.
Gibbs charged hard to whittle the gap to van Gisbergen over the final two laps but ultimately had to settle as the runner-up.
“He just seemed like he set (Love) up really well getting into (Turn) 6 and had him pointed a whole different direction,” Gibbs said of SVG’s race-winning move. “And then he could cross him back over quickly and jump inside and get his nose far out enough to where Love is gonna have to lift because, at that point, it doesn’t make sense for him to run in the corner next to him. He just did a really good job of setting them up.”
Perhaps the best part of Saturday’s showdown between three top road-racing talents is that a sequel is immediately on deck, with all three set to compete in the Cup race. Gibbs qualified second — 0.01 seconds shy of Larson’s pole lap time — with SVG fifth. Van Gisbergen offered his praise of Gibbs as well, with the two of them having prior Xfinity battles at Circuit of The Americas and Sonoma Raceway as well.
“He races really good,” van Gisbergen said. “You can tell when someone — when you’re racing around them — how aware they are, how sharp. And yeah, he puts the car in good spots and he’s always fast as well. So yeah, I’m sure him and Kyle, they’ll probably be the quickest guys tomorrow. And I think at one stage in practice, overall, I think the top five or four guys were all people doing (the) Xfinity Series (race), so it’s been really handy doing both for everyone.”
See where your favorite NASCAR Cup Series driver will pit for the Grant Park 165 at the Chicago Street Course on Sunday (4:30 p.m. ET, NBC, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App).
CHICAGO — Shane van Gisbergen put on a master class Saturday afternoon, winning the NASCAR Xfinity Series’ The Loop 110 at the Chicago Street Course. The New Zealander led early and, again, led late to claim his third consecutive series road-course win and second race win on the 2.2-mile downtown Chicago streets.
Fans who experienced monsoon-like rains at last year’s inaugural NASCAR visit to the Windy City could not have asked for a more ideal summer afternoon on Saturday. People in the packed grandstands — nearly half taking in their first NASCAR event, according to Chicago Street Race President Julie Guise — enjoyed blue skies, a comfortable breeze and temperatures in the mid-70s.
And they enjoyed a highly competitive-spirited race, with van Gisbergen and Californian Kyle Larson dicing it up, door-to-door, front fender to back bumper from the drop of the green flag and then van Gisbergen charging through the field to claim the lead again in the final laps.
In the end, the 35-year-old van Gisbergen got his No. 97 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet around Joe Gibbs Racing’s Ty Gibbs with two laps remaining and charged off to his series-best third win of the year by a healthy 1.287 seconds over Gibbs and Larson.
“That’s awesome, what a great race,’’ said a grinning van Gisbergen after kicking a rugby ball into the cheering crowd as is his established NASCAR victory celebration.
“It was pretty wild there at the end, but I can’t thank the Kaulig Racing guys enough. It was great racing to start with Kyle [Larson]. He was really good on the restarts and we made our car better with the second set of tires, but whooo, that was fun at the end passing all those guys. Had some great racing with everyone.’’
Van Gisbergen who also claimed road-course wins at Portland and Sonoma led 14 laps as did Richard Childress Racing’s Jesse Love — most on the afternoon. Big Machine Racing’s Parker Kligerman finished fourth; his best result of the season and Love was fifth.
The two champion drivers — Larson and van Gisbergen — set the tone immediately, exchanging the lead sometimes three and four times in a single lap from the drop of the green flag. Larson, the 2021 Cup Series champion, led the first six laps and van Gisbergen, a three-time Australian Supercars champion who won last year’s inaugural Cup Series race in Chicago, led the next nine laps to claim the Stage 1 win in the process.
“It was cool we were waving at each other, thumbs up,’’ Van Gisbergen said of racing Larson early. “Really respectful but big moves. He was amazing on the brakes and on the bumps. Really cool. I learned a lot and he probably learned a lot off me. Hope to race him again for the win tomorrow.’’
Larson, who will start from pole position in Sunday’s Grant Park 165 Cup Series race, had been looking forward to the chance to race up front with van Gisbergen.
“I was having a blast,’’ Larson said. “Obviously, I wanted to win today but I wanted to learn more than anything. I wanted to get to battle with him because he’s just really good at creating shapes and angles and passing. That was an objective of mine and the first opportunity I got, I wanted to get racing because I just didn’t know if I’d have another opportunity to race with him.
“My car seemed to be a little better than his for a lap or two which helped me get by him and was able to protect and stuff but he was so much better than me.’’
Varying pit-stop strategies adjusted the field mid-race. Many — such as Love — pitted during the first stage break at Lap 15. Van Gisbergen, Gibbs and Larson pitted during a caution period later on Lap 24. That shuffled the field putting those three early frontrunners playing catch-up in the closing laps.
With six laps to go and van Gisbergen making his way forward, his Chevy was hit from behind by Sam Mayer’s Chevy in the Turn 12 corner forcing van Gisbergen’s Chevrolet to scrape the wall. He fell off the bumper of then race leaders, Gibbs and Love but stayed in the third position.
He got around the two with three laps remaining. And Gibbs said looking back, he probably should have raced van Gisbergen a little more aggressively in the final laps
“We had a bad pit stop and I feel like I used my stuff up a lot to get back through the field,’’ said Gibbs, whose team had a problem on the tire change. “I’d say it would have been close in the end though.’’
Connor Mosack, Austin Hill, Cup Series regular Joey Logano, Justin Allgaier and Austin Green rounded out the top 10. It was the first Xfinity Series start for Logano since 2019. It was the third top 10 in four career series starts for the 23-year-old Green — all coming on road courses.
Last year’s Chicago Xfinity race winner, Stewart-Haas Racing’s Cole Custer, finished 18th despite dealing with various issues throughout the afternoon — including a pit-stop penalty. He now holds a 38-point lead over JR Motorsports driver Justin Allgaier in the standings. Joe Gibbs Racing’s Chandler Smith dropped to third place in the championship after finishing last — 38th — with an engine problem suffered only five laps into the race.
Van Gisbergen’s effort now gives him a series-best 17 playoff points and his three wins are the most in the series this year.
The Xfinity Series travels back east to Pocono Raceway for next Saturday’s Explore the Pocono Mountains 225 (3 p.m. ET, USA, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App). Hill is the defending race winner.
Note: Post-race technical inspection was completed without any issues, confirming van Gisbergen as the race winner.
CHICAGO – With seven weeks remaining in the NASCAR Cup Series regular season, there are plenty of uneasy feelings to go around for drivers residing on the playoff bubble. That’s true for those currently on the ever-shifting plus and minus sides of elimination without a victory in the 2024 campaign.
An opportunity exists to shift the postseason complexion again in Sunday’s Grant Park 165 (4:30 p.m. ET, NBC, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App), the main event of Chicago Street Race Weekend. For two-time Cup champion Kyle Busch in particular, those opportunities have been fleeting this season – either on the performance side or the ability to capitalize when they’ve arisen.
“I’ve stopped keeping track, it’s been so dismal and so heartbreaking that I have a hard time dealing with enough stuff in my life that, every Sunday to keep adding to it is getting harder and harder to deal with,” said Busch, 104 points below the provisional line as his Richard Childress Racing team tries to regroup. “But just got to keep going on into next week and keep fighting on and fight the good fight to try to score a win hopefully before the playoffs, and if not before the playoffs, then at least in the playoffs.”
Joey Logano’s first victory of the season last weekend after five overtimes at Nashville Superspeedway put an 11th winner into what will be a 16-driver playoff grid once the regular season wraps Sept. 1 at Darlington Raceway. Logano’s clinching win removed him from the bubble conversation, opening up the gap between elimination from 13 points before Nashville to a 51-point margin afterward.
On the plus-51 side is Alex Bowman, who has slipped five positions in the Cup Series standings in the last five races. That drop comes after a steady run of five consecutive top-10 finishes during the springtime months, which had the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports driver up to eighth in points after the Coca-Cola 600.
“I think we were in a really good spot a month ago,” said Bowman, who starts eighth Sunday aspiring for his first top five since mid-April. “We’ve had a lot of things happen outside of our control in the last month that we need to get our stuff turned around a little bit. Definitely frustrating to give away as many points as we have. But at the same time, we’re still the same race team that was running really well prior to that, and there’s no reason we can’t get back to that.”
The other side of the elimination coin belongs to Bubba Wallace, who has been both the last driver in and the first driver out in recent weeks as the bubble line has fluctuated. Wallace reached the postseason for the first time last year on the basis of points, and his two Cup Series victories have come during the playoffs in years when he was not postseason-eligible. A first regular-season win would soothe his current situation.
“I’ll be honest with you, I’m quite tired of having to do it on points, you know?” said Wallace, starting sixth Sunday in a bid for his first top-five result since Martinsville Speedway on April 7. “Always seem to find ourselves right around the bubble, and it gets stressful. Every race that goes by and you don’t win, it gets more and more stressful. So we know we can do it on points, for sure. We did last year, but damn, it’d be nice just to win, and then you can start doing crazy stuff just to try something in the regular season. Right now, we have to play the game, and hopefully, we’re in the right spot at the right time to win it.
“I know we’re all hyper-focused on that, but we can’t lose sight of we just need to go out and do the best that we can do and run good, which I believe 100% in this team. It’s just a matter of doing it.”
Logano’s win also shifted up the points outlook for Chase Briscoe, who leads the charge standings-wise for Stewart-Haas Racing in its farewell season. Briscoe entered Nashville off his best finish of the season – second at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in the No. 14 Ford – but his position relative to the provisional elimination line shifted from minus-25 to 78 points off the cutoff as he rolls into Chicago’s streets.
Briscoe’s standings situation has also switched up his approach.
“I was 100% in points mode up until last week when Joey won. That kind of changed a lot of things,” Briscoe says. “… In the big scheme of things, we could point our way in, but it’s going to be really, really hard to do that, probably. So especially if another guy wins, and you’re absolutely in must-win. So I think we’ve got to start throwing Hail Marys at it now. In the past, we’ve not wanted to do that just because we’re still in the points, so it makes it hard to sometimes take those risk versus reward moves, but definitely, now I think we’re to the point where we’re going to have to start getting pretty aggressive.”
Chris Buescher has also shrugged at the standings, and he’s on the plus side by 56 points. That mantra stems from a long-held philosophy that values wins above all else.
The driver of RFK Racing’s No. 17 Ford has had several close brushes with a Victory Lane appearance this year, none closer than his loss by 0.001 seconds to points leader Kyle Larson at Kansas Speedway on May 5. His late-race scrap with Tyler Reddick, which led to defeat after a strong day one week later at Darlington, also stands out. The strength of his performances has given him a slight cushion in the team’s pursuit of the postseason, but he’s not harping on the exact number.
“I haven’t looked at them, and kind of just whenever they pop up or someone mentions it, that’s how I get my updates because I’m not a points racer. I don’t want to get caught in that,” said Buescher, who has finished fifth the last two weekends. “It is a big part of our sport, but I’m just a little more old school in the way that I think about going to the race track, and if you figure out how to win every week, points come with that, and that’s been my mindset. What we’re trying to do on the 17 side is figure out how to go each race track and make this one our win. So regardless of the points side of things, we’re coming here to figure out how to set up for that last stage to win a race.”
