NASCAR
Shane van Gisbergen sweeps Chicago Street Race weekend with another masterclass
CHICAGO, Ill. – NASCAR’s new road course king held court once again on the Chicago Streets. From pole once again this weekend, Shane van Gisbergen put on another driving clinic around Grant Park. A second victory in as many days and fourth overall victory here only further cements his status as stock car racing’s king of the road.
At the start, Michael McDowell timed his launch perfectly and stole the lead away from polesitter Shane van Gisbergen. The No. 71 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet went onto lead every lap of Stage 1.
This opening run was only halted on lap four, when Carson Hocevar pounded the turn ten wall and others piled into him. A few drivers saw their days end very prematurely here including: Will Brown, Todd Gilliland, Brad Keselowski, and Austin Dillon.
Stage 2 continued to see McDowell pace the field, until mechanical woes under caution. McDowell gave up the lead to pit with a throttle stuck open, losing all track position. This briefly gave the lead to Shane van Gisbergen, but him pitting handed the Stage win to Ryan Blaney.
Stage 3 saw SVG restart seventh and quickly begin picking off cars. With fresh tires on the No. 88 Chevrolet, he soon retook the lead on lap 59.
Following a brief caution for a fan medical emergency, SVG cleared the field on the restart and set sail for Chicago victory lane once again. One additional restart inside of the final 10 laps saw SVG retain control, and eventually win under caution following a last-lap yellow flag.
Further back behind SVG, the closing laps saw a dogfight inside the top-10. In-Season Challenge rivals Bubba Wallace and Alex Bowman did more than a little paint swapping, leading to contact and the No. 23 eventually spinning. Bowman stays alive in this tournament while Wallace was eliminated.
“I love this place,” van Gisbergen said. “What an amazing weekend for me. Lucky guy to drive some great cars. Thank you to Trackhouse, WeatherTech, Chevy, and all these guys and girls here. What an amazing weekend. Thanks everyone for coming out, I hope we put on a good show.”
“I guess we made no mistakes, you know? There were some really fast cars and we just seemed to get it right, and make no mistakes. Be smooth every lap and really cool.”
“It was just so hot this weekend. The track was very slick, and the times were a lot slower, and the margin for error was very tiny. So I just had to get it right and I’m wrapped.”
“We’ve really come together as a team. We got a lot better, Ross [Chastain] got a win too, so brilliant. Thank you to everyone.”
Similar to Mexico City a few weeks ago, Ty Gibbs was in position not far behind SVG and finished second. Tyler Reddick, Denny Hamlin, and Kyle Busch were the rest of the top-five. AJ Allmendinger, Ryan Preece, Alex Bowman, Austin Hill, and Ross Chastain rounded out the top-10.
SVG gains five more Playoff points with a second win of 2025, and the cut line battle tightens. Take a look at the updated postseason standings below, with seven remaining regular season races.
SVG will be heavily favored yet again next week, with the annual trek to California’s Sonoma Raceway. Another upset winner could blow up the Playoff picture on the technical wine country road course. The Toyota/Save Mart 350 goes green Sunday at 3:30 p.m. ET on TNT, PRN, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
Written by Peter Stratta
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Photo Credit to Logan Riely/Getty Images
