The first NASCAR street race in downtown Chicago brought plenty of excitement, challenges and thrills because history was made in more ways than one.
Lightning and heavy rain caused serious problems on the track and numerous accidents occurred, but that didn’t stop the drivers.
Here’s a look at what happened:
Who won the NASCAR Chicago Street Race?
Shane Van Gisbergen won Sunday’s highly anticipated race, despite turbulent weather conditions causing several delays, capping an incredible debut performance.
What did the winner get?
The 34-year-old will take home most of the $7,565,807 in a Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 prize money which are distributed throughout the field of 37 drivers. He also earned at least 40 points for the win as the playoff push continues for all drivers.
Who were the other top finishers?
After 47 laps, NASCAR notified all teams that the race would be shortened from 100 to 75 laps. At this point, Christopher Bell was in the lead while Tyler Reddick and Ty Gibbs lurked in second and third.
But Bell, who won stages 1 and 2, eventually spun and fell back off the lead, prompting Justin Haley to take the lead. Haley was leading the whole time with six laps to go until van Gisbergen made a special move to pass Haley and secure first place and the New Zealander finished the race a few laps into overtime.
Haley finished second while Chase Elliott, Kyle Larson and Kyle Busch, in that order, completed the top five.
Bell eventually dropped to 18th place, while Reddick, who rivaled Bell at the front for a long time in the early stages, dropped even further to 28th place after hitting a tire barrier and getting stuck underneath.
How else did van Gisbergen make history?
34-year-old van Gisbergen, a native of New Zealand, was the first driver to win his Cup Series debut since Johnny Rutherford in the second qualifying race at Daytona in 1963.
He became the sixth non-US born driver to win a NASCAR Cup Series race, along with Marcos Ambrose, Mario Andretti, Juan Pablo Montoya, Earl Ross and Daniel Suárez.
Part of Triple Eight Race Engineering, an Australian motorsport team, van Gisbergen entered the race after winning three Supercars Championships in 2016, 2021 and 2022. However, Trackhouse Racing was van Gisbergen’s team for this Cup Series race.
The Auckland native of New Zealand has competed in 499 Supercars Championship races, taking 80 wins, 174 podiums and 46 pole positions, and recently finished first for the 2022 season with 3,523 points.
What’s next for NASCAR?
Next up in the cup series is the Walmart presented Quaker State 400 on Sunday, July 9th. The race takes place at the Atlanta Motor Speedway in Georgia.
Racing legend Dale Earnhardt Jr. talks about all the things that make the NASCAR Chicago Street Race unique