Making his first NASCAR Cup Series start in the first ever street course race in Cup Series history, New Zealander Shane van Gisbergen put on a stunning performance to win the Grant Park 220 on the Chicago Street Course. van Gisbergen, a three-time V8 Supercars champion with 80 career wins on the other side of the world, took the lead from Justin Haley with five laps to go and pulled away in a one-off start for Trackhouse Racing’s Project91 to take the win .
van Gisbergen is the first driver in the modern NASCAR era to win on his debut in the Cup Series, something not seen since 1963. The six previous drivers to win in their first Cup start were Jim Roper (Charlotte, 1949). ), Jack White (1949, Hamburg), Harold Kite (Daytona Beach, 1950), Leon Sales (North Wilkesboro, 1950), Marvin Burke (Oakland, 1951) and Johnny Rutherford (Daytona, 1963).
Grant Park 220 unofficial results
A native of Auckland, New Zealand, van Gisbergen came to America to try his hand at NASCAR after becoming one of the most successful V8 supercar drivers in the past – three championships and 80 career wins, including two at the famous Bathurst 1000 decade. While he was among the fastest cars all weekend, van Gisbergen’s chance came late in the race when he took the lead on 16 laps fresher tires than Haley and other drivers who used strategy to get ahead.
With problems for Christopher Bell and Tyler Reddick, leaving van Gisbergen as the fastest car, the driver known as SVG showed his skills on the street circuit by taking the lead from Haley on a restart with five laps to go and restarting in of overtime made an unlikely impression on NASCAR.
“No of course not. But that’s always a dream,” van Gisbergen told NBC Sports when asked if he ever thought he could win. “Thank you so much to the Trackhouse team… What a sight to behold in the crowd out here. That is so cool. That’s what you dream of. Hopefully I can come and do more… The race was really good, everyone was respectful. And it was tough, but it was a lot of fun.”
van Gisbergen is the sixth foreign-born driver to win a Cup Series race, joining a group that now includes fellow V8 Supercars Marcos Ambrose (Australia), Mario Andretti (Italy), Juan Pablo Montoya (Colombia) and Earl Ross (Canada) belong. and Trackhouse Racing teammate Daniel Suarez (Mexico). While Sunday was van Gisbergen’s only scheduled NASCAR start, it may not be the last for the 34-year-old New Zealander.
“I have one more year in (Australia) and then I would like to come here,” he said.
Water world
At the start of the weekend, the prospect of racing on the streets of a major city was so uncertain that chaos was predicted among the Cup entrants. Then, with the addition of water, that uncertainty was increased by another octave. tons of it.
Sunday’s race was delayed by just over an hour due to historic rainfall in Chicago. The downpour on July 2 broke a rain record set in 1982. While stagnant water and pit lane flooding threatened the race, overall wet conditions eventually moderated enough for the race to begin with a rainy start.
As might be expected, rain and a wet race surface made for treacherous conditions, with tire barriers taking quite a beating throughout the track – especially at Turn Six. Kyle Busch, Joey Logano, Chase Elliott and more all made contact with the tire barriers at least once, and Noah Gragson managed a hat-trick by hitting the barrier at Turn 6 a total of three times.
By the middle of the race, Christopher Bell had established himself as the leader in the field by comfortably winning both stages. However, the late start and a series of precautions that slowed the pace meant that daylight loss would quickly become an issue. As a result, NASCAR shortened Sunday’s race from 100 laps to 75 laps, prompting a flurry of strategy decisions that resulted in Haley taking the lead.
After Austin Dillon missed Turn 12 and fell trying to take the lead, Haley appeared to have eliminated his greatest threat to a second career cup win that would have put him on the playoff grid. Until Shane van Gisbergen stormed to the front with far superior tires and Haley himself denied a surprise attack.
playoff picture
Alex Bowman’s day took a dire turn when he was flipped over by Denny Hamlin just before the end of stage two and suffered an engine failure shortly after which gave him 37th place. Bowman’s absence would have devastated his place in the regular-season standings, as he fell from 17th in points standings – three marks below the cut line – to 26 points below the cut line for 20th place overall . Although Daniel Suarez ran in the top 10 for most of the day and scored points in both stages, damage to the left front fender towards the end of the race would see Suarez drop to 27th place and take him to six points and under the Cutting Line drops to 17th place.
That benefited Ty Gibbs, who moved up to 16th overall with a ninth place finish and took the last spot on the playoff starting lineup. With van Gisbergen’s win preventing Haley or any other rider from earning a playoff spot with a win, the status quo became for Kevin Harvick (+151), Chris Buescher (+104), Brad Keselowski (+91) and Bubba Wallace (+) largely retained 15).
Martin Truex Jr. continues to lead the regular-season standings, but a 32nd-place finish after multiple accidents allowed William Byron to within nine points of the lead.
Summary of race results
- Shane van Gisbergen’s victory is also the first victory in 50 years for a true “street racer” – a street racing specialist who does not normally compete in NASCAR races. The last win for a true street course wrestler went to Mark Donohue, who won the 1973 Winston Western 500 at Riverside and piloted the famous “Flying Brick” AMC Matador for Roger Penske.
- Few drivers in the Cup needed a top 10 win as badly as Austin Cindric, as sixth place ended a recent misery. This not only represents Cindric’s best result of the 2023 season, but also ends a streak of 11 races in which he had just one result better than 19th.
- Consider Michael McDowell in a hot spot. The number 34 rider was a fixture in the top 10 for most of the day, finishing seventh, making it his third top 10 finish in four races. That helped put McDowell in 18th place on points, just 10 points below the playoff average.
- British racing fans might scoff at Chris Buescher as 2009 Formula One champion Jenson Button had an early top 10 win until he was thrown by Buescher’s bumper as he pitted out of Turn 12 came. That was to be the last word from Button – who finished 21st – but Buescher finished 10th, extending his streak of consecutive top-10 finishes on a street circuit to eight.
- The very first spin of the day went to Aric Almirola, who took a corner on the exit of Turn 5, but his day would improve significantly from there. Almirola would end up with a 12th place finish, his second-best finish of the entire 2023 season. Almirola led Stewart-Haas Racing followed by Ryan Preece in 15th, who finished 17th or better for the sixth consecutive year.
- Noah Gragson was looking to take the win in his Wendy’s Baconator Chevrolet, but Turn 6 of the Chicago Street Course tried his best to outsmart him. Gragson hit the tire barrier a total of three times on this section of the track, but was never able to completely destroy his No. 42. Gragson persevered and crossed the line in 25th, his best result since a 20th place run at the Circuit of the Americas in March.
next race
The NASCAR Cup Series returns to its comfort zone in the Southeast with the Quaker State 400 at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Coverage of the race begins Sunday evening at 7 p.m. ET on USA Network.