It was hot in Chicago this week, but Shane van Gisbergen was even hotter.
The road course ace roared to the lead on Lake Shore Drive and ran away from the field in a nine-lap shootout, winning Sunday’s third annual Grant Park 165, the NASCAR Cup Series’ Chicago Street Race.
The Trackhouse Racing driver, who won Saturday’s Xfinity Race and the Cup race’s pole, got his No. 88 Chevrolet past leader Chase Briscoe with 16 laps left and had a 2 1/2-second lead over Ty Gibbs before a caution on the final lap gave him his second win of 2025.
The victory was the Auckland, New Zealand native’s third in 33 career starts and helped Chevrolet to sweep three victories in the streets of Chicago.
He started the weekend by winning the pole for the Sunday race. The 36-year-old Supercars champion then backed up his first career Cup victory in the Second City in 2023 by doing it again.
“What an amazing weekend for me,” said van Gisbergen, who led 26 laps and dominated the series last month on Mexico City’s road layout. “We made no mistakes, and there were some really fast cars.”
van Gisbergen said the weather was a problem.
“It was just so hot this weekend,” he said. “The track was very slick, and the times were a lot slower. The margin for error was very tiny. Just had to get it right.”
Chevrolet was first to the checkers for the third time in the past five races.
Gibbs posted a season-best finish with the runner-up showing in his black Toyota.
“I feel like I wasn’t free enough to hit my points,” the No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing driver said. “We had a good day overall just need to be faster.”
Following Gibbs were Tyler Reddick, Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch.
Michael McDowell led a race-high 31 laps but developed a stuck throttle midway through the race and finished 32nd.
With the entire Hendrick Motorsports stable starting at the rear of the 40-car field due to failed qualifying runs or repairs, four drivers holding playoff spots had to work to move through the field.
Alex Bowman finished eighth, while Kyle Larson was 13th. Chase Elliott ended up 16th, and points leader William Byron came in last.
In what may have been NASCAR’s final run in the Windy City’s usually busy streets, race favorite van Gisbergen led the field from the pole position, but Row 1 starter McDowell snagged the lead in less than half a circuit.
Carson Hocevar caused the first caution on Lap 4 when he bounced off the apron of Turn 10 and smacked the outside wall, coming to rest as seven cars, including Austin Dillon and Brad Keselowski, piled into Hocevar’s No. 77 car as it sat sideways against the outer barrier.
While much of the field pitted, McDowell stayed on the 2.2-mile course, leading every circuit to beat Busch and Reddick for the top bonus points as Stage 1 ended at Lap 20.
Ryan Blaney put his No. 12 Ford in position to claim 10 segment points as Stage 2 concluded on Lap 45. Briscoe, Reddick, Bowman and Bubba Wallace trailed the Team Penske driver.
–Field Level Media
