Grant Park 165: Shane van Gisbergen sweeps NASCAR weekend in Chicago

CHICAGO — Trackhouse Racing’s Shane van Gisbergen took the NASCAR Cup Series field to school in the Grant Park 165, as the three-time Supercars champion earned his third career win at NASCAR’s premier level, with a convincing victory at the Chicago Street Course.

The driver of the No. 88 WeatherTech Chevrolet picked up his second win of the 2025 season, as the native of New Zealand won the inaugural Cup Series race in Mexico City last month. This was also van Gisbergen’s fourth NASCAR win at Chicago, having also won the Cup Series races in 2023 and 2025, as well as the Xfinity Series races in 2024 and 2025.

“It was a brilliant day for this No. 88 WeatherTech Chevrolet team,” van Gisbergen said. “Our car was really, really nice — the best car I’ve had here, by far. The strategy was a bit all over the place, as we knew it would be today — racing the weather, racing cars and different stops. Stephen (Doran, crew chief) did a really good job on the box all day of just painting the picture in my head of who I was up against. We had two great pit stops. Just so stoked to get WeatherTech in Victory Lane for their home race.”

On Saturday, van Gisbergen won the Xfinity Series race with JR Motorsports, after making an aggressive move on teammate and Trackhouse development driver Connor Zilisch on a late-race restart. Following his weekend sweep, van Gisbergen now has the most Cup Series wins by a foreign-born driver in history and is also tied for the most NASCAR national series wins by a foreign-born driver at seven.

Ty Gibbs has been knocking on the door for his first career Cup Series victory for quite some time. The Joe Gibbs Racing driver had another impressive showing in the “Windy City,” earning a runner-up finish while also earning his second straight top three and third top 10 on the streets of Chicago.

“Yeah, feel like we had a fast Monster Energy Toyota Camry (today),” Gibbs said. “Just need some more front turn. Feel like I wasn’t as free enough to get my points and exits right, but there’s things I can work on as well to make it better. We had a good day overall and executed well. Just need to be a little bit faster and I think we could’ve got him (SVG).”

Nobody in the Cup Series field scored more points than the 23XI Racing’s Tyler Reddick. The driver of the No. 45 Jordan Brand Toyota, who has three road-course victories in the Next Gen era, scored 51 points en route to a third-place finish and a second consecutive top three in Chi-Town.

“Shane (van Gisbergen) was just a little too far ahead,” Reddick said. “When we did pit and put those tires on the No. 8 (Kyle Busch) got spun and a couple cars got spun on the restart and we were just in the wrong lane and stacked up and a lot of the cars that run the same strategy as us we got behind. Lost time trying to pass them and then passing those cars on the older tires. Just part of it.

“Chaos on a street course at the end there, but I was really proud of our whole 23XI Racing team. This Jumpman Toyota Camry was really fast, it just — we needed that restart to go a little differently. I definitely think we had the pace to get to Shane. It was hard to say how much he was saving or not, but it felt good to have a shot of it.”

Results from the Grant Park 165 at the Chicago Street Course are listed below:

Combat and Caution Controversy

Besides Shane van Gisbergen winning his second NASCAR Cup Series race of the 2025 season, some other notable things that occurred during the 2025 Grant Park 165 included on-track combat between some drivers and a caution controversy.

Hendrick Motorsports’ Alex Bowman and 23XI Racing’s Bubba Wallace were battling each other harder than any two drivers on the track. As the two were battling for sixth, and after putting each other into the wall multiple times, it eventually ended with Wallace spinning off the front of Bowman’s nose.

This hard battle could be credited to the fact that they were racing head-to-head in the NASCAR In-Season Challenge. With Wallace going around, Bowman (No. 8 seed) advanced to the next round to face Ty Dillon (No. 32 seed) at Sonoma.

Despite the controversy between them after multiple run-ins in the past, including in last year’s Chicago Street Race, both drivers seemed to walk away from the incident in a good spot.

Regarding the caution controversy, Cody Ware’s No. 51 Arby’s New Angus Cheesesteak Ford blew a brake rotor, causing the Rick Ware Racing driver to slam into the Turn 6 tire barrier head-on at 93 mph.

According to reports, NASCAR waited just under 35 seconds before throwing the caution, although they were aware of the incident. The caution flag was also waved after van Gisbergen had already taken the white flag, which effectively ended the race.

After Ware was checked and released from the infield care center, additional footage emerged of the incident from a spectator at the track.

Other Race Facts

Spire Motorsports driver Michael McDowell was putting on a clinic until throttle issues ended his day. The 40-year-old driver earned the team their first-ever stage win and led the first 31 laps before having to pit for mechanical issues.

McDowell’s move to Spire has proven to be positive, as the veteran driver also earned the team their first pole position earlier this season at Las Vegas.

On Lap 4, a big wreck ruined the day for many drivers, including Carson Hocevar and 2024 Supercars champion Will Brown, who was making a one-off appearance in the No. 13 Mobile X Chevrolet for Kaulig Racing.

Richard Childress Racing had two cars inside the top 10, with Kyle Busch finishing fifth and Austin Hill getting his first career top 10 with a ninth-place finish.

For Busch, it was his third consecutive top-10 finish at the Chicago Street Course, joining Ty Gibbs as the only two drivers to never finish outside of the top 10 in the street race.

“Our day started out pretty good,” Busch said. “We got a good jump on the initial start there and was able to roll forward and get to third. We tried to go long on that first set of tires, and with those couple of cautions, it didn’t fall into our favor. That put us on old tires and I spun out getting into (turn) seven. We just didn’t have any left-rear grip. That’s something we’ve struggled with on this car, and it just bit me there.

“The No. 8 Slurpee Chevrolet team rallied and we were able to rebound,” Busch added. “We pitted a couple of times there at the end and had some fresh tires late for some of the melee that was going on in front of us and made up some spots. Our Chevrolet was definitely a top two or three car, but it’s good to come home with a top-five finish.”

Denny Hamlin, who did not get to complete a lap in practice after an engine failure, started 40th and made his way up to fourth, for his first top five and top 10 run on a road course since Watkins Glen in 2023.

“Just a good job by the team,” Hamlin said, “I had some pace and really the whole Progressive Toyota team did a great job. I’ve got to thank the whole team for working hard to kind of get us back to where we were running there. Truthfully, that’s where we were at on pace. It wasn’t a crazy strategy or anything like that. Just thought the car was really, really good. I would’ve loved to not have to save fuel with the No. 54 (Ty Gibbs) and the No. 88 (Shane van Gisbergen) there just to see how far off I am and how much I stack up. I’m really happy overall with the day.”

Katherine Legge finished in 19th, becoming the first woman in the NASCAR Cup Series to finish inside the top 20 since Danica Patrick in 2017.

The NASCAR In-Season Challenge saw multiple upsets once again, as the final eight drivers were set for next weekend’s third round in Wine Country.

Ty Dillon (No. 32 seed) will take on Alex Bowman (No. 8 seed), John Hunter Nemechek (No. 12 seed) will take on Erik Jones (No. 20 seed), Ryan Preece (No. 15 seed) will take on Tyler Reddick (No. 23 seed) and Ty Gibbs (No. 6 seed) will take on Zane Smith (No. 14 seed).

This could be the last Cup Series race at the Chicago Street Course for the foreseeable future, as this was the final year of the initial agreement, with rumors beginning to swirl about a street race in San Diego next year.

 

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