Shane Van Gisbergen sweeps the NASCAR Chicago Road Course weekend within the NASCAR Xfinity and Cup Collection on Saturday and Sunday.
CHICAGO—As soon as once more, Shane van Gisbergen asserted his superiority on the streets of Chicago, and in doing so, he matched a serious NASCAR milestone.
Shane Van Gisbergen Sweeps Chicago
In successful the Grant Park 165 on the Chicago Road Course, the New Zealander accomplished a weekend sweep of the NASCAR Xfinity and NASCAR Cup races, each from the pole place.
Taking the checkered flag beneath warning, after Cody Ware plowed into the sixth flip tire barrier as Van Gisbergen charged by way of the twelfth activate the next-to-last lap, SVG matched Kyle Busch’s sweep of each races from the pole at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in July of 2016. No different driver has received races in NASCAR’s high two divisions from the pole on the identical weekend.
The three-time Australian Supercars champion stated he was panicked at the potential for a warning and potential extra time after Ware’s wreck. Van Gisbergen, nonetheless, reached the beginning/end to start out the ultimate lap earlier than NASCAR referred to as the warning.
“What a tremendous weekend for me,” stated Van Gisbergen, who drove the No. 88 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet to his second Cup victory on the two.2-mile, 12-turn circuit, his second win this season and the third of his profession.
“Fortunate man to drive some nice automobiles. I thank Trackhouse, WeatherTech Chevy, and all these guys and women right here—what a tremendous weekend. Thanks, everybody for popping out, and hope we placed on a very good present.”
Ty Gibbs ran second, equaling his career-best end at Darlington final yr. Tyler Reddick restarted fifteenth on contemporary tires with 9 laps left and climbed to 3rd earlier than he ran out of time.
Van Gisbergen took the lead for the ultimate time on lap 60, shifting to the within of front-running Chase Briscoe within the second flip, racing side-by-side with the current Pocono winner by way of the third flip and out-braking him into the fourth flip to realize the highest spot.
From that time, SVG needed to survive two cautions and restarts, the primary to get an ambulance throughout the monitor for a spectator medical emergency and the second for Austin Cindric’s stalled automobile.
Ty Gibbs Settles for Second
After that sixth yellow, Gibbs, operating second, didn’t get a robust launch on the ultimate restart and fell a car-length behind earlier than reaching the primary flip. SVG pulled away from the No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota from that time on.
“Effectively, it actually will depend on the restart zone, as a result of it’s proper in that final nook, and the dude on the surface will get shafted each single time,” stated Gibbs, who restarted on the surface approaching the twelfth flip.
“When you watch each one among them, the within man wins virtually each time. He simply bought a adequate hole, had a very good restart. I had a bit little bit of rear tire degradation that didn’t actually assist me on my launch off the nook. (He) simply bought a very good hole and bought away from me.”
Déjà vu for Reddick
For Reddick, the race was a case of déjà vu. Final yr he chased race winner Alex Bowman with a sooner automobile over the closing laps and completed second.
“We form of ended up in a tricky spot there on the penultimate restart, I assume,” Reddick stated. “A number of the automobiles had been spinning—I can’t title all of them, however sadly we form of simply bought caught within the improper lane the place I needed to verify up. I bought behind these automobiles that we had been on the identical tire technique as, so we simply misplaced a little bit of time there passing these automobiles again.
“It’s nice to complete third, but it surely’s for positive a bummer whenever you have a look at how a lot floor you made up.”
Thunderstorm Looming: Checkered Flag Beats the Rain at Chicago
For the primary time within the three years of the Chicago Road Race, climate within the type of rain didn’t play a task—however anticipation of potential thunderstorms did.
Because the race neared conclusion, fog and storm clouds started to roll in from the north, however rain didn’t attain the monitor till after the checkered flag.
“The technique was a bit far and wide, as we knew it might be at present, racing the climate, racing automobiles and totally different (pit) stops,” Van Gisbergen stated. “Stephen (Doran, crew chief) did a extremely good job on the field all day of simply portray the image in my head of who I used to be up towards.
“We had two nice pit stops. Simply so stoked to get (sponsor) WeatherTech in Victory Lane for his or her dwelling race.”
Michael McDowell Leads and Hocevar ignites an Eight-Automotive Wreck Early within the Race
Michael McDowell bought previous SVG initially of the race and led the primary 31 laps, however he needed to take his automobile to the DVP (broken automobile coverage) space to restore a caught throttle and misplaced 22 laps within the storage.
An enormous eight-car crash on lap 3 blocked the monitor between the tenth and eleventh turns and compelled a stoppage of 14 minutes, 42 seconds. Carson Hocevar began the melee when he clipped the within wall within the tenth flip and crashed into the other wall with sufficient pressure to maneuver the Jersey barrier.
Hocevar’s No. 77 Chevrolet turned sideways, and the automobiles of Brad Keselowski, Daniel Suarez, Todd Gilliland, Will Brown, and Riley Herbst piled into the wreck. Solely Herbst and Suarez had been in a position to proceed.
“I didn’t see it till the final second,” Keselowski stated. “I slowed down, and I really felt I used to be going to get stopped, after which I simply form of bought ran over from behind. It’s only a slender road course, and typically there’s nowhere to go.”
In-Season Problem Strikes to Spherical 3
Keselowski’s early exit made a winner of thirty second seed Ty Dillon within the In-Season Problem. Dillon will face Bowman in subsequent Sunday’s third-round occasion at Sonoma Raceway, after Bowman traded shot after shot together with his Chicago opponent, Bubba Wallace, till Wallace spun within the closing laps to lose the head-to-head battle.
John Hunter Nemechek completed fifteenth, one spot forward of Chase Elliott, to get rid of the driving force of the No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet from the In-Season Problem. Nemechek will face Erik Jones, who superior when Ricky Stenhouse Jr. retired after colliding with a tire barrier.
Ryan Preece ran seventh and eradicated Thirtieth-place finisher Noah Gragson. He’ll face Reddick, who ousted Hocevar. Gibbs prevailed over sixth-place finisher AJ Allmendinger and can race towards Zane Smith at Sonoma.
Smith got here dwelling 14th and knocked out 18th-place Chris Buescher, who ran a lot of the race with an engine down on energy.
Collection chief William Byron was out of the race with a damaged clutch after one lap and completed fortieth. His lead within the standings over second-place Elliott shrank to 13 factors.
Together with his second win of the season, Van Gisbergen secures his place within the playoffs. Bubba Wallace now sits simply two factors above the minimize line, whereas Preece is simply two factors under the road.
Up Subsequent for the NASCAR Cup Collection
The NASCAR Cup Collection strikes on to a different highway course at Sonoma Raceway on Sunday, July thirteenth. The Toyota Save Mart 350 begins at 3:30 p.m. ET on TNT, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, and MAX. The defending winner is California native Kyle Larson.
Shane Van Gisbergen began the weekend by taking the pole for the NASCAR Xfinity Collection and successful The Loop 110. Connor Zilisch completed second after difficult Van Gisbergen unsuccessfully. Sheldon Creed led early within the race and completed in third place. Jesse Love and Nick Sanchez spherical out the highest 5.
Justin Allgaier now leads Austin Hill (second) and Sam Mayer (third) by 49 factors within the sequence level standings. Austin Hill holds the benefit together with his three wins on the season. Jesse Love and Connor Zilisch spherical out the highest 5.
Up Subsequent
The following race for the NASCAR Xfinity Collection is at Sonoma Raceway on Saturday, July twelfth. The Pit Boss/Meals Maxx 250 begins at 4:30 pm ET on CW, PRN, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. Shane Van Gisbergen received the 2024 race.
