Van Gisbergen Asserts Road Racing Dominance With Another Chicago Win

Through the opening 15 races of the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season, there were likely some who snickered at the fact that Trackhouse Racing rolled the dice by adding 36-year-old Shane van Gisbergen to their full-time driver lineup in the No. 88 Chevrolet this season. Well, over the last four races, SVG has proved his worth as he collected his second victory in that span in Sunday's NASCAR Cup Series Grant Park 165 at the Chicago Street Course.

Race Results: NASCAR Cup Series Grant Park 165

"How good is that?" Van Gisbergen asked in his post-race victory interview. "Unreal. We really come together as a team, got a lot better. Ross got a win, too, so brilliant. Thank you to everyone."

While van Gisbergen bailed on chasing Stage Wins throughout the race in an effort to set himself up better for the overall race win, he found himself at the front of the field when it mattered most. As van Gisbergen continued to hold Ty Gibbs at bay over the final green flag run of the race, Tyler Reddick emerged as the fastest car on the track.

Reddick clawed his way from eight seconds behind SVG in the eighth position to run third, and was within three seconds of the driver of the No. 88 Chevrolet. However, Reddick was unable to get past Gibbs with two laps to go, and as SVG took the white flag, a caution came out for Cody Ware, who stuffed his car hard into the tire barrier in Turn 6 with two laps to go.

The caution froze the field, and as a result, SVG had secured the race win, his second in the three NASCAR Cup Series street races in Chicago, and it capped off a perfect weekend for the New Zealander, who took the pole position and race wins in both the NASCAR Xfinity Series and NASCAR Cup Series races this weekend in Chicago.

"What an amazing weekend for me. Lucky guy to drive some great cars," Van Gisbergen explained. "I thank Trackhouse, WeatherTech Chevy, and all these guys and girls here, what an amazing weekend. Thanks, everyone, for coming out, and hope we put on a good show."

Gibbs would hang onto the runner-up spot over Reddick as the caution came out on the final lap, which allowed the driver of the No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota Camry XSE to tie his career-best finish, which he also achieved at Darlington Raceway last Spring.

For the second consecutive season, Reddick was the fastest driver in the closing laps at the Chicago Street Course, and for the second straight year, his comeback rally ran out of steam before he could snatch the lead. Still, Reddick got his second consecutive top-five finish on Sunday. Prior to the top-fives at Atlanta and Chicago, Reddick last captured a top-five at Darlington Raceway, 10 races ago.

Reddick also turned the Xfinity Fastest Lap of the race, which earned him another point, and drew him to within 48 points of the NASCAR Cup Series regular-season championship point lead. Reddick's point gain was aided by rough outings for point leader William Byron, who finished last, as well as second and third-place point drivers Chase Elliott and Kyle Larson, who were able to salvage finishes of 16th and 13th after subpar days by their standards.

Denny Hamlin capped off an incredible rally from the 40th starting position to finish fourth in Sunday's race. Hamlin was left frustrated on Saturday as he suffered a blown engine on his first lap of practice at the Chicago Street Course, which sidelined him for practice and qualifying.

Kyle Busch, who finished fifth, had a rally of his own. The driver of the No. 8 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet spun from the sixth position on Lap 34, and was busted for driving through too many pit boxes on a pit stop in Stage 2. After falling back into the 32nd position, Busch was able to steer clear of drama in the closing laps to secure the top-five finish.

AJ Allmendinger, Ryan Preece, Alex Bowman, Austin Hill, and Ross Chastain rounded out the top-10 finishers in the race.

Despite the sixth-place finish, Allmendinger was unable to advance to the third round of NASCAR's In-Season Tournament as he was matched up against Gibbs, who finished second.

Bowman was able to hold on for the eighth-place finish after a wild, and potentially over-the-line battle with Bubba Wallace in the closing laps. The two drivers, who have had their run-ins in the past, including on the cool-down lap in this race a season ago after Bowman won, were matched up against each other in the In-Season Tournament this weekend.

With five laps to go, they found themselves in a fight for a position on track, and both drivers used each other quite a bit. In the end, Wallace would get spun by Bowman. Wallace would crash into a concrete barrier, and would end up 28th, five laps down.

After a brief discussion with Bowman on pit road after the race, Wallace walked away from the Chicago Street Course without talking about the battle with Bowman.

Bowman expressed that he was confused by the latest spark up of his feud with Wallace as he felt the two had moved on from things following last year's Street Race.

Here’s @Alex_Bowman with his take on what happened: pic.twitter.com/MVwySnDICi
— Jeff Gluck (@jeff_gluck) July 6, 2025

"I thought we had squashed our beef, but clearly, not," Bowman said. "I don't know, I followed [Reddick] past him. He ran me into the inside wall in [Turn] 8, still felt like I passed him clean. And then he just absolutely demolished me into [Turn] 12, I gave it back a little bit into [Turn] 1, and then he demolished me again into [Turn] 2, ran me into the outside wall. I'm just a pinball between him and the outside wall."

This battle was intense. 😳 pic.twitter.com/f3Q4aNJjlC
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) July 6, 2025

As far as the move, which led to Wallace spinning out, Bowman says his intention wasn't to crash Wallace, he was just trying to hold onto his car. Bowman questioned whether the In-Season Tournament is why Wallace was pushing so hard to stay ahead of him.

"Wasn't the intention, but I don't know, we had way fresher tires than him. I get that the In-Season Tournament means a lot, but at that point, I'm just trying to finish the best I can. I wasn't really thinking about that. So, I don't know if that's what it was about or what," Bowman questioned. "But unfortunate that happened. He tore up our car a bunch, and he ended his day."

The eight drivers that have advanced to the third round of the NASCAR In-Season Challenge are No. 32 seed Ty Dillon, No. 8 seed Bowman, No. 12 seed John Hunter Nemechek, No. 20 seed Erik Jones, No. 15 seed Ryan Preece, No. 23 seed Tyler Reddick, No. 6 seed Ty Gibbs, and No. 14 seed Zane Smith.

Eliminated from the $1 million winner-take-all bracket Challenge were No. 17 seed Brad Keselowski, No. 9 seed Bubba Wallace, No. 5 seed Chase Elliott, No. 29 seed Ricky Stenhouse Jr., No. 31 seed Noah Gragson, No. 26 seed Carson Hocevar, No. 22 seed AJ Allmendinger, and No. 3 seed Chris Buescher.

Hocevar saw his bid to advance in the tournament come to an end by a mistake of his own doing on Lap 4 as he collided with the inside wall in Turn 9, which sent him hard into the outside wall heading into Turn 10. Hocevar would spin, which would block the track, and several drivers had nowhere to go and piled in, including Keselowski, who saw his race and tournament hopes end along with Hocevar's.

A replay of the incident on Lap 4. pic.twitter.com/4aWkPLGi8U
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) July 6, 2025

Prior to Hocevar's Lap 4 incident, series point leader William Byron suffered mechanical issues with the clutch in his No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, which forced him to retire from the race after just completing one lap. Byron would be credited with a 40th-place finish, and as a result saw his once seemingly insurmountable regular-season point lead shrink to just 13 points over Chase Elliott, who finished 16th. Kyle Larson is now within 19 points of the point lead after a 13th-place result on Sunday.

The biggest heartbreak of the race belonged to Michael McDowell, who snatched the lead away from Shane van Gisbergen on the initial start of the race. McDowell would take the Stage 1 win, and lead the opening 31 laps of the race behind the wheel of the No. 71 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet. However, an issue with the throttle cable on his car forced McDowell behind the wall for repairs. McDowell would finish 32nd, 22 laps off the pace after leading a race-high 31 laps.

Next up for the NASCAR Cup Series is the Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway, which will serve as the 20th race of the NASCAR Cup Series season and the third round of the five-round NASCAR In-Season Challenge. That race is scheduled for Sunday, July 13, and will be televised by TNT Sports. TNT's race coverage is set to kick off at 3:30 PM ET. The Performance Racing Network (PRN) and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio will provide the radio broadcast of the event at Sonoma Raceway.

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