CHICAGO — Shane van Gisbergen dominated the Grant Park 165 on July 6, 2025, winning the NASCAR Cup Series race on the Chicago Street Course and completing a weekend sweep of both the NASCAR Xfinity and Cup races from pole position. The New Zealander’s victory in the No. 88 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet marked his second Cup win of the season, his third career win, and matched a NASCAR milestone set by Kyle Busch in 2016 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. No other driver has won both top-tier NASCAR races from pole in the same weekend.
The race ended under caution after Cody Ware crashed into the Turn 6 tire barrier on the penultimate lap, allowing van Gisbergen to take the checkered flag. “What an amazing weekend for me,” said van Gisbergen. “Lucky guy to drive some great cars. 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.” He secured the lead on Lap 60, overtaking Chase Briscoe in Turn 4 after a side-by-side battle through Turns 2 and 3.
Ty Gibbs finished second, matching his career-best result, while Tyler Reddick took third after climbing from 15th with nine laps remaining. Gibbs struggled on the final restart, noting, “Well, it really depends on the restart zone, because it’s right in that last corner, and the dude on the outside gets shafted every single time. If you watch every one of them, the inside guy wins almost every time. He just got a good enough gap, had a good restart. I had a little bit of rear tire degradation that didn’t really help me on my launch off the corner. (He) just got a good gap and got away from me.”
Reddick reflected on his race, saying, “We kind of ended up in a tough spot there on the penultimate restart, I guess. Some of the cars were spinning—I can’t name them all, but unfortunately we kind of just got stuck in the wrong lane where I had to check up. I got behind those cars that we were on the same tire strategy as, so we just lost a bit of time there passing those cars back. It’s great to finish third, but it’s for sure a bummer when you look at how much ground you made up.”
The 2.2-mile, 12-turn course saw seven cautions for 15 laps, including a 14-minute, 42-second stoppage after an eight-car crash on Lap 3 between Turns 10 and 11. Carson Hocevar triggered the incident by clipping the inside wall, causing a pileup involving Brad Keselowski, Daniel Suarez, and others. Keselowski said, “I didn’t see it until the last second. I slowed down, and I actually felt I was going to get stopped, and then I just kind of got ran over from behind. It’s just a narrow street course, and sometimes there’s nowhere to go.”
Michael McDowell led the first 31 laps but fell out after a stuck throttle required repairs, losing 22 laps. Van Gisbergen navigated two late cautions—one for a spectator medical emergency and another for Austin Cindric’s stalled car—before Ware’s crash sealed the race. “The strategy was a bit all over the place, as we knew it would be today, racing the weather, racing cars and different (pit) stops,” van Gisbergen said. “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 (sponsor) WeatherTech in Victory Lane for their home race.”
The race, which averaged 66.764 mph over 2 hours, 28 minutes, and 17 seconds, avoided rain despite looming storm clouds. The In-Season Challenge saw Ty Dillon advance past Alex Bowman, John Hunter Nemechek over Chase Elliott, Ryan Preece past Noah Gragson, Tyler Reddick over Hocevar, Ty Gibbs over AJ Allmendinger, and Zane Smith over Chris Buescher. Series leader William Byron finished 40th after a clutch failure, narrowing his points lead over Elliott to 13.
