Van Gisbergen Does It Again In Chicagoland

CHICAGO — Shane van Gisbergen is no match for his NASCAR competitors when it comes to the Chicago Street Course.

The 36-year-old New Zealand native in his first full NASCAR Cup Series season won Sunday’s Grant Park 165 for the second time in the past three years.

The victory also completed a sweep of the weekend for the Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet driver. Van Gisbergen won from the pole on Sunday one day after driving a JR Motorsports Chevrolet from the pole to victory in NASCAR Xfinity Series competition.

Van Gisbergen matched Kyle Busch’s 2016 performance at Indianapolis Motor Speedway when he won in both series from the pole on the same weekend. They are the only two drivers to set that mark.

“What an amazing weekend for me,” said van Gisbergen, who drove the No. 88 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet to his second Cup victory on the 2.2-mile, 12-turn circuit. “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.”

It was the second victory of the season for van Gisbergen, who also won on the road course in Mexico City.

Ty Gibbs brought his Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota home second, matching his career-best finish. He had to hold off Tyler Reddick, who had fresher tires on his 23XI Racing Toyota, over the final laps.

“Yeah, feel like we had a fast Monster Energy Toyota Camry (today). Just need some more front turn,” Gibbs said. “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 (Shane van Gisbergen).”

Reddick came home third after finishing second last year at Chicago.

“We kind of ended up in a tough spot there on the penultimate restart, I guess,” Reddick said. “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 us, 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.”

Many teams tried different strategies and rain was approaching during the closing laps, but nothing could stop van Gisbergen on this day.

“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.”

Denny Hamlin raced from the back of the field after missing practice and qualifying on Saturday due to a blown engine, but fought his way to a fourth-place finish.

Kyle Busch, who spun early in the race, rallied from the rear of the field to finish fifth.

A massive eight-car crash that started when Carson Hocevar hit the wall in turn 10, blocked the track on lap three and brought a red flag

Michael McDowell passed van Gisbergen at the start and led 31 laps and won the first stage, but lost 22 laps after a stuck throttle on his Chevrolet.

Point leader William Byron dropped out early with clutch issues and finished 40^th. He leads Chase Elliott by 13 points in the standings.