Shane van Gisbergen out of Chicago Street Race early
CHICAGO — Someone else will own the streets of Chicago in the NASCAR Cup Series as Shane van Gisbergen fell out of the Grant Park 165 early.
Van Gisbergen won stage one. When stage two began, he ran fifth after losing three spots on pit road and restarting behind Zane Smith who stayed out.
Going into turn six, a problem spot for many drivers last year, Chase Briscoe slid and smacked the outside wall hard. As Briscoe slid toward the wall, he clipped van Gisbergen and sent him into the outside wall on corner exit. Van Gisbergen tried restarting the car and driving away but couldn’t. He exited the car, ending his race.
“I don’t know, I just sort of turned in; it looked pretty good and then just got smacked by someone. It’s gutting. The No. 16 Wendy’s Saucy Nuggs Camaro was really good. We were in the lead for a lot of that race. I felt good taking off in the rain, so that sucks. It’s an unfortunate mistake by him. I’m sure he didn’t mean it. But yeah, when he just clipped me, there wasn’t anything I could do,” van Gisbergen said.
Despite the rainy conditions taking van Gisbergen out of the race, he enjoyed racing in it.
“It was fun. On slicks, it got a bit dodgy. I hated being the leader. Whoever was the leader, you could see them slowing up, not knowing what the condition would be. As soon as you got to the front, you were unsure of what was happening and had to take it a bit easy. But yeah, I had a lot of fun until then,” he said.
The three-time Repco Supercars champion described the top-3 in the race at the time — Ty Gibbs, Christopher Bell and Kyle Larson — as the favorites to win.
Last year, Bell won both stages and led 37 of 78 laps but hit the wall late and finished 18th. Larson placed seventh and second in the stages before finishing fourth. Gibbs placed ninth and sixth in the stages before finishing ninth.
At the end of the day, Shane van Gisbergen won. This year, he will not.
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Jonathan Fjeld View All
Jonathan Fjeld is the co-owner of the The Racing Experts, LLC. He has been with TRE since 2010.
A Twin Valley, MN, native, Fjeld became a motorsports fan at just three years old (first race was the 2002 Pennsylvania 500). He worked as a contributor and writer for TRE from 2010-18. Since then, he has stepped up and covered 24 NASCAR race weekends and taken on a larger role with TRE. He became the co-owner and managing editor in 2023 and has guided the site to massive growth in that time.
Fjeld has covered a wide array of stories and moments over the years, including Kevin Harvick's final Cup Series season, the first NASCAR national series disqualification in over 50 years, Shane van Gisbergen's stunning win in Chicago and the first Cup Series race at Road America in 66 years – as well as up-and-coming drivers' stories and stories from inside the sport, like the tech it takes for Hendrick Motorsports to remain a top-tier team.
Currently, he resides in Albuquerque, N.M., where he works for KOB 4, an NBC station. He works as a digital producer and does on-air reports. He loves spending time with friends and family, playing and listening to music, exploring new places, being outdoors, reading books and writing among other activities. You can email him at fjeldjonathan@gmail.com