Winless no more: Alex Bowman wins in Chicago
CHICAGO — An 80-race winless streak was left in the darkness that shrouded the Chicago Street Race as Alex Bowman claimed victory in the Grant Park 165.
Bowman passed Joey Hand for the win on lap 50, just two laps after stage three began Sunday. In stage three, Bowman survived a restart for Josh Berry slamming the turn two wall on lap 52 and two very tense laps to claim his first win since the Pennzoil 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in February 2022.
“Man, I broke my back, had a brain injury, and we’ve kind of sucked ever since,” Bowman said. “You start to second-guess if you’re ever going to get a chance to win a race again. Last one we won, we didn’t really get to celebrate. We’re going to drink so much damn bourbon tonight, it’s going to be a bad deal. I’m probably going to wake up naked on the bathroom floor again. That’s just part of this deal sometimes.”
Many fans have put Bowman’s feet to the fire for the winless streak but now that it’s over, there is relief for him and primary sponsor Ally.
The race ended after 58 of the 75 scheduled laps after time expired. NASCAR set 8:20 p.m. CT as a cutoff time going into the race due to darkness.
At 8:20 p.m. CT, Bowman was in turn 10. When he crossed the start-finish line, per the procedure, there were two laps left in the race.
Tyler Reddick took second from Joey Hand at that point and was around 4.7 seconds behind Bowman. With slick tires and the track drying, Reddick was running about three seconds faster than Bowman.
When the white flag waved, Reddick cut the gap to about 1.8 seconds. He was visibly running down Bowman — until he hit the inside wall in turn five and conceded for second.
Gibbs was on slick tires behind Reddick and had to settle for third with not enough time to catch Bowman and Reddick.
“We were catching Alex by a large margin there, and — I don’t know, that puzzles me. I clearly just screwed up. Trying to stay in the dry groove and I had more than enough of dry groove, as I’m seeing right behind you. I cut the wheel a little too hard,” Reddick said. “Just not focused enough, I guess.”
Joey Hand held on to finish fourth.
“It was a great day. I am all grins. That was a lot of fun. It is fun when you have a car that is going forward. RFK, this Stage 60 car and this group of guys and gals was awesome. We had such a good time together. We didn’t qualifying well but I told them that we were way better than that. I laid in bed last night and dreamt about driving to the front. It was a lot of fun,” Hand said.
TOP-10 FINISHERS: Bowman, Reddick, Gibbs, Hand, Michael McDowell, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Todd Gilliland, William Byron, Kyle Busch, Ryan Blaney
Christopher Bell finished 37th, three laps shy of the finish. Bell led Reddick and Gibbs among the group of drivers with slick tires. Bell looked to be in command of the race until Stenhouse tapped Martin Truex Jr., sending Truex into Bell and Bell into Carson Hocevar.
Hocevar finished 24th despite having severe front-end damage. Truex finished 33rd.
Josh Berry finished 36th, one lap down after stuffing his car into the tire barriers multiple times in the final stage. He finished the race.
Just before he brought out the caution for hitting the turn two tire barrier, AJ Allmendinger stuffed his car into the tire barrier. That ended his race after 48 laps. He finished 38th.
Perennial favorites Kyle Larson and Shane van Gisbergen rounded out the field in 39th and 40th. Larson slammed the turn six tire barrier, knocking the concrete walls back, on lap 35. Van Gisbergen was the victim of Chase Briscoe hydroplaning on lap 26.
MORE: Shane van Gisbergen out of Chicago Street Race early
The race started with the engines firing — then shutting down. And then re-firing again after the rain hit and some teams put on wet weather tires.
NASCAR gave teams and drivers a lap to assess the track and decide whether to put on wet weather tires or slick tires.
Initially, just a few drivers put on slick tires. Then, after that assessment lap, almost the entire field put on slick tires.
Corey LaJoie crashed in turn five on lap 18, ending the first stage under caution. LaJoie was one of a few drivers who kept wet weather tires on the car and fell a lap down. Then, right after he Shane van Gisbergen claimed the stage win.
STAGE ONE TOP-10 (LAP 20): Shane van Gisbergen, Christopher Bell, Ty Gibbs, Chase Briscoe, Kyle Larson, Alex Bowman, Bubba Wallace, Todd Gilliland, Tyler Reddick, Daniel Suarez
Before stage two began, William Byron, Corey LaJoie, Erik Jones, Ryan Preece, Josh Berry, Ryan Blaney, Michael McDowell, Austin Cindric and Harrison Burton all took the wavearound after falling a lap down during the first stage. Joey Logano was still a lap down.
Stage two began with a bang with the van Gisbergen/Briscoe incident. Then, five laps after the one-hour, 43-minute rain delay ended on lap 30, Larson had his incident.
The race went green for 10 laps after the Larson incident to the end of stage two. With a handful of laps left in the stage and the track drying, all but around 10 drivers came to pit road for slick tires, including Christopher Bell and Ty Gibbs who led before the cycle of green-flag pit stops began on lap 43.
When it all cycled around, Joey Hand led the way over Alex Bowman.
STAGE TWO TOP-10 (LAP 45): Joey Hand, Alex Bowman, Brad Keselowski, Carson Hocevar, Martin Truex Jr., Noah Gragson, Daniel Hemric, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Harrison Burton, Denny Hamlin
The drivers who stayed out on wet tires in stage two stayed out on those tires in stage three, rolling the dice with about 20 minutes of competition left.
The gamble paid off for Bowman, Hand, Stenhouse, Daniel Hemric (12th) and Noah Gragson (14th) who all finished inside the top-15 with wet tires.
GRANT PARK 165 RESULTS
Discover more from The Racing Experts
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
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