It’s time once again for NASCAR to return to the Chicago Street Course.
Last year, of course, it was the site of one of the great moments in NASCAR history.
Just ask the NASCAR Hall of Fame.
Shane van Gisbergen, a complete unknown in the NASCAR world, thundered his way through the NASCAR Cup Series field and was able to win in the closing laps. It was the most memorable race of the season, and the moment was even named Frontstretch’s top storyline of the year.
If you were familiar with the name, however, it wasn’t unexpected. NASCAR fans have learned why in the last year.
You can make an argument that van Gisbergen is now the best road course driver in NASCAR and not sound completely ridiculous. The idea that the Chicago win last year was a fluke or only because he was the only driver in the field with substantial street experience has been thoroughly disproven.
Yes, he hasn’t won a road course race at the Cup level since. But the two he’s entered since were marred by mechanical issues. Meanwhile, he enters this coming weekend having won the last two NASCAR Xfinity Series road course races.
And although it is not relevant to this coming weekend, he’s proven to be a definite up-and-coming oval driver. Yes, he’s not competing for wins there. But he’s 13th in points in a completely different car from what he’s used to, against a field of drivers with sometimes decades of experience on ovals on him.
And that’s on top of having zero experience on any layout ran so far this season, with only 15 or so minutes of practice most weeks. It’s almost underappreciated how his year has gone so far. But I digress.
It’s time for Chicago once again. Last year, I predicted that van Gisbergen would win the race … before he was even announced for it.
This year? He sweeps the weekend … as long as the Cup car can hold it together.
What makes van Gisbergen better than the rest is how adept he is at overtaking. He drove through the field a couple of times at Sonoma Raceway last month and was really the only driver in that race who could consistently pass.
It’s the same thing that happened last year at Chicago. Credit to Justin Haley: holding off multiple championship-winning drivers such as Chase Elliott and Kyle Larson right behind SVG was very impressive. But it shows that SVG was the only driver who really knew how to move up the field, and that’s going to be the case again this year.
If anything, van Gisbergen should be better this year than the last. Everybody who was only in the NXS race last year rather infamously only has less than half a race under their belt. And anything the Cup field learned about street racing in the last year isn’t going to make up for what SVG has learned in the last year about how these cars work.
The only question is if the Cup car can hold together. At the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course last season, van Gisbergen had to spend the weekend dealing with a bad throttle pedal.
At Circuit of the Americas in the spring of this year, the Supercars legend had multiple issues, from a pit road speeding penalty to losing first gear relatively early in the race.
Kaulig Racing is also clearly a step down from Trackhouse Racing when it comes to consistently putting fast cars out on the racetrack. But even in that aspect, I wouldn’t put money on SVG being beat.
AJ Allmendinger was able to place sixth at Sonoma Raceway last month, a track Allmendinger struggles at compared to the other road courses on the calendar. He was likely driving the exact same car van Gisbergen will in Chicago on Sunday, July 7.
The Cup field is supremely talented. It’s starting to become a lot like Formula 1 in that there’s no wasted seats in the entire field. Everybody there should be there.
But SVG is SVG. He’s just that good of a racecar driver.
Did You Notice? … Quick hits before taking off …
- With Josh Berry likely being named as Wood Brothers Racing’s new driver for 2025 this week, that begs the question of what’s next for Harrison Burton. It’s one not really being thought by many right now, but after a miserable three years in the Cup Series, it’s really hard to envision him returning to that field. It would make much more sense for the still-young Burton to go back down to the Xfinity Series and rebuild confidence, both in himself and with the rest of the industry. Even if it were a part-time season with one of the powerhouse NXS teams with whatever funding he can find; Joe Gibbs Racing may well have a position for him if Aric Almirola leaves after this season as a result of his suspension.
- Speaking of Burton, his spin after contact from Carson Hocevar under caution has led to a fine and points penalty for the Spire Motorsports driver. It’s a just fine and penalty, because wrecking somebody under caution is one of the biggest no-nos in racing. I just hope that Hocevar doesn’t revert to how he used to be a couple of years ago. After crossing the line at the Martinsville Speedway Craftsman Truck Series race last spring, he turned the corner completely and became a cleaner — and better — driver for it. It’s what got him into this position as a Cup driver in the first place.
About the author
Michael has watched NASCAR for 20 years and regularly covered the sport from 2013-2021, and also formerly covered the SRX series from 2021-2023. He now covers the FIA Formula 1 World Championship, the NASCAR Xfinity Series, and road course events in the NASCAR Cup Series.
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Guess there’s no reason for me to watch the race this week.
The winner has already been crowned.
But Joey won last week so he should be the favourite!
I think he is the favorite. In order to protect the sport, watch for speeding on pit road, over the wall too soon, inspection issues. He is that much better than the field. It will be between he and The Dinger.
He struggles on ovals but excels in street racing. Not a shock or surprise.