Van Gisbergen Wins in Chicago Once Again, Completing a NASCAR Weekend Sweep
The Trackhouse Racing driver also won in Chicago in 2023, becoming the first driver to take his Cup Series debut since Johnny Rutherford in the second qualifying race at Daytona in 1963. Ty Gibbs was second, and Tyler Reddick finished third. Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch rounded out the top five.
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It was a dominant weekend for van Gisbergen, a three-time champion in Australia's Supercars. The 36-year-old New Zealand native won the Xfinity Series race from the pole Saturday. He also was the top qualifier for the Cup race.
Michael McDowell joined van Gisbergen on the front row and quickly moved in front. He won Stage 1 and led for 31 laps before he was derailed by a throttle cable issue. Van Gisbergen regained the lead when he passed Chase Briscoe with 16 laps left. As fog moved into downtown Chicago with thunderstorms in the forecast, van Gisbergen controlled the action the rest of the way.
AJ Allmendinger was sixth, and Ryan Preece finished seventh. Ryan Blaney, who won the second stage, was twelfth. William Byron's day was cut short by a clutch problem. The Hendrick Motorsports driver began the day on top of the series standings.
After McDowell seized the lead early in the race, Carson Hocevar caused a multicar crash when he hit the wall and spun out between Turns 10 and 11. Brad Keselowski, Austin Dillon, Daniel Suárez, and Will Brown were among the drivers collected in the wreck. 'I didn't see it until the last second,' Keselowski said. 'I slowed down, and I actually felt I was gonna 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.'
Ty Dillon and Reddick moved into the third round of NASCAR's inaugural in-season tournament when Keselowski and Hocevar were unable to finish the race. Dillon, the No. 32 seed, eliminated Keselowski after he upset top-seeded Denny Hamlin last weekend at Atlanta. Gibbs, Preece, Alex Bowman, John H. Nemechek, Zane Smith, and Erik Jones also advanced.
The winner of the five-race bracket-style tournament takes home a $1 million prize. Bowman, the 2024 champion on the downtown street course, won his head-to-head matchup with Bubba Wallace. Bowman and Wallace made contact as they battled for position late in the race after they also tangled in Chicago last year.
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