Examining NASCAR Cup 2nd-round In-Season Challenge matchups at Chicago
The 32-team field has been cut to 16 for Sunday's street race. The third round (eight remaining drivers) is at Sonoma. The fourth round (four remaining drivers) is at Dover. The final round (two remaining drivers) is at Indianapolis.
The winner will collect $1 million.
Here is a look, with the help of Racing Insights, at the second-round pairings for Sunday's race:
No. 3 Chris Buescher vs. No. 14 Zane Smith
At the front: Chris Buescher has the best average finish on road courses in the Next Gen car at 8.8.
On a roll: Buescher has scored four consecutive top-10 finishes. Zane Smith has finished seventh twice in the last four races.
Winner ... advances to meet winner of AJ Allmendinger - Ty Gibbs matchup.
No. 5 Chase Elliott vs. No. 12 John Hunter Nemechek
Streaking: Atlanta winner Chase Elliott has scored three consecutive top-five finishes entering this weekend.
Road trip: Elliott has finished in the top five in both road course events this year, finishing third in Mexico and fourth at Circuit of the Americas. Nemechek finished sixth at Mexico for his best road course finish in Cup.
Winner ... advances to meet winner of Erik Jones - Ricky Stenhouse Jr. matchup.
No. 6 Ty Gibbs vs. No. 22 AJ Allmendinger
Top dog: Ty Gibbs has the best average finish on the streets of the Chicago at 6.0 in two races, placing third last year and ninth in the inaugural event.
Three of a kind: All three of AJ Allmendinger's Cup victories have come on road courses: Watkins Glen, Indianapolis Road Course and Charlotte Roval.
Winner ... advances to meet winner of Zane Smith - Chris Buescher matchup.
No. 8 Alex Bowman vs. No. 9 Bubba Wallace
Spicy history: NASCAR fined Bubba Wallace $50,000 for his retaliatory actions after Alex Bowman won last year's Chicago Street Race. Wallace was upset with Bowman for contact during the race that turned him. Wallace door-slammed Bowman's car on the cool-down lap and sent it into the wall.
Two-for-two: Alex Bowman has top-10 finishes in both road course events this season, placing fourth in Mexico and ninth at COTA.
Winner ... advances to meet winner of Brad Keselowski - Ty Dillon matchup.
No. 15 Ryan Preece vs. No. 31 Noah Gragson
I know you: Matchup of former Stewart-Haas Racing teammates.
Opposite directions: Noah Gragson has five consecutive finishes outside the top 20. Ryan Preece has four top-20 finishes in the last five races.
Winner ... advances to meet winner of Carson Hocevar - Tyler Reddick matchup.
No. 17 Brad Keselowski vs. No. 32 Ty Dillon
By the numbers: Brad Keselowski's average finish on road courses in the Next Gen car is 20.6 with one top-10 finish. Ty Dillon's average finish on road courses in the Next Gen car is 27.7 with no finish better than 16th.
Back-to-back: Keselowski has finished in the top 10 in each of the past two races this season.
Winner ... advances to meet winner of Alex Bowman - Bubba Wallace matchup.
No. 20 Erik Jones vs. No. 29 Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
Mirror image: Erik Jones' average finish this season is 18.4. Stenhouse's average finish this season is 18.9. Both drivers have three top-10 finishes this year.
Turning the corner: Jones has finished in the top 15 in five of the last six races.
Winner ... advances to meet winner of Chase Elliott - John Hunter Nemechek matchup.
No. 23 Tyler Reddick vs. No. 26 Carson Hocevar
Familiar ground: Tyler Reddick finished second in last year's race on the streets of Chicago.
Tough matchup: Carson Hocevar has finished ahead of Reddick on a road course just once in seven Cup races.
Winner ... advances to meet winner of Noah Gragson - Ryan Preece matchup.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
NBC Sports
12 minutes ago
- NBC Sports
NASCAR Cup results of Chicago Street Race won by Shane van Gisbergen
Shane van Gisbergen won his second race of the season when he won Sunday's street race in Chicago after starting on the pole. It comes a day after he won the Xfinity race from the pole on the same 12-turn, 2.2-mile street course. MORE: Chicago results Ty Gibbs matched his career-best Cup finish by placing second. Tyler Reddick placed third. Denny Hamlin finished fourth and Kyle Busch placed fifth. Hamlin scored his top-five result after starting at the rear of the field due to an engine change when he had a failure on his first lap of practice Saturday. AJ Allmendinger was sixth, Ryan Preece placed seventh, Alex Bowman was eighth, Austin Hill finished a career-best ninth in 12 Cup starts and Ross Chastain completed the top 10.
Hamilton Spectator
15 minutes ago
- Hamilton Spectator
Van Gisbergen wins in Chicago once again, completing a NASCAR weekend sweep
CHICAGO (AP) — Shane van Gisbergen completed a sweep on the Chicago Street Course on Sunday, winning the NASCAR Cup Series race on the tricky downtown circuit. It was van Gisbergen's second victory of the season and his third career Cup win. 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. 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 12th. 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. ___ AP auto racing:
Chicago Tribune
21 minutes ago
- Chicago Tribune
Rains hold off until after race but outcome is the same as Shane van Gisbergen wins again
This year the downpour waited until after the NASCAR Grant Park 165 was finished. After previous years were interrupted by storms, fans came ready for the weather Sunday. Aaron Moy, 52, from Morton Grove, crafted an 'Anti-Rain Vortex' hat to wear to today's race: a strip of laminated printer paper spiraled around a plastic shaft on top of a red Valvoline hat. The shaft is connected to a small motor in the hat, so Moy can turn it on during the race. 'The last two years, the rain's messed up the race here. So I'm thinking, well, maybe I could do something to get the rain away,' Moy said, joking. He based it on the NASCAR 'vortex theory,' an inside joke among fans that the cars racing around the circular track can create a 'vortex' that pushes storms away. Many fans brought disposable ponchos or had a game plan for if the skies opened up. Taylor Little from South Bend and Alex Rupprecht from Glendale watched the race from atop a 6-foot electrical service box near the turn at Balbo and DuSable Lake Shore drives. It was the two 20-year-olds' first time attending NASCAR in Chicago. 'We're kind of excited for the rain,' Little said. 'It's maybe not as safe, but a fun race to see.' On Sunday, racers zoomed around the streets of the Loop under cloudy skies. A brief shower passed through the area shortly after the race concluded. The weather may have been different for this race but not the outcome. Shane van Gisbergen of New Zealand swept the Chicago Street Race weekend, winning his fifth of the six races in the Loop. But that didn't take away from the excitement for fans. Adelaide Van Pelt, 30, sported a purse decorated with tiny toy cars that she bought for the occasion. She attended the race Saturday for her job with Jack Link's, NASCAR's official snack, but returned for the second day just for fun. 'It's been really interesting to see races like this, because when I was a kid, I only ever went to Michigan track. So the street race is very different and a lot more exciting in many cases,' she said. 'It's a nice way for people to access NASCAR that aren't able to experience it because it is such a rural niche.' Van Pelt also thinks that street races are more fun for those unfamiliar with racing. 'A lot of stock cars aren't made to slow down as quickly as they have to on this track, so there's more crashes, which people tend to think is more interesting when it comes to NASCAR,' she said. Despite previous bad weather, racers like Chase Eliot said they have enjoyed their time in Chicago over the past three years. Elliot started in the rear end of the field after a qualifying spinout. 'Coming up here has been really cool for us, it's such a different vibe for us,' Elliot said in a prerace interview in front of a crowd of fans. 'I have friends at home that want to come to this one because we can go and eat dinner and walk to the racetrack. The first year was so weird … it's become a little more normal (in) year three.' Chicago Street Race President Julie Giese presented the event's grand marshal Derrick Rose with a tracksuit before the race. The 2011 NBA MVP spoke about taking part in his first NASCAR event. 'When they put it on the table, it was a no-brainer that I wanted to be a part of it,' Rose said. 'We've been (planning) this for a long time, so to actually be here to see everything unfold, it's (everything that) we thought it would be.' Illinois fans also spoke about the experience of having the race in their backyard. 'It is very different to have a road pole in a city where I've grown up,' said Danielle Colomer, 34, a Crystal Lake native wearing Elliot gear. 'I'm familiar with these roads, and I went to school on Michigan Ave.' Shane Van Gisbergen won Saturday's race — his fourth of six eligible races — while Mitch McDowell led for a chunk of the Grant Park 165. Driving the Demonmobile in a partnership with DePaul University may have given him some Chicago grace in the race. Wherever the 2026 street race lands, the racers will go without hesitation. Chicago has been special for some, though. 'I don't know what the plan is moving forward whether we come back here or not, (but) I'm happy to go to wherever they send us,' Elliot said. 'My experience has been really good here, so thanks for having us.'
