When it comes to NASCAR’s street course in downtown Chicago, there is Shane van Gisbergen, and then there is everyone else.

Van Gisbergen has won the pole for Sunday’s Grant Park 165. The 36-year-old New Zealander turned a lap at 88.338 mph on a tricky 2.2-mile course that was made more treacherous by temperatures in the 90s on Saturday.

“Practice wasn’t that great for us, but when we went out for qualifying, the car felt really good,” van Gisbergen said. “We turned in two pretty good laps.”

The Trackhouse Racing driver will be joined on the front row by Michael McDowell, who grabbed the second slot at 87.879 mph. Carson Hocevar (87.824 mph), Tyler Reddick (87.779 mph) and Chase Briscoe (87.734 mph) rounded out the top five.

McDowell is one of three drivers who finished in the top 10 in the first two races in downtown Chicago.

“Our car’s in the game,” he said. “Tomorrow will be a mixed bag with potential weather in and out. So a lot of variables to go out there and navigate.”

Van Gisbergen, a three-time champion in Australia’s Supercars, also was on the pole for Saturday’s Xfinity Series race.

“I learned a lot in the Xfinity Series car this morning, and that just gives you a great leg up for the Cup car,” he said. “I think it’s great running both cars, it certainly helps.”

2025 NASCAR Chicago Street Race: What to know about the 2.2-mile course around the city

Just two years ago, van Gisbergen raced to a historic victory in a rainy first edition of NASCAR’s downtown Chicago experiment. Making the most of his extensive street racing experience, he became the first driver to win his Cup Series debut since Johnny Rutherford in the second qualifying race at Daytona in 1963.

He won Chicago’s Xfinity Series stop last year and the first stage in the Cup race before he was knocked out by a crash.

Katherine Legge became the first woman to qualify for the Cup race in downtown Chicago when she turned a lap of 85.744 mph, knocking Corey Heim out of the field.

“We would have been a lot faster, I think, had I not kept nicking the wall,” Legge said. “I’ve given my crew a lot of work to do from that, but we had to keep pushing to put it in the show. I’m really proud of this team, and I’m very much looking forward to tomorrow.”

Originally Published: July 5, 2025 at 3:50 PM CDT

NASCAR starting positions for the Chicago Street Race

NASCAR Cup Series teams have unloaded in Downtown Chicago, Illinois. The field is set for a round of practice and qualifying on the streets of Chicago.

View the Chicago starting lineup for the NASCAR Cup Series below.

Chicago Menu
Xfinity: Prac/Qual | Race
Cup: Prac/Qual | Race

Chicago TV Schedule

Practice/Qualifying
Report

Denny Hamlin suffers a blown engine on the opening lap of practice. He was on the fourth turn of his get up to speed lap when it blew.

Byron gets sideways at the entry to turn 10 and he slams the wall exiting the corner. Byron is currently fastest in group 1 with just 1 minute remaining in practice.

Byron and Hamlin will not take part in qualifying.

Katherine Legge slams the tire barrier late in her practice session. She picks up heavy damage.

Chase Elliott also makes contact with the concrete wall. He picks up moderate damage.

Bubba Wallace tops the practice sheets. He turned a laptime at 90.951 seconds.

Wallace spins in group 2 of qualifying. That’s his opening lap in qualifying after leading practice for both groups.

1 minute remains in qualifying, Wallace backs it into the tire barrier. The red flag is out and qualifying is over.

Shane van Gisbergen will start from the pole position in Sunday’s race. He turned a laptime at 89.656 seconds.

Chicago
Starting Lineup
July 6, 2025
NASCAR Cup Series

Pos | Driver

1. Shane van Gisbergen
89.656

2. Michael McDowell
90.124

3. Carson Hocevar
90.180

4. Tyler Reddick
90.227

5. Chase Briscoe
90.273

6. Kyle Busch
90.371

7. Ryan Preece
90.534

8. Chris Buescher
90.544

9. Ty Gibbs
90.627

10. Austin Dillon
90.719

11. Alex Bowman
90.783

12. Joey Logano
90.785

13. Christopher Bell
90.836

14. Kyle Larson
90.845

15. Brad Keselowski
90.846

16. AJ Allmendinger
90.861

17. Ryan Blaney
90.886

18. Daniel Suarez
90.910

19. Will Brown
91.045

20. Todd Gilliland
91.075

21. Riley Herbst
91.171

22. Ross Chastain
91.205

23. Cole Custer
91.296

24. Noah Gragson
91.335

25. John Hunter Nemechek
91.359

26. Zane Smith
91.380

27. Austin Cindric
91.516

28. Justin Haley
91.604

29. Josh Berry
91.650

30. Austin Hill
91.663

31. Josh Bilicki
91.989

32. Ricky Stenhouse Jr
92.146

33. Katherine Legge
92.368

34. Erik Jones
92.541

35. Cody Ware
92.681

36. Ty Dillon
93.313

37. Bubba Wallace
104.783

38. William Byron
No Time

39. Chase Elliott
No Time

40. Denny Hamlin
No Time

Failed to qualify

Corey Heim
92.506

Chicago Street Race
Practice Results
July 5, 2025
NASCAR Cup Series

Pos | Driver

1. Bubba Wallace
90.951

2. William Byron
91.006

3. Chase Elliott
91.072

4. Ty Gibbs
91.092

5. Michael McDowell
91.263

6. Carson Hocevar
91.364

7. Shane van Gisbergen
91.375

8. Chris Buescher
91.427

9. Tyler Reddick
91.435

10. Brad Keselowski
91.513

11. Alex Bowman
91.549

12. Will Brown
91.637

13. Ryan Preece
91.638

14. Noah Gragson
91.679

15. Kyle Larson
91.703

16. Zane Smith
91.761

17. AJ Allmendinger
91.766

18. Ryan Blaney
91.868

19. Christopher Bell
91.914

20. Ross Chastain
91.985

21. Corey Heim
92.005

22. Todd Gilliland
92.067

23. Erik Jones
92.088

24. John Hunter Nemechek
92.173

25. Kyle Busch
92.179

26. Austin Hill
92.193

27. Chase Briscoe
92.285

28. Austin Cindric
92.321

29. Austin Dillon
92.371

30. Riley Herbst
92.387

31. Cole Custer
92.634

32. Ricky Stenhouse Jr
92.648

33. Joey Logano
92.761

34. Daniel Suarez
92.843

35. Ty Dillon
92.877

36. Josh Bilicki
93.665

37. Justin Haley
93.716

38. Josh Berry
93.769

39. Katherine Legge
94.076

40. Cody Ware
94.738

41. Denny Hamlin
No Time

Links

NASCAR Chicago | NASCAR

CHICAGO — Katherine Legge knocked Corey Heim and 23XI Racing out of the NASCAR Cup Series field at the Chicago Street Course in qualifying Saturday.

Legge ran a time of 92.368 seconds, just slightly quicker than Heim who ran a lap of 92.506 seconds.

Practice and qualifying wasn’t kind to either driver. Legge had a crash in practice but Heim hit the wall and bent a toe link in qualifying. Unlike Legge, Heim’s team didn’t have a chance to repair the car. Heim picked up multiple tenths of a second with a damaged car but he couldn’t stave off Legge who outran him.

Legge, a multi-time Indianapolis 500 qualifier and proven sports car winner, likened Saturday’s session to qualifying for the 500.

“BJ [McLeod] said to me, ‘This can’t be any more stressful than qualifying for Indy,’ and I was thinking it actually is because there’s a level of comfort with Indy that I know where I’m going and what I’m doing and, here, it’s very much drinking from a firehose trying to find my feet and get better,” Legge told TNT. “I really appreciate everybody’s support. It means the world to me.”

Legge will race Sunday with BJ McLeod’s No. 78 Chevrolet entry that has fought for pace all season. Making the Chicago field is a big step for McLeod and for Legge, who has faced a tough foray into NASCAR.

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

Engines were revving all day long in the Loop on Saturday, as the NASCAR Chicago Street Race returned to Grant Park for the third year in a row.

Drivers hit the street course for the Loop 110 Xfinity Series race Saturday afternoon. Fans will be enjoying the action all weekend-long.

The sound of roaring engines could be heard anywhere near Grant Park on Saturday. The sound of NASCAR is one Chicago has gotten used to over the past few years. Many of the fans watching on Saturday have been to the NASCAR Chicago Street Race before, and this event is what made them NASCAR fans.

“Right now, it’s quiet, just real quiet. When you get up there, it’s loud, loud, loud, loud,” Samantha Anderson said.

As NASCAR made it’s third lap through Chicago, John Janssen and his wife, Mae, parked themselves in the shade by Buckingham Fountain.

“We got ourselves a sandwich and a drink, and we’re just enjoying the crowd,” John said.

One of them loves NASCAR, and the other tolerates it.

“I like it since my husband likes it,” Mae said. “I used to put my sunglasses on and go to sleep, but I don’t do that anymore.”

“It’s a sport, if you really get into, it just drives your soul, and that’s what I love,” John said.

Tent chairs had them covered for the sun, and they weren’t bothered by the noise.

“I wear a hearing aid. I just take the battery out,” John said.

Lori Vanderplow is relatively new to NASCAR but the Chicago Street Race has made her a fan for life.

“We’re hooked. So, once you hear the cars rumbling, you become a fan,” she said.

On Saturday, drivers hit the hot slick track for the first of the event’s two street races..

The Xfinity Series race took over city streets in Grant Park – a 2.2 mile course with 12 turns.

“To see the city skyline with the Cup cars rumbling, it’s amazing,” Vanderplow said.

As drivers and fans deal with the Saturday heat – they hope the rain holds off for Sunday’s Cup Series race, the Grant Park 220.

“I told him, if it rains tomorrow, I’m staying home,” Mae Janssen said.

Mae might not make it if it rains on Sunday, but John will.

“There is nothing that can stop me,” he said.

John is one fan of many who hopes the Chicago Street Race will be back for another lap in 2026. This is the last year of the race’s contract with the city. The deal includes mutual options to come back in 2026 and 2027, but NASCAR and city officials have yet to announce the future of the race.

“They’ve got my vote,” John said.

The sun was out on Saturday, but drivers and fans are preparing for potential showers on Sunday. The Cup Series race on Sunday starts at 1 p.m., wrapping up NASCAR’s third and potentially final year in Chicago.

Chase Elliott, driver of the No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, met with the media in advance of the NASCAR Cup Series practice and qualifying session at the Chicago Street Course.

Media Availability Quotes:

Besides extra media, was this week different than any other week?

“No… you know, you’ve been around me and Alan (Gustafson) long enough to know that by Tuesday, really even Monday, it’s kind of back to work. I feel like we did a good job enjoying it. I try to embrace those moments, you know, as I’ve told you guys a lot and tried to slow it down as much as I could, just because that’s an important time to cherish and remember. All of those things are extremely special, but there’s another race in a week and the train keeps rolling. We got back to work and just kind of started on our Chicago prep like a normal week would have been.”

Is there anything that you saw, if you saw any sort of highlights of the celebrations or anything, that you feel like really either kind of struck you or made you think, wow, that’s what made it really cool?

“Yeah, I mean just having lived it, right? Having lived it and the experience with Rhealynn there after the race and just seeing her kind of open up and see her excitement. You know, go from this shy little girl that didn’t know anything about racing to celebrating in victory lane with us at the end of the night. It was just really, really special to kind of see that transition. To have my mom there and other family members and friends — those things just make those moments unique and I’m grateful for them. Just the whole experience was incredible. So, yeah, couldn’t really have asked for any more last week. You know, obviously, it all worked out in our favor and hopefully we can do this more often.”

Whether it’s talking about advocating for the Nashville race near the city or you were praising the L.A. Coliseum or praising here when we first started the Chicago Street Race — you’ve been one of the biggest advocates for racing near city and bringing it to the people. We don’t know if this is the last one of this race or not. But what do you think the legacy of bringing the street race has been? Was this proof of concept in drivers minds that this can work at other places?

“Yeah, I mean, I think it’s a great idea, for sure. And I’m all for that. The biggest reason I’m such a big advocate of Nashville is because it, to me, oval track racing is kind of our bread and butter, right? So we have that there. This is a great second choice to get to a city, but there’s nothing that’s going to top giving people a true short track… ‘What is NASCAR… Here it is’. You know, take an Uber from Broadway to the racetrack and go watch. Like to me, that is the biggest home run waiting to happen that we’ve had a long time. But this is a good second choice, as far as getting inside a big city market. It’s been a lot of fun from my perspective to come do it. It’s been a lot of fun for friends and family and people to come to this race, like just from my personal side, because it’s so different than what they typically see. You know, they go get nice dinners. If I’m busy at the racetrack on Saturday, they have things to go do. So all that stuff, selfishly, has been has been a lot of fun.

You know, look, I if I lived here and I wasn’t a NASCAR fan, I could totally see the frustration of roads being blocked and traffic and all that sort of thing. So look, I get it. I get it. But it’s been fun for us. I hope there’s been more positive than there has been negative for the people of Chicago. Whether this is the last year or not, I appreciate them having us, even the ones that didn’t want us. I look forward to wherever it goes next. I hope that somewhere down the line, we can take it to a different city, you know, just to switch it up… just like the championship race rotating. I think a city street course moving around would be really healthy and good. If this is last year, you know, I don’t think there’s any bridges burned. I just think maybe we move it around and, who knows, maybe come back another time.”

What lessons do you think this sport has learned from racing in downtown Chicago that could be applied maybe elsewhere?

“Well, you know, I kind of look at it more from a competition perspective when I’m thinking about your question. One thing that, which obviously I’m careful with this because I haven’t been on the track today, but I know and I can attest from last year or I’m sorry, the first year to last year, the way they repeated the track and just the measurements and the corner angles and braking zones – all the things were extremely similar. Where they had walls placed, like all that stuff was done really, really well. So I don’t know what process went into that, if it’s track scans or some sort of virtual representation or virtual model that they made up, but that’s the first thing that’s come to my mind that I’ve been most impressed by is how we’ve had the ability to recreate the track year to year. And I think if you have street courses and things from a driver’s side, it is nice to not have massive changes on the road from year to year because it can be tough to adapt to that stuff.

But that’s been fun. Obviously the marketing side is a whole other answer. But yeah, it’s been fun from a competition perspective, and I think they’ve done a good job with it.”

GM PR