Former Australian Supercars driver Shane van Gisbergen dominated qualifying and secured pole position for both The Loop 110 and Grant Park 165.
Van Gisbergen won the first-ever Cup Series race at the Chicago Street Course in 2023. He also achieved his first Xfinity Series victory in June 2024 at Portland International Raceway and secured two additional wins at Sonoma Raceway and the Chicago Street Course.
Qualifying in racing determines the starting order of the cars for the first lap and allows drivers to showcase their raw skill without traffic interruptions.
During qualifying, drivers compete against each other for the fastest lap times rather than for specific track positions.
The driver at the end of the qualifying round, which was divided into two groups, will start in pole position and lead the race from the start.
In practice, some drivers were caught off guard by the tight course. Kris Wright, racing the No. 5 Chevrolet, brushed on Turn 2 and got turned around without incident, but was facing opposing traffic briefly. Wright failed to qualify after the team ran out of time to repair his car, and will not be able to start in The Loop 110 along with No. 53, Sage Karam.
Chris Buescher, racing for RFK Racing in a Ford Mustang, said Turn 4 is the hardest for him.
“It’s very fast and extremely rough,” Buescher said. “ I think it’s a bridge and it’s extremely narrow between 4 and 5.”
Buescher explained how easy it is to lose control of the car between Turns 9 and 10 while coming off the Michigan Avenue half circle and going into the very tight 90-degree Turn 11, which has seen many pileups in previous years.
In the Cup Series practice, a spin and crash from AJ Allmendinger for Kaulig Racing led to an oil leak and red flag.
Qualifying for the Cup Series was delayed by 30 minutes because of collisions during the practice run, like Wright’s, which required checking and modification of tire barriers before continuing.
Almost all the cars lined up in the pit lane, eagerly waiting to get back out to the track. Chase Briscoe, racing for Joe Gibbs Racing, used one of the runoffs and nearly crashed into the wall.
Other drivers had better luck, such as van Gisbergen, who had a great drive in the Xfinity Series Qualifying and earned that aforementioned pole position, boasting a time of 1:30.085.
Van Gisbergen also qualified in the Cup Series and topped the timing sheets with a 1:29.656, starting in first for both the Xfinity Series race and the Cup Series race.
The cars were topping out at just over 90 mph on Lake Shore Drive South, a significant difference from their typical near 200 mph runs on oval superspeedways.
On Talladega Superspeedway in Lincoln, Alabama, drivers cruise at an average of 122 mph and stay completely flat out the entire lap, all gas, no breaks. Last year, the Grant Park 165 had an average speed of around 55 mph.
In an interview on the NASCAR experience stage with Alex Bowman, the Chicago Street Course 2024 winner, said he loves coming here, but confirms he is preparing for a wet race on Sunday.
”We need to know where we need to be with the race car to capitalize on that, but you still gotta qualify in the dry and probably, looks like start the race in the dry,” Bowman said.
After both qualifying rounds, van Gisbergen expressed his love for street racing during an interview session in the Deadline room.
“We did a lot of it in Australia, and it was really fun,” van Gisbergen said. “I enjoyed this weekend, and if it’s the last one, I hope next year we go somewhere cool as well and make another good street race.”
Copy edited by Vanessa Orozco
