Excitement was high on Saturday as the first series of the NASCAR Chicago Street Race returned to the streets of downtown Chicago. NBC Chicago’s Randy Gyllenhaal reports.
Shane van Gisbergen wowed Chicagoans and diehard fans on Saturday as he claimed victory on the streets of downtown to remain undefeated in the second NASCAR Chicago Street Race.
The win was a repeat for van Gisbergen, who triumphed in the first-ever NASCAR Chicago Street Race last year in spite of lightning and heavy rain causing serious issues on the track. A three-time champion in Australia’s Supercars, van Gisbergen was a largely unknown commodity in the U.S. before he won last summer.
While there was no shortage of attention on Saturday's race, The Loop 110, the biggest spectacle of the weekend has yet to arrive.
On Saturday, Kyle Larson won the pole for the Cup Series, beating Ty Gibbs by one-hundredth of a second.
Michael McDowell (90.141 mph) qualified third, followed by Tyler Reddick (89.923) in fourth. Van Gisbergen (89.813) rounded out the top five.
Larson prepared for the Cup Series start on the tricky, unfamiliar course with a third-place finish in the Xfinity Series race on Saturday. Van Gisbergen got the win, and Ty Gibbs was second.
Larson and van Gisbergen dueled throughout the first stage of the Xfinity Series race in a possible preview for Sunday.
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“My Cup car feels much more, I think, like competitively equal, I would say, to be able to battle him in more corners or hopefully hold him off better,” Larson said after the Xfinity Series race. “But like I said, it’s not just him. There’s going to be a lot of other guys that are really good tomorrow.”
While Saturday's contest was a 50-lap race on the 12-turn, 2.2-mile course through the streets of downtown, Sunday's will be noticeably different. The Cup Series race will take drivers on 75 laps downtown and largely focus on Grant Park.
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The Cup Series race is set for 3:30 p.m. CT Sunday. You can watch it live on NBC 5 and Peacock.
