A day after winning the Xfinity Series race from the point, van Gisbergen backed it up with a dominant Cup Series win.

With his latest win, van Gisbergen moved clear at the top of the leaderboard for most wins by a non-American driver in the Cup Series.

That stands at three after his debut Cup Series win in 2023, his recent Mexico City win, and the latest Chicago triumph.

“I love this place,” said van Gisbergen, moments before kicking a rugby ball into the stands.

“What an amazing weekend for me. I’m a lucky guy to drive some great cars. I have to thank Trackhouse, WeatherTech, Chevy, and all these guys and girls here.

“What an amazing weekend. Thanks for everyone for coming out. Hopefully we put on a good show.

“I guess we made no mistakes. There were some really fast cars and we just seemed to get it right and make no mistakes and be smooth every lap. Really cool.

“It’s been so hot this weekend. The track was very slick and the times were a lot slower and the margin for error was very tiny. I just had to get it right. I’m rapt.

“We’ve really come together as a team, got a lot better and Ross [Chastain] got a win too, so brilliant. Thank you to everyone.”

Will Brown’s NASCAR return cruelled by multi-car pile-up

At the start, Michael McDowell in the #71 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro got the holeshot into Turn 1 over van Gisbergen, who began to bemoan tyre pressure issues.

“I need more air in the tyres,” van Gisbergen told his team.

“The tyres are flat, particularly the rears.”

The race was brought to a grinding halt on the third lap when a multi-car pile-up took Supercars champion Will Brown out of the race and several more.

McDowell and van Gisbergen skipped away from the field after the race eventually restarted, establishing a seven-second lead over Kyle Busch in the #8 Richard Childress Racing Camaro.

Initially, Trackhouse Racing elected to keep van Gisbergen out before the end of Stage 1. However, with two laps to go, they made the late decision to switch their strategy and pit.

On Lap 19, with two laps to go in the stage, van Gisbergen came to the lane and fell to 11th in the pile.

Alex Bowman threatened to bring the stage to an early end when he spun the #48 Hendrick Motorsports Camaro on his own at the last turn, but got going.

McDowell clinched Stage 1 and elected not to pit. He led Busch, Tyler Reddick (#45 23XI Racing), Chase Briscoe (#19 Joe Gibbs Racing), and Ryan Preece (#60 RFK Racing).

On the Lap 20 restart, 23XI Racing’s Bubba Wallace in the #45 Camry got turned into a spin by the #5 Hendrick Motorsports Camaro of Kyle Larson.

Van Gisbergen made immediate headway from the back end of the top 10, scything his way through the field thanks to a set of new tyres.

On Lap 29, Wood Brothers Racing driver Josh Berry got tipped into a spin and nosed his #21 Ford Mustang into the inside wall thanks to contact from John Hunter Nemechek in the #43 Legacy Motor Club Camry.

Officials waited for his car to get going before the caution flew on Lap 30 and neutralised the field.

McDowell led the race but handed first place to van Gisbergen when he suffered a stuck throttle coming to the restart. He was forced to shut his car off and coast to the pit lane where he lay idle.

The team’s efforts to make a quick fix were in vain and the car was taken behind the pit wall for further repairs.

On the Lap 34 restart, van Gisbergen led Kaulig Racing’s AJ Allmendinger, who, despite being side-swiped in the Lap 3 crash, recovered.

With six laps to go, Katherine Legge spun the #78 Live Fast Motorsports Camaro into the Turn 1 tyre barrier. There were concerns the caution might come out until she got going.

With four laps to go in Stage 2, van Gisbergen pitted from the lead with a three-second lead over Allmendinger.

Ryan Blaney in the #12 Team Penske Mustang inherited the lead and took the Stage 2 win over Briscoe and Reddick.

Van Gisbergen was 12th at the end of Stage 2 but was seventh for the restart, which was led by Briscoe.

Briscoe and Reddick skipped away from the field while van Gisbergen sliced through to third with 25 laps to go.

Van Gisbergen reached Reddick’s rear with 19 laps remaining and quickly put a pass on the #45 Camry for second.

Second became first with 16 to go with a pass outside of Turn 2 into Turn 3. Moments later, the race went yellow due to a medical incident.

Van Gisbergen led the field to green with 13 laps remaining. Behind him, there was carnage in Turn 1 and Turn 2.

Austin Cindric locked up into Turn 1 and ploughed into the cars ahead of him. Ross Chastain spun at the first turn as a result of the accordion effect.

Moments later, Joey Logano and Ricky Stenhouse Jr were spun around at Turn 2. Stenhouse copped the biggest hit and pulled his car behind the wall.

Caution is out! SHANE VAN GISBERGEN WINS (again) ON THE STREETS OF CHICAGO. pic.twitter.com/UlpeRexCNN

— FOX: NASCAR (@NASCARONFOX) July 6, 2025

Damage to Cindric’s car made it undrivable and he stopped, which brought out another caution with 12 laps remaining.

Van Gisbergen held sway on the restart, leaving Gibbs to fight over second with Reddick and quiet achiever Denny Hamlin in the #11 Joe Gibbs Racing Camry.

From there, he was unchallenged. The Kiwi came to the white flag and moments later the caution came out when Cody Ware went into the Turn 6 wall.

The NASCAR Cup Series resumes with another road course at Sonoma on July 14.

Results: NASCAR Cup Series Grant Park 165, Chicago Street Course

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