Winners and losers from Chicago street

In one of the biggest wild card races of the year, the Chicago Street course produced an exciting event. This was the first time in the 3 year history of the Chicago street weekend that their was no rain to delay any of the events. A earlier start time helped to escape the rain this time around for the event and we finally got to see the full 75 laps. This was the 2nd race of the in season tournament and that also delivered an interesting battle. Also it’s not a NASCAR race without controversy so let’s get into it.

The Winners

With this being the only street race on the NASCAR schedule and Shane Van Gisbergen having street racing in his background, this race was pretty much his to lose as he pretty much has set the tone as the man to beat ever since the inaugural event back in 2023. The New Zealander would win the race not only sweeping the race weekend as he won the xfinity race on Saturday, but also winning his 2nd race of the year (first was Mexico City) launching him up to a 5th place position in playoff points. With Sonoma coming up next there is a likely chance that SVG can enter the playoffs with 3 wins. Ryan Preece finished 7th and that combined with bad luck on the 23 team of Bubba Wallace now has Preece sitting -2 points to the cut line over Bubba. Preece this year has proven that he belongs at RFK and the results on Sunday back that up. Kyle Busch picked up a top 5 and much needed stage points to help him try to close the gap to the cut line. This even came after a spin during the race. This was Busch’s 2nd top 5 finish this year with the 1st one also coming at a road course (COTA). Coming into today Busch’s last 3 finishes were 21st, 20th, and 37th so this was a much needed run.

The Losers

Michael McDowell had what honestly looked like the car to beat early on. After starting shotgun to SVG, McDowell was able to take the lead and would lead 31 laps. However his day would be short lived just shy of that halfway mark as he had throttle issues that would force him to retire from the race. McDowell felt like he could take the fight to SVG and for the 1st half he did but unfortunately the engine had other plans. McDowell is in a must win situation as he is 24th in points 77 points back from the cut line. With another road course coming up this weekend with Sonoma, it’s possible he can show up with another good car possibly even a race winning car. Carson Hocevar also had a rough outing as he bounce off the wall exiting turn 10 and spun out creating a track blocking situation that collected many other drivers. He couldn’t afford a bad run as he is also below the cut line and after the dnf on Sunday, he is now -71 points to the cut line. The biggest loser of the weekend however is Bubba Wallace. Wallace had a fast car all weekend but had a few incidents. He was the fastest car in practice but unfortunately spun twice in qualifying and had to start at the back. He then had a spin early on in the race and was able to move throughout the field twice before getting into a dust up with Alex Bowman late in the race ultimately ending his day. Bubba is now only 2 points above the cut line.

what’s next?

Nascar heads to Sonoma next which is another road course and road courses have been proving to be just as much of a wild card as superspeedway racing so it will be interesting to see how things play out at the end of the weekend. There’s no rain in the area to worry about so that’s always a plus so that variable is out the window. It will be interesting to see if we have a repeat winner as SVG is a road course ace, and Kyle Larson has a few wins at the track including last year. There’s also drivers looking for their first win of the season such as Tyler Reddick, Chris Buescher, and Micheal McDowell who are also good on road courses.

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