Trackhouse Racing continues to make NASCAR memories. Another one was made Sunday night on the streets of Chicago.
The team co-owned by Justin Marks and Pitbull has changed the game since joining the sport three years ago. Off the track, there’s been extra involvement in community initiatives and a strong social media focus. And they’ve been just as unconventional on the track.
That’s especially true of Ross Chastain’s Martinsville wall ride, his long-awaited return to victory lane in Nashville last week, and Daniel Suarez becoming the first Mexican-born Cup Series winner.
Also unconventional is their PROJECT91 effort. This is a team dedicated solely to getting internationally renowned motorsports stars behind the wheel of a NASCAR racecar. F1 World Champion Kimi Raikkonen made two starts in the car, but never managed to finish inside the top-twenty at Watkins Glen or the Circuit of The Americas.
That car’s record has changed in a big way Sunday night with the 91 car in victory lane driven by New Zealand driver Shane Van Gisbergen. He’s a highly decorated global star, with 47 wins and three championships in the Australian Supercar series.
And now he has a NASCAR win under his belt, and a special win at NASCAR’s first-ever Cup Series race on the streets of Chicago.
Van Gisbergen said he didn’t expect to compete for a win coming into the weekend.
“No, of course not,” he said, “but you always dream of it.”
“Thank you so much to the Trackhouse team and Enhance Health, Project91. What an experience in the crowd out here. This was so cool. This is what you dream of. Hopefully I can come and do more.”
It wasn’t a straightforward win, though. He started third, despite being fastest in practice, and couldn’t advance from there in the early laps. After NASCAR officially shortened the race, which was already delayed from torrential rain, strategy pushed him deep in the field, but with 16-lap fresher tires.
He climbed through that field quickly, putting the tires to use setting the fastest lap of the day as he caught the leaders. He made quick work of runner-up Chase Elliott before passing Justin Haley. A caution came out just before the pass, keeping Van Gisbergen in second, but he was able to find the lead quickly again on the restart on an overtime finish.
“Wow, when we had that back strategy back to 18th, I started to worry a bit,” Van Gisbergen admitted. “But had some full sends on some people, and the racing was really good, everyone was respectful. It was tough but a lot of fun.”
As for whether he’d consider a full-time Cup Series ride to defend his perfect winning record after a “dream come true” weekend, Van Gisbergen remained open to the idea.
“I’m doing one more year in Oz [Supercars] and then I’d love to come over here,” he said smiling.
He’s the first driver since 1963 to have a perfect record, when Johnny Rutherford also won his first Cup Series start in Daytona.
He’s also the first road course ringer brought in specifically to compete in a specific road course race to win since Trans-Am champion Mark Donohue in 1973.
Despite coming up short to Van Gisbergen, Haley had an incredible performance of his own. He started last and climbed from that 37th-place start to lead 23 laps.
“Yeah, it was tough,” Haley acknowledged. “I put it in the tire barrier yesterday and we stayed up all night… I stayed with the guys through the rain and rewrapped this thing, put a new body on it, and [sponsor] Benesch came on for this weekend.”
He doesn’t feel like he could’ve held off the Kiwi no matter how hard he fought based on how the strategy unfolded.
“I mean, I was really struggling under the braking zones,” Haley said. “Felt like I could get off the corner better than anyone, but, I mean, what are you going to do? He had 16 lap fresher tires.”
“But just really proud of everyone at Kaulig Racing and what an awesome event. Can’t wait to come back next year,” he added.
It is a strong run for Kaulig. The organization has struggled to be consistently competitive this season, and a strong runner-up finish goes a long way towards reestablishing credibility for the team, even if Haley doesn’t get to back up his only win at a rain-shortened Daytona.
Chase Elliott finished third coming back from a qualifying crash and hitting the wall in his backup car early Sunday. Kyle Larson and Kyle Busch rounded out the top five.
Weather plagued the event all weekend. Lightning ended the Xfinity race before halfway on Saturday and cancelled concerts. NASCAR tried to re-start the Xfinity race Sunday morning, but flooding rains prevented it and NASCAR was forced call the race despite it being two laps short of an official race. The heavy rains even brought into question whether the Cup race would even take place later in the day. The rains let up though and the field took the green some 90 minutes past the scheduled time.
Using single file starts, and restarts, the pileups some feared didn’t happen. Only once, on lap 50 did an accident block the track stacking up 8 cars who were quickly able to untangle themselves and continue.
Due to the late start NASCAR was racing the darkness and on lap 46 announced that they would be forced to end the race 25 laps from the scheduled distance. A total of 9 cars pitted on lap 42, not including Christopher Bell who swept both stages and led a race high 37 laps.
Haley, and Elliott were among those who did however, and that gave Haley the lead and a chance to score the second Cup win of his career. In the end no one had anything for the Wonder from Down Under as Van Gisbergen took the lead five laps from the end and won.
Austin Cindric, Michael McDowell, Joey Logano, Ty Gibbs completed the top 10. Polesitter Denny Hamlin was 11th.
As darkness fell over Grant Park, there was another thing that got some credibility: the Chicago Street Course. Despite concerns from some drivers varying from a lack of passing to too much aggression, there were few multi-car incidents, and the racing was exciting.
Not even awful weather could keep Chicago from putting on a good show for NASCAR and producing an incredible storyline.
NASCAR moves to Atlanta Motor Speedway next weekend. Chase Elliott is the defending winner.
NASCAR Cup Series Race Results Grant Park 220
Chicago Street Race
Chicago, Illinois
Sunday, July 2, 2023
1. (3) Shane Van Gisbergen, Chevrolet, 78.
2. (37) Justin Haley, Chevrolet, 78.
3. (26) Chase Elliott, Chevrolet, 78.
4. (7) Kyle Larson, Chevrolet, 78.
5. (18) Kyle Busch, Chevrolet, 78.
6. (31) Austin Cindric, Ford, 78.
7. (6) Michael McDowell, Ford, 78.
8. (9) Joey Logano, Ford, 78.
9. (12) Ty Gibbs #, Toyota, 78.
10. (15) Chris Buescher, Ford, 78.
11. (1) Denny Hamlin, Toyota, 78.
12. (24) Aric Almirola, Ford, 78.
13. (22) William Byron, Chevrolet, 78.
14. (19) Corey LaJoie, Chevrolet, 78.
15. (28) Ryan Preece, Ford, 78.
16. (21) Erik Jones, Chevrolet, 78.
17. (10) AJ Allmendinger, Chevrolet, 78.
18. (4) Christopher Bell, Toyota, 78.
19. (25) Todd Gilliland, Ford, 78.
20. (16) Chase Briscoe, Ford, 78.
21. (8) Jenson Button, Ford, 78.
22. (34) Ross Chastain, Chevrolet, 78.
23. (27) Josh Bilicki(i), Chevrolet, 78.
24. (20) Brad Keselowski, Ford, 78.
25. (23) Noah Gragson #, Chevrolet, 78.
26. (30) Andy Lally, Ford, 78.
27. (5) Daniel Suarez, Chevrolet, 78.
28. (2) Tyler Reddick, Toyota, 78.
29. (35) Kevin Harvick, Ford, 78.
30. (32) Harrison Burton, Ford, 78.
31. (14) Bubba Wallace, Toyota, 78.
32. (11) Martin Truex Jr., Toyota, 77.
33. (17) Ryan Blaney, Ford, 77.
34. (36) Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Chevrolet, 77.
35. (33) Ty Dillon, Chevrolet, Suspension, 67.
36. (29) Austin Dillon, Chevrolet, Accident, 62.
37. (13) Alex Bowman, Chevrolet, Accident, 40.
Average Speed of Race Winner: 60.281 mph.
Time of Race: 2 Hrs, 50 Mins, 48 Secs. Margin of Victory: 1.259 Seconds.
Caution Flags: 9 for 21 laps.
Lead Changes: 7 among 5 drivers.
Lap Leaders: D. Hamlin 0;T. Reddick 1-8;C. Bell 9-24;S. Van Gisbergen 25;T. Gibbs # 26;C. Bell 27-47;J. Haley 48-70;S. Van Gisbergen 71-78.
Leaders Summary (Driver, Times Lead, Laps Led): Christopher Bell 2 times for 37 laps; Justin Haley 1 time for 23 laps; Shane Van Gisbergen 2 times for 9 laps; Tyler Reddick 1 time for 8 laps; Ty Gibbs # 1 time for 1 lap.
Stage #1 Top Ten: 20,45,91,19,34,99,5,16,54,15
Stage #2 Top Ten: 20,5,45,91,34,54,99,19,16,14
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