CHICAGO — There were will be no NASCAR repeat on the rainy streets of Chicago for Shane van Gisbergen, who went from first to worst in Year 2 of the Windy City.
A year after winning the first street race in the 76-year history of the Cup Series, van Gisbergen finished last Sunday after getting caught in a crash by Chase Briscoe on Lap 25 of 75.
With conditions growing increasingly treacherous on the 12-turn, 2.2-mile layout because of rain, Briscoe lost control of his No. 14 Ford on the entry to Turn 6 and clipped the No. 16 Chevrolet of van Gisbergen, whose car slammed into the wall and was unable to continue.
Shane van Gisbergen walks us through the incident that knocked him out of the NASCAR street race in Chicago. pic.twitter.com/iN97KNNVk2
— NASCAR on NBC (@NASCARonNBC) July 7, 2024
“I just sort of turned in, looked pretty good and then just got smashed by someone,” van Gisbergen told NBC Sports’ Kim Coon. “Gutting.”
After starting fifth, van Gisbergen won Stage 1 after taking his first lead on Lap 12 by passing Ty Gibbs. He was shuffled to fifth after pitting and then got wrecked on the restart.
“We’re in the lead for a lot of that race, and I felt good taking off in the rain,” said van Gisbergen, who then saw the replay of the incident. “Oh yeah. Yeah, nice one. So that sucks. But it’s an unfortunate mistake by (Briscoe). I’m sure he didn’t mean it, but yeah when he just clipped me, I had nothing I could do.”
Having won the Xfinity race Saturday (his third consecutive victory on road courses this season), van Gisbergen was trying for a Chicago sweep.
“Of course I’m disappointed,” the three-time Supercars champion said. “We had a really amazing Camaro there and Kaulig Racing, Trackhouse, they gave us a great car and we’re able to lead and I felt like I was well driving well within myself. So yeah, it’s a shame to be out so early and a shame we couldn’t have a proper crack at it at the end.”
The prerace favorite said Gibbs, Christopher Bell and Kyle Larson had the best cars.
“Those guys were all racing well,” van Gisbergen said. “We had some really cool battles with them (that were) respectful, really fair. So any of those top three I think are the favorite.”
It was the second consecutive year that rain had impacted the race. Last year, storms delayed the start for a few hours, but the race finished in the dry. This year, several cars started on rain tires as showers began just before the green flag, but van Gisbergen elected to stay on slick tires.
“It was fine,” he said. “On slicks, it got a bit dodgy, and I hated being the leader, and whoever was the leader, you could see them slowing up, not sure what the condition would be, so as soon as I got to the front you’re always unsure of what’s happening and have to take it a bit easy. But I had a lot of fun until then.”