For the third season in a row, the NASCAR Cup Series took to the streets of the Windy City for their annual Chicago Street Course event. Driver Shane van Gisbergen won the first running of this event in his debut. That was back in 2023. SVG led a number of laps early on last year before being involved in an incident with Kyle Larson. He started from the pole today and was looking to sweep the weekend after a fantastic win in yesterday’s Xfinity Series race. Meanwhile, Alex Bowman returned to the site of his last win. He won this race last year and was looking to replicate last year’s success. He was coming from the rear, though. With track position being key, he was behind the eight ball from the jump.
On top of all of that, we had the second race in our in-season tournament. The brackets were busted up last week. Did the underdogs continue to thrive, or did the powerhouses rise back to prominence? Let’s break all of that down and more. Here’s everything that happened in the NASCAR Cup Series race in the streets of downtown Chicago!
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After some pit stops, Chase Briscoe inherited the lead over Tyler Reddick. Also running near the front were Ty Gibbs and Denny Hamlin. How good they were on fuel was a big question mark. SVG restarted further back in the pack. Slowly but surely, SVG worked his way through the field up to the 2nd position behind Briscoe. He retook the lead with 16 laps to go. Right after that, the caution flag flew. The caution was due to a medical emergency involving one of the fans in the infield. The caution was flown to get an ambulance to that fan.
The race restarted with 13 laps to go. SVG was out front with Briscoe and Gibbs behind him. There was lightning off to the distance, fog rolling in, and rain in the area. After a chaotic restart that saw Austin Cindric and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. both break toe links, and the caution once again came out. This was due to Cindric stalling on track.
We went back green with 9 laps to go. SVG got a great launch with Gibbs and Allmendinger battling hard behind him. As SVG led, we got a great, hard-nosed battle between Alex Bowman and Bubba Wallace for the in-season challenge. There was a lot of contact that ended with Bubba being spun out. Bowman was through to the transfer position.
With 4 to go, Tyler Reddick posted the Xfinity Fastest Lap of the race. He passed Hamlin for 3rd and set his sights on Gibbs and SVG out front. Cody Ware got into the tire barrier as the field took the white flag. This sparked a caution. Officially, the race ended under the caution. SVG scored his third career victory, his second of 2025.
Michael McDowell got a great launch on SVG to start the race. Pulling away from van Gisbergen, McDowell went on to lead the first lap of the race and set the pace out front. A couple of laps later, we got our first big wreck of the afternoon. The incident included Carson Hocevar, Austin Dillon, Brad Keselowski, and others. This incident triggered a red flag. The cars stopped, and the safety crews started to clean up the massive mess.
A couple of drivers had issues in the laps leading up to that caution. William Byron was complaining of clutch issues. Meanwhile, Chris Buescher came down pit road. The diagnosis for the 17 team was that something was internally wrong with the engine. He was running two seconds off the pace.
A bulk of the field pitted with 3 laps remaining in the stage. This was an attempt to flip the stage. Meanwhile, leaders McDowell and SVG remained out front playing chicken for the lead. McDowell stayed out coming to two laps to go. However, SVG came down pit road to flip the stage and hopefully inherit the lead. McDowell, on a on-pit strategy, stayed out to win Stage 1.
Michael McDowell led the beginning of the second stage with Kyle Busch behind him in 2nd. Restarting in 10th, though, was SVG, who started rocketing his way back through the pack. He managed to work his way back up to 2nd when the caution flew for Josh Berry getting into the wall. During this break, a number of teams came down pit road, thinking they might try to make it to the end of the race. However, with 45 laps to go, it was unlikely that they would be able to make it to the end. McDowell also came down pit road, complaining that the throttle was stuck at 75%. They believed they fixed the issue. The 71 car was packed full of fuel, and they were on max fuel-saving mode.
SVG and A. J. Allmendinger led up front. SVG cleared the number 16 to lead his first laps of the race. Meanwhile, Michael McDowell’s throttle was still sticking. He came down pit road and was forced to go behind the wall. SVG pitted with four laps to go in the stage. Allmendinger followed two laps later from the lead. Ryan Blaney inherited the lead and went on to win the stage.
In the closing laps of the race while trying to chase down Gibbs and SVG, Tyler Reddick posted the Xfinity Fastest Lap. The lap time was 90.09. Because of this, he was awarded an additional bonus point, bringing up his total to 56 for the race.
The following is the unofficial results from the Cup race at Chicago. The list will be updated once results become official following post-race inspection.
UPDATE: Post-race inspection has been completed. No issues were found. The race results are official.
Five different drivers led laps today. They are:
The first big wreck of the afternoon came when Carson Hocevar, who was running in the top 10, plowed into the wall in the technical portion of the track. This broke the left front toe link. As a result, Hocevar spun and a massive pile-up inside. It included Austin Dillon, Daniel Suarez, A. J. Allmendinger, Brad Keselowski, and Riley Herbst, among others.
The following drivers are locked into the NASCAR postseason due to wins they’ve captured on the year.
The following drivers are currently in on points.
These drivers are currently below the cutline for the NASCAR Playoffs.
*The drivers who advanced are represented in BOLD.
That does it for the race weekend in Chicago, Daily Downforce readers. What did you think of this race? Were you surprised by the way it turned out? Where do you think we go from here? Do you think the Chicago Street Course will return in 2026, or would you like to see it move to another venue? Are you itching for a return to Chicagoland Speedway? Let us know your thoughts on this! Join the discussion on Discord or X, and remember to follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube for more updates.
