CUP: Shane van Gisbergen swaps finishing positions with race winner Alex Bowman in return to Chicago
by Brock Beard / LASTCAR.info Editor-in-Chief
PHOTO: Shane van Gisbergen, @shanevg97
Shane van Gisbergen picked up the 1st last-place finish of his NASCAR Cup Series career in Sunday’s Grant Park 165 at the Chicago Street Course when his #16 Wendy’s Saucy Nuggs Chevrolet was involved in a multi-car accident after 24 of 58 laps.
The finish came in van Gisbergen’s sixth Cup Series start. In the Cup Series’ last-place rankings, it was the 20th for the #16, the 670th from a crash, and the 859th for Chevrolet. Across NASCAR’s top three series, it was the 40th for the #16, the 1,382nd from a crash, an the 1,949th for Chevrolet.
The rapid ascent of the three-time Australian Supercars champion to NASCAR notoriety is well-documented. It was at this same Chicago Street Course one year ago that the New Zealand native made his Cup Series debut for Trackhouse Racing. Amidst a record-breaking rain storm, van Gisbergen won in his first-ever NASCAR start, the first driver to do so since Johnny Rutherford won a qualifier at Daytona in 1963. He was also the first true “road ringer” to win a Cup race since Mark Donohue in 1973, ushering in a new generation of road racing specialists from around the world to compete in NASCAR’s “NextGen” car.
After a 10th-place run in his second Cup start at the Indianapolis Grand Prix Circuit, van Gisbergen landed a full-time XFINITY Series ride with Kaulig Racing, where he’s been just as spectacular. While figuring out the series’ oval tracks and earning both a 3rd in Atlanta and 6th in Phoenix, he’s continued to dominate the road courses, winning back-to-back rounds at Portland and Sonoma. On Saturday, he thrilled the crowds at Chicago with a door-to-door battle with Kyle Larson, ultimately coming out ahead for a third series win.
This time, van Gisbergen would pull double-duty, taking his turn in Kaulig’s “all-star” #16 entry in place of A.J. Allmendinger, who would run the team’s part-time #13. Van Gisbergen would carry sponsorship from Wendy’s, for whom the driver performed in a commercial to promote their “Saucy Nuggs” chicken. For just the third time in 2024, his was among 40 drivers and teams to contest the 40-car starting lineup. Of that group, van Gisbergen ranked 2nd to Larson in opening practice, 2nd to Larson again in Qualifying Round 1A with a lap of 87.864 seconds (90.139mph), then secured 5th on the grid in Round 2 with a lap of 87.846 seconds (90.158mph). A second battle with Larson was all but certain as his rival would start on pole.
Securing the 40th and final starting spot was Kaz Grala in Rick Ware Racing’s #15 Remixers.com / Meat ‘n Bone Ford. Multiple other drivers would join him due to pre-race penalties. Left with damage to be repaired after incidents in practice and qualifying were 10th-place Brad Keselowski in his #6 Elk Grove Village Ford, 20th-place Corey LaJoie in the #7 Celsius Chevrolet, 31st-place Harrison Burton in the #21 Motorcraft / Quick Lane Ford, and 36th-place Josh Berry in his #4 Overstock.com Ford. None were sent to a backup car, though LaJoie and Berry’s crew used their backup car for spare parts.
There were also several mechanical issues which led to penalties. Leading the group was 16th-place Chris Buescher, whose #17 Fastenal Ford was sent to the rear for suspension repairs along with 17th-place Ryan Blaney, in his #12 Menards / Dutch Boy Ford; 25th-place Erik Jones needed to repair the clutch on his #43 AdventHealth Toyota, and 27th-place William Byron needed a new steering rack on his #24 Relay Payments Chevrolet.
A further series of penalties was handed to 39th-place starter Josh Bilicki, who was prohibited from qualifying his #66 Purekick Hydration Ford due to three pre-race inspection failures on Friday. This led to the Motorsports Business Management team’s loss of pit selection, the ejection of one of their crew members, and Bilicki would also have to serve a pass-through penalty after taking the green flag on Sunday. These issues were compounded in practice as the team reported a right-side fan failure that caused a rocker box fire, requiring further repairs in the garage.
Despite sunny skies for Saturday’s XFINITY race, rain once again threatened at the start of Sunday’s Cup race. This at first delayed the start, then led to an extra pace lap for drivers to figure out if they wanted to run wet tires. When the one lap to green signal was given, six drivers decided to take on wet tires and were allowed to resume their spot in line. Then, shortly after the race started, as Ty Gibbs led the field into Turn 1, at least three cars immediately came down pit road - Erik Jones, William Byron, and Josh Berry – three of the cars already starting in the rear due to pre-race penalties. Berry was the lowest-classified of these drivers while Bilicki, who had to serve his pass-through after the green flag dropped, was last across the stripe, 10.784 seconds back of the lead. Thus, scoring showed the final 15 starters and intervals as follows:
26) 33-A. Hill 6.976
27) 47-Stenhoue 7.257
28) 60-Hand 7.545
29) 13-Allmendinger 7.641
30) 31-Hemric 7.894
31) 12-Blaney 7.962
32) 15-Grala 8.212
33) 6-Keselowski 8.717
34) 21-Burton 9.407
35) 17-Buecher 9.459
36) 7-LaJoie 10.021
37) 66-Bilicki 10.784
38) 43-Jones 0
39) 24-Byron 0
40) 4-Berry 0
Berry was classified last through Lap 1, when Bilicki prepared to serve his pass-through. At the start of Lap 2, Berry was still in last, showing 40.882 seconds back of the lead, 2.244 behind the 39th-place Byron. Bilicki completed his penalty by Lap 3, when he now dropped to 39th, 2.051 seconds behind the now 38th-place Byron, but now within the sights of Berry, just 0.222 behind. Berry caught and passed Bilicki that time by, opening up a gap of 1.468 seconds by the start of Lap 4. On Lap 5, the spot fell to Harrison Burton, who was struggling to maintain pace on the wet tires. That time by, he had fallen a full 8.469 behind Bilicki and was 54.844 back of the lead. The car handled terribly on the wet tires, and Burton asked how much harder he should push them. By Lap 6, he was 7.661 behind new 39th-place runner Ryan Preece in the #41 HaasTooling.com Ford. The gap grew to 10.026 on Lap 7, then on Lap 9 was 6.824 back of Corey LaJoie, who had just pitted with a few other drivers. That time by, van Gisbergen set the fastest lap of the race at 89.720 seconds.
Soon after, on Lap 10, Burton was caught and lapped by the leaders in Turn 9. At that point, Van Gisbergen was 2nd and filling the mirror of then-leader Ty Gibbs. The next time by, Burton’s spotter told him, “I think the rain is close, but if you can't hang on, then we've gotta pit.” This stop was made by Lap 13, just as Joey Logano dropped to 39th in his #22 Shell / Pennzoil Ford. On Lap 15, Burton radioed that the rain was starting to pick up, which promised to make it treacherous for him to stay on slick tires. The next time by, the first caution fell as LaJoie spun and backed into the Turn 5 wall with the right-rear of his car. LaJoie continued on, now in 32nd, and Burton dropped Logano to last on Lap 17.
Under the caution, which was prolonged to reach the end of Stage 1, LaJoie had radio issues, making it difficult to tell his team he was having problems with the clutch. More pit stops occurred on Lap 22, after which Burton took the spot before Logano retook it on Lap 23. This occurred during a bizarre incident where some badly placed jet driers led to a stack-up at pit exit, causing Tyler Reddick to rear-end his teammate Bubba Wallace. For the Lap 25 restart, Logano’s spotter told him to “try not to put yourself in a bad spot here.” By that point, Logano was the only driver off the lead lap, and suddenly in position to earn the “Lucky Dog.”
On this lap, Alex Bowman bumped Wallace into a spin at Turn 2 that collected Daniel Suarez, but all three continued without a caution. Further ahead, van Gisbergen was still holding 4th and tracking down the leaders, just two-thirds of a second ahead. But going into Turn 6, one of the cars behind him, Chase Briscoe’s #14 Mahindra Compact Tractors Ford, lost control at high speed, sliding hard into the tire barriers with the driver’s side. Van Gisbergen first appeared to have cleared Briscoe by inches, but footage soon showed him climbing out, the right side of his car damaged. Briscoe had indeed made the slightest of contact with the rear of the #16, causing van Gisbergen to skate into the concrete wall. Under this second caution of the race, van Gisbergen’s car was towed behind the wall. He took last from Logano, back on the lead lap, on Lap 26. By now, the rain was falling harder, forcing the red flag.
The race was won by Alex Bowman, who finished last in the 2023 Chicago race that van Gisbergen won. As of this writing, and among tracks currently on the Cup Series schedule, there has not been another occurrence of a race winner and last-place finisher swapping positions at the very next race at that same track. In recent memory, the closest thing to this occurrence in the Cup Series occurred at Phoenix this past March, where Christopher Bell won after finishing last in the championship race there last November.
The rest of the Bottom Five was completed after the race resumed. Kyle Larson joined Van Gisbergen in the garage on Lap 34, when his car slid into Turn 6 and plowed into the end of the tire barrier, destroying the nose of his car. Larson attempted to drive away, only to need a tow back to the garage. A.J. Allmendinger battled into the Top Ten until his #13 Benesch Chevrolet skated into the Turn 11 barrier, then drove to pit road. Christopher Bell looked as strong as he was in the 2023 inaugural, leading 14 laps and finishing 2nd to Van Gisbergen in Stage 2. But strategy dropped him back in the pack, where he was turned into the wall during a late-race stack-up involving Martin Truex, Jr. and Carson Hocevar. Josh Berry rounded out the group, finishing a lap down in 36th after multiple incidents in his #4 Overstock.com Ford.
Hand nearly pulls Chicago’s second “road ringer” upset in as many years
Turning in the day’s most impressive run was Ford factory driver Joey Hand, who after starting 38th in RFK Racing’s “Stage 60” entry climbed into the Top Ten near the end of Stage 2. Hand and team decided to keep his #60 BuildSubmarines.com Ford on track, which gave him the win in Stage 2 and the lead for Stage 3. Making the most of his wet-weather tires, Hand led for seven laps until Alex Bowman made the winning pass. At the finish, Hand still earned a 4th-place finish, his best in just eight career Cup starts in what was his first series race in nearly two years. His previous best was just 20th, which he earned at Sonoma in 2022.
LASTCAR STATISTICS
*The Kaulig #16 entry has now finished last with three different drivers in 2024, following Josh Williams (Atlanta) and A.J. Allmendinger (Iowa).
*Shane van Gisbergen has nine last-place finishes in his Supercar career.
THE BOTTOM FIVE
40) #16-Shane van Gisbergen / 24 laps / crash / led 9 laps / won stage 1
39) #5-Kyle Larson / 33 laps / crash
38) #13-A.J. Allmendinger / 48 laps / crash
37) #20-Christopher Bell / 55 laps / crash / led 14 laps
36) #4-Josh Berry / 57 laps / running
2024 LASTCAR CUP SERIES OWNER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Kaulig Racing, Spire Motorsports (3)
2nd) Joe Gibbs Racing, Motorsports Business Management, Penske Racing, Stewart-Haas Racing (2)
3rd) Hendrick Motorsports, Legacy Motor Club, RFK Racing, Richard Childress Racing, Rick Ware Racing (1)
2024 LASTCAR CUP SERIES MANUFACTURER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
1st) Chevrolet, Ford (8)
2nd) Toyota (3)
2024 LASTCAR CUP SERIES DRIVER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
