Chaos and Calamity: Grant Park 165

The second year of the Chicago Street race would be just as chaotic and rain filled as the first. The race started in a mixed weather condition with some drivers opting for slicks and some styling on wets. Ty Gibbs would lead to start the race, Shane Van Gisbergen would make quick work through the field and is up to second by lap nine with kyle Larson in tow. Christopher Bell would move past Larson to take third as Chase Briscoe worked his way up to fifth from a 16th place starting position

Van Gisbergen  would move to the lead with the lapped cars of Ryan Preece and Joey Logano causing chaos at the front. There would be rain looming as we hit lap 13. Corey Lajoie would spin to bring out a caution on lap 15. During the yellow, the rain would hit and hit hard, nascar would elect to run the rest of the stage under yellow because they did not have time to open the pits and finish the stage under green.

As such, stage 1 results were as follows:

1. Shane Van Gisbergen
2. Christopher Bell
3. Ty Gibbs
4. Chase Briscoe
5. Kyle Larson
6. Alex Bowman
7. Bubba Wallace
8. Todd Gilliand
9. Tyler Reddick
10. Daniel Suarez

Teams would pit under wet conditions during the stage break. Small congestion getting off pit road that was caused by Jet dryers that were trying to blow standing water off the track, resulting in small contact between the two 23XI cars. Zane Smith would stay out and inherit the lead, and he would lead the field back to the green in the rain to start the second stage. Gibbs would emerge from the mist as the leader as Bubba Wallace was turned by Alex Bowman in turn one, and Briscoe spins into turn six, hitting Van Gisbergen into the concrete barrier ending his day early. This would lead to NASCAR throwing the red flag on lap 26 to blow more standing water off the track as the rain would let up a bit.

After an hour and 50 minutes of rain delay, cars would hit the track at 7:13 local time with an hour to run before the race would be called due to darkness. Gibbs would lead the field to green on lap on lap 31. He would lead over Bell and Larson. Denny Hamlin and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. would tangle with both going broadside into the tire barriers. Both were able to refire their cars and drive away. In the meantime, Bell would move past teammate Gibbs for the lead, and Larson would begin to pressure the sophomore for second. Bell would begin to stretch the lead out as things begin to file out. There would be big problems for Larson as he slams the tire barriers to bring out a caution on lap 35. This would unfortunately end his day.

The race would restart on lap 38 with about 40 minutes of racing left, Bell would pull away again with Gibbs and Reddick in tow as Aj Almendinger would make a move on Chase Elliott for seventh as both Josh Berry and Briscoe would go off course. Things would file out as a third SHR car in Preece would hit the tire barriers as well. We would stay green as he got going.  With 3 to go in stage 2 about a dozen cars, including the likes of Kyle Buch, Austin Dillon, Chase Elliott, among others will pit. This would force the leaders to pit coming to two to go. Dillon, who pitted, would hit the barrier in turn six but continue on without a yellow flag. Joey Hand would win the stage over Bowman with the split strategy and cars staying out on wet weather tires.

Stage 2 Results:

1. Joey Hand
2. Alex Bowman
3. Brad Keselowski
4. Carson Hocevar
5. Martin Truex Jr.
6. Noah Gragson
7. Daniel Hemric
8.  Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
9. Harrison Burton
10. Denny Hamlin

Joey Hand would lead the field to green to start the final stage with about 16 minutes left in the race, with Alex Bowman in tow, Truex would move past Hocevar for fourth place. Almendinger would collide with the barriers, we would stay green as he would get it going again. Alex Bowman would make a charge as we hit 13 minutes to go in the race. Bowman would make the move into turn 5 to pass Hand with 12 minutes left until two to go. Josh Berry would collide with the barriers, bringing out the caution yet again.

They would restart with four and a half minutes to go with Bowman pulling away from Hand. Bell would charge from 10th to eighth in one lap and would be the first car on slick tires. Bell would make the pass for seventh  and then sixth in the next lap, just under three minutes to go now as John Hunter Nemecheck spun in front of Dillon and Bell would get turned after tangling with Truex and Stenhouse, causing him to fall out of the top ten. Meanwhile, Bowman would stretch the lead out to almost two seconds as we hit a minute to go on the timer. Gibbs would attempt to pass Keselowski for third but be pushed wide as Reddick gets by both of them. The clock would strike zero, and Bowman would hit two laps to go. Reddick would get around Hand for second, but Bowman had stretched out to the biggest lead of the afternoon, Reddick on slicks would cut the gap to 1.7 with less than a lap to go. Reddick would make contact with the wall coming out of turn five, and it would be enough for Bowman to return to victory lane and lock himself into the playoffs.

Top Ten results:

1. Alex Bowman
2. Tyler Reddick
3. Ty Gibbs
4. Joey Hand
5. Michael McDowell
6. Ricky Stenhouse Jr
7. Todd Gilliand
8. William Byron
9. Kyle Busch
10. Ryan Blaney


Photo Credit: @NASCAR on Twitter/X