Shane van Gisbergen wins Chicago Street Race pole, full Cup Series qualifying results

SVG is from New Zealand, but Chicago is his town. When it comes to this track, he is the guy to beat. It doesn’t matter what car you put on the track, if it has four fenders and wheels, he’s going to be the quickest.

How about Michael McDowell and Carson Hocevar going P2 and P3? Tyler Reddick and Chase Briscoe make up the rest of the top five. Kyle Busch, Ryan Preece, Chris Buescher, Ty Gibbs, and Austin Dillon are P6 through P10.

AJ Allmendinger, a usual contender on the road courses, did not do so well. P16 for the 16 car. Then you have Will Brown, Supercars star who took over Shane van Gisbergen’s old seat in Australia, down in P19.

Katherine Legge qualified P33 and knocked Corey Heim out of the race. The 67 car for 23XI is a DNQ. Is that a bad omen for things to come in the lawsuit? If you’re superstitious, you might have a decent argument for it.

Shane van Gisbergen looking to sweep the weekend

Two poles down, now it is time to race. Shane van Gisbergen is trying to take all of the awards and accolades this weekend. If he ends up winning both races and getting the fastest lap award for both, would that be the perfect weekend?

We know these races usually have the leaders pitting before each stage ends. Flip the stage for track position and keep it moving. So, we likely won’t see anyone, even SVG, sweep the stages.

Michael McDowell said that he would have given SVG a run for his money at Mexico City if the caution fell differently. Well, he’s got a chance to prove it on Sunday. If Carson Hocevar won his first Cup race at Chicago, of all places, that would be an even wilder story.

Shane van Gisbergen has laid out the challenge for every other driver. He’s the fastest one among them and they will have to go through him in either race if they want to walk away with a trophy and a win.