SVG Sweeps NASCAR National Series Poles at Chicago With Cup Pole

Shane van Gisbergen is going to be extremely hard to beat on Sunday afternoon as he attempts to collect his second victory in the NASCAR Cup Series Chicago Street Race. The 36-year-old native of New Zealand will start from the pole position in Sunday's Grant Park 165 after he topped Michael McDowell by nearly half a second in Saturday's qualifying session.

STARTING LINEUP: NASCAR Cup Series Grant Park 165 at Chicago

The driver of the No. 88 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet turned a lap time of 89.656 seconds (88.338 mph) to secure his third career NASCAR Cup Series pole position by 0.468 seconds over McDowell. The NASCAR Cup Series pole continued what has been a great Saturday for the racer in Chicago, as van Gisbergen took the pole for Saturday's The Loop 110 NASCAR Xfinity Series event as well.

"That was epic," van Gisbergen said after collecting the pole for the Grant Park 165. "I think the guys did a great job; the WeatherTech Chevrolet is really good. I'm a lucky boy, as I've got some great cars today - an Xfinity pole and a Cup pole. It's pretty special. Looking forward to the race tomorrow, but what a tune-up. Practice wasn't that great, went out in qualifying, car felt really good, and laid down two good laps."

The confidence is only growing for van Gisbergen, who took his first win of the season a few weeks ago in the inaugural NASCAR Cup Series event at Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez. With a win in his back pocket, the NASCAR Cup Series Rookie of the Year contender will be focused solely on collecting his third career NASCAR Cup victory in Sunday's race.

McDowell, who is well-versed on road courses, continued his solid qualifying campaign in 2025. The 40-year-old driver in his first season with Spire Motorsports now has seven top-10 starting spots on the season including a pole-winning run at Las Vegas Motor Speedway earlier in the year.

Carson Hocevar, McDowell's teammate who drives the No. 77 Chevrolet, will start Sunday's race from the third position. Hocevar has been honing in on his first career NASCAR Cup Series victory all season long, and he'll continue the quest from a great starting spot on Sunday.

Tyler Reddick was the top non-Chevrolet driver in the qualifying session as he'll start from the fourth position in his No. 45 23XI Racing Toyota, and Chase Briscoe secured the fifth starting spot.

Kyle Busch, Ryan Preece, Chris Buescher, Ty Gibbs, and Austin Dillon rounded out the top-10 qualifiers for Sunday's Grant Park 165.

Due to incidents in Saturday's NASCAR Cup Series practice session, William Byron, the NASCAR Cup Series point leader, second-place in the championship standings, Chase Elliott, and Denny Hamlin, the fourth-place driver in the championship standings, will start from the final three positions on the starting grid.

Byron and Elliott collided with the barrier in practice, which caused suspension damage to both cars and necessitated repairs in the garage, which ended their bids to participate in qualifying. Hamlin suffered a frustrating blown engine on the opening lap of his practice run.

While it was a frustrating day for three of the drivers in the hunt for the NASCAR Cup Series regular-season championship, it was an even rougher 23rd birthday for Corey Heim.

Heim failed to make the 40-car field for the race after he slapped the wall in his No. 67 23XI Racing Toyota during his qualifying run. The contact with the wall bent the toe link on his race car, which hampered his performance.

Katherine Legge, who was expected to compete with Josh Bilicki for the final starting spot in the field, was able to top Heim's time as she took to the track in Group 2 of NASCAR Cup Series qualifying, which bumped Heim from the field.

Legge came back from a hard crash, which somehow didn't severely damage her No. 78 Live Fast Motorsports Chevrolet in practice, and slapping the wall on the lap prior to her fast lap in qualifying, to lock herself into the field.

Will Brown, driving the No. 13 entry for Kaulig Racing, clocked in 19th-fastest in qualifying, which was the best of the five "Open" entries attempting to lock into the field for Sunday's Grant Park 165 at the Chicago Street Course.

Austin Hill timed in with the 30th-fastest lap in qualifying, while Josh Bilicki was 31st, Legge was 33rd, and Heim was 34th-fastest.

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