Shane van Gisbergen of Australian Supercars fame had yellow rookie stripes on the No. 91 NASCAR Chevy Camaro ZL1 for the Chicago street race on July 2nd, 2023, but he proved his prowess behind the wheel, becoming the first driver in 60 years to win in his first Cup Series start.
The No. 91 Camaro is part of Trackhouse Racing’s “Project 91,” which exists to attract international motorsports personalities to the NASCAR circuit. When he signed up to pilot it on the streets of Chicago, van Gisbergen said that while he expected to have a good time, he certainly didn’t expect to win.
“No, of course not, but you always dream of it,” he said. “Thank you so much to the Trackhouse team and [sponsor] Enhance Health, Project 91. What an experience in the crowd out here. This was so cool. This is what you dream of. Hopefully, I can come and do more.”
When NASCAR ruled to shorten the race from 100 laps to 75 due to inclement weather and the looming threat of darkness, the race played out in van Gisbergen’s favor. This put quite a few race cars that would have had to pit again back inside their fuel window, meaning they could then make it to the end. Van Gisbergen was 18th on a pit cycle, but charged back through the field, taking control from the No. 31 Camaro of Justin Haley and demoting the No. 9 Camaro of Chase Elliott to third.
“Wow, when we had that back strategy back to 18th, I started to worry a bit, but the racing was really good,” said van Gisbergen. “Everyone was respectful. It was tough, but a lot of fun.”
It’s worth noting that both the No. 31 Camaro of Haley and the No. 9 Camaro of Elliott raced to second and third, respectively, after starting in the rear due to wrecks prior to the Cup Series race.
| Finish | Start | Car Number | Driver | Team | Laps Run | Laps Led | Car |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 | 91 | Shane Van Gisbergen | Enhance Health Chevrolet | 78 | 9 | Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 |
| 2 | 37 | 31 | Justin Haley | Benesch Law Chevrolet | 78 | 23 | Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 |
| 3 | 26 | 9 | Chase Elliott | Hooters Chevrolet | 78 | 0 | Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 |
| 4 | 7 | 5 | Kyle Larson | HendrickCars.com Chevrolet | 78 | 0 | Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 |
| 5 | 18 | 8 | Kyle Busch | 3CHI Chevrolet | 78 | 0 | Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 |
| 6 | 31 | 2 | Austin Cindric | Discount Tire Ford | 78 | 0 | Ford Mustang |
| 7 | 6 | 34 | Michael McDowell | Chicago Pneumatic Compressors Ford | 78 | 0 | Ford Mustang |
| 8 | 9 | 22 | Joey Logano | Shell Pennzoil Ford | 78 | 0 | Ford Mustang |
| 9 | 12 | 54 | Ty Gibbs # | Interstate Batteries Toyota | 78 | 1 | Toyota TRD Camry |
| 10 | 15 | 17 | Chris Buescher | Fastenal Ford | 78 | 0 | Ford Mustang |
| 11 | 1 | 11 | Denny Hamlin | Yahoo! Toyota | 78 | 0 | Toyota TRD Camry |
| 12 | 24 | 10 | Aric Almirola | Smithfield Ford | 78 | 0 | Ford Mustang |
| 13 | 22 | 24 | William Byron | Valvoline Chevrolet | 78 | 0 | Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 |
| 14 | 19 | 7 | Corey LaJoie | Celsius Chevrolet | 78 | 0 | Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 |
| 15 | 28 | 41 | Ryan Preece | Operating Engineers Ford | 78 | 0 | Ford Mustang |
| 16 | 21 | 43 | Erik Jones | DRAIVER Chevrolet | 78 | 0 | Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 |
| 17 | 10 | 16 | AJ Allmendinger | Bath Plant by BCI Acrylics Chevrolet | 78 | 0 | Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 |
| 18 | 4 | 20 | Christopher Bell | CRAFTSMAN Racing For A Miracle Toyota | 78 | 37 | Toyota TRD Camry |
| 19 | 25 | 38 | Todd Gilliland | gener8tor Skills Ford | 78 | 0 | Ford Mustang |
| 20 | 16 | 14 | Chase Briscoe | Mahindra Tractors Ford | 78 | 0 | Ford Mustang |
| 21 | 8 | 15 | Jenson Button | Mobil 1 Ford | 78 | 0 | Ford Mustang |
| 22 | 34 | 1 | Ross Chastain | AdventHealth Chevrolet | 78 | 0 | Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 |
| 23 | 27 | 78 | Josh Bilicki(i) | Zeigler Auto Group Chevrolet | 78 | 0 | Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 |
| 24 | 20 | 6 | Brad Keselowski | Elk Grove Village Ford | 78 | 0 | Ford Mustang |
| 25 | 23 | 42 | Noah Gragson # | Wendy's Chevrolet | 78 | 0 | Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 |
| 26 | 30 | 51 | Andy Lally | Camping World Ford | 78 | 0 | Ford Mustang |
| 27 | 5 | 99 | Daniel Suarez | Worldwide Express Chevrolet | 78 | 0 | Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 |
| 28 | 2 | 45 | Tyler Reddick | Monster Energy Toyota | 78 | 8 | Toyota TRD Camry |
| 29 | 35 | 4 | Kevin Harvick | GEARWRENCH Ford | 78 | 0 | Ford Mustang |
| 30 | 32 | 21 | Harrison Burton | Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford | 78 | 0 | Ford Mustang |
| 31 | 14 | 23 | Bubba Wallace | McDonald's Toyota | 78 | 0 | Toyota TRD Camry |
| 32 | 11 | 19 | Martin Truex Jr. | Bass Pro Shops Toyota | 77 | 0 | Toyota TRD Camry |
| 33 | 17 | 12 | Ryan Blaney | Menards/Dutch Boy Ford | 77 | 0 | Ford Mustang |
| 34 | 36 | 47 | Ricky Stenhouse Jr. | Mariano's/SunnyD Chevrolet | 77 | 0 | Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 |
| 35 | 33 | 77 | Ty Dillon | Chicago White Sox Chevrolet | 67 | 0 | Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 |
| 36 | 29 | 3 | Austin Dillon | Get Bioethanol Chevrolet | 62 | 0 | Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 |
| 37 | 13 | 48 | Alex Bowman | Ally Chevrolet | 40 | 0 | Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 |
# – Rookie
i – Points ineligible
* – Part-time driver
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Comments
I’m just glad all the drivers made it out of Chicago safe. I am also thankful none of the ZL1’s got damaged by street takeovers.
Thats why the ended the race before dark or they would have some dime wit shot up the place.🚦🚧🏁🌊Loved the rain storm.🤣😂Helped clean the streets of crap.
What a disaster of a race! I agree with Jeff Gordon’s comments about how Nascrap handled the decision to shorten the race. They rigged the outcome as usual. They should have let the pit stops cycle out instead of screwing the leader Christopher Bell. Why invert the field? Like old IROC racing! A few happy drivers if you benefited from the manipulation but more pissed off if you lost all your positions. Yes SVG is a great driver but he only lead a few laps after Nascrap handicapped the Nascar regulars. I’m glad Kyle Busch salvaged a good finish but that was not a fare race by any means. It was a real turd!💩
Van Gisberger certainly impressed, especially considering he hadn’t driven a left hand drive car before, shifting with his right hand, and heel-and-towing every downshift. Fast and smooth. The NASCAR regulars will (should) be re-thinking their strategies and techniques. They didn’t impress anyone when so many entered turns too fast and nosed into the tire barriers. Funny when SVG said they use the door mirrors in SuperCars street racing to gauge where they are relative to the wall in the turns, but the NASCAR cars don’t have door mirrors, or doors for that matter. Great race. Love the road courses in the rain! Shows who can drive, and who can’t.
Funny how all the NBC commentators (except Junior) kissed toyotas ass continuously throughout most of the qualifying and the race but didn’t mention once that Chevrolet finished 1st through 5th. Not a peep (toyo is probably out spending GM & Ford combined but still can’t beat those Chevys )
What? Were you watching the same broadcast as everyone else?