Ty Gibbs racing during the Grant Park 165 at the Chicago Street Course, where he finished in second place. (Photo: Kevin Bowman | The Podium Finish)
CHICAGO — Ty Gibbs has emerged as one of the best road course drivers in the NASCAR Cup Series over the past few seasons, and this weekend at the Chicago Street Course was no different as he scored a second-place finish in the Grant Park 165.
Entering the weekend in must-win territory to secure a second consecutive postseason berth, Gibbs was one of the top three fastest cars all afternoon. The only problem was that the fastest driver was Shane van Gisbergen, who, after this weekend, has now won two of the three NASCAR Cup and Xfinity races on the street course.
Despite that statistic, Gibbs still had a shot with a final restart at Lap 67, but had to restart in the treacherous outside lane, compared to van Gisbergen, who was on the inside lane. After SVG took the lead off the restart, Gibbs hung tight for a while until Tyler Reddick began running him down for the second position as the race ended under caution when Cody Ware hit the tire barrier hard in Turn 6.
Ty Gibbs exiting Turn 12 at the Chicago Street Course during the Grant Park 165. Gibbs also advanced to the third round of the NASCAR In-Season Challenge, using his second-place finish to eliminate AJ Allmendinger. (Photo: Kevin Bowman | The Podium Finish)
“He (van Gisbergen) just got a good enough gap, had a good restart,” said Gibbs. “I had a little bit of rear tire degradation that didn’t really help me on my launch off the corner. (He) just got a good gap and got away from me.”
When looking back at the restarts throughout the race, Gibbs noted how whichever driver restarted in the outside lane had a lot harder time than the driver on the inside lane, especially since the restart zone is placed in the exit of the final turn of the course.
“Well, it really depends on the restart zone, because it’s right in that last corner, and the dude on the outside gets shafted every single time,” Gibbs said about restarting on the outside lane versus the inside lane. “If you watch every one of them, the inside guy wins almost every time.”
Ty Gibbs during the practice and qualifying session for the Grant Park 165 at the Chicago Street Course, where he would eventually score a runner-up finish and advance in the In-Season Challenge. (Photo: Kevin Bowman | The Podium Finish)
Even though Gibbs was not able to capture the win, the result continues a swing of good results over the last five races. During this span, Gibbs has finished inside the top 15 in every race, with two being top five finishes, and has surged from 27th in the NASCAR Cup Series driver standings all the way up to 19th.
Gibbs also advanced to the third round of the NASCAR In-Season Challenge, defeating AJ Allmendinger, who finished in the sixth position. He will now face up against the No. 14 seed, Zane Smith, at Sonoma Raceway in the “Elite Eight” of the tournament.
Sonoma Raceway is the home of the next NASCAR Cup Series event, race No. 20, the Toyota/Save Mart 350 on Sunday, July 13 at 3:30 p.m. EST on TNT Sports, truTV, streaming on HBO Max, PRN Radio and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
