Winner of Chicago's NASCAR street race will return to defend his title

CHICAGO - The defending champion of Chicago's Inaugural NASCAR Street Race will be returning for the race next year, his team announced Thursday.

The news comes two months after NASCAR and Mayor Brandon Johnson announced the Chicago Street Race will be returning to Grant Park next summer, after a successful 2023 debut.

"You always dream about a result like that," said Shane Van Gisbergen of Trackhouse Racing.

The 34-year-old is moving to the U.S. from Australia this week, to transition to driving NASCAR full-time by 2025.

"It's a big deal packing up my life and moving halfway across the world, but it's pretty exciting," he said.

The New Zealand native won his NASCAR debut in Chicago last summer, taking the lead with five laps to go on a course he describes as "basically driving through a tunnel."

"Normally, at a conventional circuit, if you go wide at a corner you can go up the escape road, or run off into the grass and get away with it," Van Gisbergen said. "If you make a mistake in Chicago, you're in a concrete wall."

Trackhouse Racing announced Van Gisbergen will be back this coming summer to go for the repeat. The driver gave Chicago two thumbs way up for the track, the atmosphere, and the crowd.

But there is one thing he said he would change next year.

"Just the weather," he said, with a laugh. "It'd be nice not to have a lake for a start line! But I had a blast. I think for the first time event, NASCAR had never done a street race before – Chicago had never done one – and for the first race ever there, I think it was exceptional how it ran."

Single-day tickets for the race start at $150.00; two-day tickets start at $269.00.

The race in 2024 happens the weekend of July 6-7. For tickets, head to NASCARChicago.com.