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They said NASCAR couldn’t do it. That a stock car race through downtown Chicago would be a mess, a glorified parade of high-speed fender benders with a skyline backdrop. But if today’s Grant Park 165 proved anything, it’s that not only is street racing here to stay, it might be the most electric thing this sport has going.

It wasn’t clean. It wasn’t predictable. Hell, it wasn’t even dry most of the time. But it was exactly what a midseason Cup race should be: chaotic, cinematic, and absolutely unpredictable, unless you’re Shane van Gisbergen, in which case it was just another Sunday drive through downtown Chicago.

SVG might be a newcomer to the full-time Cup scene, but on these streets, he’s already a legend. He took pole in qualifying, danced through disaster early on, and when the final caution flag froze the field, he was sitting pretty in P1. That’s three straight Chicago street-course wins in as many tries for the Kiwi, and if you didn’t know better, you’d think the city renamed Lake Shore Drive after him.

And let’s talk about that opening chaos. Within minutes of the green flag, Turn 10 turned into a scene straight out of a Michael Bay movie. Carson Hocevar slammed the wall, and a handful of others got sucked into the vortex. Welcome to street racing, where every mistake is fatal, and every bump can end your afternoon.

From there, it was survival of the smartest. Michael McDowell, the low-key road course menace, led the most laps and won Stage 1 like he was born for this track. Tyler Reddick showed blistering pace too, laying down the fastest lap of the day and looking like a man on a mission until late traffic got the best of him.

But SVG? He just kept coming. The man’s like a heat-seeking missile on these layouts. Tucked in behind him by the end were Ty Gibbs, who’s quietly stacking serious finishes, and Reddick, who salvaged a podium despite battling a tight car in the closing laps. Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch rounded out the top five with veteran savvy, but neither had the juice to hang with SVG when it mattered.

This wasn’t just a street race, though, it was part of NASCAR’s new in-season tournament, which means van Gisbergen didn’t just take home a trophy, he put himself one step closer to a million-dollar payday. And in a format built to reward killers over cruisers, there’s no one more dangerous right now than the man from New Zealand.

And it’s not just the front-runners that made this race spicy. Rookies like Corey Heim and returning names like Katherine Legge added flavor, even if they never sniffed the top ten. You need the full cast in a show like this, the underdogs, the road-course ringers, the veterans hanging on, the kids trying to prove they belong.

McDowell deserves a shoutout for his drive. He led the most laps, controlled the tempo early, and had fans dreaming of a signature upset win. But when it got late and the elbows came out, SVG reminded everyone that this is his turf. Smooth on restarts, lethal on the brakes, fearless in traffic, he just doesn’t blink. Chicago’s tight walls and narrow margins don’t faze him. They fuel him.

In the post-race chatter, you could feel it, this wasn’t just another event. It was a moment. The kind of race that convinces skeptics, pulls in casuals, and reminds old heads why they still tune in. Street racing in NASCAR isn’t a gimmick anymore. It’s a feature. It’s here. And after three years, it’s already better than most ovals on the calendar.

But today? Today was Chicago’s day. And SVG owned every inch of it.