Van Gisbergen wins NASCAR debut in series’ first street race

Shane van Gisbergen won his NASCAR Cup Series debut in downtown Chicago, chasing down Justin Haley and Chase Elliott in a memorable finish to the series’ first street race.

After passing Elliott, van Gisbergen dueled with Haley in the final laps on Monday (AEST) before the three-time Supercars champion moved in front for good. Haley held on for second, and Elliott was third.

Van Gisbergen, a New Zealand native, got a chance to drive the No.91 Chevrolet in Chicago as part of Trackhouse Racing’s Project 91. He became the first driver to win in his series debut since Johnny Rutherford won at Daytona in 1963 in a qualifying race, which was considered a points race at the time.

Van Gisbergen, 34, won his first Supercars championship in 2016, and added two more in the past two years. He was helped on his NASCAR debut by Darian Grubb, who was the crew chief for Tony Stewart when he won the Cup Series championship in 2011.

The race was scheduled for 100 laps and 322 kilometres, but it was shortened because of fading sunlight after the start was delayed for more than 90 minutes because historic levels of rainfall had flooded the course.

The last half of the Xfinity Race, set to resume after it was suspended on Saturday because of lightning, was cancelled.

Right before the scheduled start, as the rain persisted, pole-sitter Denny Hamlin took to Twitter to lobby for a delay, and Noah Gragson posted video of one of his tires floating on pit road. NASCAR decided to allow the drivers to return to their haulers.

The weather eventually cleared up, but there were puddles on the course when the race began. Even as it started to dry out — and teams started breaking out their slick tires — water splashed everywhere whenever a driver slid into a tire barrier.