NASCAR Chicago 2025: Where to watch, live stream, lineup, preview, pick to win for the Grant Park 165

Through nearly 75 years of its history, NASCAR had raced all across the United States on all types of racetracks, from the smallest of dirt ovals to the biggest and fastest of superspeedways. But never before had NASCAR’s top level raced on the streets of a major city — until the city of Chicago changed all that.

For the third consecutive year, NASCAR commemorates July 4th weekend with its annual Chicago Street Race weekend, culminating in the Grant Park 165 in downtown Chicago. Through two years so far, this event has played host to a Coming to America story that saw Shane van Gisbergen go from a visiting New Zealander who won in his NASCAR debut to a full-time Cup driver, and a return to Victory Lane last year when Alex Bowman ended a two-year winless streak.

This year, the increasing intensity of the battle for the NASCAR playoffs takes center stage in Second City, as only four open spots for non-winners now remain on the playoff grid. One such spot was filled last week, when local hero Chase Elliott won in Atlanta to stamp his place in the playoffs and clear the way for his run at a second Cup title.

Where to watch the NASCAR Cup Series in Chicago

When: Sunday, July 6, 2 p.m. ET
Where: Chicago Street Course — Chicago, Ill.
TV: TNT
Stream: fubo (try for free)

Starting lineup

Shane van Gisbergen won the pole for the Grant Park 165 in qualifying Saturday, posting a lap of 89.656 (88.338 mph) to earn his second pole of the season and second in the last four weeks. Where SVG excelled, many other contenders had issues in Cup practice and qualifying, which saw Denny Hamlin suffer an early engine failure and William Byron, Chase Elliott and Bubba Wallace all see crashes force them to start at the rear of the field Sunday.

With 41 cars entered for 40 spots in the field, the race to make the race in qualifying ended in an upset as Katherine Legge was able to earn the last available starting spot for an Open car, bumping Corey Heim from the field after Heim hit the wall on his qualifying lap and broke a left rear toe link. Heim, driving a fourth car for 23XI Racing, has become the first driver to fail to qualify for a Cup race other than the Daytona 500 since 2018.

1. #88 — Shane van Gisbergen (R)
2. #71 — Michael McDowell
3. #77 — Carson Hocevar
4. #45 — Tyler Reddick
5. #19 — Chase Briscoe
6. #8 — Kyle Busch
7. #60 — Ryan Preece
8. #17 — Chris Buescher
9. #54 — Ty Gibbs
10. #3 — Austin Dillon
11. #48 — Alex Bowman
12. #22 — Joey Logano
13. #20 — Christopher Bell
14. #5 — Kyle Larson
15. #6 — Brad Keselowski
16. #16 — A.J. Allmendinger
17. #12 — Ryan Blaney
18. #99 — Daniel Suarez
19. #13 — Will Brown
20. #34 — Todd Gilliland
21. #35 — Riley Herbst (R)
22. #1 — Ross Chastain
23. #41 — Cole Custer
24. #4 — Noah Gragson
25. #42 — John Hunter Nemechek
26. #38 — Zane Smith
27. #2 — Austin Cindric
28. #7 — Justin Haley
29. #21 — Josh Berry
30. #33 — Austin Hill
31. #66 — Josh Bilicki
32. #47 — Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
33. #78 — Katherine Legge
34. #43 — Erik Jones
35. #51 — Cody Ware
36. #10 — Ty Dillon
37. #23 — Bubba Wallace
38. #24 — William Byron
39. #9 — Chase Elliott
40. #11 — Denny Hamlin

Failed to Qualify: #67 — Corey Heim

Storyline to watch

This weekend sees the continuation of the In-Season Challenge, which was completely turned on its head a week ago when No. 1 seed Denny Hamlin, No. 2 seed Kyle Larson and more were eliminated in large part due to a 23-car pileup that cleared the way for major upsets. This week’s In-Season Challenge matchups are as follows:

• No. 32 Ty Dillon vs. No. 17 Brad Keselowski
• No. 8 Alex Bowman vs. No. 9 Bubba Wallace
• No. 12 John Hunter Nemechek vs. No. 5 Chase Elliott
• No. 20 Erik Jones vs. No. 29 Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

• No. 31 Noah Gragson vs. No. 15 Ryan Preece
• No. 26 Carson Hocevar vs. No. 23 Tyler Reddick
• No. 22 A.J. Allmendinger vs. No. 6 Ty Gibbs
• No. 14 Zane Smith vs. No. 3 Chris Buescher

NASCAR news of the week

• Trackhouse Racing announced this week Daniel Suarez will not return as the driver of the No. 99 Chevrolet in 2026, making Suarez a free agent in what was billed as a “mutual decision.” Suarez, the first driver hired by the team when it entered NASCAR in 2021, will drive elsewhere next season after earning his first two Cup wins driving for Trackhouse and finishing a career-best 10th in the championship standings in 2022.

  “I’ve had some of the best years of my Cup Series career at Trackhouse. We had great successes as a team and I gained some incredible friends,” Suarez said in a statement. “We took a team nobody had even heard of in 2021 and in just a couple of years we were winning races and running up front on a weekly basis.

  “Just like the seasons in a year, sometimes things change and we have mutually agreed to each go in our own direction. I wish Trackhouse nothing but the best, this No. 99 team will always be special to me. And like I always say, the best is ahead!”

  While the No. 99 seat is now open for 2026, The Athletic reports Trackhouse is expected to promote 18-year-old Connor Zilisch from the Xfinity Series to run for the team full-time next season.

Pick to win

Shane van Gisbergen (+185) — Rumors of Shane van Gisbergen’s demise as NASCAR’s top road racer turned out to be greatly exaggerated. SVG absolutely waxed the competition just a few weeks ago in Mexico City, leading 60 of 100 laps and dogwalking the field on the final green flag run to earn his second Cup win by 16.5 seconds — the largest margin of victory in a Cup race since 2009. SVG will yet again be favored at Chicago, where he won in his very first start in 2023 and easily could’ve won last year had he not gotten hit from behind and knocked into a crash not of his making.