Race Rewind: 80-race winless streak snapped in Chicago
Relive the 2024 Cup Series race on the streets of Chicago that saw head-to-head battles, Mother Nature and an 80-race winless streak snapped.
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00:00The field spreading out as they head into turn number one, back man.
00:18Everybody holding their breath off the end of the front straightaway.
00:21Ty Gibbs will beat the entire field to turn one in the lead.
00:25Remember, these drivers are on slick tires, not on the wet weather tires.
00:29Bowman in the purple 48 wedging his way to the inside of Michael Mcdowell in a race for
00:36four.
00:37They race on to lake shore drive for the first time.
00:39Ty Gibbs, the black 54 leading the way as this race for the fourth spot continues.
00:45Battle for the lead as Tyler Reddick looks inside Ty Gibbs.
00:48They work through four for the first time.
00:51Here's the right hander turn five.
00:53Everybody through cleanly as they hit Columbus drive.
00:55They exit turn number five, work their way back on to Columbus drive.
00:58Remember, turn six was the trouble corner last year in the wet.
01:02See how everybody's about to fare out now as they begin to slowly decelerate, apply
01:06pressure to the brake and ease into this corner.
01:10Everybody's gotten a memo so far.
01:12Nobody coming in hot.
01:13Nobody slamming into the tire barrier.
01:15Two and three wide racing down the hill to turn seven.
01:19Gibbs out front by just under a second over Tyler Reddick, Shane Van Gisbergen, Kyle Larson
01:24and Christopher Bell in the top five.
01:33the lead.
01:54Here comes Christopher Bell in the 20.
01:56Christopher Bell out of nowhere now is going to challenge his teammate for second.
01:59Joey Logano blocking the way.
02:01Joey in that yellow and red 22.
02:03He's a lap car.
02:05All of these cars that are passing him are on the lead lap.
02:07Shane Van Gisbergen, the leader.
02:09Christopher Bell, though, keeping him on it.
02:10You get a look at him there out of the back of Van Gisbergen as Corey LaJoy is around
02:15over on the back side of the course.
02:17Right now he is in turn number five, facing the wrong way as Corey LaJoy gets turned around
02:22before he has an opportunity to make his way on to Columbus drive.
02:26So it's going to be Shane Van Gisbergen.
02:28He will win stage one.
02:30It ends under caution because of the spin by the 7 of LaJoy as well as the rain coming
02:36out and keeping us under yellow.
02:39These will be live pit stops.
02:41Slow stops will cost positions.
02:44Let's see what happens, what everybody chooses to do for adjustments.
02:47Dave?
02:48In a football game or maybe even a rugby match, they can change cleats at halftime if they
02:53don't like what the field has done and the weather has changed things.
02:55These pit crews cannot.
02:56They're in their tennis shoes that they plan to be in.
02:59So they've got to be very careful as well.
03:01The front three and the rest of the field are on those slicks that they were on.
03:04So very gingerly, Shane Van Gisbergen brings the field to pit road.
03:07You see the three pit stops happening there.
03:09Let's head up pit road to Marty.
03:10Dave, the big debate on the 5 radio for Kyle Larson, were they going to pull a tear off
03:15or not?
03:16Did Christopher Bell leave his pit stall?
03:18They decide not to pull a tear off because that's the only layer of rain necks they have
03:23on the windshield.
03:24Larson wanted to leave it and the 5 team with a pretty quick stop, I believe Larson gained
03:29a couple of spots here going to those wet weather tires.
03:31You see SVG, lost three, and we're going to have a problem here.
03:35We've got a bottleneck coming off of pit road, a little bit of contact, and we're back to
03:40racing now on the wet tires and the wet streets of Chicago.
03:46You see the sliding, but look at the car disappearing in the distance with the spray.
03:50Grip and visibility a challenge.
03:52Ty Gibbs immediately going to work in that green and black 54 to the inside of the orange
03:57and blue 71 of Zane Smith.
04:00Everybody just trying to funnel down into some degree of lack of chaos there in one.
04:05Here they are in two.
04:06The right hander on the lake shore drive.
04:08So far, so good.
04:09We saw a race for second there, Zane Smith trying to fend off Christopher Bell, the red
04:13and black 20.
04:14Bubba Wallace around in front of the field.
04:16He was inside the top five as everybody tries to come around him, kind of in a blind spot
04:20there as they come around the corner on the lake shore drive.
04:23Leaders continue to work their way back into turn number four and five, but here's Bubba
04:27and Daniel Suarez stopped at the exit of two.
04:31You'll see it here as they work down into turn number two.
04:34Bubba on the outside in the 23, just contact there from Bowman.
04:38Bubba kind of gassed it up to try to get out of everybody's way, and Suarez collected.
04:41They're headed to you.
04:43Here they come into turn six.
04:45Here they come.
04:46Ty Gibbs tiptoeing his way.
04:48This is the battle for third.
04:49Larson, Zane Smith, oh, and chase Briscoe.
04:52He'll nail the tire barrier in six.
04:54He gets turned around, and he just shlacks that tire barrier.
04:59Nobody else collected, but a hard contact for chase Briscoe, and he's able to drive
05:03away, but he gave that tire barrier one heck of a lick.
05:06I thought there was some contact from the 14 when he was sliding.
05:10Let's take a look on board and see just how much damage to the 16.
05:13I think he hit right side.
05:15I think this car is really wrecked.
05:17Yeah, the right side of this has heavy, heavy damage.
05:20The absolute favorite coming in, so you're going to be on board right here, and you're
05:24going to see he's going to get hit from behind and straight into the barrier.
05:31Briscoe hits the 16 of Shane Van Gisbergen, and that was a big, big hit.
05:36I would be shocked if the 16 could continue.
05:40This is how it happened.
05:41Shane Van Gisbergen on the left you see, and chase Briscoe coming in and just clips the
05:46back of that car.
05:47Yeah, so you can see, it's not even enough to really spin him around.
05:50What it did is just increase his speed, so as Shane was into the corner at what he thought
05:55was an appropriate speed, you watch, he thinks he's going to make the corner, and he just
06:01didn't.
06:02There's nothing you can do at that point.
06:03There's just no runoff.
06:05So pit road is not open, but what they're going to do, because there are puddles and
06:09standing water around this course, they're bringing the field on to pit road.
06:12They're going to stop them.
06:14They're going to red flag this race so that the air tundras can come out and blow off
06:20any of the standing water or the puddles that are on the course.
06:23Of course, Steve, you mentioned it earlier, those of us that have been on the roads and
06:27you've driven before, you know there's hydroplaning.
06:29When you have standing water, even with rain tires or wet weather tires, you still have
06:34that possibility.
06:35Right now, the good news is you see in this shot right here, it doesn't look like the
06:38rain is coming down very heavily, so I believe that the air tundras can blow it off relatively
06:43quickly.
06:44We're also here at single-file restarts, and if they get back racing, I'm on board with
06:47because the crowd is here.
06:50It looks good.
06:51I'm ready to see some racing.
06:52And again, it's a single-file restart.
06:55Green flag is back in the air.
06:57Ty Gibbs leading them down Columbus Drive into turn one.
07:01Here's Ty Gibbs.
07:02He'll take the reins.
07:03He's going to scamper out in front by about a car length or two.
07:06That's Christopher Bell at the 20.
07:07Kyle Larson at the 5.
07:08They're already side by side.
07:10Zane Smith kicks the back end wide right there.
07:13Everybody is safely through turn one.
07:15Now the right-hander on to turn two at Lake Shore Drive.
07:18Good racing there at the front of the field.
07:19Larson on Christopher Bell for the second spot.
07:22Bell will get the better of that battle as everybody works down Lake Shore Drive here,
07:26just looking for some clean racetrack to avoid the spray.
07:29They work through three and down into the right-hander.
07:31The treacherous turn four.
07:33Bell is close.
07:34He's putting the pressure on Ty Gibbs.
07:36Now here's the right-hand turn number five.
07:38They go back on to Columbus Drive and head towards turn six.
07:41Everybody is taking a measured approach.
07:43This is a very slick portion of this road course, and it's collected cars already today,
07:48and this has a reputation of being very tough in the wet.
07:51Here's the battle for the lead.
07:52Christopher Bell taking a peek.
07:53Ty Gibbs giving him room, and Bell's just going to jam it in there.
07:56Couple of Toyotas, couple of teammates side by side for the lead.
08:00Now they'll go drivers right up against the wall, and then Christopher Bell will angle
08:04his car in.
08:05Larson.
08:06Oh, Larson's in hot.
08:07Oh, he'll go windshield deep.
08:09Kyle Larson locks it down and slams into the tire barrier while racing for second here
08:15in turn six.
08:17Very hard contact for Kyle Larson in turn six.
08:20He's trying to get unlocked from that tire barrier, but to no avail.
08:28Looked like he was going to shorten that car up as hard as he was going in there.
08:31Yeah, that's one of the hardest hits we've seen in turn six.
08:35He's stuck.
08:36I don't know if he made contact with the 54 or the 5 was trying to get by.
08:41I think he knew the 20 was kind of pulling that lead, and he knew he had to make something
08:45happen.
08:46What exactly happens?
08:47You just see.
08:48Too far, lock up, and barely contact.
08:53Turns right, actually.
08:54Kyle Larson turns right to miss the 54 and takes a head-on shot.
08:59Turns right or the car goes right, but almost misses the tire barriers all the way to the
09:04right.
09:05Makes contact with the concrete wall.
09:07You see the damage grazes the bumper of the 54.
09:13Look at that concrete barrier move.
09:17And out of 12, they've gone through the restart zone back under green flag conditions.
09:22They've gone through the restart zone back under green flag conditions.
09:27They've gone through the restart zone back under green flag conditions.
09:30They've gone through the restart zone back under green flag conditions.
09:33They've gone through the restart zone back under green flag conditions.
09:36They've gone through the restart zone back under green flag conditions.
09:39They've gone through the restart zone back under green flag conditions.
09:42They've gone through the restart zone back under green flag conditions.
09:45They've gone through the restart zone back under green flag conditions.
09:48They've gone through the restart zone back under green flag conditions.
09:51They've gone through the restart zone back under green flag conditions.
09:54They've gone through the restart zone back under green flag conditions.
09:57They've gone through the restart zone back under green flag conditions.
10:00They've gone through the restart zone back under green flag conditions.
10:03They've gone through the restart zone back under green flag conditions.
10:06They've gone through the restart zone back under green flag conditions.
10:09They've gone through the restart zone back under green flag conditions.
10:12They've gone through the restart zone back under green flag conditions.
10:15They've gone through the restart zone back under green flag conditions.
10:18Ryan here for now.
10:19He also got Chase Briscoe off over here as well.
10:22So two Stuart Haas cars able to drive away from the scene,
10:25but they both go long and off in turn four.
10:28But the other team's four-star hand.
10:30They know a yellow's coming, so here's Bell.
10:32The 54 also going to follow up Gibbs.
10:35Gilliland, Nemechek, Reddick.
10:37I think everyone's going to come.
10:38I'd be shocked if anyone stays on the racetrack.
10:40Look at this.
10:41It looks like it's caution flag.
10:42Everybody's coming to pit road, Dave.
10:44And, Steve, this was the call.
10:45As the drivers gave their feedback, Ty Gibbs hitting his pit stall.
10:48The track is not great.
10:49It's not great for slicks.
10:50They're going to have to be extremely careful as they lead here.
10:53Remember Gibbs.
10:54Austin Dillon is in the tire barrier.
10:56He locked it up, and he, too, has made contact here in six.
11:00He keeps rolling, and they stay green, Dave.
11:04And there's Christopher Bell.
11:05He's got his four, and he's gone now as well.
11:08Bell, the leader of 14 laps so far today.
11:10Ty Gibbs, 17 laps.
11:12So those leading Toyotas are going to try to make it work from here.
11:16You see right now, though, Joey Hand leads, but Alex Bowman, he's thinking this stage
11:21win would be very important.
11:22That is a team that is looking to be pretty decent in the playoffs, looking at points.
11:27He's not locked in by any means, so a lot of very important points at the end of this
11:30stage.
11:31How much is he willing to push it to pass the 60 on the right?
11:34You see the footwork of Joey Hand.
11:37Right foot brake.
11:38Right foot gas, left foot brake.
11:40Very more normal NASCAR setup.
11:42Oh, look at the 48, Rick.
11:44He's on him.
11:49Can he get by?
11:50This is the final lap, and Joey Hand looks like he's going to be able to outrun Bowman.
11:59Bowman tries to go to the inside, but Joey Hand is going to win stage two.
12:03Alex Bowman finishing in second there for stage two.
12:08Joey Hand, Bowman, Heslowski, Hosovar, Truex Jr.
12:13All on wet weather tires out in front of the field.
12:16And Joey Hand with a great restart across the start-finish line.
12:19But here's Alex Bowman, who'll quickly catch him in turn number one.
12:22They're hanging the left onto Falbo.
12:24Now, though, about to hand the right onto Lakeshore Drive.
12:27Joey Hand still in command.
12:30This is where Bowman was good last time.
12:32He's closer this lap as they work down Lakeshore Drive through turn three on the right-hand
12:36side out in front of Alex Bowman's car, the ally on board.
12:39Race for the lead down into the heavy braking turn five.
12:41Bowman to the driver's right of Joey Hand.
12:44He goes by.
12:45Alex Bowman to the lead.
12:46Joey Hand tucks in line behind him.
12:48They race off five in reverse order, but nose to tail.
12:51Alex Bowman in that purple number 48 takes the lead.
12:54Coming on to Columbus Drive, and he's going to lead Joey Hand by about two car lengths.
12:59On descent into six.
13:01Hand is with him, stride for stride.
13:03Two-car breakaway for the lead.
13:05Wow.
13:06Hand now will lose a car length.
13:07Coming off that corner.
13:09Alex Bowman, we can see he had the best race car.
13:13Oh, the 4 in the wall again.
13:16This is turn two.
13:18Multiple times he's been in the wall today.
13:21See if he can get backed out of there.
13:23They're going to try to keep it green as long as they can.
13:27And the caution has come out.
13:29There's the caution.
13:31Through the restart zone.
13:33Alex Bowman back into the gas.
13:35He goes through the gears.
13:37And down the front stretch he rockets.
13:39Bowman, Hand, keselowski, Truex Jr., Hosevar, Stenhouse Jr., Gregson, Hemric, and Bell back
13:45there in ninth.
13:47Alex Bowman just trying to get out of Dodge right now.
13:49Trying to get away from Joey Hand.
13:51He'll do it in turn one.
13:53Matter of fact, he'll walk away by about three car lengths.
13:55Everybody now.
13:57Trouble in turn number one.
13:59One car around, it's chase Briscoe.
14:01First time in turn one.
14:03While the leaders head up lake short drive.
14:05Bowman continuing to leg it out over Joey Hand.
14:07Truex sideways, he gets into Bell.
14:09Hit by Hosevar.
14:11That may derail it for Bell.
14:13He continues on but loses all that track position he had gained.
14:15Falls out of the top ten.
14:17That's a break for Bowman.
14:19But another heartbreaking race for Bell.
14:21He's got damage in the 20s.
14:23He works down turn number three and into four.
14:25Just trying to keep that car righted.
14:27You'll see a replay of it here.
14:29Truex sideways.
14:31Maybe some contact from Stenhouse.
14:33It hooks Bell.
14:35Heavy contact into the wall.
14:37Hosevar a victim of that as well.
14:39Good battle for the back of the pack.
14:41Ty Gibbs right now pressuring Brad keselowski.
14:43That's the race for third.
14:45They make contact.
14:47Three wide.
14:49What a move by Reddick to pass them both.
14:51Physical racing for third.
14:53Ty Gibbs trying to get going.
14:55Now we've got Denny Hamlin in the tires.
14:57Looks like he'll do so.
14:59Heading to turn number five.
15:01As the leaders work through this set of corners over here.
15:03One lap to go.
15:05Is there enough time?
15:07Reddick is the faster car.
15:09He is catching Alex Bowman.
15:11And Tyler Reddick's sails are in the wind.
15:13He'll cut the left.
15:15He's got time to do it.
15:17Question is, does he have enough time?
15:191.7 seconds behind the race leader.
15:21Tyler Reddick trying to shut down the separation.
15:23Trying to score the win today in Chicago.
15:25That gap is shrinking.
15:27You can see it visually.
15:29Reddick is starting to close.
15:31Bowman has been strong down here through three, four, and five.
15:33But it's drying out in turn four.
15:35That plays into the advantage of that car.
15:37Tyler Reddick.
15:39Bowman through four out of five.
15:41Here comes Tyler Reddick.
15:43He hits the wall.
15:45That may be all the gap Bowman needs.
15:47He's in the wall as they work to six.
15:49Tyler Reddick gave it all he had coming through turns four and five.
15:51He's given up too many car lengths now to be a factor.
15:53As Alex Bowman for the final time through turn four and six drives away.
15:55Tyler Reddick came so close.
15:57But he did regroup the car.
15:59But now he's 3.6 seconds behind.
16:01Reddick had about 20 lap newer tires on his race car.
16:03Running Bowman down and simply made a mistake.
16:05Got into the wall.
16:07And that's allowing Alex Bowman to drive away.
16:09Alex Bowman making his way through congress plaza for the final time.
16:11He works through turn four.
16:13He's in the wall.
16:15Tyler Reddick.
16:17Alex Bowman making his way through congress plaza for the final time.
16:19He works through turn 10.
16:21Now 11.
16:23Up over the railroad tracks.
16:25And into 12.
16:27Alex Bowman has never won on a road course.
16:29And now he is going to conquer the streets of Chicago.
16:31Alex Bowman has won at Chicago.
16:33Hell yeah, buddy!
16:35That's what I'm talking about!
16:37That's what I'm talking about!
16:39That's what I'm talking about!
16:41That's what I'm talking about!
16:43That's what I'm talking about!
16:45That's what I'm talking about!
16:47Hell of a job, brother!