When Nascar Cup drivers take to the streets of Chicago for the third race in the Windy City, one of the focal points will be the battle between Alex Bowman and Bubba Wallace.
Bowman is the defending winner of Sunday's Grant Park 165 (2 p.m. ET on TNT, MRN and SiriusXM Nascar Radio). The driver of the No 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet is matched against Wallace in the second round of the In-Season Challenge.
Coincidentally, Bowman and Wallace are the two drivers directly above the current elimination line for the Cup Playoffs. Bowman is 39 points to the good. Wallace is 23 points above the cutoff.
Bowman advanced to the second round of the Challenge on the strength of a third-place finish last Saturday at EchoPark Speedway outside of Atlanta. The truth is that Bowman had little to worry about after his first-round opponent, Joey Logano, was eliminated in a 22-car pileup on Lap 69.
"I'll take it for, for sure, and we'll keep on digging at it," Bowman said after the race.
Wallace, on the other hand, moved on simply by keeping his car on the track after his opponent, Daniel Suarez, was KO'd by the same wreck that ousted Logano. Wallace finished 22nd, but that was good enough to advance.
Though the In-Season Challenge will be the short-term focus for both Bowman and Wallace, the over-arching goal is to make the Playoffs. The grim reality is that both are on shaky ground in that regard.
There are eight races left in the regular season. As things stand now, two more unique winners currently below Bowman and Wallace in the standings could eliminate both drivers, should they fail to win a race.
For argument's sake, let's say AJ Allmendinger wins one of the three road course races left in the regular season – Chicago, Sonoma or Watkins Glen (where he claimed the first of his three Cup victories in 2014).
And let's say Erik Jones triumphs in the final regular-season event at Daytona, where he has won before. Those circumstances, clearly hypothetical, would put the Playoff chances of the bubble drivers in dire peril.
'PRETTY SPECIAL'
A victory in any of the next eight races, however, solves the problem, and Bowman is eager to defend his win from last year.
"Going back to Chicago is pretty special," Bowman said. "That win last year was huge for me and this 48 team. It was one of those races where everything came together at the right time.
"The street course is such a unique challenge, and the atmosphere is unlike anything else we see all year. I'm excited to get back there, defend that win, and hopefully keep building momentum for the Playoff push."
Between Bowman and Victory Lane is the formidable presence of Shane van Gisbergen, who won the inaugural Grant Park 165 in his Nascar debut in 2023. SVG, who won last year's Nascar Xfinity Series race in Chicago, crashed out of the 2024 Cup event in last place, but he expects to be a contender on Sunday.
van Gisbergen, who won in Nascar for the first time in Chicago's streets two years ago, scored his second pole in as many road races Saturday when he clocked a lap atof 88.338 mph around the twisting course.
Also a winner last month from the pole in Mexico City, the New Zealander put his No 88 Chevrolet on the pole beside the No 71 Chevrolet of Michael McDowell (87.979 mph).
Carson Hocevar gridded third, marking his best career start on a road course, while Tyler Reddick and Chase Briscoe rounded out the top five qualifiers.
Points leader William Byron, last week's winner Chase Elliott and Denny Hamlin all failed to make a qualifying attempt and will start at the rear of the 40-car field.
"We should be very strong this weekend," the New Zealander said. "I know everyone is going to be better. Last year was a big step up on competition, and I know this year will be, too.
"We just have to continue to focus on us. We've prepped very hard, spent last week's simulator time on Chicago, so hopefully we get there this weekend and are solid."
Note: McDowell, Ty Gibbs and Kyle Busch are the only three drivers to have finished in the top 10 in both Chicago Street Races. Rain tires were used in each of the first two events.
COMFORTABLE VAN GISBERGEN
Meanwhile, Van Gisbergen is coming off winning the Chicago Xfinity race on Saturday. He held off JR Motorsports teammate Conor Zilisch in winning The Loop 110.
With his cool suit malfunctioning on a hot day on the 2.2-mile, 12-turn Chicago Street Course, Van Gisbergen out-braked Zilisch, the runner-up, and ran him wide into Turn 1 with two laps left in the event.
With Zilisch in pursuit, Van Gisbergen crossed the finish line 0.823 seconds ahead of his fellow Red Bull athlete to post his first Nascar Xfinity Series victory in his only start this season, his second straight win in Chicago and the fourth of his career.
Van Gisbergen, the pole winner, had to overcome not only the heat but also a balky carburetor and questionable strategy that kept him on the track before the end of Stage 1, while the vast majority of cars behind him came to pit road for tires and fuel.
"It's just like the tracks I've grown up racing on," he said of the Chicago road course. "In Supercars, there are a lot of street circuits on the schedule, so I'm comfortable with the walls.
"It's similar to a few tracks that I raced in Australia, whereas most of these guys aren't used to street circuits. Just something I'm comfortable with and have spent many years racing."
A road course phenom in his own right, Zilisch won his first Xfinity race last year at Watkins Glen. And in four road course starts in the series, the driver of the No 88 JR Motorsports Chevrolet has three poles and two victories, the second one coming in March at Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas.