Kyle Busch gives props to Shane van Gisbergen after Chicago Street Race

Overall, Kyle Busch can walk away from the NASCAR Chicago Street Race feeling as though he did all he could to earn his P5 finish at the end of the night. Bouncing back from early mistakes, Rowdy was a fun one to watch throughout the day. Eventually, he found the right strategy on the track.

Even with the wet weather and rain tires, Kyle Busch didn’t have much to complain about. Busch parked his No. 8 Chevy Camaro into the Turn 6 tires. Thankfully, there was little damage to his car and he could keep going. Just being out on the track gave him a chance to change his fortunes around.

When the decision from NASCAR came down to shorten the race, it opened the door for Busch. His team decided to take tires, get on a different strategy and it worked. But the real story is the Kiwi from Supercars taking the win.

Rowdy gave Shane van Gisbergen his props after the race.

“He’s probably, I don’t know, four, five, eight years ahead of us in this sort of car in the things that he’s done with the V-8 Supercars,” Busch said about SVG. “I’ve worked with him before as a teammate with the Lexus program down at Daytona at the Daytona 24 Hours. He was on the other car, but we were all — six of us, eight of us were all in the same meetings talking together, so worked with Shane a little bit there.

“Yeah, saw he was talented in that car. We were all really fast, so he always kept probably the quickest time for the team the whole time we were down there for Daytona. He is no slouch. I knew he would be good when he came over.”

Kyle Busch tried to do the same thing as van Gisbergen but was unable to pick up the speed needed.

Kyle Busch salvages his race after early incident

When the NASCAR Chicago Street Race started on rain tires, no one knew what to expect. There was a feeling we would see spins and wrecks, but Kyle Busch helped. Rowdy wrecked early and was the first driver to really send it into a wall.

Thankfully, Busch was able to put his car into the tire barriers of Turn 6. He didn’t just hit them, he smashed his car into them. It was so bad, the tow truck had to come out and yank his Camaro from the barrier. Amazingly, Busch was able to keep driving after taking little damage.

After seeing a car wreck and being fine afterward, it opened up the possibilities. Going a lap down, Rowdy didn’t look like he was going to do anything but drive around Chicago for a couple of hours.

History was made tonight. For the first time in @nascar history we raced through the city of Chicago. Finished p5 after a couple setbacks n lots of rain. #RowdyNation pic.twitter.com/4iJ8XXckAf

— Kyle Busch (@KyleBusch) July 3, 2023

However, when the race was shortened, a new game started. Kyle Busch’s team got him to pit road after the decision was made. That gave Busch a new tire strategy and it worked. The field cycled through and Busch was able to hold onto his spot to finish P5. Not bad after getting your car stuck in a barrier.