Shane van Gisbergen on getting taken out of Chicago Street Race by Chase Briscoe: 'Unfortunate mistake by him'

One day after winning the Xfinity Series race in Chicago, Shane van Gisbergen‘s day came to an early end in the Grant Park 165 in the Cup Series.

Van Gisbergen was bumped from behind after Chase Briscoe lost control of his vehicle going into Turn 6, forcing van Gisbergen’s car into the hard wall just past the turn. The collision did enough damage to take his car out of the race for the rest of the way.

After getting checked out at the care center and getting cleared, van Gisbergen shared his thoughts with the broadcast crew.

“I don’t know, I just sort of turned in, looked pretty good and then just got smashed by someone, 14 you said,” he noted. “Gutting. Wendy’s Saucy Nugs car was really good. We were in the lead for a lot of that race. It felt good taking off in the rain. So that sucks. But it’s an unfortunate mistake by him. I’m sure he didn’t mean it. But yeah when he just clipped me nothing I could do.”

Van Gisbergen had been leading the race for most of the early going, quickly working his way up to the front and battling with Ty Gibbs for the lead.

Then the unfortunate collision happened.

“Of course I’m disappointed, we had a really amazing Camaro there and the whole team gave us a great car and we were able to lead,” van Gisbergen said. “I felt like I was driving well within myself. So yeah, it’s a shame to be out so early and a shame we couldn’t have a proper crack at it at the end.”

The race conditions made things quite challenging.

Just before the race began, NASCAR declared it a wet race, allowing teams the option to choose wet weather tires. Some opted to right away, while others went to slicks and evaluated the track likely drying some in the early going.

Instead, the rain intensified and many drivers switched to wets under competitive pit stops.

“It was fine. On slicks it got a bit dodgy, and I hated being the leader,” van Gisbergen said. “And whoever was the leader you could see them slowing up not knowing what the condition would be. As soon as you get to the front, not sure of what’s happening and have to take it a bit easy. But I had a lot of fun until then.”

As far as the rest of the race, van Gisbergen gave the nod to the early leaders.

“Any of the top three, those guys are all racing well,” he said. “We had some really cool battles with them and respectful, really, so any of those top three are the favorite.”