2024 NASCAR Chicago Street Race: Live updates as race weekend wraps up in Grant Park

Shane van Gisbergen is the BETMGM Sportsbook favorite to win Sunday. Van Gisbergen won Saturday's Xfinity Series race. ... Larson is on the pole. The Hendrick Motorsports driver is going for his fourth win of the season in his 350th career Cup Series start.

Alex Bowman sees a Chicago street course full of possibilities. He also sees a major potential problem.

"All the winners behind us in points make my life harder for sure," Bowman said Saturday. "So just trying to do the best we can to get in victory lane to avoid those issues."

That's the situation for a group of NASCAR Cup Series contenders fighting for five remaining spots in the playoffs after Joey Logano became this season's 11th different winner last weekend in Tennessee.

Martin Truex Jr., Ty Gibbs, Ross Chastain, Chris Buescher and Bowman occupy the last five playoff spots on points at the moment. Truex is in a strong position with seven races left in the regular season, but a win for a driver below Bowman in the standings could shake up the playoff field once again.

Bubba Wallace, Chase Briscoe and two-time Cup champion Kyle Busch are among seven drivers below the cutline who previously participated in the Cup Series playoffs.

"It'd be nice to have a win. I feel like we should have a win," said the 44-year-old Truex, who plans to retire from full-time racing at the end of the season. "We've had a few heartbreakers, so just keep digging and take it week by week."

Buescher feels Truex's pain. Buescher lost to Kyle Larson at Kansas in May in the closest finish in Cup Series history. Then he was wrecked by Tyler Reddick at Darlington, taking him out of contention.

"I feel like we're very, very close to where we need to be to not have to have a points conversation whatsoever," Buescher said.

The second edition of the downtown Chicago street race on Sunday offers another possibility for 18 winless Cup Series drivers who are eligible for the playoffs. But there is risk everywhere.

The 12-turn, 2.2-mile course is narrow and bumpy in spots, and there is little room for error. A crash could open the door for a driver in the right spot at the right time, but it also could collect multiple cars and hurt positioning when it comes to accumulating points.

"I'm not worried about Chicago. ... Everybody here knows that I'm not the best at road course racing," Wallace said, "so Chicago is just one of those, let's survive, move on."

The Chainsmokers are performing in Grant Park Saturday night as the headliner for the first day of the NASCAR Chicago Street Race weekend.

The music act was unable to perform a concert last year due to severe weather and heavy rain that flooded the race track and the surrounding areas by the stage in Grant Park.

The concert is happening at the DraftKings main stage.

The Black Keys and Chicago blues legend Buddy Guy performed earlier in the day Saturday.

Lauren Alaina and Keith Urban are set to perform on the main stage on Sunday ahead of the main event, the NASCAR Cup Series Chicago street race.

A full guide to the weekend's concert lineup can be found here.

Kyle Larson has won the pole for the NASCAR Cup Series street race in downtown Chicago, beating Ty Gibbs by a hundredth of a second.

Larson posted a fast lap of 1 minute, 27.836 seconds in the second round of qualifying on the 12-turn, 2.2-mile course Saturday, recording a top speed of 90.168 mph. Gibbs was next at 1:27.846 seconds and 90.158 mph.

Larson is going for his fourth win of the season in his 350th career Cup Series start. The Hendrick Motorsports driver has five poles this year and 21 for his career.

"This year qualifying, I mean racing, too, has been a strong suit, but qualifying, we've been able to execute and get five poles to this point," said Larson, who leads the Cup Series driver standings going into Sunday's Grant Park 165. "That's special. So yeah, hopefully, we can keep that up and keep our speed up in the races as well."

Michael McDowell (90.141 mph) qualified third, followed by Tyler Reddick (89.923) in fourth. Shane van Gisbergen (89.813) rounded out the top five after he won the race last year.

"We're in for a battle tomorrow," McDowell said, "and we've got a fast car and a good opportunity to try to execute and put ourselves in position to win."

Larson also had the fastest car in practice. He finished fourth in the inaugural race a year ago.

Larson prepared for the Cup Series start on the tricky, unfamiliar course with a third-place finish in the Xfinity Series race on Saturday. Van Gisbergen got the win, and Ty Gibbs was second.

Larson and van Gisbergen dueled throughout the first stage of the Xfinity Series race in a possible preview for Sunday.

"My Cup car feels much more, I think, like competitively equal, I would say, to be able to battle him in more corners or hopefully hold him off better," Larson said after the Xfinity Series race. "But like I said, it's not just him. There's going to be a lot of other guys that are really good tomorrow."

Shane van Gisbergen raced to his third Xfinity Series victory of the season Saturday, making a successful return to the NASCAR street course in downtown Chicago.

Van Gisbergen started on the pole before dropping back after a pit stop. He then made his way through the field before pulling away for the victory.

"What a great race," he said. "It was pretty wild there at the end."

The 35-year-old New Zealand native got his first two Xfinity wins for Kaulig Racing on road courses at Portland and Sonoma on consecutive weekends last month. Just like he did after those victories, he celebrated by autographing a rugby ball and kicking it into the stands in Chicago.

Ty Gibbs was second, followed by Kyle Larson, Parker Kligerman and Jesse Love. Larson is on the pole for the Cup Series race Sunday.

A three-time champion in Australia's Supercars, van Gisbergen was a largely unknown commodity in the U.S. before he won last summer in NASCAR's rainy inaugural weekend on the downtown Chicago course. He became the first driver to win his Cup Series debut since Johnny Rutherford in the second qualifying race at Daytona in 1963.

The festivities will continue in downtown Chicago Saturday after the XFinity Series race.