One year ago, three-time Australian Supercars champion Shane van Gisbergen climbed into a white-and-blue NASCAR Cup Series car on the streets of Chicago. It was the NASCAR Cup Series’ first time on a street course, and van Gisbergen’s first time racing in NASCAR’s top level—in a one-off entry backed by a part-time road crew, no less. Record rainfall flooded the track, and the television announcers couldn’t even pronounce his name.
Then Shane van Gisbergen won.
