Race Recap | Grant Park 165

July 6, 2025

No. 16 Celsius Camaro ZL1

Start: 16th
Stage 1 Finish:
Stage 2 Finish:
Finish: 6th
AJ Allmendinger qualified 16th for the Grant Park 165 at the Chicago Street Course. Within the first lap, Allmendinger drove up to 13th place. On lap three, Allmendinger was running 11th when he was hit in the door as the caution came out. Under the red flag the team evaluated the damage sustained and opted to stay out to restart in ninth place. With three laps remaining, the No. 16 came to pit road for tires, fuel and an air pressure adjustment to help tighten up the car. In Stage 2, Allmendinger raced up to third place by lap 30. When the next caution came out on lap 31, he stayed out to restart on the front row. The No. 16 maintained second place until the leader, the No. 88, came to pit road, and Allmendinger assumed the lead, before making his scheduled pit stop one lap later. Allmendinger restarted the final stage in 10th place and was up to third place when the caution flew on lap 64. On old tires, Allmendinger restarted in third place with nine laps to go and went on to finish in sixth place, earning his best finish in the NASCAR Cup Series at the Chicago Street Course.

“I’m proud of our day. From the bit of the struggle we had on Saturday, I felt like we did a good job getting everything out of it. I was just way too loose there at the end and struggled with rear tires. I need to focus on that to be better, but it felt like at times we definitely had a top three or four car. We worked hard to make it better throughout the weekend and executed our race. Overall, at a racetrack that I haven’t been overly confident at, to come here and almost get a top five, that was our ultimate goal. Having a solid day and getting the finish we did was important. I’m really happy with that and just know, for myself, I’ll keep working to be better to try to go out there and try to win these races.”

– AJ Allmendinger

No. 10 Sea Best Camaro ZL1

Start: 36th
Stage 1 Finish: 32nd
Stage 2 Finish: 27th
Finish: 20th
Ty Dillon and the Kaulig Racing No. 10 SeaBest Chevrolet team started Sunday’s Grant Park 165 on the Chicago Street Course from the 36th position and the rear of the field after an incident in qualifying forced the team to make repairs to the No. 10 on Saturday evening. Focused on improving the handling of the No. 10 Chevy, Dillon pitted from the 30th position during the lap four caution following a multi-car accident. With an extended stay on pit road for adjustments, Dillon returned to the track and finished the opening stage in 32nd. Making routine stops throughout the race, Dillon made an unscheduled stop on lap 52 after making contact with the wall and cutting a right-front tire. With the unscheduled stop, Dillon was scored one lap down. Running in the ‘Lucky Dog’ position, Dillon returned to the lead lap when the caution was displayed on lap 61. Restarting the race from the 28th position, Dillon was able to advance multiple positions to finish the race in 20th. With his finish, Dillon advances to the ‘Elite Eight’ in the In-Season Challenge and will face Alex Bowman in the next round at Sonoma Raceway.

“We survived and advanced! This No. 10 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet team is just a tough team – we never quit. We don’t even know how to. I’m just so proud of Kaulig Racing and our No. 10 team. I knew in a basketball city, going up against Brad in a game of knock-out, I was going to have a good chance. This race was tough on us. I felt like halfway through the race, we were rolling pretty good and we could have had a chance at a top-15. I clipped the wall again and knocked the toe out and kind of bent the ball joint pretty bad. I was just kind of hanging on and hoping we could get everything we could there at the end. We’re just going to keep working hard; put pressure on who we’re facing next and see if we can keep it rolling.”

– Ty Dillon

No. 13 MobileX Camaro ZL1

Start: 19th
Stage 1 Finish: 39th
Stage 2 Finish: 39th
Finish: 39th
As multiple cars in front of him began wrecking on lap three, Will Brown was unable to avoid the carnage. The No. 13 car was too damaged to continue, and Brown was scored 39th.

“Overall, a bit of a disappointing weekend. I probably went a little bit easy in qualifying, then made a mistake on my fast lap and ended up 19th. I felt okay the first couple of laps in the race, and then I just came around the corner there and just got caught up in someone else’s crash. We couldn’t really avoid it. There was nowhere to go in the position I was in.

A lot of time and effort went into the weekend from the team at Kaulig Racing, as well as everyone from my team back home and all my sponsors that helped make this happen. I’m disappointed for them, but I’m really appreciative of this opportunity. Hopefully there will be more to come.”

– Will Brown