ART INSTITUTE — In a stunning finish to NASCAR’s first Chicago street race, Shane van Gisbergen has won the Grant Park 220. Despite the close race and strong competition, van Gisbergen clinched his win with a shortcut through the Art Institute’s impressionist gallery.
The shortcut — which briefly took van Gisbergen off the track and up the stairs of the museum — allowed van Gisbergen to pass through the Deering Family Galleries wing and out a window back to the track. While maneuvers like this are not encouraged by NASCAR, they are allowed if the driver makes it look cool.
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“In the last couple of laps I knew I needed to pull ahead of [Justin] Haley and Chase [Elliott],” said van Gisbergen in a New Zealand accent. The Chicago Genius Herald later confirmed that the driver is from Aukland, NZ, and wasn’t just fucking with us.
“I saw an opening to pass right between Gustave Caillebotte’s Paris Street; Rainy Day and Degas’s Ballet at the Paris Opera, so I took it. I made a hard left at one of Monet’s stacks of hay series — I think it might have been Stacks of Wheat (End of Summer), but with the interplay of mauve and blue it could have been Stacks of Wheat (End of Day, Autumn).”
“Anyway, I swung by Sunday on La Grande Jette because I love Ferris Bueller and smashed through a window to launch back to the track because I love Fast & Furious and I was in the lead and kind of on fire.”
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The shortcut allowed van Gisbergen to win his first ever NASCAR event, and the first street race in NASCAR history. He’s also the sixth foreign driver to win a NASCAR series race, and the second person to drive a Camaro through The Art Institute. He’ll be taking home a cash prize and a better understanding of light and color from his trip through the prestigious museum.
The Art Institute will be closed until repairs are made to the car-shaped hole in the wall.
