Brown hunting American redemption in Chicago cameo
Will Brown aiming to make amends after difficult NASCAR Cup Series debut last year
Reigning Supercars champion suffered electrical dramas at Sonoma last June
Brown to contest Grant Park 165 in between Supercars rounds in Darwin and Townsville
Reigning Repco Supercars Champion Will Brown has a point to prove in his NASCAR Cup Series cameo at the Grant Park 165 in Chicago.
NASCAR's only event to be held on a street circuit, Brown will take on the streets of Chicago for the first time in his career, having competed at the Sonoma road course in California in 2024.
Brown will team up with Kaulig Racing, who ran Shane van Gisbergen in his maiden full-time NASCAR campaign in the Xfinity Series last season, after claiming an upset win in the inaugural Chicago Street Race in 2023.
Toowoomba product Brown impressed after finishing third in his first ever NASCAR practice session at Sonoma in California last year, before electrical dramas cruelled his chances in both qualifying and the 110-lap race.
Speaking to American media after the deal was officially announced earlier this morning, the 26-year-old admitted that he came back home with a chip on his shoulder after showing early promise at Sonoma last year.
“Last year was a little bit disappointing with the electrical gremlins, but I think it makes me want to come back more to be honest, because we didn’t get the result we wanted last year," said Brown.
“I think Chicago is an event a lot of drivers want to do, especially a lot of drivers here in Australia.
“Street courses are some of our biggest events here, and we do a lot of them in a year, so when it popped on the calendar and Shane won that event it was something that a lot of us wanted to do.
“So to put a deal together to come and race that event this year, I’m just looking forward to giving it a go and getting out on the track.”
After not being able to contest the Chicago event last year due to a date clash with Townsville, Brown is eager to prove himself against some of the world's best drivers, and is grateful that the event fell on a clear weekend in 2025.
“For myself, I get along very well with the guys at Supercars, and they’re actually supporting and sponsoring my endeavour to come over and compete.
“They’ve been very supportive of it, and I think they want us to go over and show what Supercar drivers are capable of, and also hope that some of your fans watch our racing and see how competitive it is over here."
“It’s great to have that alliance with them, and it’s great to have them supporting me.”
Brown will fly over to America in the immediate aftermath of the betr Darwin Triple Crown, and will spend a week and a half preparing in Charlotte before he tackles the Chicago event.
However, despite all of the preparation that Brown will undertake in America, the 2024 Sandown 500 winner is playing down any suggestion that he could emulate van Gisbergen's 2023 heroics.
“I’m not sure, I haven’t put too many expectations or ambitions on it yet, we obviously saw what Shane did, and we’ve seen what he does on road courses and how competitive he is.
“I had a good run at Sonoma in practice before the problems went wrong, so I think we can be very competitive.
“I’m not going over there saying, ‘Yeah we can win this thing.’ I’d love to, but I'm going over there to be as competitive as we can.
“Hopefully we can run up the front, we’ll just wait and see what happens really.”
The 2025 Repco Supercars Championship continues at the Bosch Power Tools Perth Super 440 from June 6-8.
