Brown opens up on Chicago NASCAR expectations
Will Brown to contest NASCAR Cup Series race in Chicago
Reigning Supercars champion to race Kaulig Racing Camaro
Race on Monday at 4:00am AEST, Fox/Kayo takes broadcast
Will Brown is keeping his expectations in check ahead of his NASCAR Cup Series return race in Chicago.
The reigning Supercars champion will make his second Cup Series start, this time with Kaulig Racing.
Last June, Brown raced a Richard Childress Racing Camaro at Sonoma, but his efforts were undone by electrical gremlins. It came after Brown impressed to finish third in practice.
This weekend’s Grant Park 165 will reunite Brown with old rival Shane van Gisbergen, who is fresh off the back of a dominant win in Mexico City.
Van Gisbergen shocked world motorsport with a debut victory in Chicago two years ago, paving the way to a dream move to NASCAR with Trackhouse Racing.
Brown cited van Gisbergen’s run since that famous win, with the Kiwi grinding out results since, taking Xfinity wins in Portland, Sonoma and Chicago last year before encountering a baptism of fire in Cup.
While stopping short at achieving a certain result in Chicago, the Queenslander believes he can shoot for the top 10, and go from there.
“You want to go well,” said Brown, speaking on NASCAR podcast Stacking Pennies.
“It’s hard putting expectations on it because you saw what Shane did his first year, but then from there, it’s not just been easy wins, you know what I mean? Even on road courses.
“I felt like Sonoma, we were having a good run until we had the things go wrong in qualifying. We were third in practice and then we had a tough qualifying.
“I’m probably not going to put a number on it just yet… but if we’re in that top 10 to start with, we’d be very happy.”
Brown's Ford rival Cam Waters arguably the best active driver on street courses in Supercars. However, Brown is a street circuit winner in Townsville (2023) and Adelaide (2024), with his last-to-first Adelaide victory one of the greatest drives in modern Supercars history.
Van Gisbergen’s 2023 Chicago win was built off the back of his tricks learned at street circuits over a near 20-year career in Supercars.
While Chicago is a new challenge for Brown, he suggested he won’t be too much of a fish out of water, adding: “It’s sort of an unknown for us right now, but it is very similar to what we do in Australia.
"Chicago is probably very similar to five of our race meetings. We’ve got Gold Coast, which is super tight, probably even tighter than Chicago.
“We run a lot of those road course, street course type of events, so it’s something we’re pretty familiar with over there.”
NASCAR action in Chicago begins with practice at 3:00am AEST on Sunday followed by qualifying at 4:00am. Monday’s 75-lap race commences at 4:00am, and will be broadcast live on Foxtel and Kayo.
The 2025 Supercars season resumes in Townsville on July 11-13. Tickets are on sale now. International viewers can watch the action on SuperView.
