There are six non-oval races on the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series schedule, but only one is on a street course. That street course, the Chicago Street Course, is still the only street circuit in Cup Series history, having been added to the calendar in 2023.
There are 41 drivers on the entry list for this weekend, the most since there were 45 on the entry list for the season-opening Daytona 500. Seven total changes have been made since this past weekend's race at Atlanta Motor Speedway. There are five non-chartered (open) cars going for four spots, meaning that one driver will fail to qualify for the 40-car field.
This hasn't happened for a non-Daytona 500 race since November 2018 at Texas Motor Speedway.
The qualifying process for Sunday's 75-lap race around the 12-turn, 2.2-mile (3.541-kilometer) temporary street course in Chicago, Illinois is fairly basic. There are two 20-minute qualifying groups, and the results of those two groups are combined to set the entire starting lineup.
There are no longer any row-by-row designations based on group, and there is no longer any second round shootout for the pole position.
Yes, the drivers in the second group should theoretically have an advantage, but NASCAR has accounted for that by using the new qualifying metric. The bottom 21 drivers in the metric are set to be in the first group, and the top 20 are set to have the advantage of being in the second.
This two-variable metric was introduced as the replacement for the former four-variable metric, which was used from 2020 to 2024, ahead of the 2025 season. A full breakdown of this formula can be found here.
Here are the qualifying groups for Sunday's race.
NASCAR at Chicago: Full qualifying order
Group 1
1 - Will Brown, No. 13 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet
2 - Austin Hill, No. 33 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet
3 - Corey Heim, No. 67 23XI Racing Toyota
4 - Josh Bilicki, No. 66 Garage 66 Ford
5 - Daniel Suarez, No. 99 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet
6 - Austin Cindric, No. 2 Team Penske Ford
7 - Riley Herbst, No. 35 23XI Racing Toyota
8 - Ryan Blaney, No. 12 Team Penske Ford
9 - Joey Logano, No. 22 Team Penske Ford
10 - Josh Berry, No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing Ford
11 - Chase Briscoe, No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota
12 - Noah Gragson, No. 4 Front Row Motorsports Ford
13 - Todd Gilliland, No. 34 Front Row Motorsports Ford
14 - Shane van Gisbergen, No. 88 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet
15 - William Byron, No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet
16 - Ross Chastain, No. 1 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet
17 - Justin Haley, No. 7 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet
18 - John Hunter Nemechek, No. 42 Legacy Motor Club Toyota
19 - Cole Custer, No. 41 Haas Factory Team Ford
20 - Denny Hamlin, No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota
21 - Christopher Bell, No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota
Group 2
22 - Katherine Legge, No. 78 Live Fast Motorsports Chevrolet
23 - Austin Dillon, No. 3 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet
24 - Kyle Busch, No. 8 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet
25 - Cody Ware, No. 51 Rick Ware Racing Ford
26 - Bubba Wallace, No. 23 23XI Racing Toyota
27 - Michael McDowell, No. 71 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet
28 - Ty Gibbs, No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota
29 - Ryan Preece, No. 60 RFK Racing Ford
30 - Ty Dillon, No. 10 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet
31 - A.J. Allmendinger, No. 16 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet
32 - Kyle Larson, No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet
33 - Zane Smith, No. 38 Front Row Motorsports Ford
34 - Carson Hocevar, No. 77 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet
35 - Ricky Stenhouse Jr., No. 47 Hyak Motorsports Chevrolet
36 - Brad Keselowski, No. 6 RFK Racing Ford
37 - Chris Buescher, No. 17 RFK Racing Ford
38 - Erik Jones, No. 43 Legacy Motor Club Toyota
39 - Alex Bowman, No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet
40 - Tyler Reddick, No. 45 23XI Racing Toyota
41 - Chase Elliott, No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet
TNT Sports is set to provide live coverage of the Grant Park 165 from the Chicago Street Course beginning at 2:00 p.m. ET this Sunday, July 6.