NASCAR
Shane van Gisbergen scores Chicago hat trick with second Xfinity win
CHICAGO, Ill. – Pole, 27 laps led, and late restart magic highlighted a rare Xfinity Series start at Chicago for Shane van Gisbergen. The winner of last year’s Loop 110 picked up right where he left off, hardly putting a wheel wrong all afternoon. For the fourth time and third-straight year in the Windy City, Shane van Gisbergen is best in class on Saturday.
From the pole, prerace favorite Shane van Gisbergen led every lap of the opening Stage. This first run saw co-favorite Connor Zilisch rebound nicely, from starting 35th to finish eighth at the green-checkered flag.
Stage 2 saw SVG relinquish the lead to pit, and Sheldon Creed take this win from Jesse Love with a late pass.
SVG was initially buried in the pack by being almost the only car to pit late in Stage 2. A badly-timed caution seemed to be a poor turn of events for the No. 9 team. Thanks to a long green flag run in Stage 3, however, van Gisbergen was able to claw his way forward. Fresher tires than the leaders eventually saw SVG retake second-place with nine laps left.
A caution flew with five laps to go erased the gap SVG had to teammate Connor Zilisch. On the restart with two laps left, van Gisbergen got the upper hand over Zilisch thanks to some elbows-out driving into turn one. Zilisch’s No. 88 made slight wall contact but was able to continue. Meanwhile SVG drove off into the sunset and back to a very familiar victory lane.
“Unreal, thought it was going to be a lost cause when the strategy went wrong,” van Gisbergen said. “But it worked out well. Thanks to JRM, the car was a rocket, WeatherTech, Red Bull. Awesome day.”
“I knew [the strategy call] was what we were going to do, but when so many cars didn’t follow us, it was a bit of a worry. Then we had tire grip at the end and yeah, really cool battles with everyone, I enjoyed it.”
“[Connor Zilisch] is a great young driver and this was the first time I really raced him. I knew that was my opportunity and took it. Yeah it was an awesome 1-2 for the team.”
“I’m lucky to have some great cars this weekend, driving for some great teams, so I really look forward to tomorrow.”
Behind the front JRM duo, Sheldon Creed, Austin Hill, and Nick Sanchez were the top-five. The rest of the top-10 were: Jesse Love, Sammy Smith, Sam Mayer, Austin Green, and Brennan Poole.
SVG winning as a Cup Series full-time driver has little impact on the Xfinity Series Playoff picture. Take a look at the updated standings below, with eight races left until their postseason begins.
Van Gisbergen will try and go back-to-back again next Saturday at Sonoma Raceway. SVG returns to the JRM No. 9 Chevrolet, hoping to also stay undefeated in wine country. The Pitt Boss/FoodMaxx 250 goes green at 4:30 p.m. ET on The CW, PRN, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
Written by Peter Stratta
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Photo Credits to Logan Riely/Getty Images
