July 6, 2024 | By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service

Shane van Gisbergen captures battle-tested NASCAR Xfinity Series Chicago victory

CHICAGO, Ill. — Shane van Gisbergen put on a master class Saturday afternoon, winning the NASCAR Xfinity Series’ The Loop 110 at the Chicago Street Race. The New Zealander led early and, again, led late to claim his third consecutive series road course win and second race win on the 2.2-mile downtown Chicago streets.

Fans who experienced monsoon-like rains at last year’s inaugural NASCAR visit to the Windy City could not have asked for a more ideal summer afternoon on Saturday. People in the packed grandstands – nearly half taking in their first NASCAR event according to Chicago Street Race President Julie Guise – enjoyed blue skies, a comfortable breeze and temperatures in the mid-70s.

And they enjoyed a highly competitive spirited race, with van Gisbergen and Californian Kyle Larson dicing it up, door-to-door, front-fender to back bumper from the drop of the green flag and then van Gisbergen charging through the field to claim the lead again in the final laps.

In the end, the 35-year old van Gisbergen got his No. 97 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet around Joe Gibbs Racing’s Ty Gibbs with two laps remaining and charged off to his series best third win of the year by a healthy 1.287 seconds over Gibbs and Larson.

“That’s awesome, what a great race,’’ said a grinning van Gisbergen after kicking a rugby ball into the cheering crowd as is his established NASCAR victory celebration.

“It was pretty wild there at the end, but I can’t thank the Kaulig Racing guys enough. It was great racing to start with Kyle [Larson]. He was really good on the restarts and we made our car better with the second set of tires, but whooo, that was fun at the end passing all those guys. Had some great racing with everyone.’’

Van Gisbergen who also claimed road course wins at Portland and Sonoma, Calif. led 14 laps as did Richard Childress Racing’s Jesse Love – most on the afternoon. Big Machine Racing’s Parker Kligerman finished fourth; his best result of the season and Love was fifth.

The two champion drivers – Larson and van Gisbergen – set the tone immediately, exchanging the lead sometimes three and four times in a single lap from the drop of the green flag. Larson, the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series champion, led the first six laps and van Gisbergen, a three-time Australian Supercars Series champion who won last year’s inaugural NASCAR Cup Series race in Chicago, led the next nine laps to claim the Stage 1 win in the process.

“It was cool we were waving at each other, thumbs up,’’ Van Gisbergen said of racing Larson early. “Really respectful but big moves. He was amazing on the brakes and on the bumps. Really cool. I learned a lot and he probably learned a lot off me. Hope to race him again for the win tomorrow.’’

Larson, who will start from pole position in Sunday’s Grant Park 165 NASCAR Cup Series race, had been looking forward to the chance to race up front with van Gisbergen.

“I was having a blast,’’ Larson said. “Obviously I wanted to win today but I wanted to learn more than anything. I wanted to get to battle with him because he’s just really good at creating shapes and angles and passing. That was an objective of mine and the first opportunity I got, I wanted to get racing because I just didn’t know if I’d have another opportunity to race with him.

“My car seemed to be a little better than his for a lap or two which helped me get by him and was able to protect and stuff but he was so much better than me.’’

Varying pit stop strategies adjusted the field mid-race. Many – such as Love – pitted during the first stage break at Lap 15. Van Gisbergen, Gibbs and Larson pit during a caution period later on lap 24. That shuffled the field putting those three early frontrunners playing catch-up in the closing laps.

With six laps to go and van Gisbergen making his way forward, his Chevy was hit from behind by Sam Mayer’s Chevy in the Turn 12 corner forcing van Gisbergen’s Chevrolet to scrape the wall. He fell off the bumper of then race leaders, Gibbs and Love but stayed in the third position.

He got around the two with three laps remaining. And Gibbs said looking back, he probably should have raced van Gisbergen a little more aggressively in the final laps

“We had a bad pit stop and I feel like I used my stuff up a lot to get back through the field,’’ said Gibbs, whose team had a problem on the tire change. “I’d say it would have been close in the end though.’’

Connor Mosack, Austin Hill, NASCAR Cup Series regular Joey Logano, Justin Allgaier and Austin Green rounded out the top 10. It was the first Xfinity Series start for Logano since 2019. It was the third top 10 in four career series starts for the 23-year old Green – all coming on road courses.

Last year’s Chicago race winner, Stewart-Haas Racing’s Cole Custer, finished 18th despite dealing with various issues throughout the afternoon – including a pit stop penalty. He now holds a 38-point lead over JR Motorsports driver Justin Allgaier in the standings. Joe Gibbs Racing’s Chandler Smith dropped to third place in the championship after finishing last – 38th – with an engine problem suffered only five laps into the race.

Van Gisbergen’s effort now gives him a series best 17 Playoff points and his three wins are most in the series this year.

The NASCAR Xfinity Series travels back east to Pocono (Pa.) Raceway for next Saturday’s Explore the Pocono Mountains 225 (3 p.m. ET, USA Network, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).  Hill is the defending race winner.



NASCAR Xfinity Series Race Number 18
Race Results for the The Loop 110 - Saturday, July 6, 2024
Chicago Street Race - Chicago, IL - 2.2 - Mile Paved

Total Race Length - 50 Laps - 110. Miles

Provided by NASCAR Statistics - Saturday, 7/6/2024 @ 05:49 PM Eastern

Fin Str Car Driver Team Laps Stage 1 Pos Stage 2 Pos Pts Status Tms Laps Playoff Pts
1 1 97 Shane Van Gisbergen # WeatherTech Chevrolet 50 1 10 51 Running 4 14 6
2 4 19 Ty Gibbs(i) He Gets Us Toyota 50 3 6 0 Running  
3 2 17 Kyle Larson(i) HendrickCars.com Chevrolet 50 2  0 Running 3 12
4 7 48 Parker Kligerman Spiked Lite Tropical Coolers Chevrolet 50 10 7 38 Running  
5 8 2 Jesse Love # WAT Chevrolet 50 7 3 44 Running 1 14
6 3 88 Connor Mosack(i) Porter Pipe & Supply Chevrolet 50 4  38 Running  
7 13 21 Austin Hill Dow Coatings Chevrolet 50 8 1 43 Running 1 8 1
8 15 15 Joey Logano(i) Klutch Vodka Ford 50   0 Running  
9 36 7 Justin Allgaier BRANDT Chevrolet 50  4 35 Running  
10 19 32 Austin Green 3Dimensional.com Chevrolet 50   27 Running  
11 11 16 AJ Allmendinger Celsius Chevrolet 50 6  31 Running  
12 30 11 Josh Williams Alloy Employer Services Chevrolet 50   25 Running  
13 14 8 Sammy Smith Allstate Peterbilt Group Chevrolet 50  2 33 Running 1 2
14 28 91 Kyle Weatherman Beard Guyz Chevrolet 50   23 Running  
15 23 27 Jeb Burton NORMA Ammunition/Grand Springs Chevrolet 50   22 Running  
16 22 39 Ryan Sieg Sci Aps Ford 50   21 Running  
17 32 9 Brandon Jones Menards/Fisher Nuts Chevrolet 50   20 Running  
18 10 00 Cole Custer Andy's Frozen Custard Ford 50 5  25 Running  
19 5 1 Sam Mayer PCI Pharma Services Chevrolet 50 9 8 23 Running  
20 25 44 Brennan Poole Toxic Waste Energy Drink Chevrolet 50   17 Running  
21 27 43 Ryan Ellis Snapchat Less Likes More Love Chevrolet 50   16 Running  
22 35 28 Kyle Sieg RSS Racing Ford 50   15 Running  
23 26 38 Matt DiBenedetto Rema Ford 50   14 Running  
24 29 29 Blaine Perkins Crocodile Cloth Ford 50   13 Running  
25 6 20 John Hunter Nemechek(i) Jewel Osco Toyota 50  9 0 Running  
26 37 18 Sheldon Creed Friends of Jaclyn Foundation Toyota 50  5 17 Running  
27 31 36 Daniel Suarez(i) Van Der Hagen Chevrolet 50   0 Running  
28 20 98 Riley Herbst Monster Energy Ford 47   9 Overheating  
29 16 07 Alex Labbe Flood Brothers Chevrolet 45   8 Running  
30 18 5 Anthony Alfredo Dude Wipes Chevrolet 45   7 Running  
31 21 42 Leland Honeyman # Klean Freak Chevrolet 44   6 Accident  
32 17 50 Preston Pardus Chinchor Electric Inc. Chevrolet 38   5 Electrical  
33 38 26 Sage Karam COLTURE Sports Toyota 37   4 Accident  
34 12 31 Parker Retzlaff FUNKAWAY Chevrolet 36   3 Accident  
35 33 14 Andre Castro eRacing Association Chevrolet 34   2 Accident  
36 24 92 Josh Bilicki Insurance King Chevrolet 34   1 Accident  
37 34 51 Jeremy Clements Impel Union Chevrolet 15   1 Accident  
38 9 81 Chandler Smith Smith General Contracting Toyota 5   1 Engine  

Time of Race: 1 Hrs, 56 Mins, 45 Secs. Average Speed: 56.531 MPH Margin of Victory: 1.287 Seconds

Stage 1 Top 10: 97, 17, 19, 88, 00, 16, 2, 21, 1, 48
Stage 2 Top 10: 21, 8, 2, 7, 18, 19, 48, 1, 20, 97

Failed to Qualify: (5) 4 Ty Dillon(i), 6 Thomas Annunziata, 53 Kenko Miura, 35 Brad Perez, 45 Alon Day.

Caution Flags: 7 for 16 laps; Laps: 9-10 (Debris turn 6 [29]); 17-18 (Stage 1 Conclusion [51]); 24-25 (#16 incident turn 6 [29]); 32-34 (Stage 2 Conclusion [29]); 37-39 (#92, 14, 26, 29, 28, 31, 27 incident turn 11 [None]); 41-42 (#50 stalled on track [29]); 46-47 (#42 incident turn 1 [5]).

Lead Changes: 9 among 5 drivers; S. Van Gisbergen # 1-2; K. Larson(i) 3-5; S. Van Gisbergen # 6-10; K. Larson(i) 11-14; S. Van Gisbergen # 15-18; K. Larson(i) 19-23; S. Smith 24-25; A. Hill 26-33; J. Love # 34-47; S. Van Gisbergen # 48-50.

(i) Ineligible for driver points in this series

Next Race: July 13, 2024 - Pocono Raceway

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