Add Circuit of the Americas to the list of tracks where the NASCAR Xfinity Series put on a better show than the Cup Series. The Xfinity race saw more lead changes, more cautions for cause, better racing and a more exciting finish than its Cup counterpart.
Kyle Larson pulled out a dramatic victory on Saturday (March 23), as he pitted prior to the first of two overtimes and restarted outside the top 20 before taking the checkered flag. Despite Larson’s superhero-like driving to come back and win, it was Austin Hill and Shane van Gisbergen who had fans buzzing after the race.
This column will not be an exercise in breaking down who is right and who is wrong. Frankly, I don’t know if one could even determine that in good faith. Let’s take a moment to appreciate the spectacular racing we saw throughout the race, but especially in that second overtime.
Both drivers showed their strengths and lived up to their reputations in perfect fashion. Van Gisbergen was living up to his sky-high expectations. Much like his earth-shattering Cup win last year at the Chicago street course, the Kiwi improved as the race progressed. He finished 10th in stage one and fifth in stage two. With nine laps to go, he passed AJ Allmendinger for the lead. No small feat, as Allmendinger has been a dominant force anytime the series goes to a road course, proven by his 11 Xfinity wins on tracks with right turns.
Allemendinger and van Gisbergen drive presumably equal cars, both prepared by Kaulig Racing. The Cup win in Chicago was partially credited to the similarity of the Cup car to the Australian Supercars van Gisbergen is so familiar with. In Xfinity, that familiarity doesn’t exist. As regulation came to its final laps, SVG was driving away from Allmendinger, and his lead was over two seconds. There is no honest way to minimize how impressive of a run this was for van Gisbergen.
Hill meanwhile, wasn’t a factor for most of the race. But on the final restart, as he so often does, he found himself fighting for the lead. He lined up on the inside of the second row, pushed van Gisbergen into turn 1, and drove to a several-car-length lead after sneaking by in the turn.
Hill went on to do an admirable job holding the lead. He held it throughout the second-to-last lap, and even survived the calamity corner that is turn 1 at COTA on the final lap. He never made a mistake that gave van Gisbergen an opening. Part of what made SVG’s Chicago Cup win so…
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