Shane van Gisbergen had an eventful day at Portland International Raceway but, as the announcers termed it, “Stayed in the game.” He grabbed the lead after a restart with five laps to go and held off Justin Allgaier to earn his first career NASCAR Xfinity Series victory on Saturday (June 1).
SVG debuted in the NASCAR Cup Series with a win at the Chicago street course in 2023. In his rookie Xfinity season, he went to victory lane in the lone standalone race of the season.
“Firstly I’m very sorry to Sam Mayer and the No. 1 team for the first corner,” van Gisbergen told FOX Sports 1 after climbing victoriously out of his racecar. “I just mucked up there and just clipped him so very sorry. He got back well. But, yeah, Quad Lock Chevy, Kaulig Racing and Trackhouse guys, yeah, what a day. It was really cool and some great racing. I really need to be better on my restarts and learn how to position. That was so much fun. Really, really cool racing; I love these cars.
“I just do whatever comes to mind but probably need to tune it, need a bit more steering and I spun out so I’ll do that better for next time.”
Allgaier won stages one and two and controlled the restarts late in the race, but lost the lead to SVG with four to go and couldn’t run him down. Allgaier wound up second.
“I don’t know,” Allgaier said dejectedly post-race. “I think that under those restarts, you know, we were so free taking off and the car was just struggling to get grip. Once I got those tires hot it was really, really good. And that’s the hardest part, you know, just once he got by me there I probably over-drove it trying to get back to him and probably didn’t help my cause any. But really proud of this team, all the effort this team puts forth is truly incredible. To come here two years in a row and finish second two years in a row stings a little bit but at the same time really proud of everybody at Brandt, had the cherries on the car and it looked good. I had a bunch of guests here. Just all in all, it was a rough day. Nothing more to say about it.”
Allgaier fended off van Gisbergen on the previous restart, but a multi-car crash occurred shortly thereafter.
While Allgaier prevailed on the final restart, van Gisbergen stayed within reach and then made the winning pass.
Fellow JR Motorsports driver Sammy Smith finished third followed by AJ Allmendinger in fourth and Ed Jones, in his second career NXS race,…
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