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Shane van Gisbergen earns back-to-back wins

Shane van Gisbergen earns back-to-back wins


Van Gisbergen, who had some struggles in the race, returned to the lead on a restart with 11 of 79 laps remaining after door-slamming then-leader Austin Hill.

From there, van Gisbergen held off first Sam Mayer and then a late charge from Sheldon Creed by 1.323 seconds to claim his second straight Xfinity win. He earned his first series win last week at Portland.

 

The 35-year-old Kiwi now has three NASCAR victories – all on road courses. He won last year’s inaugural Cup Series Chicago Street Race in his first NASCAR start.

“The car got beat up again but what a race,” he said. “On that last restart, I was giving it all I had and two guys going for the same real estate come together. It was pretty awesome, though.

“When you’re out front you hear all the little noises. What a race. Really good battles with everyone all day, had a blast.”

Asked about the last restart after the race Hill chose his words carefully.

“I saw the replay, I don’t know. I’m going to leave it to the keyboard warriors on this one. It seems like every time I make a comment it’s wrong,” he said. “I knew it was going to be tough to hold him off but I thought we could do it.

“I plead the fifth. I’m not going to say anything about it.”

Mayer ended up third, Austin Green finished a career-best fourth and Hill – after briefly going off course in the skirmish with van Gisbergen – ended up fifth.

Completing the top-10 were Justin Allgaier, Chandler Smith, John Hunter Nemechek, Cole Custer and Parker Kligerman.

Stage 1

With several drivers pitting just before the break, van Gisbergen stayed out and cruised to a more than 12-second Stage 1 win over A.J. Allmendinger. Hill was third, Kligerman fourth and Nemechek fifth.

Stage 2

Ty Gibbs led every green flag lap on his way to 6.655-second Stage 2 win over van Gisbergen. Jesse Love finished third, Creed fourth and Custer rounded out the top five.

Stage 3

During the break between Stages 2 and 3, a handful of drivers elected to pit, but Hill remained on the track and inherited the lead. Hill led Green and Allmendinger when the race returned to green with 29 laps to go.

As the field entered Turn 3, a 13-car wreck erupted that brought the field briefly to a halt as cars attempted to clear the track. Among those involved were Gibbs, Jeb Burton, Josh Williams and Brandon Jones.

 

At one point in the aftermath, Gibbs was spinning his car to get out of the mess and ended up hitting…

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