By David Morgan, Associate Editor
CHICAGO – Just when the NASCAR Xfinity Series field thought it had Shane van Gisbergen covered, he showed them how it’s done, winning Saturday’s The Loop 121 on the Streets of Chicago.
With two road course wins already in 2024 and a Cup Series win on the Chicago street course last season in his back pocket, van Gisbergen came in as the overwhelming favorite and rightfully so.
Rolling off from the pole alongside Kyle Larson, it was a heavyweight fight for the New Zealander and Larson through the first half of the race as the two drivers raced each other hard, but respectful as they traded the lead back and forth.
When the caution flag flew for A.J. Allmendinger’s visit to the Turn 6 tire barrier on Lap 23, the two leaders took the right hand turn down onto pit road, dropping them back in the field for the ensuing restart, where van Gisbergen would be ranked outside the top-20.
They may have had Superman down, but he was far from out.
By the time the second stage ended on Lap 32, SVG had cracked the top-10 once more with his sights on reclaiming his place at the front of the field.
Lap after lap, he picked off his prey, climbing back into the top-five when the penultimate caution of the day flew on Lap 41.
On the ensuing restart, he surpassed Sam Mayer, then Austin Hill, then Sheldon Creed.
As he threatened to continue his surge to the front by eclipsing second-place Ty Gibbs and race leader Jesse Love, his car kicked sideways and sideswiped the wall outside the final turn with seven laps to go, causing him to lose valuable track position.
Now a second off the leaders, van Gisbergen would have some work to do to close the gap, but when the final caution flag flew the following lap, he had his second chance.
A three-lap dash to the finish was all that remained as Love and Gibbs would have to have the restart of their lives to hold off the hard-charging SVG. Ultimately, both drivers were sitting ducks.
It didn’t even take one corner for van Gisbergen to get past Gibbs, turning his attention to Love and the race lead.
Analyzing his opponent corner after corner, van Gisbergen made his race-winning move into Turn 7, diving low on Love in the right-hander to take the lead. With Gibbs pouncing on the now vulnerable Love as a result, he was powerless to respond, giving van Gisbergen the breathing room he needed to run out the rest of the race.
SVG would pull out to a lead…
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