Sibille’s Walk-off Win, Heim and Schildhouse Feud At Chicagoland

This MNR Review is presented by Monday Night Racing.

On Monday, Feb. 6, the Interstate Batteries Monday Night Racing Pro Series hosted the penultimate round of season six and the final opportunity for playoff drivers to secure their spot in the Championship 4 with the running of the Next Level Racing 120 in the NASCAR Trucks at Chicagoland Speedway. Leighton Sibille employed pit strategy to get his second win of the season and reserve his spot in the Championship 4. David Schildhouse slotted into second place, playoff driver Adam Cabot came home third, and Michael Fisher and James Bickford finished fourth and fifth, respectively.

Check out the race recap from Frontstretch’s Joy Tomlinson here. You can also view the full race broadcast, along with the Frontstretch post-race show, featuring Brandon Hauff and Jared Haas, on the Frontstretch YouTube Channel. Here are the top five storylines coming out of Chicagoland:

1. Sibille Walks It Off Again

Sibille is making a serious case for being called the Christopher Bell of MNR. For the second time this season, the driver of the No. 25 got a win when he needed it most, visiting victory lane after coming into Chicagoland 22 points behind the cutline, a virtual must-win situation.

At the drop of the green flag, the situation looked bleak for Sibille as he qualified 22^nd, the worst of the eight playoff drivers. He was able to gain some ground on the first green flag run, but could only get as high as 14^th, still the lowest in the running order among the playoff drivers at the time.

Sibille’s evening shifted on a pit strategy call, coming down pit road for his first stop on lap 30, one lap earlier than the rest of the field. This move would pay dividends when the field cycled through green flag pit stops, and Sibille emerged with the race lead on lap 38.

He would repeat the same strategy for his second and third pit stops on laps 60 and 88, and would retake the lead with 12 laps to go. From there, Sibille fended off the field to get his second walk-off win of the season to go along with his victory in the regular season finale at Talladega.

“That feels really good,” Sibille said to Eric Estep post-race. “We just didn’t have the raw pace. It was a hard-fought race, but my number one shot around Chicagoland was to short-pit these guys, and it worked out.”