It was a predictable result, as Shane van Gisbergen wound up in victory lane in Saturday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series The Loop 110 at the Chicago Street Course, but the polesitter had to overcome some adversity in the form of a potentially faulty carburetor and pit strategy that went awry. In the end, van Gisbergen got back to the front and had to outduel Connor Zilisch, his JR Motorsports teammate, to capture the victory.
RACE RESULTS: NASCAR Xfinity Series The Loop 110 at Chicago
“Yeah, unreal, thank you. I thought it was going to be a lost cause when the strategy went wrong,” van Gisbergen said on The CW broadcast. “But it worked out well. Thanks to JRM, the car was a rocket. WeatherTech/RedBull, yeah, unreal day.”
For van Gisbergen, the win marks the fourth of his NASCAR Xfinity Series career.
On a restart with three laps to go, Zilisch held the race lead, but the driver of the No. 88 Chevrolet couldn’t clear van Gisbergen before the duo reached Turn 1. As such, van Gisbergen had the preferred inside line heading into Turn 1, made slight contact with Zilisch, which caused Zilisch to pop the outside wall, and van Gisbergen charged to the lead.
Van Gisbergen knew if he was going to cap off his Saturday with a win in the NASCAR Xfinity Series event, it was going to come down to whether he was able to get around Zilisch on the final restart.
“He’s a great young driver. First time I’ve really raced him. I knew that was my opportunity, and I took it,” van Gisbergen stated. “Yeah, awesome 1-2 for the team.”
Now, van Gisbergen will set his sights on sweeping the weekend as he will start from the pole in Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series Grant Park 165 at the Chicago Street Course.
After van Gisbergen’s aggressive move, Zilisch would find himself locked in a three-wide battle with Sheldon Creed and Austin Hill for the runner-up spot, but he would hammer down the throttle through Turn 2 to maintain the spot.
Zilisch would then attempt to reel van Gisbergen back in for the win, and while he got close, he couldn’t quite get close enough for a dive bomb for the win.
After realizing the disappointment of having a win slip through his grasp, Zilisch lamented the aggression that his teammate gave him on the final restart of the race.
“I guess I should have just not let him get to my bottom. I was clear there, just barely on the front straight. Yeah, it just let him get to the inside, and he took advantage of it,” Zilisch explained. “So, I hate it for my 88 group. I should have just been a little more aggressive there. I just thought he was going to race me a little cleaner. So, yeah, I’ll learn from it and move on. Really cool to have RedBull / WeatherTech schemes 1-2.”
While he felt his teammate could have raced him cleaner, Zilisch reiterated that with the win on the line, what van Gisbergen did was not over the line.
“I mean, it’s racing for the win. I’m not complaining about it,” Zilisch said. “He won the race and I didn’t. I just gotta be better and not let that stuff happen. Yeah, I’ll learn from it and move on, and look forward to racing him next weekend in Sonoma.”
Sheldon Creed, who showed great speed throughout the race, would be rewarded with a solid third-place result, while Austin Hill would come home right behind him in fourth.
Nick Sanchez, who won last weekend’s race at EchoPark Speedway, would nab a fifth-place finish in the hard-fought race driving the No. 48 Big Machine Racing Chevrolet.
Jesse Love, Sammy Smith, Sam Mayer, Austin Green, and Brennan Poole would round out the top-10 finishers in the race.
Saturday was a disastrous day for the Playoff hopes of Ryan Sieg and the No. 39 RSS Racing team. The team had mechanical issues, which kept them from turning a lap in practice or qualifying on Saturday morning, and in the early laps of the race, Sieg suffered severe rear-end damage to his No. 39 Ford as he made contact with a barrier on track.
Sieg, who came into the race tied with Taylor Gray on the cutline of the Playoff Grid, would finish dead-last and will exit the Chicago Street Race 14th in the championship standings, 30 points behind Gray for the final Playoff spot.
Had Gray not suffered a crash of his own late in the race, which forced him to exit the event 12 laps shy of the finish, he likely would have further cemented himself in the NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoff Grid.
With eight races before the NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoffs begin, here is how the Playoff Grid looks:
- Justin Allgaier (Locked In, 3 wins)
- Austin Hill (Locked In, 3 wins)
- Connor Zilisch (Locked In, 2 wins)
- Brandon Jones (Locked In, 1 win)
- Sammy Smith (Locked In, 1 win)
- Jesse Love (Locked In, 1 win)
- Nick Sanchez (Locked In, 1 win)
- Sam Mayer, +149 points
- Carson Kvapil, +63
- Sheldon Creed, +30
- Jeb Burton, +12
- Taylor Gray, +8
===Cut Line===
13. Harrison Burton, -8
14. Ryan Sieg, -30
15. Christian Eckes, -60
16. Dean Thompson, 61
Next up for the NASCAR Xfinity Series is a trip to Sonoma Raceway for the Pit Boss/FoodMaxx 250 on Saturday, July 12. That race will be televised on The CW, and the television broadcast coverage will kick off at 4:30 PM ET. The Performance Racing Network (PRN) and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio will carry the radio broadcast of the event.
