Shane van Gisbergen and Kyle Larson put on a thrilling Xfinity Series battle on the streets of Chicago, with the Kiwi eventually taking the Loop 110 race win.
It was the second win at Chicago for the Kiwi driver.
The two champion drivers – Larson and van Gisbergen – set the tone immediately, exchanging the lead sometimes three and four times in a single lap from the drop of the green flag. Larson, the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series champion, led the first six laps and van Gisbergen, a three-time Australian Supercars Series champion who won last year’s inaugural NASCAR Cup Series race in Chicago, led the next nine laps to claim the Stage 1 win in the process.
Once he was clear of Larson, the 35-year-old van Gisbergen got his No. 97 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet around Joe Gibbs Racing’s Ty Gibbs with two laps remaining and charged off to his series third win of the year, 1.287 seconds ahead of Gibbs and Larson.
“That’s awesome, what a great race. It was pretty wild there at the end, but I can’t thank the Kaulig Racing guys enough. It was great racing to start with Kyle (Larson). He was really good on the restarts, and we made our car better with the second set of tires, but whooo, that was fun at the end passing all those guys. Had some great racing with everyone.”
“It was cool we were waving at each other, thumbs up,” Van Gisbergen said of racing Larson early. “Really respectful but big moves. He was amazing on the brakes and on the bumps. Really cool. I learned a lot and he probably learned a lot off me.”
Larson paid tribute to the close but clean battle.
“I was having a blast. He was obviously way faster than me and I think he was having fun just playing with me. I wanted to use this race to learn, and I wanted to take the first opportunity I got to battle him. We were going to give each other space because it was early on, but you just never know when the race plays out, if I’m gonna have a chance to battle him and learn race-craft stuff. So that was big on my agenda and I feel like I learned quite a bit, battling him and creating different angles and all that.”
The second day did not go as well.
Van Gisbergen came into the second day’s Cup race at Chicago with high hopes. He started fifth and quickly found his way into the race lead, taking the top spot from Ty Gibbs as they navigated slower traffic in a three-wide move exiting the final corner. He went on to win the opening stage, which ended under caution as the rain picked up.
The entire field moved to wet-weather tires for the start of the second stage. Van Gisbergen was fifth after pitstops, but never got the chance to fight his way back to the front. On the opening lap of the restart, Chase Briscoe lost control entering Turn 6, locking up the tires and aquaplaning. He clipped the rear of Van Gisbergen’s car as he turned into the corner. Van Gisbergen slammed the outside wall and was unable to continue.
