The post Shane van Gisbergen wins Chicago NASCAR Xfinity Series race appeared first on NBC Sports Chicago
On the streets of Chicago, or any road course really, Van Gisbergen is one of the best drivers in NASCAR.
The 35-year-old New Zealander proved himself again on Saturday, overtaking Ty Gibbs to claim his third Xfinity Series win of the season.
Van Gisbergen started from pole position but dropped back after his pit stop, then worked his way up the order to take the lead after the late restart, leading four times in total for 14 laps.
“It was a bit frustrating with all the yellows,” he said, “but at every restart I managed to get a position and kept moving forward. I had some great battles.”
Van Gisbergen earned his first two Xfinity wins in consecutive years with Kaulig Racing last month on the road courses at Portland and Sonoma, and just like he did after those victories, he celebrated by signing a rugby ball and kicking it into the Chicago stands.
Gibbs took second, followed by Kyle Larson, Parker Kligerman and rookie Jesse Love.
“We just needed to be a little bit better, a little bit tighter,” Gibbs said. “I felt like we were pretty consistent all day.”
Larson and Van Gisbergen had a tough battle through the first stage that may have been a harbinger of what’s to come on Sunday. Larson has earned the pole position for the Cup Series race.
“It was a lot of fun,” Larson said. “Obviously, I wanted to win today, but more than anything, I wanted to learn. And I wanted to go up against him because he’s really good at making shapes and angles and passing.”
Van Gisbergen, a three-time Australian Supercars champion, was virtually unknown in the United States until he won NASCAR’s inaugural race on a rainy weekend last summer at Chicago’s downtown track, becoming the first driver to win in his Cup Series debut since Johnny Rutherford won the second qualifying race at Daytona in 1963.
This time around, he’s being closely watched every time he gets in his car and he seems to be handling the increased attention well.
“Obviously, everyone had high expectations, but I think I’ve approached it like any other week,” he said. “Like I said when I was here yesterday, I’m just focused on the oval races right now and these races are like a holiday or a fun weekend.”
“But I studied hard for this and I wanted to be good. So yeah, I just went out there and did what I had to do.”
Love led for 14 laps en route to his second Xfinity Series win of an impressive rookie season, but couldn’t hang on at the end.
Love, 19, won at Talladega in April in his ninth start for Richard Childress Racing and was in good position at Atlanta in February but ran out of gas.
The Xfinity Series returns to action next weekend at Pocono Raceway.
