NASCAR: Van Gisbergen schools Zilisch in Chicago Xfinity race

Shane van Gisbergen schooled his young JR Motorsports teammate Conor Zilisch in winning Saturday’s The Loop 110 NASCAR Xfinity race on the streets of Chicago.

With his cool suit malfunctioning on a hot day on the 2.2-mile, 12-turn Chicago Street Course, van Gisbergen out-braked runner-up Connor Zilisch and ran him wide into Turn 1 with two laps left in the marquee event.

With Zilisch in determined but futile pursuit, van Gisbergen crossed the finish line 0.823 seconds ahead of his fellow Red Bull athlete to post his first NASCAR Xfinity Series victory in his only start this season, his second straight win in Chicago and the fourth of his career.

Van Gisbergen, the pole winner, had to overcome not only the heat but also a balky carburetor and questionable strategy that kept him on the track before the end of Stage 1, while the vast majority of cars behind him came to pit road for tires and fuel.

“The strategy went wrong, but it worked out well,” said van Gisbergen, who also will start on the pole in Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race. “The car was a rocket. (Zilisch) is a great young driver, and that was the first time I’ve really raced him. I knew that was my opportunity, and I took it. Awesome 1-2 for the team.”

The 36-year-old New Zealander, a three-time Australian Supercars champion, is the sixth different driver to win for JR Motorsports this year, the most in series history for an organization in a single season. Due to the heat and malfunctioned cool suit, SVG visited the infield care center and was later treated and released.

Zilisch acknowledged he was surprised at the aggressiveness of van Gisbergen’s attack in Turn 1, though he insisted it wasn’t a dirty move.

“I was clear there, just barely, on the front straight, and I just let him get to my inside, and he took advantage of it,” said Zilisch, who started 35th after hitting a tire barrier during practice earlier in the day. “I should have been a little more aggressive there. I just thought he was going to race me a little cleaner.

“I’ve just got to be better and not let that stuff happen. I’ll learn from it and move on.”

Third-place Sheldon Creed was the best of the rest, finishing 3.141 seconds behind the race winner. Creed led the field to green for a restart with 13 laps left but lost the top spot to Zilisch before he got back to the start/finish line.

“I’ve got to get better at road-course racing,” Creed said. “Those guys are really good, and when SVG got to me, I just let him go because he had way more pace. Maybe I could get them racing and give me a shot.”

Clearly, that didn’t happen.

By staying on the track late in the 15-lap first stage, van Gisbergen was mired mid-pack when he eventually pitted on Lap 26. He restarted 19th on Lap 29 after an inopportune debris caution and quickly worked his way forward.

By Lap 36, he was seventh and began a determined pursuit of Zilisch, who led Laps 38 to 48. On Lap 44, with Zilisch saving fuel, van Gisbergen ran the fastest lap of the race (90.947 seconds) and cut Zilisch’s lead from 3.5 seconds to 2.3 seconds before Andre Castro planted his car in the Turn 6 tire barrier to cause the sixth and final caution and set up the two-lap shootout.

On fresher tires, the one benefit of the later pit stop, van Gisbergen prevailed. Van Gisbergen led 27 laps to Zilisch’s 11 and Creed’s nine.

Austin Hill ran fourth and Atlanta winner Nick Sanchez finished fifth. Jesse Love, Sammy Smith, Sam Mayer, Austin Green and Brennan Poole completed the top 10.

Chicago Street Race Xfinity Results