Van Gisbergen caught in late big one

Shane van Gisbergen was involved in a late “big one” at the WAWA 250 NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Daytona.

As the race entered the final six laps, van Gisbergen was just outside the top 15, but proved to be in the wrong place at the wrong time on Lap 96.

The Kiwi was just one of seven cars involved in the incident which brought the red flag out and suspended the race.

Anthony Alfredo got loose going into Turn 3 before Caesar Bacarella and Jeffrey Earnhardt got together, which triggered a chain reaction.
Both Bacarella and Alfredo spun in front of the pack and all of this happened right in front of van Gisbergen, who had no choice, but to hit the back of the #45.

Joel Bilicki was also collateral damage.

The race eventually resumed in Overtime and Van Gisbergen restarted 25th and that was where he stayed as the race ended under caution due to Kaulig Racing teammate AJ Allmendinger being spun out from second at the start of the final lap.

Leading the train the whole way in Overtime was Ryan Truex, who took his second victory of 2024.

Earlier van Gisbergen started 19th and had a steady opening stage crossing the line 20th as Justin Allgaier led the way. There was an instant caution with Akinori Ogata finding trouble on the opening lap.

As the race entered the halfway mark, it was greatly interrupted by a strong of cautions.

Anthony Alfredo struck the wall coming out of turn 4 to bring a caution out at Lap 60 where SVG took the opportunity to pit and try to fix the handling of the car.

A bump draft attempt from Jesse Love did not work with Brandon Jones being sent into a spin.

Just four laps after the restart, Parker Retzlaff, Jeb Burton, Love, Jones, Josh Williams, Matt DiBenedetto, Cole Custer, Sammy Smith, Caesar Bacarella and Kyle Sieg were all caught up in a big crash at Turn 1 that was triggered around 10th place.

It all happened in front of van Gisbergen, who somehow managed to negotiate his way through all the spinning cars.

Although he rose from 22nd to 15th, he was not so lucky when the next “big one” arrived on Lap 96.

Van Gisbergen will be back in action tomorrow as he makes his first NASCAR Cup Series start at Daytona with Leigh Diffey commentating from 9.30 AEST Sunday morning.

Image: NBC

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