Van Gisbergen salvages top six in Overtime
Shane van Gisbergen came from the clouds to finish sixth in an impressive fightback from a penalty in the NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Watkins Glen, while he also put himself in a strong position for the Cup Series.
After picking up a speeding penalty during his last trip to pit road on Lap 68, a top five appeared impossible for van Gisbergen as he was 24th with 15 laps left.
However, a red flag then double Overtime finish provided the perfect opportunity for the Kiwi to charge through the field.
After chaos at Turn 1 and the Inner Loop, the filled up #97 sat fourth ahead of the final run to the flag with the top three of Zilisch, Mayer and Allmendinger all with fuel concerns having last stopped 20 laps earlier than SVG.
As rookie Connor Zilisch saved enough fuel to drive to a special win, van Gisbergen found himself in some crazy battles across the final two laps.
He ran side by side with teammate Allmendinger for the first two thirds of the penultimate lap and snatched second, only to be pushed on the back foot by Sheldon Creed.
A string of thrilling door to door three-wide skirmishes saw van Gisbergen drop back to sixth before the race finally ended when a huge multi-car smash up occured on the back straight right behind the Kiwi.
It was a mighty drive having started the race from the back and it only gave the Kiwi further cause for celebrations having also a productive day in the NASCAR Cup Series, qualifying third.
Van Gisbergen posted a 1:12.376, which was 0.246s off pole sitter Ross Chastain from Trackhouse Racing, while Martin Truex Jr stopped the Kiwi from getting on the front row.
After qualifying 13th, Van Gisbergen was one of five cars sent to the back of the grid.
Within nine laps the #97 charged to 20th before making an early pit stop on Lap 20, which dropped the Kaulig driver all the way down to 36th and almost a lap down before the opening stage was won by Connor Zilisch.
But the early stop meant van Gisbergen stayed out during the caution and was able to regain significant ground, returning to the top 10 for the start of Stage 2.
The sister Kaulig Racing Camaro of AJ Allmendinger led the field for five laps before being overtaken by Byron.
After being accounted for by Byron, Allmendinger almost spun and missed the inner loop due to a flat right and had to suffer a stop go, dropping him out of contention.
Three laps before the conclusion of Stage 2, van Gisbergen pitted and dropped to 31st as Byron took the segment.
Having again regained ground by staying out over the caution, van Gisbergen restarted ninth and within a lap from the restart he rose to sixth before Justin Allgaier and Mike Skeen spun at the penultimate corner.
There was high drama during the caution as the top three of Gibbs, Mayer and Zilisch short cut inner loop to save fuel and were sent to the back of the field as a result.
This prompted SVG to third behind Custer and Byron when racing resumed with 33 to go.
Byron was the first to make a move, snatching the lead from Custer, who was gobbled up by van Gisbergen a lap later.
With 30 laps left, this made it a two-car battle with van Gisbergen needing to slash the best part of a second to catch Byron.
But before he could, the Hendrick Motorsports star was the first to pit on Lap 53, releasing the Kiwi, who built a 10s gap over Zilisch before making the crucial final stop on Lap 68.
Van Gisbergen rejoined 15th, but his hope of charging to victory was destroyed by speeding through pit road.
As a result the #97 was down in 24th, while Byron also made an unscheduled visit to the lane having felt a vibration.
Zilisch found himself with a 6s lead over Creed, but desperately trying to save fuel.
Helping him was the fact his nearest rivals Creed and Gibbs were battling for second until the latter finally got by with seven laps left.
Zilisch’s lead was slashed when a caution arrived for the stopped Matt DiBenedetto at the inner loop.
A two-lap sprint was in prospect but a big shunt involving Ed Jones, Austin Hill, Anthony Alfredo, William Byron and Sammy Smith brought van Gisbergen back into play.
As cars were spinning in the outfield, the Kiwi made a good move on the inside to not only avoid the chaos, but also gain seven spots from 16th to ninth.
Van Gisbergen restarted 16th when the two-lap sprint to the flag and charged up to eighth.
In the first attempt at overtime the Kiwi made good use of the inside again of turn 1 to jump to fifth after Gibbs ran out of gas.
The yellow returned after Brendan Jones spun into an unsighted Mike Sheen at the Inner Loop.
With leaders Zilisch, Mayer and Allmendinger all on the verge of running out of fuel having last stopped on Lap 48, van Gisbergen was well placed to fight from fourth.
As Zilisch charged into the lead van Gisbergen won a thrilling fight for second as he ran side by side with teammate Allmendinger across the first eight corners.
But SVG was muscled out of the way by Smith at the penultimate corner, which allowed Creed and Allmendinger to slip beneath him.
As they went through the Esses van Gisbergen was battling to hold and lost fifth moments before the race-ending incident.
Right behind the Kiwi Herbst got turned and produced a massive smash up.
With the #98 spinning and leaving a cloud of smoke in the middle of the back straight in front of the oncoming pack, chaos unfolfded with Austin Green, Brennan Poole, Ryan Sieg all invovled.
As the chasing pack had a battle royale for second, Zilisch was able to save enough fuel and take a dream win on debut, leaving the youngster on the verge of tears.
The Go Bowling! At the Glen NASCAR Cup Series race begins at 5.00 AEST on Fox Sports Monday morning.
2024 Sandown 500
Practice 1: 1: C. Waters 1:08.7478 2: C. Mostert +0.1445 3: D. Reynolds +0.1834
Practice 2: 1: S. Pye 1:08.8398 2: D. Fraser +0.0780 3: D. O’Keeffe +0.0785
Practice 3: 1: J. Le Brocq 1:08.2772 2: W. Brown +0.0394 3: A. Heimgartner +0.1377
Practice 4: 1: R. Stanaway 1:14.4910 2: B. Feeney +0.0361 3: L. Holdsworth +0.0422
Practice 5: 1: W. Brown 1:13.0865 2: R. Stanaway +0.1550 3: M. Payne +0.1586
Qualifying: 1: B. Feeney 1:12.8980 2: C. Mostert +0.0404 3: M. Payne +0.0879
Top 10 Shootout: 1: W. Brown 1:10.2549 2: C. Waters +0.0647 3: A. De Pasquale +0.1015
Warm up: Sun 9.55
Race: Sun 14.05 161 laps
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