CHICAGO, Ill. – New Zealander Shane van Gisbergen shocked the NASCAR world last year when he won the inaugural NASCAR Cup Series race at the Chicago Street Course. On Saturday, the Kaulig Racing driver won again in the Windy City, and this time, it was in the NASCAR Xfinity Series’ The Loop 110.

With his third win of the season, Gisbergen has now won every road course race so far this season in the NASCAR Xfinity Series. He started the race from the pole, for the first half of the race, Gisbergen swapped the lead back and forth with 2021 NASCAR Cup Series champion Kyle Larson. The intense battle between the two drivers were broken up by the varying strategies, but in the closing laps, both drivers were battling for the win.

“It was cool we were waving at each other, thumbs up,’’ Gisbergen said about the battles with Larson. “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. Hope to race him again for the win tomorrow.’’

On the final restart of the day with just three laps to go, Gisbergen restarted in third, but he quickly regained the lead after passing Ty Gibbs with only two laps remaining. Gisbergen led 14 laps throughout the day. In 18 NASCAR Xfinity Series starts this season, Gisbergen has now earned four top-five finishes.

“That was a fun race,” Gisbergen said. “It’s great to get another win in my WeatherTech Chevy in its [WeatherTech] home city. Chicago is a special place to me! It’s a really good place for street racing. Proud of my No. 97 Kaulig Racing team and thankful for Trackhouse Racing, Chevrolet, Kaulig Racing and WeatherTech for making this all possible. It’s been really cool learning, getting good results and adding [checkered flag] stickers to the side of my car. Excited to get another shot at it tomorrow!”

Gibbs held on to finish second. The Joe Gibbs Racing driver was strong all day, but his team suffered a tire gun failure on pit road, and Gibbs had to battle back through the field while also fighting a loose race car.

“There was a lot going on in that race,” Gibbs said. “We came in for our pit stop and lost a ton of spots, we had a (tire) gun blow out, so unfortunate on that side. I think we were just a little too loose the whole time, whole day. Just too loose to get off, that’s what hurt us. But overall, for track time, I had a great time.”

Following the runner-up effort, Gibbs shared his perspective for the battle for the win in the closing laps.

“He (van Gisbergen) just seemed like he set him up really well getting into (turn) 6 and had him pointed in a whole different direction,” Gibbs said. “And he could cross him back over quickly and jump inside and get his nose far out enough to where (Jesse) Love is going to have to lift because at that point it doesn’t make sense to run the corner next to him. It seems like he just did a really good job setting him up.”

Kyle Larson finished third after working his way back through the field. Despite coming up short after leading 12 laps, Larson did have a fairly successful day as he learned how to better navigate the 2.2-mile street course during his intense battles with van Gisbergen.

“I was having a blast,’’ Larson said. “Obviously I wanted to win today but I wanted to learn more than anything. I wanted to get to battle with him because he’s just really good at creating shapes and angles and passing. That was an objective of mine and the first opportunity I got, I wanted to get racing because I just didn’t know if I’d have another opportunity to race with him.

Parker Kligerman and Jesse Love rounded out the top-five. Completing the top-10 was Connor Mosack, Austin Hill, Joey Logano, Justin Allgaier and Austin Green.

Van Gisbergen won Stage 1, and Hill won Stage 2.

Love and van Gisbergen both led a race high of 14 laps. There were nine lead changes among five drivers.

The caution flew on seven occasions for 16 laps.

Cole Custer leads Allgaier in the standings by 38 points.

From the streets of Chicago to the Tricky Triangle, the NASCAR Xfinity Series will visit Pocono Raceway on Saturday, July 13. Live coverage of the Explore The Pocono Mountains 225 will broadcast live on USA at 3 p.m. ET.

Photo Credit: Christopher Vargas/TheFourthTurn.com