It has been a tough day for Shane van Gisbergen in Michigan, running at the back of the field during stages 1 and 2 before being caught up in a pile-up during stage 3, forcing him to retire from the race. Meanwhile, Denny Hamlin fought from the back to take his second win in a row, tying the late Kyle Busch for overall race wins.
Van Gisbergen qualified in thirtieth position, ahead of both Ross Chastain and Connor Zilisch, who qualified in thirty-second and thirty-fourth.
The Kiwi quickly moved up to twenty-first before teammate Zilisch crashed on lap two, but found himself falling down the order as the stage went on. Zilisch spun again on lap eight, ending his day.
As Stage 1 ended, the Kiwi found himself in thirty-first. Current points leader Tyler Reddick took the stage win, banking more points for his season.
Van Gisbergen soon came into the lane, but found himself losing significant time as he was penalised for a safety violation, sending him back down the order to start the second stage of the race from last position.
The #97 car soon was unable to make its way back through the field, and as another caution came out for Brad Keselowski, the Kiwi sat in thirty-second.
Van Gisbergen then began reporting over the radio that the car was “undriveable” and that he was struggling to provide feedback to Stephen Doran, his crew chief.
The race slowly progressed for van Gisbergen, who found himself in twenty-second at the end of Stage 2, which was won by the #9 car of Chase Elliot.
On lap 148, Elliot lost control of his car and speared into the side of Christopher Bell, sending both cars into the wall in a significant moment, which damaged the SAFER barrier and brought out a red flag. Both drivers were reported as being okay, but were sent off to the care centre for further evaluation.
Soon after the race restarted, on lap 154, van Gisbergen was caught up in a crash of no fault of his own, as Michael McDowell got into the back of Ricky Stenhouse Jr. This caused a pileup which blocked the high line of the track, leaving the Kiwi with no where to go.
The crash caused significant damage to the front of the #97, forcing the car to retire after suffering from oil pressure issues.
Denny Hamlin went on to control the last portion of the race, taking home his second victory in a row, helping him reduce the gap to Tyler Reddick in ‘The Chase’ championship standings. Reddick retired early on after being involved in a crash with Carson Hocevar.
NASCAR will now head to Pocono, with racing kicking off on the 14th of June.
