Denny Hamlin delivered once again on Sunday, converting pole position into victory at World Wide Technology Raceway to claim his fifth win of the NASCAR Cup Series season.
The Enjoy Illinois 300 was another example of the Joe Gibbs Racing driver’s consistency and race management, as he controlled the final stage to secure his place in the Round of 12.
Hamlin started from pole position for the second week running. He quickly established himself as the driver to beat, though Kyle Larson and Chase Briscoe made sure the race was anything but straightforward.
Briscoe took the first stage win after a strong run through the opening laps, while Larson looked sharp early but faded as track position and pit cycles shuffled the order.
By the time the checkered flag fell, Hamlin had pulled clear of Briscoe and Chase Elliott, winning by 1.620 seconds and cementing his place in the next round of the playoffs.
For Shane van Gisbergen, the day was defined by frustration. The Kiwi, making his first Cup Series start at the 1.25-mile oval, qualified a respectable 18th and was only four-tenths of a second away from Hamlin’s pole time.
His start was encouraging, climbing to 17th on the opening lap before dropping back to 21st as his car’s balance quickly became a problem.
Over the radio, he described the Trackhouse Camaro as “very loose,” saying he couldn’t carry speed and that the feel was “very different to yesterday.” Despite adjustments, the No. 88 never settled.
The first stage brought some promise. Van Gisbergen pitted under caution for Kyle Busch’s spin on lap 27, and his crew gained him valuable track position. He restarted inside the top dozen and even fought his way briefly into ninth before slipping back as the run wore on.
When the green-and-white checkered flag waved, Briscoe took the stage win ahead of Larson and Hamlin, while van Gisbergen crossed the line in 12th. His radio chatter, however, told the real story.
“The first couple of corners were good, then I got crazy tight… I feel useless,” he admitted, frustrated at how quickly the balance disappeared after restarts.
“I’m good on a restart, but once it strings out, I’ve got nothing,” he added when talking about his lack of grip.
Stage Two was even more of a grind. On the restart, he found himself shuffled backward almost immediately, struggling to hold position as the handling problems returned.
At one point, he feared a flat tyre, reporting “the front tyres just wouldn’t turn on,” but was forced to stay out, dropping through the pack until fresh tyres finally restored some stability.
Stage 2 produced a defining, ugly moment with six laps remaining in the stage when Larson and Ryan Blaney tangled while battling for fifth. Larson clipped Blaney’s rear quarters, spinning Blaney and bringing out a caution that bunched the field and prompted a late-round of stops and strategy shifts.
While Bubba Wallace surged to the front to win the stage in a two-lap sprint after a late caution, van Gisbergen had little to celebrate, crossing the line in 19th and outside the points once again.
The final 100-lap stage delivered more drama. Restarting from 17th, van Gisbergen spun in Turn 3 with 85 laps to go, bringing out another caution. Though he avoided damage, the incident cost him valuable track position.
His team later gambled by calling for a two-tyre stop, briefly cycling him toward the front of the order, but any chance of capitalising was wiped away when he was penalised for speeding on pit road.
That mistake forced a drive-through and dropped him deep into the field. From there, it became a race of survival. While Hamlin managed the lead battle perfectly, fending off Briscoe and Elliott, van Gisbergen was left trying to extract what he could from a car that had never felt right.
When the race ended, Hamlin stood in Victory Lane having secured his playoff berth, with Briscoe and Elliott on the podium and Ryan Blaney and Joey Logano completing the top five.
Van Gisbergen trailed home in 25th, sandwiched between Ross Chastain and Alex Bowman, a result that pushed him below the playoff cutline heading into Bristol.
His playoff hopes now rest on a turnaround at the half-mile Bristol bullring, where he has limited experience and a difficult Cup result earlier in the year.
Hamlin leaves Gateway with momentum and a guaranteed playoff berth, but for van Gisbergen, the Illinois 300 was a sobering reminder of how tough the Cup Series can be and how a good strategy is important, something Trackhouse still needs to work on, as well as their car setups.
Header Image: NASCAR
