Shane van Gisbergen’s Xfinity Series playoff hopes have been left hanging by a thread after he was involved in a large Stage 3 crash while running deep within the top ten.
The three-time race winner had shown great pace all afternoon after qualifying eighth and had battled amongst the lead group for most of the race, even taking points for finishing Stage 2 in fourth.
His progress would come undone on Lap 76 of 94, however, with van Gisbergen nudged up high from the inside lane and dropping back down into formation on the nose of Dean Thompson.
The light contact put the #97 below the yellow line, with the Kiwi initially saving his car. The lane next to him, however, backed up, resulting in Thompson being collected from behind and turned left into the Kiwi’s car.
The contact from Thompson sent the #97 up and across the track, collecting several drivers, including Austin Hill, David Starr, Taylor Gray, Josh Williams, and Jordan Anderson, along the way.
The collision saw the #97 require a tow back to pit lane, and forced van Gisbergen from the race.
As a result, he will fall below the playoff cutoff with only one race remaining in the Round of 12, essentinally creating a must-win scenario for next weekend’s outing on the Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course (Roval).
At the time of publication, a red flag for another multi-car incident has delayed the start of overtime, with Riley Herbst leading Chandler Smith and Sammy Smtih ahead of the two-lap dash to the flag.
As it happened
Rookie playoff contender Jesse Love led the field to green but was quickly overtaken by Austin Hill, who started on the inside.
The lead changed hands several times during Stage 1, with stage honours going to Chandler Smith from AJ Allmendinger, Justin Allgaier, Hill, and Sheldon Creed.
Van Gisbergen took the green and white chequered in 23rd.
All cars on the lead lap stopped during the end-of-stage caution, with Love returning to the front and leading the field back to green on Lap 32.
Stage 2 was interupted on Lap 43 when Allmendinger got loose while running third, which checked up the top lane and triggered a crash that caught out Parker Kligerman, Josh Williams, Nick Leitz, Jeb Burton and Jordan Anderson.
Van Gisbergen was one of 14 drivers to pit under the caution and returned in the mid-field but made good ground off the restart to quickly make ground on the leaders. He finished Stage 2 in fourth, taking seven stage points for his efforts.
Hill took the stage win from Sammy Smith and Love.
All cars on the lead lap, including van Gisbergen, stopped under caution, with the Kiwi losing several places in pit lane.
Herbst began the final stage in the lead alongside Brandon Jones, but it was Love who got the better start and quickly returned to the lead.
The Kaulig Racing #97 again showed great pace and began moving forward and entered the top five in the final 30 laps.
His progress would come undone on Lap 76 of 94, however, with van Gisbergen checking up on the inside lane, and dropping back down into formation on the nose of Dean Thompson. The contact put the #97 below the yellow line, and backed the lane up, with Thompson collected from behind and turned left into the Kiwi’s car on the inside.
The contact from Thompson sent the #97 up and across the track, collecting several drivers, including Hill, David Starr, Taylor Gray, Williams, and Jordan Anderson.
Van Gisbergen needed a tow back to pit lane, with the #97 retired from action.
A large crash on Lap 91 would follow, with Carson Kvapil getting loose following a push from Brandon Jones, spinning him from fourth in front of the field. Kligerman, Cole Custer, Justin Allgaier, Parker Retzlaff, Burton, Allmendinger, Dylan Lupton, Anthony Alfredo, Love, and Blaine Perkins were collected in the incident that brought out the red flag and brought the 13th overtime finish of 2024.
Herbst will lead the field to green for the two-lap shootout.
Van Gisbergen returns to Talladega Superspeedway for the Monday’s NASCAR Cup Series race, which begins at 7.30 am NZST. He will start from 17th.
