Shane van Gisbergen recovered from a rear-of-the-field start and a Stage 3 penalty to fight back for fifth in double overtime in this morning’s Xfinity Series race at Watkins Glen.
The three-time Xfinity Series race winner led during the final stage before coming in for his final stop and returned to the field in eighth, only to cop a pass-through penalty for speeding in the pit lane.
A Lap 77 caution brought the field back together before a large incident involving several cars saw the race red-flagged on Lap 82.
After a 22-minute delay, the Kiwi took the restart in eighth, climbing to fourth before another caution sent the race into double overtime.
He worked his way forward and battled teammate AJ Allmendinger for second but lost out when Chandler Smith nearly sent him into a spin.
Van Gisbergen was amongst a fierce battlepack when a large wreck directly behind him ended the race early, with 18-year-old Connor Zilisch winning on debut after dominating large periods of the race.
Van Gisbergen was earlier a surprise omission from Round 2 of qualifying, having only gone 13th quickest on his opening lap, with only the top 10 progressing.
Zilisch stormed to a dominant pole position, going 0.143 seconds faster than Ty Gibbs and nearly four-tenths quicker than road course specialist AJ Allmendinger, who lined up third.
Adjustments to the #97 Camaro saw van Gisbergen start from the rear, but the Kiwi quickly moved forward and entered the top 20 on Lap 9.
The three-time Supercars Champion made his first stop on Lap 17 and returned in front of Zilisch, who had pulled to a commanding lead of over 10 seconds and nearly put van Gisbergen a lap down.
The 18-year-old comfortably held on for the Stage 1 win ahead of Justin Allgaier and Aric Almirola. Van Gisbergen completed the stage in 36th but moved into the top ten as those ahead stopped under caution.
Kaulig Racing opted to run the same strategy for van Gisbergen before the end of Stage 2, sacrificing stage points for track position on the restart.
William Byron pulled to a comfortable stage win from Gibbs and Zilisch, the latter of whom climbed forward from 11th.
There was drama to begin Stage 3, with Allgaier and Mike Skeen spinning off at Turn 6 and the former stranding in the gravel.
Amazingly, Gibbs, Sam Mayer, and Zilisch cut through the inner loop under caution, which resulted in them being penalised and sent to the rear of the field.
That saw Cole Custer take the lead for the Lap 51 restart ahead of Byron, van Gisbergen, and Riley Herbst.
Byron hit the front shortly after with a tidy pass on Custer. Van Gisbergen followed suit one lap later and then hit the front when Byron stopped from the lead under green on Lap 54.
Matt DiBenedetto came to a stop with a mechanical on Lap 77, which brought the a caution and bunched the field together, allowing van Gisbergen to recover the 50 seconds he had lost to the lead group.
Zilisch had returned to the front and led the field back to green, only for a large crash at Turn 1 to catch out the likes of Byron, Austin Hill and Josh Williams.
Van Gisbergen climbed to ninth through the chaos, and climbed to fourth during the first period of overtime, which ended early when Gibbs ran out of fuel at Turn 1.
Zilisch powered away in the double overtime restart and left the field to battle amongst themselves.
Van Gisbergen, Allmendinger, Creed, Sam Mayer, Parker Kligerman and Smith battled it out for the remaining positions, with Creed crossing the line second ahead of Allmendinger.
The NASCAR Xfinity Series returns next weekend at Bristol Motor Speedway.
