Shane van Gisbergen has celebrated his maiden NASCAR XFinity race win the only way he knows how – by ripping a massive burnout.
The Kiwi superstar grabbed the lead after a late caution and held on to win at the Portland road course.
It's his first victory in the second tier series in which he's driving full time this season. He won on his debut in the top-tier Cup series in Chicago last year.
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Justin Allgaier, who led the first two stages, finished just under a second behind Van Gisbergen's No.97 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet.
"What a day. It was really cool. Had some great racing," the 35-year-old Kiwi said in victory lane.
"I need to get better at my restarts and learn how to position, but that was so much fun, really, really cool racing. I love these cars – they're great."
There was a multi-car crash on coming out of the 12th turn with eight laps to go, bringing out the fourth caution of the race. Brandon Jones smashed into the barrier, but emerged from the car unscathed.
https://twitter.com/SecretPenguinX/status/1797040978517475337https://twitter.com/XfinityRacing/status/1797041603762405376Van Gisbergen overtook Allgaier on the restart.
"Once he got behind me there, I probably over-drove it, trying to get back to him and probably didn’t help my cause," Allgaier said.
Van Gisbergen started the 75-lap race around the 12-turn, 3.17km course from second. He spun polesitter Sam Mayer at the first corner.
"I'm very sorry to Sam ... I just mucked up there and just clipped him," Van Gisbergen said.
"Very sorry – he got back well."
AJ Allmendinger, who the inaugural Portland race in 2022, crashed during qualifying and had to use a backup car. He finished fourth.
The win books van Gisbergen a spot in the NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoffs.
After doing a massive burnout in front of the stands at the first corner, van Gisbergen tried to drift his way around the track, but spun out. Bt the time he got to victory lane, both rear tyres were flat.
"I just do whatever comes to mind, but probably need to tune (the car to be able to drift). I beed a bit more steering lock - I spun out, so we'll make that better for next time.
"It's been a pretty special nine or 10 months since we started to do this. Pretty stoked to be now in the playoffs, back in victory lane again," he said.
Van Gisbergen is a chance to go back-to-back, when the series moves to the road course at Sonoma next weekend.
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