By Roy J. Akers – www.skyviewsports.net
First Stage Top 7 Stage 1
Shane vanGisbergen (SVG) leads the field to the green flag and a heavy mist turns to rain on the opening lap. A caution is thrown and all teams get their preferred rain tires. By lap seven, a second caution is thrown when a multiple-car accident takes out several drivers with heavy damage to Kyle Larson and Kyle Busch. SVG retakes the lead after cycling to 5th during the caution pitstop. SVG, Yy Gibbs, and Preece are racing 1-2-3.
Rain has stopped in most of the track, and SVG wants to change to slicks, but his pit crew said radar shows more heavy rain is coming. Plenty of drivers short pit gambling on the rain ending. SVG takes slicks with two to go in the stage. Ryan Preece, Ryan Blaney, and Ross Chastain finish the Stage 1-2-3, as they gamble for points and track position while most pitted.
Second Stage Top 6 after Stage 2
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. takes the lead with Suarez passing him for the lead. Hocevar slingshots around several drivers. On lap 26, Gibbs passes Suarez, and vanGisbergen is back to third. By lap 30, drivers are all on slick tires except for Stenhouse Jr. Gibbs leads SVG, and Cindric. Cindric has not fueled yet in the race. Lap 32 draws a caution when Ryan Truex skids off track. The green flag is thrown on lap 36, and it’s Gibbs, SVG, and Cindric. On lap 35 of 100, Ty Gibbs leads the race in the No. 54 Toyota. The field has seen seven lead changes among six different drivers, with four cautions totaling 10 laps.
Gibbs, who started fourth, has led 16 laps and holds a 0.698-second advantage over second-place Shane van Gisbergen. Gibbs has recorded the fifth-fastest lap of the race at 92.787 mph and has spent 25 laps in the top five. Cindric pits on lap 41/45 and takes four slicks, fuel, and an adjustment. Gibbs gambles on the rain coming and pits. SVG, Bell, and Bowman are now 1-2-3.
Final Stage
Shane Van Gisbergen leads from the inside with Christopher Bell on the outside as the race restarts. Van Gisbergen takes the lead exiting Turn 1, but Bell fights back and claims the top spot in Turn 4. Michael McDowell briefly moves into the lead after missing Turn 2 but gives up positions to avoid a penalty.SVG takes the lead over Bell on lap 52. SVG was scheduled to pit on lap 60, but he communicated rain on the track, and they waited before putting on tires. Bell, from second place, pits on lap 61. SVG joins Bell by pitting on lap 63. A caution is thrown onlap 65/100 when Gragson gets into Hocevar and this traps the cars that have not pitted yet. The leader Gibbs will now have to cycle through the field behind all of the leaders.
After the green flag is thrown with 30 to go, it’s SVG, Bowman, and Bell. The running order stays the same with 13 to go. Shane Van Gisbergen continues to extend his lead over Alex Bowman, increasing the gap to 1.693 seconds. Chase Elliott is in fourth place with ten laps left in the race. Carson Hocevar and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. make contact in the stadium section and spin but continue. Elliott goes in front of Bowman with nine to go for third. SVG goes up by nearly ten seconds over Bell with seven laps to go.
With SVG increasing his lead to nearly 14 seconds over Bell, his team does not want a caution. SVG wins going away by 17 seconds.
Checkered Flag
At the checkered flag, an interesting statistic emerges. Shane Van Gisbergen, who won the inaugural race at the Chicago Street Course in 2023, has the opportunity to become the first driver since Marvin Porter to secure their first two Cup wins at two inaugural races. Porter achieved this feat at San Jose in 1957 and Marchbanks in 1960. SVG will make the playoffs. The adversity Van Gisbergen faced was noted when brought up to him after the race. “You listed them all man. What a week. I have really enjoyed myself here. I felt pretty rubbish today. Thank you to Safety Culture, Trackhouse, Chevy and these guys right here. I think the 54 was close, but that last stint, what a pleasure to just be ripping lap after lap and to watch them all get smaller in the mirror. Unreal.”
Fantasy
Early on, my Kyle Busch pick turned into a disaster as a multi-machine wreck claimed the number eight. SVG was never really on my bench. He is my ace in the hole. Carson Hocevar is my biggest surprise. He is on the list because he has seven starts left with ten races left in the regular season. Ty Reddick and Kyle Larson were left on the sidelines due to overuse. It works out in Mexico very well. The team earned 154 points plus 20 more in the matchups for 174.
Factoids that may interest only me
Erik Jones has four top-15s in his last five races, with two finishes in the top 10.
Tale of the Tape
They Said It
CHRISTOPHER BELL, No. 20 Mobil 1 Toyota Camry XSE, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 2nd – 31st to second; were there times today where you thought you could keep up with the 88?
“I don’t know. He was really good. Ultimately it was just a third-place day. I felt like Ty (Gibbs) was really good, so the yellow flag bit him and we walked away with second. Both days – in the Xfinity car, I was the third-place car, and today, I felt like I was the third-place car. I think more than anything it was just me. I need to do a little more homework and figure out where I can be better to keep up with these guys. The Joe Gibbs Racing Group brought an amazing Mobil 1 Camry, and I can’t really say that it was my car that was lacking. It was on me this weekend.”
JOHN HUNTER NEMECHEK, No. 42 Pye Barker Fire & Safety Toyota Camry XSE, LEGACY MOTOR CLUB
Finishing Position: 6th How was your day out there?
“Hats off to this whole 42 LEGACY MOTOR CLUB team. Pye-Barker colors look really good on our Camry this weekend, and I’m super stoked on a sixth-place finish. Our road course program has not been good here at LEGACY MOTOR CLUB, so solid run for us after the last three weeks we’ve had – two wrecks, and not so good run in Nashville – we needed this as a team to get back on track. Had a lot of text messages from my wife (Taylor) and had a lot of text messages from Jimmie (Johnson, co-owner, LEGACY MOTOR CLUB) yesterday – I was pretty down after qualifying, and beating myself up pretty bad, but we executed during the race. I got spun out a couple of times and still came home sixth. Hats off to Travis (Mack, crew chief) on the strategy. He called a really good race, and we were able to execute and come home sixth. Proud of the day.”
