By David Morgan, Associate Editor
CHICAGO – Master vs. apprentice.
The end of Saturday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series race came down to a shootout between two JR Motorsports Chevrolets – the No. 88 of rookie Connor Zilisch vs Shane van Gisbergen in the No. 9.
Van Gisbergen was the dominant force in the early stages of the race before strategy dropped him back into the pack, while Zilisch ascended to the lead in his absence.
But lap by lap, van Gisbergen clawed his way back forward, eventually settling into second place behind Zilisch with a three-second gap to his young apprentice and work to do if the race were to run green to the finish.
But as is often the case in Xfinity Series road course racing, the yellow flag would fly in the closing laps to set up a two-lap dash to the checkered flag.
Zilisch got the jump on the restart, but once the field got to Turn 1, van Gisbergen took no mercy on Zilisch, diving low and roughing up his teammate, making it through the other side with the lead.
Though Zilisch bounced off the outside wall in the exchange with van Gisbergen, he quickly recovered and filled the rear-view mirror of van Gisbergen as they charged toward the finish.
Zilisch would make a couple of attempts to try and set van Gisbergen up to retake the lead, but just didn’t have enough to get past him in the end, having to instead settle for second-place.
The restart that sealed the deal. pic.twitter.com/jfcI3HPtT8
— NASCAR Xfinity (@NASCAR_Xfinity) July 5, 2025
For van Gisbergen, the win was the fourth of his Xfinity Series career and first of 2025 in his first start of the season. The victory was by no means an easy feat for the New Zealander as he started the race reporting engine issues that could have sidelined him, as well as issues with his cool suit not working on a sweltering day in the city.
Despite it all, he came home a winner once again in Chicago. And now he’ll go for the weekend sweep, starting the Cup Series race from pole position.
“I thought it was going to be a lost cause when the strategy went wrong, but it worked out well. Thanks to JRM, the car was a rocket. Yeah, unreal day,” said van Gisbergen.
“[Connor]’s a great young driver. It’s the first time I’ve really raced him. I knew that was my opportunity and took it. Awesome 1-2 for the team.”
Afterwards, van Gisbergen spent an extended amount of time in the Infield Care Center trying to recover from heat exhaustion and get prepared to be back in the car on Sunday for the Cup Series race.
As for Zilisch, he took the loss in stride, contemplating what more he could have done on the final restart to not allow van Gisbergen to get past him.
“It wasn’t dirty. You know, we’re racing for the win on the last restart and I just didn’t expect it,” Zilisch said of van Gisbergen’s move. “Kind of just caught me by surprise and I wouldn’t consider it dirty at all. I could’ve just done a better job keeping leverage, but I let him get a nose ahead of me and at that point it’s his corner and he can do what he wants to. I just, I didn’t expect it, so I wish I could have it back.”
Zilisch added that he will add this to the memory bank and be better prepared if/when he and van Gisbergen face off against each other again.
“It’s part of racing and definitely I’ll learn and be more aggressive next time no matter the situation,” said Zilisch.
“So, yeah, no hard feelings, just I didn’t know what to expect. As a driver, I like to know who I’m racing against and I use that to my advantage. I take notes on people and understand what they do and how they race. And I change how I race based on that and I’ve just never raced against him before. If I race against him again, I’m gonna do something differently.”
Sheldon Creed came home in third, followed by Austin Hill and Nick Sanchez rounding out the top-five finishers. The remainder of the top-10 went to Jesse Love, Sammy Smith, Sam Mayer, Austin Green, and Brennan Poole.
Justin Allgaier, who came into the race as the regular season points leader, retains that position despite a 23rd place finish on Saturday after brake issues. Eight races remain in the regular season as the series heads to Sonoma Raceway next weekend.
Van Gisbergen will run that race as well, once again piloting the No. 9 car for JR Motorsports as he looks to repeat his Xfinity Series win there from a year ago.
Be the first to comment