Van Gisbergen storms to Xfinity win, Perkins crashes in debut

Shane van Gisbergen capitalised on a late race restart to successfully defend his 2024 NASCAR Xfinity Series win in Chicago in stunning fashion.

Having dominated the early stages, an unfortunate break threatened to derail van Gisbergen's quest to go back-to-back, however it was a trademark charge through the field that saw him win his first Xfinity start of 2025.

Van Gisbergen started second on the final restart with two laps to go, and muscled past JR Motorsports and Trackhouse stablemate Connor Zilisch at Turn 1, winning by 0.823s.

It capped off a remarkable day for the Kiwi, who also claimed pole position for both the Xfinity race and tomorrow morning's Cup Series race.

"Yeah unreal, I thought it was going to be a lost cause when the strategy went wrong, but it worked out well," said van Gisbergen in victory lane.

"Thanks to JR Motorsports, the car was a rocket, WeatherTech, Red Bull, unreal day. Awesome day."

It was a much tougher day for Jack Perkins, who barely got into the race before it all unravelled for the 38-year-old.

Having started a fine fifth in his first NASCAR start, Perkins dropped back two places in the opening laps before being spun into the wall on Lap 6.

The rear of his #19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota was severely damaged, ultimately cutting a rear tyre once he rolled back on track, finishing four laps down in 32nd.

After winning the opening stage, Van Gisbergen stayed out under caution whilst the field behind dived into the pits, but the three-time Bathurst winner showed all of his talent in the start of Stage 2.

"I knew that was what we were going to do, but when so many cars didn't follow us it was a bit of a worry, but then we had tyre grip at the end. Really cool battles with everyone, I enjoyed it."

The #9 JR Motorsports Chevrolet had kept track position but sacrificed the chance for new tyres, however the Kiwi has stretched out to a near-eight second gap before a badly timed caution x laps into the stage.

Van Gisbergen pitted under yellow, tumbling him down to 19th from the lead, however he soared through the field in a two lap dash to finish Stage 2 in 13th.

Starting the final stage in 11th, van Gisbergen had marginally fresher tyres than the 10 cars ahead of him, and by the time the caution flew halfway around the first lap, he had already carved his way to seventh.

Zilisch started 38th and last after crashing during practice, but with 13 laps to go the teenager had worked his way from last to first.

The American began to clear out, setting the fastest lap of the race, and by the time the Kiwi worked his way to second with eight laps to go, Zilisch had 3.9 seconds in hand.

The two Red Bull/WeatherTech Camaros were in a league of their own, lapping one and a half seconds quicker than the rest of the field as they traded fastest laps in their duel for the win.

The caution flew once again with six laps to go, and the fuel-saving Zilisch - who to that point had been losing a second a lap to his stablemate - was free to race.

However, van Gisbergen was able to dive to the inside at the first corner of the restart, and opened the steering wheel to force his teammate to make light contact with the concrete.

Attention now turns to tomorrow's Cup race, with 36-year-old van Gisbergen eyeing off an unprecedented weekend sweep across both categories.

"I would love to, I'm lucky I've got some great cars this weekend driving for some great teams, so I really look forward to tomorrow."

The Grant Park 165 begins tomorrow morning at 4:25am AEST, with reigning Supercars champion Will Brown set to start from 19th.