CHICAGO — Kyle Larson and Shane van Gisbergen started on the front row of Saturday’s (July 6) The Loop 110 at the Chicago street course, and the duo went to battle from the moment the green flag dropped.
The two have combined to win all three NASCAR Xfinity Series road course races this season, and they swapped the lead early and often. There were five lead changes at the start/finish line in the 15-lap stage one, and there were plenty more in between the 12 turns of the 2.140-mile street course.
The two raced each other hard and clean, and van Gisbergen gave Larson a thumbs up at the end of stage one in a show of sportsmanship.
Larson and van Gisbergen swapped the lead for the first 23 laps of the 50-lap event before heading to pit road in the middle of stage two. From there, they were mired just outside the top 15 and had to work their way back to the front.
With 10 laps to go, van Gisbergen had already passed his way up to fifth, while Larson was stuck in ninth. A final three-lap shootout presented van Gisbergen an opportunity to take the lead from Jesse Love and Ty Gibbs, and he easily made his way to the point before half the lap was over. Larson had passed his up to third in the final three laps, but he ran out of laps to challenge van Gisbergen, who won by over a second for his series-leading third Xfinity win of 2024.
While disappointed with finishing third, Larson had nothing but praise for van Gisbergen’s talent and the battles they had throughout the afternoon.
“I was having a blast,” Larson said. “Obviously I wanted to win today, but I wanted to learn more than anything. And I wanted to get to battle with [van Gisbergen], because he’s just really good at creating shapes and angles and passing.
“That was an objective of mine, and the first opportunity I got I wanted to get racing because I just didn’t know if you’d ever have another opportunity to race with him.
“My car seemed to be a little bit better than his for maybe a lap or two, which helped me get by him and then be able to protect and stuff, but he was so much better than me. He was just being patient and playing with me, I think, but it was good fun and probably made for great TV. The whole race was really exciting.”
Likewise, van Gisbergen told the media after his win about much fun he had during the race, and especially in the battle with Larson.
“That was a pretty awesome race, the first stage racing with Kyle there,” van Gisbergen said. “My car was pretty weak, couldn’t get going at the start, the restarts, it would take two or three laps and then he would always pass me, and then my car would come in and I’d be attacking him. Just awesome, awesome fun racing with him.”
He also learned from Larson in that grueling battle and made race-winning adjustments by copying some of the lines Larson was running into the turns.
“Some of his techniques and lines and car placement was very different compared to mine, and I adapted a bit to him, especially in turn 6 and how he would brake in turn,” van Gisbergen said. “It was amazing how he got the car to rotate, and I thought that my car doesn’t have enough front grip. And then when I adapted to what he was doing, my car was fixed. So I learned a lot as well.”
Larson nabbed the pole for tomorrow’s (July 7) Grant Park 165, while defending race winner van Gisbergen will roll off from row three in fifth. Given their performance on road courses this season, there’s a strong chance that we might be treated to exact same battle for the win on Sunday that we just saw today.
“Hope to race him again for the win tomorrow,” van Gisbergen said.
“My Cup car feels much more competitively equal, I would say, to battle [van Gisbergen] in more corners or hopefully hold him off better,” Larson said. “But like I said, it’s not just him; there’s going to be a lot of other guys that are really good tomorrow.”
About the author
Stephen Stumpf is the NASCAR Content Director for Frontstretch and is a three-year veteran of the site. His weekly columns include “Stat Sheet” and “4 Burning Questions.” He also writes commentary, contributes to podcasts, edits articles and is frequently at the track for on-site coverage.
Can find on Twitter @stephen_stumpf.
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Hey Hamlin, that’s how racers should race each other. Mutual respect. I really enjoyed watching that.