It took everything he had, but the new fan favorite, Shane van Gisbergen held off a dominant Justin Allgaier to win his first Xfinity Series Race in the Pacific Office Automation 147 at Portland International Raceway.

Qualifying:

In qualifying one of the favorites to win, AJ Allmendinger spun out and hit the wall, damaging his car and forcing him to go to a backup car. Allmendinger was one of the fastest cars in his qualifying group but since he had to use the backup car, he had to start the race at the tail end of the field. Brandon Jones also had problems in qualifying, damaging the front of his car but his crew was able to put a new front clip on his car, allowing Jones to start 20th.

Sam Mayer was the fastest in qualifying and would win the pole with rookie, Shane van Gisbergen who was less than a tenth of a second slower than Mayer. Riley Herbst, Cole Custer, Justin Allgaier, Sheldon Creed, Parker Kligerman, Josh Bilicki, Sammy Smith, and Chandler Smith completed the first five rows.

Stage 1:

Stage 1 went caution-free but there was still plenty of action on the track for the first 25 laps of the race. Sam Mayer, who started on the pole, got turned around in Turn 1 on the race’s first lap, which sent him back at the beginning. The top five cars could be thrown under a blanket as all five were fighting hard from the start in a feisty first stage. Kaulig Racing’s Shane van Gisbergen would lead quite a few laps in the first stage but opted to pit with two laps to go in the stage, setting himself up to lead stage 2 after the pit cycle during the stage break. Mayer’s JR Motorsports teammate, Justin Allgaier headed to the front of the pack and would take the lead and eventually claim the stage 1 victory over Riley Herbst, who was very competitive in the first stage. Sheldon Creen finished third in the stage, followed by Josh Bilicki, Parker Kligerman, Sammy Smith, Cole Custer, Ryan Truex, Austin Hill, and Sage Karam rounded out the top 10. Allgaier also collected a playoff point for winning stage 1.

Stage 2:

Stage 2 saw multiple cars go off the track, including Shane van Gisbergen who dropped out of the top five with his mistake, but eventually corrected it to finish 5th in the stage. Again, Sheldon Creed and Justin Allgaier were the fastest cars on the track with Allgaier leading the way. His lead grew to over 2.5 seconds but towards the end of the stage, Creed cut the lead down to only a second. Allgaier added another playoff point with the stage win with Creed in 2nd, Josh Bilicki in 3rd, Cole Custer in 4th and van Gisbergen in 5th. Chandler Smith, Riley Herbst, Sage Karam, Sam Mayer, and Ed Jones also collected stage points.

Final Stage:

In the final stage, things picked up another level, on another wild restart as the field roared into the first turn. Allgaier and Creed battled once again but this time after a few laps, Allgaier was able to pull away and see his lead go up to nearly three seconds but a caution came out with 13 laps to go. On the restart, Allgaier led the field to the green flag, but the field stacked up behind him as they entered the hard braking zone of turn one three-wide multiple rows back but everyone made it through. Chandler Smith had engine issues one lap later, due to the stack up on the restart and pulled off the track, simultaneously a crash happened coming out of turn 12, collecting five cars as the yellow flag came out once more.

Another restart came with four laps remaining as Allgaier and van Gisbergen were on the front row. Allgaier sprinted out to the lead but van Gisbergen fought back and in a few turns, took the lead as the crowd roared when they saw van Gisbergen complete the pass. The two drivers dueled in the final laps but it would be Shane van Gisbergen who pulled away to win his first Xfinity Series race and lock himself into the playoffs. Justin Allgaier finished 2nd, Sammy Smith 3rd, AJ Allmendinger 4th, Ed Jones 5th, Cole Custer 6th, Josh Williams 7th, Parker Kligerman 8th, Parker Retlaff 9th, and Riley Herbst 10th.

All three Kaulig Racing cars (van Gisbergen, Allmendinger, and Josh Williams) finished inside the top seven. Chevrolet claimed the top four spots and seven of the top ten spots. Justin Allgaier gets two playoff points for winning Stages 1 and 2 while van Gisbergen gets five for winning the race. Shane Van Gisbergen has quickly become a fan favorite in Portland as “S-V-G” chants erupted from the crowd after his win.

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