Shane van Gisbergen finished third in his second race in the Nascar Xfinity Series at Atlanta Motor Speedway, making up 10 spots on the grid to finish on the podium.
In his first time driving around the track, van Gisbergen qualified to start in 13th for Sunday’srace - eight spots down from where he qualified in his season debut at Daytona earlier in the week.
But while he was bounced back to 12th at Daytona, the Kiwi was able to climb his way on to the podium with a well-managed race in Atlanta after an overtime restart was needed to find a winner.
Austin Hill won his second straight race to open the season, surging to the lead on the overtime restart when teammate Jesse Love ran out of gas, for a dramatic ending. Love finished 12th after leading 157 laps.
“Jessie ran an awesome race,” Hill said of his Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet teammate. “To lead that many laps, he should be sitting here.”
Clean racing kept cars on the track — and away from opportunities to pit for fuel. Before the late fuel drama, Love appeared to be in control.
“I was thinking if I can’t win, let my teammate win,” Hill said.
With Love holding the lead, four Fords ran out of gas with four laps to go, including Riley Herbst, who was then in second. Cole Custer, Hailie Deegan and Ryan Sieg also ran out of gas, forcing a caution.
Love remained on the track during the caution, gambling he would have gas remaining for the overtime. Instead, his Chevrolet faltered during the restart.
“Obviously there was no way we were going to pit there,” Love said. “When we got up to third gear (in the restart) it died.”
Hill said Love burned more gas by leading most of the laps.
“He was trying to save as well, but you can’t save as much when you’re the leader,” Hill said.
Hill, a Georgia native who has University of Georgia “G” logos on his racing shoes, took advantage by claiming the lead. He even had sufficient gas for a celebratory spin in the grass under the fireworks. He has won three of the last four Xfinity Atlanta races.
“I just said, ‘Hey, I’m going to just run the shortest distance to the end and hope it’s enough,’ and it was,” said Hill of his overtime strategy.
