Shane van Gisbergen restarted fourth on the final restart of Saturday’s NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series race at Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas.
But as the drivers in front of him went wide into turn 1, van Gisbergen stayed even-keeled and calmly pointed his No. 9 Chevrolet, got on the gas and drove away to win the Focused Health 250.
The victory is van Gisbergen’s fifth road course win in the O’Reilly Series in 10 road course starts. He’ll look to earn his seventh Cup Series road course win on Sunday.
The victory is the 106th in O’Reilly Series competition for JR Motorsports.
“Good to finally execute,” van Gisbergen told CW Sports. “We had an awesome day. Pit crew was awesome. I wondered what was going to happen on that last restart. I kind of sucked the 41 in and he wiped everyone out for me.”
Van Gisbergen started second and led 30 laps on Saturday en route to his first win in any NASCAR division at COTA.
Notable results
Austin Hill finished runner-up, with Sammy Smith, Jesse Love and Corey Day rounding out the top five. Brent Crews, William Sawalich, Justin Allgaier, Ross Chastain and Brennan Poole completed the top-10.
Polesitter Connor Zilisch led early but finished 21st after experiencing brake issues. He got back into the top-10 in the closing laps, but wrecked after contact with Corey Day.
Other notable finishers include Atlanta winner Sheldon Creed in 11th, Taylor Gray in 12th, Brandon Jones in 15th, Ryan Sieg in 16th and Patrick Staropoli in 20th.
Sam Mayer, Carson Kvapil and Rajah Caruth were battling inside the top 10 late before an incident relegated them to finishes of 14th, 19th and 31st, respectively.