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For Shane van Gisbergen, only two points were the difference between advancement and elimination in the end. He admitted that “it certainly would have helped” to have pitted for fresh tires late in the race when most of the field did, but with multiple playoffs drivers near the front in a must-win situation, it was never going to be easy.

“We’ll never know but we had a good crack. I thought more would stay out with us, but it is what is.” An eighth-place finish to open the round and and a third-place to end the round was very solid, but unfortunately, he was very unlucky at Talladega. A wreck in the tri-oval left him with a 35th-place finish.

“Probably comes down to last week and the dramas we had and the DNF there, so that’s probably it,” noted Van Gisbergen. “I’m proud of the guys. We’ve had an amazing year. My first year in NASCAR and I’ve loved it.”

Talladega II NASCAR Xfinity drama: Shane Van Gisbergen, Kaulig Racing, WeatherTech Chevrolet CamaroDean Thompson, Sam Hunt Racing, Thompson Pipe Group Toyota Supra, David Starr, SS-Green Light Racing, Holt St. Chevrolet Camaro Wreck.

Photo by: John Harrelson / NKP / Motorsport Images

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SVG’s weekend at Charlotte started off promising, winning pole position for both the NASCAR Cup and Xfinity races at the Charlotte Roval.

He led early in the Xfinity race, but missed out on winning the first stage when Kaulig Racing teammate AJ Allmendinger passed him. The New Zealander still crossed the line in second and ended up scoring 13 out of a possible 20 points across both stages. It wasn’t quite enough. However, those around SVG did well in chasing after stage points with Justin Allgaier staying out to win Stage 2, scoring 18 total.

As the laps ticked away, a caution with 15 laps to go would ultimately decide SVG’s fate. He was running second and chose to stay out on older tires while the majority of the field pitted for fresh rubber. The three-time Supercars champion could do little against them on the ensuing restart, falling back to fourth on track.

When the race went into overtime, van Gisbergen was now facing off against Jesse Love in the points battle. Love was deep in the field, but with very fresh tires, he quickly charged forward. With Sam Mayer (a driver in a must-win situation) on his way to taking the checkered flag and Love passing just enough cars on the final lap, it was game over for SVG. Love pushed and shoved his way by the final car he needed to advance with just a few corners remaining in the race while van Gisbergen was in third and unable to move forward.

After being eliminated at Charlotte, he now sits ninth in the championship standings. SVG’s rookie season includes three wins on road courses, but also two top-fives and five top-tens on oval tracks. He will move full-time to Cup next year, driving the No. 88 Trackhouse Racing Team Chevrolet.

“I’m happy but I’m also not. I’d love to keep going,” he admitted.

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Kyle Larson continues to win.

Last week, the NASCAR star claimed his fifth victory of the 2024 season, winning the Bass Pro Shops Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway and leading a remarkable 462 of 500 laps. As Larson continues to win, chatter persists about whether he’d be open to competing in a Formula 1 race.

Larson detailed his interest in such a quest in Monday’s edition of “Kevin Harvick’s Happy Hour.”

“I would love to do it, and it sounds like hopefully I’ll get to it down the road. I think it was an option this year, I just have so much going on. It’s like something that I need to plan probably a year in advance or more,” Larson said. “I would like to, but, honestly, I would rather do it on one of those open test-style deals like after Abu Dhabi when other drivers are on the track, too. … I think that driver swaps are really cool, but you don’t really have like a bar. You don’t have a gauge of where you stack up to others who do it. It would be fun to do that with Oscar [Piastri] or Lando [Norris] or whoever, but I would love to strap in with 19 other cars out there and really see where you’re at on the speed charts. 

“Obviously, I don’t think that I would be the best, but I would hope to not be last. I think that would show how good American oval racers are and unique, or if I was really bad, then it would just show how bad we are.”

Larson dabbled in IndyCar racing in May, finishing 18th in the Indianapolis 500 in a race that he started fifth. That day turned into a tailspin for Larson, as the start time of the race was delayed due to weather, resulting in him not being able to fly in for the start of the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway later that night.

Then, shortly after Larson arrived for the latter race, it was delayed due to weather and later called off. Ironically, Larson won the Brickyard 400 in July.

Last month, Larson, the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series champion, said that he was a better “all-around driver” than three-time Formula 1-champion Max Verstappen in an interview with FloRacing, which has played a role in the push for Larson to compete in an F1 race.

As for his NASCAR standing, Larson’s victory at Bristol was his first of the playoffs and has him first in the Cup Series in total points (3,047), with 11 top-five finishes and 14 top-10 finishes also under his belt. Next up on the NASCAR circuit is the Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas Speedway.

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Parker Kligerman took the lead from Shane van Gisbergen and held off Sam Mayer in a thrilling battle to seemingly escape playoff elimination and win for the first time in his NASCAR Xfinity career — then, everything changed.

The No. 42 of Leland Honeyman was buried beneath a tire barrier with two laps to go, but for some reason, NASCAR waited to throw the caution as they assessed the situation. In fact, they waited so long that the white flag waved briefly before the flagman even reached for the yellow flag.

Last-second caution

The caution finally flew, and celebrations erupted in the No. 48 pits as it appeared that Kligerman had just won. After 118 Xfinity starts dating back to 2009 — and weeks before he plans to step away from full-time racing — it seemed as if his moment had finally arrived.

The celebrations quickly quieted down as NASCAR informed the team that the caution was triggered before the white flag, forcing the race into overtime and another restart. A replay showed that Kligerman was mere inches from the line when NASCAR pushed the button.

Sadly, he was not able to hang on and fell back to fourth as Sam Mayer claimed victory. Kligerman, defeated and eliminated, could only watch the burnouts from pit road.

“I’ve done this interview you’re doing, and it’s always tough on that side,” said Kligerman, who has worked as a pit reporter before. “It’s really tough on this (driver’s) side. I might have teared up when I thought we got it there at the white flag. Caution comes out, had to refocus.”

In that moment, he thought back to how A.J. Allmendinger won last year’s Cup race at the Roval, holding off faster cars on a late-race restart. “I want to be at this level, I got to nail this restart,” Kligerman said in a post-race interview.

“We did that. I thought I cut off Turn 7 enough but he somehow got below me and it was on from there. I got damage. It was full contact. Sam didn’t do anything egregious. It was hard racing, but as close as you can be to the line. I said I wanted to cry, but I’m not gonna cry. I really love this game and I just really, really wanted that. It would have meant the world but it meant the world to be in that position.”

Parker Kligerman, Big Machine Racing, Big Machine Spiked Coolers Chevrolet Camaro

Photo by: Matthew T. Thacker / NKP / Motorsport Images

He thanked his team for the aggressive strategy, forgoing stage points to get him the chance to win the race.

“They called this strategy. I didn’t agree with it. I wanted to go for points, but they were right. It put us in the position to go and get that. God, I was driving my heart out for that last run. I needed five more feet or something. If it went green to the end, we had it. I don’t know how to process this. It’s gonna take a while. Just really thankful to have the opportunity … I love this game. I just want to get a trophy.”

A raw moment of emotion then followed as Kligerman was shown a still image of exactly how close it was to taking the white flag, thus ending the race when the caution flew. 

“Oh man,” he said. “Oh my gosh. You’re kidding me. What? Ugh. I don’t know. I’ve seen enough from the TV side what that — the heart-wrench and gutted-ness these people go through when you’re in that moment. It’s part of the sport. it’s why people buy tickets. It’s why they watch on The CW. I’m thankful to be in the position to have had the opportunity in my life. I love this so much. I just really wanted to get to the next round. But it was not to be. We’ll go try and get a checkered flag in one of these next ones.”