This weekend’s Xfinity Race in Portland was, appropriately, very strange. There were a bunch of restarts, a coyote, a sumo crew member hitting the hood of a car, and it all culminated in New Zealand’s Shane van Gisbergen winning his first Xfinity race and then celebrating by kicking a rugby ball and setting the whole thing on fire. track. like he was a fucking Applebees.
Also, we warn you! Or, more specifically, Aeden told you that you should care about Portland, and if you watched it, you’d be in for one of the most exciting and strange races in recent memory.
It was a lot of fun and culminated in a huge burnout, almost throughout the track. You can scroll down to see it, but here are some of the highlights:
Portland, as noted, is a single track run by the qualifying was a little off and he tried to improve his time with a faster run. He succeeded, but ruined the car in the process. It’s not that AJ doesn’t make mistakes, but it was an unusual one.
The race started a few hours later and, as usual, I was pulling the car of our collaborator Parker Kligerman and Aeden, the number 1 driven by Sam Mayer. Of course, if they didn’t win, I had hopes that Shane van Gisbergen could get his first Xfinity win.
One of the main interruptions was a coyote jumping on the runway:
When we say Portland is weird, we don’t mean a coyote on the runway in @portlandraceway. pic.twitter.com/rx3iOuA52W
– Xfinity Racing (@XfinityRacing) June 1, 2024
I mean this is the first time I’ve seen that happen and, well, I give the coyote credit for having the presence of mind to jump off the track as soon as he saw the giant cars flying in his direction.
There were numerous leaders and many exciting passes, most of which are captured in the official replay:
The cars could barely stay on the track but, because of the way Portland is laid out, the cars seemed to be able to recover in most situations:
At one point, Jesse Love crashed into the rear of the car in front of him on a restart, causing the nose of his Chevy to swell, making vision difficult. This was conveniently close to the pitlane entrance and led to this absurd moment:
this well boy is my hero pic.twitter.com/BzrilsbIMJ
– Steve Luvender (@steveluvender) June 1, 2024
It’s unclear who exactly it is, but Twitter seems to think it’s “Bug” Strimska. This is also one of those things that probably happens but I don’t remember seeing it in a race. NASCAR teams regularly tap body panels before laying down mounds of Bear Bond. Doing it by flipping over the car is, uh, that’s new to me.
Justin Allgaier led for much of the race, including both stages, and was in position to win for the second year in a row. Unfortunately for him, numerous restarts allowed Shane van Gisbergen (SVG) enough opportunities to figure out how to nail a restart. For those of you who don’t know, SVG is an Australian V8 Supercars champion from New Zealand who won his first NASCAR race when he got the opportunity to drive in the Cup series in Chicago last year.
After that success, SVG received a full-time ride in the Xfinity Series with Kaulig Racing and performed well throughout the year, but couldn’t seal the deal until Portland. Their celebration is amazing:
And here’s a GIF:
He did not spare exhaustion.@shanevg97 | @KauligRacing pic.twitter.com/IaFeh25nv4
– Xfinity Racing (@XfinityRacing) June 1, 2024
I’ve seen some gnarly burnouts, but I’ve never seen someone attempt to drift an entire race track in a NASCAR stock car, although he didn’t quite succeed, leading him to say this after the race:
“It probably needs a little adjustment, it probably needs more steering lock, I spun, so I’ll improve it next time.”
I’m guessing he did about 90% better than most NASCAR drivers, but he has experience:
Oh, and did I mention that his other signature winning move is apparently signing a rugby ball and kicking it into the crowd?
Even better because he’s about to do an interview and he stops it by saying, “Wait, I have to kick this ball.”
HA HA HA.
Main image: NASCAR/FS1
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