Michael McDowell took the fight to SVG before mid-...

Whereas Shane van Gisbergen was once again the driver to beat on Sunday, his closest competitors by no means received a good shot ultimately resulting from some mechanical gremlins.

Michael McDowell began from the skin of the entrance row on the Chicago Road Course and took the lead from SVG on the opening lap. He went on to win Stage 1 and seemed to be an actual menace for the win. The Spire Motorsports driver was additionally going through a two-year winless streak and hoped to place that behind him on Sunday.

Sadly, after main essentially the most laps (31), a caught throttle pressured him to surrender the lead and head to the storage for repairs. He returned to the race over 20 laps down, ending a disappointing thirty second. In the meantime, van Gisbergen captured the checkered flag. 

“The throttle cable simply broke,” mentioned McDowell. “I don’t know what precipitated it or the way it received to that spot, however that’s what occurred. I really feel like we had management of the race. I believe it might have been a battle, little question. I felt like every time I may open a niche on SVG, I may.

“We had been simply engaged on our technique. We knew we had been going to one-stop it, so I used to be taking good care of the tires and doing all of the issues I may. I used to be behind the tempo automotive and the throttle caught wide-open. Fortunately, I received to the switches quick sufficient earlier than I bumped into one thing, after which a cable broke after that. It’s only a disgrace. We had an excellent No. 71 DePaul Chevrolet. We’ve received some good momentum heading into Sonoma subsequent weekend.”

The excellent news for McDowell is that NASCAR heads to a different highway course subsequent weekend with Sonoma, the place he completed second only one 12 months in the past.