Van Gisbergen gave JR Motorsports its 10th consecutive victory on circuits.

Shane van Gisbergen started sixth on the final restart of the Focused Health 250 and five corners later, the race was already decided. He dove to the inside in Turn 1 when Sam Mayer opened the line, passed four cars at once, and the last five laps were pure procedure. He won by 0.780 seconds over Austin Hill at the Circuit of the Americas, his fifth victory in the NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series.

"I dove inside the 41 (Mayer), and when he reacted, he couldn't brake anymore. He pushed everyone wide," Van Gisbergen explained. As simple as that. Mayer had won Stage 2 and seemed to have the race under control until the restart exposed him.

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With 31 of 65 laps led and 15 laps as the fastest on track, Van Gisbergen extended a streak for JR Motorsports that now reaches 10 consecutive victories on road courses, a figure that speaks less about the individual driver and more about the program that Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s organization has built for this type of track.

Connor Zilisch started from the pole, controlled the first stage leading 12 laps, and seemed headed for a victory fight until the left rear brake rotor on his Chevrolet broke at some point during the second segment, a mechanical issue that left him 29th for the start of the final segment. What he did from there was recover 25 positions in less than 20 laps. He had already passed Corey Day for fourth when Day hit him from behind and sent him spinning with less than three laps to go. He finished 21st.

"All I want is an apology, but he just stands there looking at me, and that makes it worse," Zilisch said. Day said he lost front grip when Zilisch crossed in front of him. "It wasn't intentional," he defended himself. They are the kind of incidents that generate tension among young drivers fighting to establish themselves in the series, and this one probably won't be resolved with a handshake before the next race.

Crews led laps in his debut

Brent Crews finished sixth and led four laps by taking the lead on a restart during the second stage, something no minor had achieved in this category since Casey Atwood did it in 1998. At 17 years old and with a driver rating of 108.06 — fourth highest in the entire field — Crews didn't have a debut where he simply survived and celebrated finishing; he went toe-to-toe with drivers who have been in the series for years and beat them for positions in several stretches.

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Hill keeps adding points

Austin Hill finished second and with that maintains the championship lead with 154 points, 28 more than Jesse Love, who moved up to second place with a fourth-place finish. Hill has not finished worse than fourth all season — he won at Daytona, was fourth at Atlanta, and second here — and has three podiums in five races at COTA, a consistency that is allowing him to build a considerable points cushion when only three races have been run.

"A better driver beat me today," Hill said about Van Gisbergen. "He's very good in the first three laps of each run. He builds a gap and then manages it."

Justin Allgaier moved up to third in the championship with 115 points, and Sheldon Creed, winner at Atlanta, dropped to fourth with 106. Sammy Smith was third on track, with William Sawalich, Allgaier, Ross Chastain, and Brennan Poole rounding out a top 10 where Chevrolet placed eight cars. There were four caution flags for 12 laps and 16 lead changes among eight different drivers, numbers typical of a race more chaotic than Van Gisbergen's comfortable victory suggests. Baltazar Leguizamón retired on lap 33 due to an accident.