KANSAS CITY, Kan. — On a dramatic Sunday (Sept. 28) at Kansas Speedway — which included a crowd-pleasing victory for NASCAR’s most popular driver in Chase Elliott — Shane van Gisbergen finally notched his first top-10 finish on a NASCAR Cup Series oval in his 45th Cup start. It was a strong comeback from the New Zealander who at one point in the race was two laps down.
After qualifying 24th, Van Gisbergen was forced to drop to the rear of the field after his team was caught making an adjustment to his car after inspection. Not only did SVG have to start at the rear of the field, but he also had to do a stop-and-go penalty on pit road. He lost the services of his crew chief Stephen Doran for a genuine triple whammy. In short, it was just about the worst possible way to start the race for a driver just trying to build confidence on the oval circuits that are very much NASCAR’s bread and butter.
But despite all that, SVG wheeled his No. 88 Red Bull Chevrolet all the way to a hugely positive top-10 finish.
“I don’t know about finally [securing a top-10 on an oval], I think it’s a process that this shit is pretty difficult,” van Gisbergen said. “It’s taken me time to get better and better. Yeah, the guys are doing a great job with the car. It was a tough one, we put ourselves two laps down with a penalty and had to come back. And yeah, it was a pretty awesome day. I had good car speed, and I had a lot of fun.”
After scoring four consecutive wins on road courses in the regular season, SVG came into the postseason with momentum and confidence, but that optimism was quickly eviscerated with a 32nd-place finish at Darlington Raceway, a 25th-place run at World Wide Technology Raceway and a 26th place effort at Bristol Motor Speedway. Those results eliminating him from the first round of the playoffs, and last week’s 32nd-place run at New Hampshire Motor Speedway didn’t help either.
With all the recent woes, today’s result at Kansas Speedway was just what the New Zealander needed.
“Well, we had speed,” van Gisbergen said. “I still had a lot to learn, and I was trying to place my car in the right spots. Once we got on equal tires and equal laps to people, I was able to pick people off and move around. I’ve never had so much confidence in moving around. It’s just a process of learning, and I’m getting better.
“It’s just time on these tracks. The vehicle dynamics. How the car works on the banking. The speed. The aero. I started from zero, and tracks like this are the most difficult. I still have a lot to learn, but I’m enjoying it.”
Next up for SVG is a trip to the Charlotte Motor Speedway ROVAL, where no-one would be surprised to see him extend his win total for the season — already a record for a Cup rookie — to an impressive five.
Danny Peters has written for Frontstretch since 2006. An English transplant living in San Francisco, by way of New York City, he’s had an award-winning marketing career with some of the biggest companies sponsoring sports. Working with racers all over the country, his freelance writing has even reached outside the world of racing to include movie screenplays.