NORTH WILKESBORO, N.C. — Shane van Gisbergen can finally check off a fairly significant box when it comes to his NASCAR Cup Series career.
In the Window World 450 at North Wilkesboro Speedway on Sunday night (July 19), SVG not only scored his first career top 10 on a short track, but his first career top five. van Gisbergen finished fifth on the night, leading 49 laps and nearly winning a stage in the process. Those laps led were his first on a short track as well.
“It was cool to get the lead,” van Gisbergen said. “I just wasn’t good enough on the long run, but had a lot of fun. Thanks, Wendy’s and Trackhouse [Racing], everyone on the team did a great job.”
van Gisbergen took the lead from Denny Hamlin on lap 52 and immediately keyed up the radio to have some fun with his team.
“I’m leading,” van Gisbergen said. “What the f**k do I do now?”
He expanded on the funny moment after the race.
“I was just having fun, yeah,” van Gisbergen said. “Pretty cool to get up front and then be able to pass for the lead genuinely. Just gotta enjoy ourselves.
“Pretty pissed I blew the tires off it and lost the lead on the last corner, but cool to be up there.”
He lost the lead to Ty Gibbs coming off the final corner of stage one, settling for second in a drag race to the green-and-white checkered flag. He reclaimed the lead a few laps into the second stage, passing eventual race winner Joey Logano on lap 94, but lost the lead on lap 113 and only led for one more circuit the rest of the night. Still, the No. 97 was one of just five cars Logano didn’t lap in the race.
“Yeah, that’s pretty cool [to be one of six on the lead lap],” van Gisbergen said. “I saw that No. 22 [Logano] drive off, and I’m like, ‘I hope I don’t see him in the mirror.’ He was fast, like he took off really measured and looked after his tires. Yeah, he was really, really good.”
The run for van Gisbergen was similar to the previous day, when he finished third in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race. He was one of 10 trucks to finish on the lead lap in that event.
“Just like the Truck race, I could roll the bottom really well and loose in, which hurt,” van Gisbergen said. “We had one good stage where I could run up top, but I was married to the bottom for most of it, but it seemed to work for our car.”
Surprisingly enough, van Gisbergen’s road-racing skills, a track type he has won on eight times in Cup, gave him something that translated to help him out on the night.
“It’s a bit like a road course,” van Gisbergen said. “I tried right-foot braking for a bit. Half the race, I right-foot braked and just feel comfortable doing that. It’s a real balance track, and you can really affect the car with your driving techniques. So yeah, I felt comfortable doing that.”
After he got out of the car after the race on pit road, van Gisbergen went and sat by the pit wall for a long time following his PRN interview. He was OK, but the conditions got to him like it did many other drivers on the hot Sunday night.
“Oh man, just cooked,” van Gisbergen said. “It’s a long race. Like I felt fine until I stopped, and then I just went, ‘oh shit, I’m pretty hot.’ But it’s all good.”
Now that SVG has gotten a taste of running up front at short tracks, he likely doesn’t want to go back to running mid-pack, with one major difference being the racing etiquette.
“I mean, it’s just calmer when you get up [front],” van Gisbergen said. “Everyone’s racing really respectful. I mucked up once. I passed Denny [Hamlin] and mucked it up and let him back through. Like it’s a lot friendlier type of people up there.”
The 47-point night bumped the New Zealand native up to 54 points above The Chase cut line, to which he noted was the type of “good points day” that his team needed. However, he was quick to point out the last area where he and his Trackhouse Racing team needed to get better to have a shot in the postseason.
“I’m still weak on intermediates,” van Gisbergen said. “I think that’s probably my lowest-ranked track. Getting better at drafting ones, but intermediates, we’re weak, I’m weak, weak as a team. We really need to step up there.”
Michael Massie joined Frontstretch in 2017 and has served as the Content Director since 2020.
Massie, a Richmond, Va., native, has covered NASCAR, IndyCar, SRX and the CARS Tour. Outside of motorsports, the Virginia Tech grad and Green Bay Packers minority owner can be seen cheering on his beloved Hokies and Packers.