Fighting for a berth in the postseason Chase, Shane van Gisbergen welcomes all the track time he can get on ovals, which comprise the final six events in the NASCAR Cup Series regular season.
Van Gisbergen made the most of the laps he ran in Saturday’s FaithFest 250 NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series race on Saturday at North Wilkesboro Speedway, which will host Sunday’s Window World 450 (7 p.m. ET on TNT, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
After qualifying 19th and getting the feel of his No. 71 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet in the first two stages of the race, SVG made steady progress though the field in the final stage, ultimately finishing third and matching his best performance on an oval track in any of NASCAR’s national series.
(The New Zealander also placed third in the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series race at EchoPark Speedway near Atlanta in February 2024).
“It was a lot of fun,” van Gisbergen said. “Qualifying wasn’t that good, but once I got in the race and kind of found what I needed and got adjustments, I started moving forward and I had a lot of fun. It was really cool.”
For SVG, the primary value was gaining experience on the track. He enters Sunday’s Cup race 15th in the series standings, 31 points above the current cut line for the Chase.
“The Cup cars are very different, but it’s got to help—yeah,” he said.
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