HAMPTON, Ga: A decision to pit Shane van Gisbergen in the final moments of Saturday’s RAPTOR King of Tough 250 race at Atlanta (Ga.) Motor Speedway nearly paid off with a victory in just his second NASCAR Xfinity Series start.
After qualifying strong on Friday afternoon, van Gisbergen turned to Atlanta as an opportunity to recover from a bouncy experience at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway in a race that was filled with carnage and mixed results.
A long green flag run during Stage 3 of Saturday night’s Xfinity Series race threw teams into conservation mode, including van Gisbergen’s No. 97 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet Camaro.
Hovering inside the top 15 for a majority of the stage, the NASCAR Cup Series winner at the Chicago Street Course last year had positioned himself to the outskirts of the top-10 in 12th.
But inside the races’ final five laps, cars began to run out of fuel, and with the Fords experiencing the headache first and a stalled Ryan Sieg at the exit of Turn 4 on Lap 161 triggering a caution, the Kaulig Racing team wasn’t going to allow their rookie driver to be in a precarious position.
Opting to be safe, crew chief Bruce Schlicker brought his Australian driver to pit road for a splash of gas and set him up for a two-lap restart to the checkered flag.
Restarting eighth, van Gisbergen was able to dodge numerous cars on the final restart who stumbled taking the green with the No. 97 WeatherTech Chevrolet slicing and dicing through Turn 1 before landing behind leaders Austin Hill and Chandler Smith.
Without the help of drafters on the final lap, van Gisbergen stayed tucked in the lead draft and took the checkered flag in third, capturing his first career Xfinity Series top-five in just his second series race.
“Pretty awesome,” said van Gisbergen after the race. “Great job by Bruce (Schlicker, crew chief) on the box there to pit us. I had so much fun. Just learning about it and running in the pack. Yeah, to be P3 (he finished third) in the second race in the WeatherTech Chevy is pretty awesome; I’m stoked.”
van Gisbergen said he was thankful to have a clean race and rebound from a chaotic weekend at Daytona and give his Kaulig Racing team some momentum heading to Las Vegas (Nev.) Motor Speedway next weekend.
“It’s just good to get a result and have a clean car, especially after last week when I got involved in so much stuff,” van Gisbergen added. “So, to have a clean race, not make too many mistakes, and complete every lap, we learned a lot. It was awesome.”
Trackhouse Racing team owner Justin Marks, who has contracted Kaulig Racing to field an Xfinity Series entry for his development driver in 2024, was ecstatic with SVG’s performance on Saturday night.
“Third ever race on a paved oval. Our guy is special,” Marks tweeted on social media platform X after the race. “It aint the third place finish that does it for me, its the way he learned, adapted, came from the back twice, and got on the radio a number of times saying: this is fun!”
Even van Gisbergen’s former Supercars team kept track of his performance Saturday.
During qualifying for Race No. 2 of the Supercars season-opener at Mount Panorama, SVG’s former Triple Eight Red Bull team watched the race on televisions in the garage as he competed at Atlanta.
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01 or email at [email protected].
