HOMESTEAD, Fla. – One of the more heralded rookies this season is former Australian Supercars champion Shane Van Gisbergen, who turned heads and earned high praise for his historic victory at the Chicago Street Course two years ago in his first ever NASCAR Cup Series start.
With a strong background in road and street courses before coming to America as a fulltime NASCAR Competitor, the 34-year-old New Zealand-native said it has been a legitimate learning curve in the NASCAR Cup Series on the ovals.
His lone top-10 result of the year in the No. 88 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet came at the Circuit of The Americas road course. He says it has been an education on the assortment of long and short ovals in this first full NASCAR Cup Series schedule. Twice – in the last two races at Phoenix and Las Vegas – he’s been collected in crashes not of his own doing.
“I feel like we’ve showed a lot of promise but we have nothing to show for it, really,” Van Gisbergen said. “COTA was a good day, but on the ovals we’ve really struggled and we’ve had a lot of accidents and they haven’t really been our fault.
“It’s really tough results-wise but I see a lot of potential and speed. Just got to put it together and get to the end of the races and things will start clicking for us, I think.”
“It has been hard because I’m not really known for crashing too much and not finishing, so it’s been a bit of a pain really,” Van Gisbergen added. “Just have to stay out of trouble and get through it. The first stage we’re always going good and improving and thinking the rest of the race is going to be good then something seems to happen, so hopefully we stop that this weekend.”
Source: Holly Cain | NASCAR Wire Service
