Shane van Gisbergen is in a good position, for now. With two wins, 20 playoff points, and the potential to add to those numbers in Sunday’s road course race at Sonoma Raceway, the New Zealand road course specialist is finally able to relax a bit and start focusing on the upcoming 10-race NASCAR playoffs.
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But the winner of Mexico City and Chicago can’t get overly comfortable heading into the playoffs, as he must get through the first round to advance to the last road course race of the year, the final race in the Round of 12: the Roval at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
If van Gisbergen fails to advance from the Round of 16 (Darlington, St. Louis and Bristol) to the Round of 12, winning at the Roval won’t mean much. If that happens, he can kiss the rest of the playoffs goodbye.
“Yeah, that first round is going to be very difficult,” van Gisbergen said post-race at Chicago. “It’s got one track I haven’t been to, Gateway (St. Louis). It’s got my favorite oval in it, Darlington. I love that place. And then Bristol, which is what I’ve found the most difficult track. I feel like I may as well be driving the other way there. It’s so hard.”
Yes, the former multi-season Australian V8 Supercars champ knows the odds are stacked against him.
Van Gisbergen basically has six races left to become an oval ace
Or to put it another way, not including Sonoma, van Gisbergen has six remaining races during the regular season to improve his oval track prowess.
“It’s some pretty difficult places for me,” van Gisbergen conceded. “But I feel like we’re making still massive leaps on the oval, and there’s still a few weeks left to keep getting better.”
If van Gisbergen is to move to the second round, his best opportunities to have strong outings are at Darlington and Gateway. Plus, he’d hope he doesn’t get caught up in a mess at Bristol that still winds up eliminating him from advancing to the next round.
