When NASCAR Hall of Famer Dale Jarrett speaks, folks better listen. The former Cup champ knows what he’s talking about and is one of the most intelligent analysts the sport has today.
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Jarrett has seen all types of road course specialists in his roughly 40-year racing career, from Jeff Gordon (who has the most Cup road course wins with nine), Marcos Ambrose, Boris Said, Ron Fellows and others. But when Jarrett said Sunday after the Go Bowling at The Glen Cup race at Watkins Glen International that Shane van Gisbergen is the greatest road course racer in NASCAR history, well, that’s saying a lot.
Or, to use a well-known axiom, if Jarrett says it, you can take it to the bank that he’s 100 percent spot-on.
“Stop asking the question, ‘Is he the best road racer in NASCAR racing of all time?’ I don’t know how you can say he is not that,” Jarrett said on the NASCAR post-race show on the USA Network. “He is not just winning these races by a small margin; the only time it is a small margin is if you have a late caution, and then he pulls away to whatever he needs to do.”
Dale, son of fellow NASCAR Hall of Famer Ned Jarrett, then threw in a funny line about SVG’s dominance in Sunday’s race.
“My son Zach sent me a text during the race and said, ‘Is SVG just playing with Blaney, making him think that this is all that he (SVG) has got?’” To which Dale Jarrett responded with a chuckle, “Absolutely. I believe you are right!”
It sure looked that way, given the fact van Gisbergen beat runner-up Christopher Bell to the checkered flag by an amazing 11.116 seconds winning margin. As for Blaney, he ultimately finished a disappointing sixth.
Forget van Gisbergen’s points standings; focus on playoff points
Even though van Gisbergen is 25th in the regular season point standings, he’s only two points behind leader Denny Hamlin’s 24 in playoff points, with two races — Saturday night at Richmond and the following Sunday at Daytona — remaining.
For the record, van Gisbergen now has five road course wins in 38 Cup starts, along with another four road course victories in the Xfinity Series. He’s more than halfway to eventually overtaking Gordon’s nine road course wins, perhaps as early as next season if he keeps this momentum going.
As for the upcoming playoffs, SVG could have problems at any of the first three tracks: Darlington, Gateway and Bristol. If he can get at least two top-10 finishes in those three races, he has a good chance of advancing to the Round of 12 (second round), which has a road course (Charlotte Roval) to wrap up.
The sky is the limit for van Gisbergen in the final two rounds of the playoffs, if he can get past the first round and win at Charlotte. “If he can just have clean races to start in Round One, he’ll find himself in a really good spot,” Jarrett said.
