Kyle Petty is unquestionably a card-carrying member of the Shane van Gisbergen fan club. The former NASCAR Cup driver-turned-broadcast analyst is very high on what SVG has accomplished so far in his brief NASCAR career, as well as what he can still achieve in the future.
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“I think what he’s doing is incredibly impressive,” Petty said on this week’s edition of the Fast Talk podcast on the Performance Racing Network. But Petty also had a caveat about SVG.
“I’m just going to give you the impressive,” Petty said. “Is he the greatest of all time, and is this the greatest feat we’ve ever seen? No. I think we saw Jeff Gordon win six in a row or something like that,” he added.
“I think we’ve seen other guys win three or four in a row. I go back to (Dan) Gurney winning at Riverside. Every time you showed up at Riverside, Gurney seemed to win. So, we’ve had these blips on the radar screen. I watched the race on TV and they wanted to give him the mantle of ‘Greatest of All Time,’ and he’s won four (road course) races in a row, and so I can’t do that yet,” he opined.
However, Petty does acknowledge the overall impact SVG is having on NASCAR, and not just in road course races. “I do think what we’re watching is a guy who’s changing the sport. He’s changing the way the other drivers approach road racing. He’s making them study.
“I don’t think we’ve seen that. I don’t think anybody changed their game to try to compete with Jeff Gordon because they thought they could compete with him. I don’t think people changed the game to try to compete with Marcos Ambrose or guys like that.
“I look at what Marcos did as a little bit more impressive because I think Marcos took a mid-level car, whether it was Richard Petty Motorsports or JTG Racing (the teams Ambrose raced primarily for, along with short stints with Wood Brothers Racing and Michael Waltrip Racing) and won races with it.”
“This is a car that should be winning races. I think (SVG) does a phenomenal job, and that’s why I said it’s impressive,” he rounded off. SVG currently looks to be in good shape for his maiden NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs voyage, with a decent cushion of points to carry him in the first round, followed by the Charlotte Roval playing to his strengths in the second.
If all were to go well, he is expected to have a run into the Round of 8 this year, which would undoubtedly be an accomplishment given his highly specific set of skills.
