Before Shane van Gisbergen (SVG) got behind the wheel at the Chicago Street Course in 2023 and made history by winning his maiden Cup Series race, there was one other track that he’d visited. The Nashville Superspeedway. The Supercars Champion was in attendance at the Music City last year, on invitation from Trackhouse Racing, when the premier tier raced there.
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This weekend, however, his duties will transcend beyond just observing how racing works at the track. He will be driving the No. 97 WeatherTech Chevrolet Camaro on Saturday as the next step in his full-time Xfinity Series effort. SVG has already secured two victories this year and has proven his worth in NASCAR. And now, he hopes to hammer things down beyond question.
He currently sits in 13th place on the Xfinity Series driver standings with two wins, three top-5s, and four top-10s. He said about the upcoming race, “Nashville [Superspeedway] was the first track I visited before going racing at Chicago last year. I am excited to get to race there this weekend and see what it’s all about. It is fun visiting these tracks for the first time but challenging too.”
Race day in Nashville for @TeamTrackhouse pic.twitter.com/ZjSr2MVQyb
— Shane van Gisbergen (@shanevg97) June 25, 2023
In his latest race, which was at New Hampshire last Sunday, SVG finished in 19th place after dropping multiple spots in an overtime finish. The earlier weekend, he’d crashed out of the race at Iowa. It was in the two weeks prior that he secured back-to-back wins, in Portland and Sonoma. Hopefully, he will be able to get back to the victory lane once again.
How Shane van Gisbergen is adapting to racing in the NASCAR Xfinity Series
The purpose of SVG’s full-time stint in the Xfinity Series is to prepare him for the oval-heavy schedule of the Cup Series. Thus far, he has been learning pretty well.
In an interview with ESPN, he mentioned that driving the Xfinity car in NASCAR was similar to driving a forklift because of how funky it is. He said that the car that he now had is specific to driving on ovals and that he has learned a lot from it.
“Even on the oval, it [the NextGen] kind of feels like a normal car,” he said. “Whereas the Xfinity car, it’s only specific to oval racing, basically. The style of car that has been designed and developed for years, that NASCAR type of stock car.”
“The rear end is really, really interesting, how it moves around. I’ve never driven a car like that.” By the time he moves full-time to the premier tier, SVG will positively have become a master in taming the Xfinity car.
