Even though there would still be seven races to go afterward, Shane Van Gisbergen knows his season could essentially be over after Saturday’s NASCAR Cup race at Bristol Motor Speedway. To his credit, Van Gisbergen qualified for the playoffs by virtue of his four wins on road courses this season.
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But since the playoffs began two races ago, Van Gisbergen has struggled, finishing 32nd at Darlington and 25th last week at Gateway.
He knows that Saturday’s race at Bristol is a make-or-break situation for his season. He is practically in a must-win position if he hopes to advance to the Round of 12 quarterfinals. The New Zealand native and Trackhouse Racing driver comes into Bristol 14th in the playoffs, 16 points behind 12th-ranked Austin Cindric, who is currently the last driver above the playoff cutoff line.
When asked how he’s approaching Saturday night’s race and whether what’s at stake – advancing to the next round – is putting more pressure on him, SVG surprisingly isn’t looking at things that way.
“Just to try and be level-headed about it,” he said during Friday’s media availability at Bristol. “You see lots of people put a lot of pressure on themselves and try too hard.
“So, yeah, I think we’ve just been pretty level-headed and tried to just approach it like we have been.”
This is Van Gisbergen’s first full season in the Cup Series after one full season in the Xfinity Series, where he qualified for the playoffs but unfortunately finished last of the 12 playoff drivers.
Van Gisbergen comes into Bristol knowing he needs to overtake Cindric to advance to the Round of 12. If he can pull off the best finish on an oval in his career, he might be able to sneak into the next round, but it’s going to be a stout challenge – particularly since his best finishes this season on an oval have only been identical 14th place finishes in the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte and at Richmond.
Every other race finish – with the exception of his four road course wins and a sixth place showing at the road course in Austin and a couple of mid-pack showings – has been 20th or worse.
The Richmond finish gives SVG optimism that he can do well on an oval like Bristol, although the latter has much higher banking and is an extremely difficult track to pass opponents on. There’s also the propensity for lots of wrecks at the .533-mile oval.
Earlier this season in his first Cup run at Bristol, SVG suffered suspension problems that knocked him out of the race with just under 300 laps to go, leaving him with an extremely disappointing 38th place finish, which, unfortunately for him, is his worst showing in any race this season.
If Van Gisbergen comes up short and fails to advance to the Round of 12, he still thinks there’s a lot he’s learned and experienced that he can build upon for next season.
“I think it’s been awesome, it’s been a lot of fun,” Van Gisbergen said. “Getting the wins has obviously been amazing. Never thought we’d get that many wins, but on ovals, it started very poorly, but I think how we’ve improved and now we’re in the mix most qualifyings and our pace has improved quite a lot.
“I think we can be proud of that and I think we’re still getting better most weeks too. So yeah, pretty happy with how it’s ended up.”
Van Gisbergen is at least honest when it comes to assessing his performances this season, like his 25th-place finish at Gateway last Sunday. He was on track to perhaps have one of his better performances on an oval to date, but he made a few errors that proved very costly.
“I didn’t do very well last week,” he admitted. “I had potential to do well, but yeah, made a couple of errors myself and just put ourselves in bad spots and made a mistake when we should have got stage points and we didn’t.
“So, last week (there was) only myself to blame. So, (I) beat myself up for a couple days and reset, try again tomorrow.”
Does he think he can conquer Bristol on Saturday night?
“It’s just tough,” Van Gisbergen said. “This place is not like anything else in the world I’ve ever done. So, yeah, just every time I come here, I get better and better, and I just need more experience here.”
While the odds are stacked against him, Van Ginsbergen’s steady mindset, road-course dominance, and flashes of improvement on ovals give him reason to believe he can hang on.
Whether he punches his ticket to the Round of 12 or bows out early, SVG has already proven he belongs in NASCAR’s top series. And with every lap at tracks as unforgiving as Bristol, he’s gaining the experience that could make him even more dangerous in seasons to come.
