Florence Motor Speedway was filled with bright stars this weekend with the likes of Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Kevin Harvick racing in the CARS Tour Series at the South Carolina grassroots oval. Trackhouse Racing’s champion-in-the-making, Shane Van Gisbergen, was present at the venue as well, not as a driver but as a fan. And he had strong words to dispense after watching the American grassroots racing scene.
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He was asked about his chances of racing in the series in an interview after his Xfinity Series race at Darlington. He responded, “I’d love to race anything I can but the price is wild. We don’t have anything like that at home. You go off, you’re in the trees. It’s wild, I’ve never seen anything like that.” His first impression comes in the aftermath of talks of a Chili Bowl debut in 2025 as well.
A happy start to the night at @FmSpeedway2024 for the Harvick family!@KeelanHarvick wins in the @USLegendCars before @KevinHarvick goes for a @CARSTour Pro Late Model trophy later this evening. #CARSTour pic.twitter.com/f72zfZiYui
— FloRacing (@FloRacing) August 30, 2024
Van Gisbergen’s appearance at the track coincided with wins for multiple famed names. Keelan Harvick won in the US Legend Cars division and Brexton Busch won the Bando race. Dale Jr. himself came in 10th place in the Late Model Stock Car race. As a co-owner of the show, the popular icon was more than happy at the sight of stars like van Gisbergen coming to watch the races.
He wrote on X, “Awesome to see so many NASCAR industry families out at Florence this weekend. Loads of NASCAR folks supporting this track tonight. And this crowd will be bursting at the seams come racetrack time.” The event went by as anticipated and ended up a success by impressing many like the Australian Supercars champion. But was it enough to push him to participate? Time will tell.
Gisbergen impresses on return to Darlington
With a full-time Cup Series ride under his belt for next year, the Kiwi driver is now returning to tracks that he already visited. The 25-year-old finished in 15th place when he traveled to Darlington in the Spring but raced his way to a seventh-place finish on Saturday this time around. He credited his past experiences for his heightened level of performance.
He explained to kickinthetires.net, “I definitely like (returning to a track), you know, you turn up, you know where things are and get out on the track, you can just focus on the racecar straight away instead of learning the place.” It was his seventh top-10 finish in the series and has further pushed him towards being a future champion.
P7 today! Really fun race! Second time here felt much more comfortable and moved forward straight away in the race. Awesome results thanks so much to the 97 @WeatherTech team! 😀 pic.twitter.com/nVq1MJGNGH
— Shane van Gisbergen (@shanevg97) September 1, 2024
He is also set to make his debut full-time season in the Cup Series next year. He will be sporting the infamous #88 car, inheriting it from Dale Jr. With the premier-tier schedule in place, a CARS Tour schedule could be a challenge to fulfill. Who knows, maybe he could take a page out of Kyle Larson’s book.
