Fresh out of Trackhouse Racing’s development program, Shane Van Gisbergen has driven the #97 Kaulig Racing Chevy in five NASCAR Xfinity Series races so far. And still, he has not quite found that winning momentum that brought him the win in Chicago last year. But why so? Why is a veteran V8 Supercar racer like Gisbergen having a hard time adjusting to the Xfinity car?
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Speaking of COTA, the New Zealander said, “Just the track limits are crazy here. It’s so new to me to just open the wheel, mid-corner, and drive off the track. So that’s taken a lot of adjusting to get used to that mindset. I was practicing not cutting on the simulator.. they changed the rules about not being able to cut the corners, and then I saw today they’ve gone back on it. So yeah, it’s pretty interesting the rules here.”
But that’s not the end of Gisbergen’s woes. In Australia, Gisbergen was used to driving on tracks with wider curbs. Curbs are basically colored borders that denote the limits of the track, which in turn, help the drivers see the limits of the corners. This way, they can determine when to slow down before making a turn. Nevertheless, the curbs at COTA are not wide enough for the Supercar sensation.
“I think it would be a bit difficult, especially when you’re following someone closely, to be able to judge the curbs. So that will take a bit of learning, but yeah just watching the races, it’s crazy that guys are off the track more than they’re on it. That’s the normal here, l guess. But yeah, it looks fun,” he added.
Shane Van Gisbergen’s eye-opener on the nature of NASCAR racing
NASCAR is perhaps one of the most unpredictable forms of motorsports that exist today. One week, someone can win and just next week, they can be out of contention with a DNF. Gisbergen realizes how hard it is to stay consistently up front every weekend in NASCAR. “When you look at even the top guys results last year, they’re all over the place week-to-week. It’s a very different way to approach races,” he said earlier as per Toby Christie.
SVG’s 2024 journey started with seven crashes at Daytona International Speedway. Although only one of those was his fault, he analyzed all those crashes and found out that there was no way he could have done things differently.
“It’s just the style of that racing and something I have to accept. You have to run the risk of getting that good result, but you’re probably going to get into a crash. It’s an amazing mindset to go racing with. Something I’ve never had to do before, go into a race thinking it’s 50/50, whether you’ll crash or you won’t,” he added.
Even then, there are drivers who are getting it done each week. So it’s difficult, but definitely not impossible. Maybe it’ll take some time for the Kiwi star to get used to NASCAR’s ways, but judging by his versatility, his second career win in NASCAR might not be too far away.
