Road courses may be tough for regular NASCAR drivers to navigate but for Shane van Gisbergen, it seems to be a lot more comfortable. Nevertheless, he is not going to be racing in the Cup Series race at the Sonoma Raceway this weekend despite pulling off a fantastic road course win at Portland on Saturday. Considering that those kinds of tracks are his specialty, this was a decision that a lot of people did not understand.
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Thankfully, veteran journalist Bob Pockrass was able to clear all doubt about the matter as he revealed the reason for the Kiwi’s absence. Trackhouse Racing is spending a substantial part of their Cup funding to get him to race in the Cup Series and it makes much more sense to gain as much experience at the oval tracks as possible. It gives an idea to the team how much he has improved on different kinds of oval tracks as well.
They are spending their Cup funding for SVG to get him experience at a variety of tracks. They know he can race road courses. They learned a lot more about him by his performance at Charlotte than they would at Sonoma. https://t.co/35KyzzGnJZ
— Bob Pockrass (@bobpockrass) June 3, 2024
Road course racing is something SVG is already good at so it wouldn’t make sense for him to only race on those tracks in the Cup. However, the three-time Australian Supercars champion will take part in the Sonoma weekend as a part of the NASCAR Xfinity Series and it will be interesting to see if he can win two straight races in the competition.
The Kiwi might not be racing in the Cup Series on Sunday but he will know a few former competitors in the 2024 Toyota Save Mart 350.
Shane van Gisbergen is set to see some familiar faces at Sonoma
The race will see Cam Waters and Will Brown come all the way to the States from The Land Down Under to follow in the footsteps of SVG. The Kiwi’s debut win and subsequent switch to NASCAR must have inspired a few people back home and now, everyone wants a shot at a Cup Series race victory.
Waters will be piloting the Stage 60 project for Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing while Brown is driving the #33 Richard Childress Racing car. Both drivers are extremely talented and it will be interesting to see how they perform in their debut NASCAR Cup Series race on Sunday.
