Nearing the top of his first full-time season within the NASCAR Cup Collection, three-time Supercars champion Shane van Gisbergen has discovered lots about oval racing.
Initially of the 2025 Cup season, SVG had 5 finishes outdoors the highest 30 within the first six oval races, however in latest weeks, he earned his first oval stage factors and secured his first prime ten on an oval within the Cup Collection.
He presently sits twelfth within the championship standings, and the ultimate three races of the yr are all tracks he raced at earlier within the season (Talladega, Martinsville, Phoenix).
On X (previously Twitter), the New Zealander responded to a video highlighting how excessive he was working across the observe at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, with simply inches between himself and the skin wall.
“Nonetheless one of many craziest components of oval racing to me,” stated van Gisbergen as he reacted to the clip. “Ship it in at 310kph/190mph, lacking apex on goal, heading to the wall hoping an imaginary grip strip/air pocket goes to avoid wasting you from hitting it, then listening to the exhaust echo on the wall because it holds you off it. Wild!”
Waiting for Talladega and the top of rookie season
Shane van Gisbergen, Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet; Brad Keselowski, RFK Racing Ford
Picture by: Chris Graythen – Getty Pictures
Nevertheless, this weekend’s race is a lot totally different than most different ovals on the schedule. Talladega is a high-speed drafting observe, and the most important oval on the schedule. There is no such thing as a most well-liked line, and the sphere usually followers out three and 4 extensive throughout the total area inside one to 2 seconds of one another.
“It is loopy and really totally different than a standard oval,” stated SVG within the weekly group advance. “We’re doing 320 kilometers in a pack of 40 vehicles. It is superb how briskly we’re going, all squeezed collectively. Talladega is likely one of the most troublesome races that we do. Hopefully this weekend we will show that we’re getting higher at that (superspeedway racing) too and get a great consequence.”
His greatest Cup Collection end at Talladega is fifteenth, which got here with Kaulig Racing final yr. Waiting for the tracks that make up the remainder of his rookie season, he famous, “I just like the problem of all of them. I like how totally different all of them are. The intermediates, they give the impression of being the identical form on paper, however if you go there, all of them drive so otherwise. I actually just like the problem of discovering all of the little integrities on the observe and what makes the vehicles work.”
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