Shane Van Gisbergen began Saturday’s NASCAR Cup race at Richmond outdoors the highest 30 within the operating order. With Austin Cindric ended up having his greatest run of the 2026 season, it was wanting as if the three-time Supercars champion was in for a tough night time.
Nevertheless, SVG really left Richmond three factors additional up from the cut-line than he was in the beginning of the 400-lap race. Whereas Cindric bested him and pushed SVG down onto the bubble, the Trackhouse driver really outscored the driving force sitting seventeenth within the standings — Ryan Preece.
It was all because of technique roll of the cube from crew chief Stephen Doran. Initially of the ultimate stage, Van Gisbergen stayed out on a lot older tires, taking the wave-around. He was abruptly inside the highest 15 and hoped for a fast warning that by no means got here. Nevertheless, the No. 97 was now off-sequence and after the primary spherical of green-flag pit stops, that yellow lastly got here proper as SVG cycled again inside the highest 15 on older tires once more.
He maintained that monitor place for the remainder of the night time, ending 14th and matching his Richmond end from one yr in the past. Preece completed seventeenth and since neither scored any stage factors, that is primarily hw SVG elevated his buffer from 47 factors to 50 over the RFK Racing driver (one level per place).
Shane van Gisbergen, Trackhouse Racing
Picture by: Sean Gardner / Getty Photographs
“We had been higher than what we certified,” stated Van Gisbergen after the race. “We had been making positive aspects on our No. 97 Mitti Chevrolet all through the race, much like the front-half of the top-20, perhaps higher. After which, the technique put us into the top-15 and gained us rather a lot, in order that was nice. The road I used through the Truck race appeared to work for us, particularly when the tires wore out. I might roll the highest and achieve fairly a couple of spots. Clear air, as effectively, appeared to work.”
With simply two races left earlier than the Chase reset, it will likely be a troublesome ask (however not inconceivable) for Preece to make the 50-point leap to SVG. The ultimate two races of the common season happen at New Hampshire Motor Speedway and Daytona Worldwide Speedway.
Van Gisbergen additionally stays inside putting distance of these forward of him, so he is not on an island in sixteenth. Cindric is simply seven factors up on SVG, whereas Bubba Wallace is +20 factors.
It was a good finish to a total constructive weekend for the Kiwi, who additionally earned his first-ever oval pole within the Truck race, finally ending fourth in that occasion.
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