Shane van Gisbergen had an eventful race at EchoPark Speedway (Atlanta) on Sunday. The positioning of his finest oval exhibiting within the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Elements Sequence (third) is now the location of his finest oval end in Cup, ending a formidable sixth.
SVG did that regardless of two mid-race journeys by means of the infield grass on the best way to enhancing on his earlier finest oval end of tenth at Kansas final fall.
Van Gisbergen began the race outdoors the highest 20, however shortly moved ahead. By the top of Stage 2, he was in place to attain quite a lot of stage factors. He surged forward within the last nook, and was trying to move Kyle Larson for third (eight factors) when Larson got here all the best way down the monitor and throughout SVG’s nostril.
Larson admits fault in SVG incident
Van Gisbergen spun wildly into the infield whereas Larson crashed into the skin wall, ending his day. The 2-time NASCAR Cup Sequence champion took full duty for the incident.
“Yeah, I simply screwed up,” stated Larson in a media scrum that included Motorsport.com outdoors the infield care heart. “I knew the No. 45 [Tyler Reddick] was within me at some extent within the nook. I acquired away from him, however did not fairly notice that the No. 97 [SVG] had gotten within him, so as soon as I used to be clear, I simply needed to chop distance and short-cut my approach to the end of the stage. I hung a fast left and ran proper into him [SVG]. Nothign anyone else did mistaken moreover me. All on me, and hate it.”
SVG shortly rebounded, however whereas knocking on the door of the top-ten, he spun on his personal exiting Flip 4 and took one other off-road tour by means of the infield grass. Regardless of all that, the No. 97 Chevrolet was nonetheless just about intact. He didn’t seem close to the entrance once more till the very finish of the race, as he was amongst those that pitted for contemporary tires throughout one of many late cautions.
The battle to the end
With higher grip, he reduce a path ahead, and restarted seventh for the ultimate time beyond regulation restart. In the course of a three-wide scenario, he discovered teammate Ross Chastain and pushed him ahead. On the white flag, SVG was really working fourth, proper behind Chastain.
He pushed up within the last nook, permitting Carson Hocevar and Daniel Suarez to sneak by, however sixth was nonetheless sufficient for Sunday’s race to change into his new finest exhibiting on an oval on the Cup degree.
The factors haul was important as properly. After a Thirtieth-place end within the Daytona 500 put him twenty eighth within the championship standings, this weekend’s outcome vaults him as much as sixteenth within the factors. On the finish of Race #26, the highest 16 drivers within the standings will advance into ‘The Chase’ after NASCAR reconfigured its championship format for 2026.
Photographs from Atlanta – Race
Atlanta – Sunday, in pictures
Atlanta – Sunday, in pictures
Atlanta – Sunday, in pictures
Atlanta – Sunday, in pictures
Atlanta – Sunday, in pictures
Atlanta – Sunday, in pictures
Atlanta – Sunday, in pictures
Atlanta – Sunday, in pictures
Atlanta – Sunday, in pictures
Atlanta – Sunday, in pictures
Atlanta – Sunday, in pictures
Atlanta – Sunday, in pictures
Atlanta – Sunday, in pictures
Atlanta – Sunday, in pictures
Atlanta – Sunday, in pictures
Atlanta – Sunday, in pictures
Atlanta – Sunday, in pictures
Atlanta – Sunday, in pictures
Atlanta – Sunday, in pictures
Atlanta – Sunday, in pictures
Atlanta – Sunday, in pictures
Atlanta – Sunday, in pictures
Atlanta – Sunday, in pictures
Atlanta – Sunday, in pictures
Atlanta – Sunday, in pictures
Atlanta – Sunday, in pictures
Atlanta – Sunday, in pictures
Atlanta – Sunday, in pictures
Atlanta – Sunday, in pictures
Atlanta – Sunday, in pictures
Atlanta – Sunday, in pictures
Atlanta – Sunday, in pictures
Atlanta – Sunday, in pictures
Atlanta – Sunday, in pictures
Atlanta – Sunday, in pictures
Atlanta – Sunday, in pictures
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