Capture the Moment
Jun 15
by darren in The Feed 0 comments tags: Nascar, Trackhouse, van Gisbergen

Shane van Gisbergen soars to Busch Light Pole in Mexico City

Shane van Gisbergen claimed his first Busch Light Pole position of the season Saturday afternoon at Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez and will lead the field to green in the inaugural Viva Mexico 250 Sunday in Mexico City. Smiling and referring to road courses as his “natural habitat,” van Gisbergen was quite satisfied with his work in the No. 88 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet — especially considering the unknown of a first-time race at the venue. Inaugural races have been a plus on his resume. He made NASCAR history in 2023, famously winning the Chicago Street Race in his very first series start. “It was a great session for us, we kind of lacked in a lot of areas yesterday [in practice] with our car getting the balance we wanted and went through a lot of challenges last night — a couple I thought were maybe too much — and started my lap and the car felt magic right from the start,” van Gisbergen said. The pole position and positive start of the weekend could prove especially important as van Gisbergen is ranked 33rd in the championship standings, essentially needing a race victory to earn a position in the 16-driver NASCAR Cup Series […]
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Oct 06
by darren in Crash 0 comments tags: Nascar, Talladega

The Big One at Talladega 2024

The ‘Big One’ at Talladega strikes with five laps to go after Austin Cindric gets a push from Brad Keselowski involving up to 28 Cup Series cars.
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Sep 29
by darren in The Feed 0 comments tags: Nascar, van Gisbergen, Xfinity

Van Gisbergen rallies to eighth in remarkable Kansas recovery

Shane van Gisbergen has delivered a master performance in his first NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoffs race at Kansas. Despite starting down in 22nd and racing at Kansas for the first time, van Gisbergen produced a smashing final stage to soar to eighth and fifth amongst the Playoff contenders. It was the Kiwi’s fourth best result on an oval and could not have come at a more critical moment in the Playoffs opener where he is trying to be one of the leading eight to make the cut after the first three-race segment. Up front Aric Almirola made a late-race charge to snatch the win from Playoff drivers Cole Custer and Chandler Smith, who had words post-race. Sheldon Creed in fifth and Austin Hill in seventh were the only other Playoff drivers to finish ahead of the #97. The big Playoff victim was Justin Allgaier, who crashed out after making contact with Sheldon Creed and spinning into the inside wall from 10th on Lap 20. Van Gisbergen started 22nd after qualifying 0.948s off pole sitter Brandon Jones and had a steady opening stage, crossing the line 24th. The Kiwi crept into the top 20 in a second stage that was heavily […]
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Feb 06
by darren in Track 0 comments tags: Nascar, SVG

Shane van Gisbergen Wins at Chicago

Shane van Gisbergen history-making debut NASCAR victory, Chicago 2023
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Feb 06
by darren in The Feed 0 comments tags: Chicago, Nascar, SVG

SVG Wins Chicago

Three-time Supercars champion Shane van Gisbergen became the first driver in more than half a century to win a Cup race in their first start, taking the checkered flag in the inaugural Chicago Street Race on Sunday.
“This was so cool,” van Gisbergen told NBC Sports’ Marty Snider. “This is what you dream of. Hopefully I can come and do more.”
The 34-year-old van Gisbergen, who is from Auckland, New Zealand, becomes the first driver since Johnny Rutherford to win in his first Cup start. Rutherford won a Daytona qualifying race in 1963. Van Gisbergen is only the seventh driver in NASCAR’s 75 years to win in their first start.
“He was in a league of his own,” Chase Elliott said of van Gisbergen. “In my opinion, he put on a really big-time clinic. I don’t want to speak for everybody else, but he made me look bad. I kind of think the rest of us, too.”
Kyle Busch noted that van Gisbergen has driven cars similar for Cup cars for years.
“He’s probably four, five, eight years ahead of us in this sort of car,” Busch said.
Van Gisbergen gave Trackhouse Racing its second win in a row. He drove for Trackhouse Racing’s Project 91 effort, and his win comes a week after Ross Chastain won at Nashville.
He won a race shortened by darkness after being delayed by rain. The race was to have gone 100 laps but was shortened to 75 laps and then extended four laps by overtime.
Justin Haley finished second and was followed by Elliott, Kyle Larson and Kyle Busch, who overcame an early crash into the Turn 6 tire barrier to score a top five.
Sixth through 10th was Austin Cindric, Michael McDowell, Joey Logano, Ty Gibbs and Chris Buescher.
The race started on a wet course after rain much of the day, which delayed the beginning of the race by about 90 minutes. It was 20 laps in before teams started taking wet weather tires off and putting on slick tires as the racing line dried.
Only once was the track blocked in the event — something that many feared could happen multiple times in the race. The track was blocked in Turn 11 on Lap 50. William Byron missed the corner and then Corey LaJoie and Kevin Harvick made contact, Harvick hit the wall and came across the track and blocked half of it. Other cars ran into each other and the inside lane also was blocked.
Christopher Bell won both stages but saw his chances to win end quickly. When NASCAR announced on Lap 46 that the race would be shortened to 75 laps, he was leading, but some cars had already pitted and were in position to make it to the end. When Bell pitted, he restarted 12th behind those looking to make it to the end of the race.
On Lap 50, Bell was among those cars caught in the incident in Turn 11 that blocked the track. Five laps later, he spun in Turn 1, losing more positions. He finished 18th.
Tyler Reddick saw his hopes for a top-five finish end when he hit the Turn 6 tire barrier while running fourth. He finished 28th.
In the end, no one could catch van Gisbergen.
“The fans in Australia and New Zealand, the response this week and the coverage has been -- I can’t explain it,” he said. “Like the response and the support I’ve got from everyone and even over here how welcoming everyone is, I can’t believe it. Dream come true.”
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