SHANE van Gisbergen has qualified tenth at New Hampshire Motor Speedway for this weekend’s NASCAR Cup Series race.
The #88 Chevrolet set a time of 29.409sec, which tied with Denny Hamlin, who was ultimately classified in ninth.
The effort betters the 11th-place qualifying result he earned recently at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
The Kiwi was the 12th driver to take to the track – in the past three weeks, he was late out in the running order by virtue of being Playoff eligible.
Earlier in the lone 25-minute-long practice session, van Gisbergen logged the 28th fastest time.
Pole position for the race was claimed by Joey Logano over Team Penske teammate Ryan Blaney, with the associated Wood Brothers Racing car of Josh Berry third.
Numerous Playoff drivers struggled in the session, with Austin Cindric recovering from a big slide on his lap to start 22nd, while Chase Elliot will line up from 27th.
In fact, only six drivers in the Round of 12 bettered van Gisbergen’s time.
Although van Gisbergen is out of the running for this year’s Playoffs, there is still valuable learning to be taken on board from the remaining seven weeks of the season.
Next year, New Hampshire is scheduled just outside of the Playoffs, with the event placed in the schedule immediately before the cutoff race at Daytona.
Also, the one-mile configuration of the track places it with similar characteristics to Phoenix Raceway, which this year rounds out the season for one last time before the finale returns to Homestead-Miami in 2026.
Van Gisbergen only has one prior career start at New Hampshire, which came last year in the Xfinity Series, when he finished 18th.
The three-time Supercars champion still has a role to play in the coming weeks in assisting his Trackhouse Racing stablemate Ross Chastain, who earned a place in the Playoffs Round of 12.
Heading into this weekend, Chastain is 11th in the standings, only two points behind the cutoff line in a tight points battle.
The Floridian has already pointed to leaning on SVG for assistance in the final race of this round, which is set to be held on the Charlotte Roval road course.
The green flag at New Hampshire is set to drop tomorrow at 4am AEST.