Shane van Gisbergen NASCAR Cup Series Qualifying Gateway Playoffs

SHANE van Gisbergen has qualified 18th at World Wide Technology Raceway for the second race of the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs.

With the 16 Playoff contenders the last to qualify, SVG was the 23rd driver to take to the track, following fellow Playoff contenders Josh Berry and Alex Bowman.

This weekend is van Gisbergen’s first-ever appearance at the Illinois venue, with the Cup Series only having 25 minutes of practice ahead of qualifying.

From that session, the Kiwi placed 33rd, while Trackhouse Racing’s other Playoff hope, Ross Chastain, was 31st fastest.

For the race, Chastain will start 4th.

Coming into the weekend, SVG is 12th in the standings, still in line to progress to the next Playoff round, albeit with a points buffer of only three.

The pole position went to Denny Hamlin, followed by Kyle Larson and last week’s winner, Chase Briscoe.

Other notable qualifiers from the Playoff bunch included Chase Elliot (19th) and Alex Bowman (25th).

The race is set for a green flag at 5:00am AEST tomorrow.