SHANE van Gisbergen has qualified 17th for the NASCAR Cup Series Clash at Bowman Gray Stadium’s bullring oval.
The effort means that the Trackhouse Racing driver is locked into the 23 cars that will greet the starter for the Clash, bypassing the Last Chance Qualifying Race.
For the session qualifying, van Gisbergen hit the track in the third grouping, consisting of the top 12 finishers in last year’s NASCAR Cup Series.
Earlier in the day, van Gisbergen logged the eighth fastest time among the 38 starters after a pair of practice sessions.
Last year in the corresponding race, van Gisbergen started tenth in the main event, before improving to ninth at the chequered flag.
Pole position for the race went to Kyle Larson from William Byron and Ty Gibbs.
The pre-season non-points-paying race was originally scheduled for last weekend; however, historic snowfall across North America has seen the event delayed by three days.
During the preliminaries, there were delays due to melted snow seeping under the barriers onto the track.
The revised event format has eliminated the heat races, with the top-20 qualifiers advancing directly to the 200-lap main event, two transferring from the 75-lap Last Chance Qualifying race, and one driver earning a start on a provisional basis based on 2025 driver points.
The Last Chance Qualifying race is scheduled for 8:30am AEDT, with the Clash set for 10:00am AEDT.
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