{"id":707740,"date":"2026-06-01T06:43:14","date_gmt":"2026-06-01T06:43:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/707740\/"},"modified":"2026-06-01T06:43:14","modified_gmt":"2026-06-01T06:43:14","slug":"statement-drive-from-svg-in-nashville","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/707740\/","title":{"rendered":"Statement drive from SVG in Nashville"},"content":{"rendered":"

SHANE van Gisbergen has put in a massive drive to finish fifth in the NASCAR Cup Series at Nashville Superspeedway, his best oval result to date.<\/p>\n

Earlier in the race, van Gisbergen led for the third race in succession and was set for a top-five finish in the run to the chequered flag, but was pipped in a three-wide photo finish.<\/p>\n

After crossing the line provisionally seventh, he was later updated to fifth, with 0.005sec splitting three cars.<\/p>\n

Pre-race, the three-time Supercars champion noted that the concrete tracks were a problem for the Trackhouse Racing squad, and this proved true for his teammates Connor Zilisch and Ross Chastain, who suffered early brake failures.<\/p>\n

The result was a marked improvement over his 25th-place result at the venue last year.<\/p>\n

After qualifying was washed out, van Gisbergen saw in the green flag from 10th position<\/a>, with the race start significantly delayed by further rain.<\/p>\n

At the start, polesitter Denny Hamlin was adjudged to have jumped and forced to serve a drive-through penalty, which elevated SVG to eighth.<\/p>\n

When the competition caution fell on lap 35 of 300, van Gisbergen was placed eighth.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Taking on only two tyres at the pit stop, the #97 Chevrolet re-emerged in the lead, his third race in a row at the front of the field.<\/p>\n

With four fresh tyres on board, Kyle Larson attacked on lap 48, but the Kiwi held on to the lead.<\/p>\n

SVG dropped to third when his Trackhouse Racing teammate Connor Zilisch suffered a brake failure and smacked the turn 1 wall.<\/p>\n

Taking on four tyres, van Gisbergen saw in the subsequent restart from 14th, and he held that position when the next Trackhouse entry of Ross Chastain suffered a brake failure.<\/p>\n

In a one-lap run to the end of the stage, SVG held station, with the green and white chequered flag claimed by AJ Allmendinger, who gambled on tyre strategy.<\/p>\n

During the next stint, van Gisbergen pitted under green flag conditions from sixth position, but with Austin Dillon spinning on the front stretch, the #97 was mired a lap down until taking the wave around to restart from 20th.<\/p>\n

SVG was placed 16th when AJ Allmendinger smashed the wall after another brake failure on lap 173.<\/p>\n

Restarting from 14th, van Gisbergen made contact with Todd Gilliland, and worked his way to 11th when Gilliland, Cole Custer and Corey Heim crashed at turn 1, ending the stage with Daniel Su\u00e1rez leading the field.<\/p>\n

Starting the final stage from fifth, racing lasted a lap before Brad Keselowski and Austin Cindric<\/a> wrecked on the frontstretch.<\/p>\n

From seventh position, van Gisbergen lost two spots before Bubba Wallace, William Byron and Alex Bowman were the next to crash.<\/p>\n

Following that, John Hunter Nemechek and Gilliand spun exiting turn 4.<\/p>\n

Van Gisbergen made his final scheduled pit stop on lap 259 from eighth position, and worked back to seventh when Chris Buescher suffered a brake failure with 12 laps remaining.<\/p>\n

Staying out, SVG restarted sixth with four laps remaining.<\/p>\n

In a mad scramble home, Denny Hamlin claimed the win from Christopher Bell and Chase Briscoe, with the three Joe Gibbs Racing Toyotas three wide at the finish.<\/p>\n

Behind Ricky Stenhouse Jr in fourth, Chase Elliot and Tyler Reddick, who were side-by-side with SVG at the finish, crashed heavily after the flag.<\/p>\n

Van Gisbergen was later judged to be just ahead of the pair.<\/p>\n

Next week, the NASCAR Cup Series returns to the wide-open Michigan International Speedway.<\/p>\n

The Undercut \u2013 Should rivals be friends?<\/p>\n

The Undercut is back, breaking down the world of Supercars racing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SHANE van Gisbergen has put in a massive drive to finish fifth in the NASCAR Cup Series at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":707741,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[64,63,806,805,803,804,85],"class_list":["post-707740","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-motosport","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-motor","tag-motor-sports","tag-motosport","tag-motosports","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/707740","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=707740"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/707740\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/707741"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=707740"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=707740"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=707740"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}