Shane van Gisbergen earns first-ever top five oval finish in Nashville Cup race

At the checkered flag, there was only 0.005s separating the cars of Shane van Gisbergen, Tyler Reddick, and Chase Elliott in the battle for the final position inside the top five.

After initially scoring SVG in seventh, NASCAR reviewed the finish, and bumped the New Zealander up to fifth — that’s how close it was. Officially, he beat Elliott by 0.001s and Reddick by 0.005s at the finish line.

That is now Van Gisbergen’s best-ever finish on an oval and his first oval top five in the Cup Series. His previous best oval showing was at Atlanta earlier this year, where he finished sixth.

“I really enjoyed myself tonight.”

Van Gisbergen started tenth and much like the Coke 600, spent most of the day inside the top ten, leading the way for Trackhouse. However, in this case, he was all they had left after both Ross Chastain and Connor Zilisch crashed due to exploded brake rotors in Stage 1.

Van Gisbergen expressed concern that he was next, but the team assured him that the brake package/setup he was using was different than his teammates.

He ended up leading 12 laps, a new record for him on an oval, unseating the 11 laps he led just one week ago at Charlotte.

Van Gisbergen looked set for a top ten finish, but when a late-race caution flew, he stayed out, hoping to fend off those with fresher tires.

He and Elliott ran side-by-side for most of the final four-lap dash, but Van Gisbergen slid up into Elliott on the final lap as they ran door-to-door. This allowed Ricky Stenhouse Jr. to sneak by, and gave Reddick a chance to get a big run. He wedged his way between Van Gisbergen and Elliott, and they battled three-wide to the checkered flag.

Just after crossing the line, Reddick and Elliott actually collided and crashed, but Van Gisbergen avoided getting swept up in the melee.

“It was a pretty awesome day for this No. 97 Chevrolet team,” said Van Gisbergen after the race. “Starting up front obviously helps, but it was cool to lead some laps and battle at the front. Our Chevy was running really well all night.

“I really enjoyed myself tonight. I learned a lot. I learned to be comfortable moving around in (turns) one and two, which I’ve never been able to do before. We just got the balance better on the two-tire strategy. When we were on a four-tire strategy, we were lacking that. The two-tire stop at the end, we were able to get the balance back again. It was a lot of fun. It definitely feels like we’re making headway.”

Van Gisbergen also had a friendly chat with Elliott in the pit lane about their spirited battle. The result bumps SVG up to 12th in the overall standings, now 44pts clear of the Chase cut-line.

Shane van Gisbergen leads the field, No. 97 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet