Labeling statistics as \u201ckind of an American thing,\u201d Shane van Gisbergen avoids dwelling on his record-setting rookie season in the NASCAR Cup Series.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt normally hits me on the plane ride home or at 4 a.m. after a few beers,\u201d van Gisbergen said Sunday after conquering the Watkins Glen International road course in New York for his fourth victory this year. \u201cI try to reflect on it, but I also try and get to the next week pretty quick. I\u2019ll try not to tweet at 4 a.m. this morning.\u201d<\/p>\n
If the laid-back Kiwi were into chest-pounding on social media, the list of heady accomplishments includes being the third driver with four consecutive Cup wins on road or street courses, joining 2020 champion Chase Elliott and NASCAR Hall of Famer Jeff Gordon.<\/p>\n
It also includes being the first rookie with four victories — breaking a tie with seven-time champion Jimmie Johnson and three-time champion Tony Stewart — and the largest margin of victory (11.116 seconds) in Watkins Glen history and second largest this season behind his 16.567-second win at Mexico City that was the biggest gap from first to second since 2009.<\/p>\n
The next achievement could be the loftiest yet for the driver from Auckland, New Zealand, who struggles massively on the ovals that comprise most of the season.<\/p>\n
Can van Gisbergen be a legitimate championship contender in Year 1?<\/p>\n
Trackhouse Racing owner Justin Marks, who put his reputation on the line and convinced sponsors to risk millions on an audacious plan to make the Cup playoffs with an inexperienced and unheralded rookie, suggests a deep run awaits the No. 88 Chevrolet.<\/p>\n
\u201cShane just continues to go showcase why we\u2019ve made a long-term commitment to him, why we brought him over here from New Zealand and built this team around him,\u201d said Marks, who signed van Gisbergen to a multiyear extension last week. \u201cBecause in a sport like this where winning is so important and so hard to do, if you can catch some lightning in a bottle like we\u2019ve got with SVG, you\u2019ve got to really lean into it. That\u2019s what we\u2019ve done. It\u2019s like seeing a plan come together.\u201d<\/p>\n
The plan now has a path to the doorstep of a Cup title.<\/p>\n
The first round of 16 drivers is contested on three ovals, but van Gisbergen has a sizable 22-point cushion (victories are worth five points each for the playoffs) to overcome a 26.9 average finish on ovals.<\/p>\n
Pared down to 12 drivers, the second round features a road course at Charlotte Motor Speedway. A win there would catapult a driver into the third round, where eight drivers will square off for four berths in the championship finale at Phoenix Raceway.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s in a really good position,\u201d Marks said. \u201cI think we have a real opportunity to get to the Round of 8.\u201d<\/p>\n
The playoffs open at tricky Darlington Raceway, whose odd shape is among the most difficult layouts in NASCAR, but van Gisbergen is more concerned about the first-round cutoff race at Bristol Motor Speedway. He finished 38th in his April 13 debut on the Tennessee short track.<\/p>\n
\u201cI ran terrible there,\u201d said van Gisbergen, who finished 20th a week earlier at Darlington. \u201cBristol was so far from anything I\u2019ve ever done, and that\u2019s a really tough place. That\u2019s probably the biggest worry. Darlington, I feel fine, especially now that we have a lot of points. You\u2019ve just got to have three solid weeks, and you might get through. We just have to play the averages, make no mistakes and make sure we\u2019re in a good spot every week.\u201d<\/p>\n
Zilisch future<\/p>\n
After pulling Connor Zilisch from the Cup race at Watkins Glen, Marks said it\u2019s unclear when the Xfinity Series points leader will return from the broken collarbone he suffered while celebrating his series-high sixth victory Saturday. With approval from NASCAR, Zilisch could skip the final three regular-season races and still be eligible for the Xfinity playoffs.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s a huge asset and a huge part of the future of the business,\u201d Marks said. \u201cWe have to make sure that we\u2019re not hurting any long-term opportunities by taking advantage of a short-term opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n
Having raced with a broken collarbone in 2021, van Gisbergen believes Zilisch could return for the Aug. 22 race at Daytona International Speedway.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had a weekend off and raced the next week, so pretty much what he\u2019s going to go through,\u201d van Gisbergen said. \u201cI\u2019d get a plate put in and then take it out at the end of the year. It\u2019s obviously going to be in pain. My biggest problem was tightening the belts. I could really feel the plate through the skin, and it was a horrible feeling. But I raced the next week and did pretty well. For sure with some good doctors and some good drugs, he\u2019ll get through the race fine.\u201d<\/p>\n
Impressing the boss<\/p>\n
With team owner Michael Jordan in attendance, Bubba Wallace finished eighth at Watkins Glen (a spot ahead of 23XI Racing teammate Tyler Reddick) for a season-best fourth consecutive top 10. The stretch includes the Brickyard 400 victory that qualified Wallace for the playoffs and relieved enormous pressure from the No. 23 Toyota driver.<\/p>\n
\u201cIndy was life-changing,\u201d Wallace said. \u201cIt allowed me to not harp on all of the mistakes that I usually make at a road course. The big boss was here, so it\u2019s good to get MJ a couple of top 10s.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Labeling statistics as \u201ckind of an American thing,\u201d Shane van Gisbergen avoids dwelling on his record-setting rookie season…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":63241,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[49,48,634,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-63240","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nascar","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-nascar","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63240","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63240"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63240\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/63241"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63240"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63240"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63240"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}