Shane van Gisbergen during the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Faith Fest 250.
Returning to the Spire Motorsports stable for another cameo, the Kiwi started from 19th and worked his way forward in the final stage.
Driving the #71 Chevrolet Silverado, van Gisbergen finished Stage 1 in 17th and Stage 2 in 14th before beginning his charge to third in Stage 3.
Van Gisbergen restarted the final stage in 10th with 100 laps to go and steadily moved forward before reaching third inside 20 laps to go.
Third place matches van Gisbergen’s best-ever oval finish across NASCAR’s top three divisions when he last ran third in 2024 at Atlanta in the then-known NASCAR Xfinity Series.
“It’s just time and getting to drive for good teams and good equipment makes it really fun,” said van Gisbergen post-race.
“Thank you to Spire, hopefully I get to do it again. It’s awesome, hopefully it leads to more opportunities. The more experience I can get, it all helps.”
Complete our motor oil survey for your chance to win 1 of 5 Supercheap Auto $100 gift cards.
Take the short survey.
Van Gisbergen said there would be very little that translates to the NASCAR Cup Series race on Monday, in which he’ll start third.
“It’s all just experience and time racing, learning how other people race, how to approach restarts – it’s just experience,” he said.
The Truck Series race was dominated by Front Row Motorsports, with Chandler Smith leading pole position winner Layne Riggs to the chequered flag.
Smith led 105 laps of the 250-lap distance, clinching victory by eight seconds.
The key moment of the race for Smith came on Lap 152 when he led the field coming out of the pit lane.
Riggs restarted towards the tail of the top 10 and marched forward to second but couldn’t bridge the gap to the lead.
Riggs expressed his disappointment in coming up short of the win, but was happy to see his teammate on top.
“Part of me wanted to have a restart,” Riggs said.
“Part of me knew if that happened there was probably going to be some carnage.
“So I was very happy just finishing the race there, knowing our teammate got the win. Congratulations to Chandler. He did a great job.”
“It was hot today. I ice-bagged on every stop. My cool shirt was on-I took it off already.
“It was probably one of the hottest races I’ve ever been in. I think we need to add some heat shields to these things…
“But my mind stayed sharp, and I stayed in the game.”
The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series returns at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park on July 25 (AEST) for the TSport 200.
Results: NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, North Wilkesboro Speedway
Pos
Num
Driver
Car
Laps/Diff
Gap
1
38
Chandler Smith
Ford F-150
250 laps
250
2
34
Layne Riggs
Ford F-150
8.479
8.479
3
71
Shane Van Gisbergen
Chevrolet Silverado
10.591
2.112
4
91
Christian Eckes
Chevrolet Silverado
12.269
1.678
5
45
Landen Lewis
Chevrolet Silverado
13.886
1.617
6
17
Giovanni Ruggiero
Toyota Tundra
14.757
0.871
7
7
Chase Elliott
Chevrolet Silverado
15.041
0.284
8
52
Stewart Friesen
Toyota Tundra
17.766
2.725
9
5
Corey Heim
Toyota Tundra
18.067
0.301
10
88
Ty Majeski
Ford F-150
18.267
0.2
11
11
Kaden Honeycutt
Toyota Tundra
1 lap
12
42
Tyler Reif
Chevrolet Silverado
1 lap
13
98
Jake Garcia
Ford F-150
1 lap
14
99
Ben Rhodes
Ford F-150
1 lap
15
62
Christopher Bell
Toyota Tundra
1 lap
16
26
Dawson Sutton
Chevrolet Silverado
1 lap
17
1
Nick Leitz
Toyota Tundra
1 lap
18
15
Tanner Gray
Toyota Tundra
1 lap
19
18
Tyler Ankrum
Chevrolet Silverado
1 lap
20
19
Daniel Hemric
Chevrolet Silverado
1 lap
21
12
Brenden Queen
RAM
1 lap
22
13
Cole Butcher
Ford F-150
1 lap
23
44
Andres Perez De Lara
Chevrolet Silverado
2 laps
1 lap
24
25
Ryan Newman
RAM
2 laps
25
9
Grant Enfinger
Chevrolet Silverado
2 laps
26
16
Justin Haley
RAM
2 laps
27
77
Carson Hocevar
Chevrolet Silverado
2 laps
28
14
Mini Tyrrell
RAM
2 laps
29
10
Corey LaJoie
RAM
3 laps
1 lap
30
81
Kris Wright
Chevrolet Silverado
3 laps
31
22
Clayton Green
Ford F-150
4 laps
1 lap
32
33
Frankie Muniz
Ford F-150
4 laps
33
2
Luke Baldwin
Ford F-150
5 laps
1 lap
34
76
Nathan Nicholson
Chevrolet Silverado
8 laps
3 laps
35
27
Kasey Kleyn
Chevrolet Silverado
47 laps
39 laps
36
4
Donovan Strauss
Chevrolet Silverado
116 laps
69 laps