SHANE van Gisbergen will start from second position for tomorrow’s Bank of America Roval 400 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
For the session, van Gisbergen was placed within the second group, which featured all of the Playoff drivers, with Tyler Reddick posting a time lap that pipped van Gisbergen to the pole by only 0.032sec.
Ty Gibbs claimed third in the session, ahead of Kyle Larson, Chris Buescher, Michael McDowell, Christopher Bell, Chase Biscoe, AJ Allmendinger and Ross Chastain.
Meanwhile, Playoff drivers with work to do outside of the top-ten include Ryan Blaney (11th), Bubba Wallace (12th), William Byron (13th), Denny Hamlin (14th), Chase Elliot (15th), Joey Logano (17th) and Austin Cindric (19th), although both Blaney and Elliot are locked into the next round.
The result in qualifying was a marked improvement from the day’s lone 25-minute-long practice session, where SVG placed the #88 Chevrolet in 17th position.
Earlier in the year, he scored pole position on the road courses at Mexico City, Chicago and Sonoma.
Van Gisbergen comes into the weekend on a high following a career-best oval finish of tenth last time out at Kansas Speedway, which was one week removed from a staunch run at New Hampshire.
The Roval race is the final in the Playoffs Round of 12, with four drivers to be knocked out ahead of next week’s Round of 8 opener in Las Vegas.
Currently, Chase Elliot and Ryan Blaney are locked in by virtue of victories over the past two weeks, with Kyle Larson, Denny Hamlin, Christopher Bell, William Byron, Chase Briscoe and Joey Logano also above the cutline.
Entering the weekend, the four drivers on the outside include SVG’s Trackhouse teammate Ross Chastain, Bubba Wallace, who was knocked out of a possible race win at the last corner in Kansas by team owner Hamlin, with Tyler Reddick and bp Adelaide Grand Final wildcard Austin Cindric, who will require a victory to race on in season 2025.
While van Gisbergen has form on the board in the NASCAR Cup Series this season, having won the last four road courses – namely Mexico City, Chicago, Sonoma, and Watkins Glen – he has never previously won on The Roval.
Last year in the Cup Series driving for Kaulig Racing, he scored pole position but could only muster seventh in the race.
Similarly, in the Xfinity Series, he topped qualifying before finishing third in the race.
Tomorrow’s race is scheduled for a green flag at 6am AEDT.
The Undercut – The Bathurst 1000 Edition
It’s a bumper show, with the team breaking down the Bathurst 1000, the safety car latest, silly season moves, and much, much more, with thanks to Shell V-Power!