SHANE van Gisbergen will line up from 31st for this weekend’s NASCAR Cup Series YellaWood 500 from Talladega Superspeedway.
By virtue of crashing out at Las Vegas last time out, NASCAR’s metric system saw van Gisbergen the 12th of 40 cars to hit the track in qualifying, which typically is considered to be the slower end of the draw.
Curiously, no practice was scheduled for the weekend, with Saturday’s on-track running amounting to the single lap of qualifying, with the faster cars advancing to a second round runoff.
Talladega marks the second-to-last race of the Round of 8 in the Playoffs, with four cars advancing to the season finale at Phoenix next week at Martinsville.
Already locked in for the decider is Denny Hamlin, who won last time out from pole position, while Kyle Larson, Christopher Bell and Chase Briscoe are currently in position to advance.
Below the cut line heading into the weekend are William Byron, Chase Elliot, Joey Logano and Ryan Blaney.
Van Gisbergen has enjoyed a mixed bag of results to date at Talladega.
On his Cup Series debut at the venue late last year, he finished 15th before claiming 29th earlier this season.
Last year in the Xfinity Series, he registered results of 22nd and 35th.
However, recently, SVG has enjoyed improved performances on the ovals.
In his most recent Superspeedway race, he led laps at Daytona before settling for 16th at the chequered flag.
He was then strong at New Hampshire, finished tenth at Kansas, and ran at the front in Las Vegas before being involved in a melee.
The race is scheduled for a green flag at 5:00am AEDT on Monday.