Shane van Gisbergen Makes a Major Claim About His Oval racing progress

Shane van Gisbergen joined the NASCAR grid in the 2023 season and quickly rose to be a great driver. The veteran won his debut race at the Chicago Street Course, thanks to his strong background in the Australian Supercar category. However, Gisbergen’s transition to oval racing has been very challenging, and he has yet to secure a victory on an oval circuit. Still, the 36-year-old remains optimistic about improving his performance on short ovals, having shared his current mindset regarding his potential to dominate these tracks.

Shane van Gisbergen‘s most recent victory came at the Chicago Street Course circuit again, right after his victory at the inaugural Mexico Cup Race. This proves that SVG is extremely dominant when it comes to racing around the narrow circuits. However, the #88 driver must improve his racecraft around the ovals if he wants to have a realistic shot at the championship. Now, the 36-year-old asserted that he is getting much better around Oval tracks.

In a recent interview with Kevin Harvick, Shane van Gisbergen pointed out that he and his camp were getting much better at racing around the Oval tracks. Gisbergen explained that in the past months, he had improved significantly as he was very conservative in terms of pushing to the limit during the Qualifying.

Due to this poor run in Qualifying, Gisbergen started the race at a big deficit against the rivals. The #88 driver started at the back of the grid and lost a lot of pace due to the dirty air behind the cars ahead of him. Still, the 36-year-old asserted that he isn’t making many mistakes when it comes to driving in general. The veteran is just happy to race at every destination and keep learning throughout the process.

I think we’re getting a lot better, The last couple of months, we’ve really stepped up. I was probably a little bit too conservative at the start of the year, especially in qualifying. Then you start at the back and there’s no air back there, with downforce and stuff, but I didn’t feel like I was forcing it. I wasn’t making too many mistakes, just kind of happy to be there, drive around and learn as much as I could.

Shane van Gisbergen said on The Happy Hour podcast.

Shane van Gisbergen hopes to ‘learn more’ from his teammate Ross Chastain

Ross Chastain is infamous for his great recovery drive during his races, with his recent victory at the Coke 600 being a great highlight of his career. Chastain started the race from P40 and drove a great race to ultimately win in the end, as he became the first driver since 1969 to win from the last spot. The #1 driver is exceptional at gaining positions during the restart as well. Due to this, Shane van Gisbergen hopes to learn as much as possible from his teammate in this aspect.