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Van Gisbergen secures top 20 start

By Thomas Miles

Date posted: April 20, 2024

Despite having no practice laps at all, Shane van Gisbergen has secured a top 20 starting spot for the NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Talladega.

Van Gisbergen qualified 18th in the #97 Kaulig Racing Camaro with a time of 53.387s in the one-lap qualifying in a massive 39-car field.

The Kiwi’s solid first up effort was 0.594s off the pace of pole sitter Austin Hill with a top speed of 179.370mph.

Talladega saw the superspeedway qualifying format in use, which begins with each driver having one lap to nail it with the  10 fastest drivers advancing to the final round of qualifying, which is a Top 10 Shootout.

With Talladega being one of the fastest and wildest stops on the NASCAR calendar and no practice on offer at all, van Gisbergen was thrown straight into the deep end.

Despite these challenges, van Gisbergen managed to maintain his consistent qualifying performances in his rookie NASCAR Xfinity Series campaign.

Including Talladega he has now qualified in the top 20 in six of the nine races.

His only previous taste of super speedway racing was at Daytona where he qualified an impressive fifth and finished 12th.

The one-lap taste of Talladega will also be a critical learning experience for van Gisbergen, who is also taking on the big stars of the NASCAR Cup Series this weekend.

Like the Xfinity Series, no practice is on offer for the Cup Series with qualifying taking place at 12.30 on Sunday morning AEST.

It takes place around five hours before the NASCAR Xfinity Series Ag-Pro 300 race at 06.00 AEST Sunday morning, which will be broadcast on Fox Sports.

Photo by LAT Images

NASCAR Xfinity Series qualifying results

 

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