What Van Gisbergen learnt from taking on Talladega

Shane van Gisbergen has taken a lot of learnings from one of the biggest weekends of his career doing both the NASCAR Cup and Xfinity Series at the wild Talladega Superspeedway.

Van Gisbergen had to settle for 22nd in the Xfinity Series and 26th in the Cup Series races, but the results do not tell the full story.

The Kiwi rookie led in both races and was on track for strong top 10 finishes only for some bad luck to strike at the death.

Making his Cup Series oval debut at the fastest oval in America was always going to be a daunting prospect for SVG.

But van Gisbergen did not back down in the #16 Kaulig Racing Camaro, leading three laps before making a late surge in the top lane.

A big charge up high saw van Gisbergen get as high as eighth with just four laps to go, but all of his momentum was sucked up when Ty Gibbs and Kyle Busch jumped in front.

Instead of challenging for victory, van Gisbergen lost all ground and had to settle for 26th, behind the leading pack which was turned upside down due to a “big one” seconds before the chequered flag.

Van Gisbergen admitted he was still getting his head around the unique high-speed chess of draft racing at super speedways 

“It was pretty different and a lot of fun moving up front,” van Gisbergen told FRONTSTRETCH.

“To lead some laps was very cool.

“At the start I couldn’t get anyone to push me and they just dropped me, left me for dead in the middle.

“Then at the end I didn’t really understand how to keep Chase (Elliott) right on me to keep the speed up and then someone jumped in front of us and screwed the top lane.

“It takes a while for people to trust you. They see the yellow stripes and that is going to take some time but it is what it is.

“I felt like I was pretty stable and managed gaps, trying to be as smooth and trusting as I could.”

A day earlier in the NASCAR Xfinity Series race, van Gisbergen was in the thick of the action when it went into Overtime.

He started the green-white-chequered sequence up in fourth, only to run out of gas as soon as he tried to put the foot down. 

As opposed to Atlanta when van Gisbergen was the beneficiary of others slowing in Overtime, this time the Kaulig Racing driver dropped to 22nd.

Despite the heartbreak, van Gisbergen still took many positives from the Xfinity Series race.

“I saw it was down on fuel pressure so I tried to swing it to the left to get the fuel in the box so it did not take off,” he reflected to FRONTSTRETCH.

“It was still a pretty awesome day. The Wendy’s Camaro was good and I led a lap which was very exciting.

“I had fun and felt a lot more comfortable than I did at Daytona for example and made some moves.

“At certain points I was learning who to work with and who not. 

“I made a mistake in the second stage thinking someone would follow me but they didn’t and I went straight back, so I am learning every lap.”

Van Gisbergen will take on Dover International Speedway this weekend with the race beginning at 3.30 AEST Sunday morning.

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