Van Gisbergen and McLaughlin stun America

By Thomas Miles

Date posted: 17 May 2025

Flying Kiwis Shane van Gisbergen and Scott McLaughlin have taken America by storm by being fastest in NASCAR and IndyCar overnight.

From seemingly nowhere, van Gisbergen took pole for the NASCAR All Star Race Open curtain raiser despite having never driven at North Wilkesboro Speedway.

Meanwhile, McLaughlin carried on his strong one-lap form at Indianapolis by topping Fast Friday.

Van Gisbergen, who is finding his feet in his rookie NASCAR Cup Series season, topped the 18-driver field in the one-lap dash that also included a pit stop.

His 88.685s lap at 76.112mph was two tenths clear of Caros Hocevar and Noah Gragson

As a result, the Trackhouse Racing Kiwi will start from pole for the first time on an oval.

It will be important given that only three of the 18 drivers advance from the Open Race to the All Star Race.

“I think we finally got all the things right,” said van Gisbergen.

“Qualifying has been a weakness. My lap was pretty good, coming in was good, pit stop guys were insane, so really good for them.

“Thanks to WeatherTech, thanks to the Trackhouse pit crew, and we’re up front tomorrow.

“I’ve never started at the front for an oval, so I don’t know what to do there.

“I’ll have to learn the rules and see how we go.”

At Indianapolis McLaughlin was fastest of all on Fast Friday with a top speed of 233.954mph.

The Team Penske Kiwi started on pole last year and put himself in the best position to repeat it by being the man to beat ahead of Saturday’s qualifying.

McLaughlin’s 38.4691s time was a comfortable two tenths clear of Scott Dixon and Alex Palou.

“Good day for us in the Pennzoil Yellow Submarine for Fast Friday,” he said.

“Ran two runs in the morning, felt a little tight in the first one, and then fixed the balance for the last and felt really, really good.

“So trying different strategies with the hybrid, we got an idea what we want to do for tomorrow, for the big day.

“But yeah, really good to get four good laps in and Yeah, put up a solid run.”

Australia’s Will Power also showed solid speed being sixth fastest.

“We definitely found a direction that we want to take the Verizon Chevy for tomorrow,” Power said.

“The conditions out there today were very difficult, much different than they were last year.

“We feel like we have really fast cars and Chevy horsepower is always what you want here at Indianapolis.

“We still have to meet and think about what we want to do tomorrow for the morning session. It will be nice to get a good qualifying draw tonight.”

It was not a date without drama after Simpson and Larson had separate high speed crashes.

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Van Gisbergen and McLaughlin stun America

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