Ross Chastain will attempt to apply lessons which he learned from Trackhouse Racing team-mate Shane van Gisbergen’s debut NASCAR victory at this weekend’s Indy road course race.
Van Gisbergen stunned NASCAR when, in his first start, he won the inaugural Chicago street race, early last month.
The two-time Bathurst 1000 winner is back in Trackhouse’s Project91 Chevrolet Camaro again this weekend at Indianapolis, a venue and a type of circuit where his rivals do have experience.
Despite winning at the Circuit of The Americas in 2022, Chastain says there is still much to take from how the New Zealander in Car #91 went about his only NASCAR race so far.
“It’s a constant evolution and labour of love,” said the #1 Camaro pilot of road course racing.
“I had never turned right before until I was in the Truck in 2013 at Mosport. I realised that weekend I had a lot of work to do.
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“I’m not satisfied with how I turn right at all. Shane opened our eyes to a lot of things and we’ve looked at that.
“Going to tracks without walls everywhere like Chicago and tracks that I’ve been to before like the next two coming up will help.
“It’s constant work for me though. I’ve been putting in the work so we’ll see if it pays off.”
While the point has been well-ventilated that van Gisbergen boasted street circuit experience which his rivals did not at Chicago, Chastain revealed another disadvantage, on top of lack of familiarity with a NASCAR, which the three-time Supercars champion faced in the Windy City.
“Shane was the new guy going into Chicago so he didn’t get first pick of the simulator times for that weekend,” he explained.
“He went Thursday night to the simulator when the haulers were already gone and they couldn’t change the car.
“I got to see some of the stuff once we got to the track, and obviously after practice and qualifying we saw that he was good and looked through some of his stuff.”
Van Gisbergen is on double-duty this weekend, making his oval debut in the Trucks Series at Indianapolis Raceway Park on Friday (local time) before heading to Indianapolis Motor Speedway for Cup Series action from Saturday.
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