Denny Hamlin has raised questions about just how well Shane van Gisbergen would perform in NASCAR as a full-timer.
The revelation follows his debut victory, a feat which was a 60-year first in the Cup Series, in Chicago.
However, that event also happened to be the very first street race in NASCAR history, and hence the three-time Supercars champion was able to draw on experience which his rivals did not possess.
Hamlin, who only appears to have a surface-level knowledge of the New Zealander’s career, mused as to whether or not he may be a street circuit/road course specialist.
On the idea of SVG racing full-time in NASCAR, the three-time Daytona 500 winner said on his Actions Detrimental with Denny Hamlin podcast, “I’m excited because I think that he’s a great talent. I guess, my question is, has he ever run an oval?
“It’s exciting because he went out and won his very first race and it’s like, ‘Holy cow, this is amazing,’ right?” added Hamlin, who is coming off a win and a second place in his last two starts.
“I guess I need to find out more about him, for sure. Like, what makes him a great race car driver in those Supercars?
“He’s obviously a great race car driver, period, because he came over here and won in NASCAR in his first start.
“But, I know everyone as a race car driver has their identity, right?
“For a long time, it was ‘Denny was short tracks,’ then it kind of moved to superspeedways, and everyone just kind of has somewhat of an identity of what they’re really specialised at.
“AJ Allmendinger, he’s a road course guy, right?
“What about Shane is great? Is he an exceptional street racer?”
Van Gisbergen is not only a two-time Bathurst 1000 winner but also a Bathurst 12 Hour winner in a GT3 and a WRC2 podium finisher in his only World Rally Championship start to date.
He is regarded as one of the more versatile drivers going around, and has a smattering of speedway experience, picking up his first sprintcar feature win at Palmerston North back in January.
When that was put to Hamlin, the Joe Gibbs Racing driver and 23XI co-owner noted that a dirt oval is a different craft to those which NASCAR (typically) races on.
He also claimed that van Gisbergen made most of his speed relative to his rivals in the trickiest section of the Chicago Street Circuit, but acknowledged that even a ‘road course ringer’ is a lucrative prospect given NASCAR’s Playoff system.
“Okay, so he’s got some oval… asphalt oval [versus] dirt ovals; very, very different,” declared Hamlin.
“But, I guess, maybe a team [thinks] ‘If he can go out and win, he can get us into the Playoffs. My ticket to the Playoffs is to go hire this guy.’
“I think we’ll know more after the Indy road course race, because I think we’ve all got experience at that road course race now.
“At Chicago… It’s really hard for me to explain, but he was so much faster than the field in the tight street area. Michigan Avenue, he was so fast in that section…
“He was very good everywhere else but he was exceptional over the bridge, and just kind of in that slow section and Turn 11, he was very, very fast.
“But, the Supercars [drivers], they’re so used to racing on a street, having these walls right next to them, whereas in Cup, we can’t see, we’re not used to it…
“So, I think we’ll know a lot more about what is this guy’s ceiling when we get to the Indy road course.
“That doesn’t mean he won’t contend for a win and be up front; it just won’t be as easy as what it was certainly at Chicago.”
The Indianapolis event, in which Brodie Kostecki will make his NASCAR Cup Series debut, takes place on August 11-13 (local time).
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