In the 500-lapper Xfinity 500 at Martinsville Speedway, according to Racing Reference, van Gisbergen ran 388 laps inside the top 15 on his way to 14th. That’s 77.6 percent of all laps inside the top third of the field.

Before Martinsville, van Gisbergen’s previous best percentage of laps inside the top on an oval stood at 63.7 percent, recorded just two weeks earlier at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

At Las Vegas, he ran 156 of the 267-lap race inside the top 15 before an untimely crash that took him out of a potential career-best oval top five finish.

Before Las Vegas, SVG had never spent more than 50 percent of any oval race inside the top 15.

Martinsville also represented van Gisbergen’s highest average running position this season on any oval of 14th.

At Las Vegas, he averaged 15th – the first time he’d cracked the top 15 average benchmark.

The #88 Trackhouse Racing driver has been making steady progress all season long, and his recent run of form has piqued the interest of industry experts.

Martinsville is one of a handful of circuits that van Gisbergen raced at twice this season. The gains between the first race and the most recent have been large.

At the NASCAR Cup Series Cook Out 400 in March, van Gisbergen started 33rd, finished 35th, and didn’t run a single lap inside the top 15.

On average, he was 33rd in-race and wound up six laps down.

Van Gisbergen remarked over the radio to his team after the latest Martinsville race that he is making progress.

“Had a fun race running up front most of the day but just slipped back a bit at the end,” he said in his post-race comments.

“Proud of my team for continuing to improve every weekend. Looking forward to finishing strong in Phoenix.”

The NASCAR Cup Series concludes its season at Phoenix on Monday, November 3 (AEDT)

Shane van Gisbergen’s 2025 NASCAR Cup Series results (Through Race 35 of 36)

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