A third of the way into the 36-race season, the Trackhouse Racing driver sits 35th of the 36 full-timers, only ahead of Rick Ware Racing’s Cody Ware.

Van Gisbergen could quickly vault himself into the playoffs with a win, with three road courses and one street circuit coming up where he reckons he’ll be the most competitive.

The 35-year-old is well aware that the expectation is to be a winner at one of Chicago, Mexico City, Sonoma, or Watkins Glen.

However, the #88 Chevrolet Camaro driver said he has to make greater strides forward on ovals.

“We know we’ll be good at the road courses, but the majority of racing is ovals,” van Gisbergen told The Backstretch.

“We can’t be running at the back every week. We’re working on everything trying to get better at the ovals and just get that average finish better and keep working on getting good results.

“I think we’ve made a lot of steps forward, and we’re a lot closer to the pack, but still on the tail end of it.

“Just got to keep working, not get desperate and trying to do stupid stuff. Drive with my head. I need to just keep chipping away at it, I think.”

Van Gisbergen is among the worst qualifiers this season. Of the full-timers, he’s on average the second-to-last driver on the grid.

His Trackhouse Racing teammates have struggled too. Daniel Suarez’s average qualifying position is 24th while Ross Chastain averages 23rd.

Van Gisbergen averages 30th in races, but his teammates Suarez and Chastain are able to race forward to 21st and 14th respectively.

“It’s the million-dollar question, isn’t it?” said van Gisbergen when asked how to make headway.

“As a team, we’re also qualifying 25th to 35th as a team. Even Ross and Daniel, who should be up the front-end there, we’re not quite getting it at the moment as a team.

“There’s that focus. As for myself, I’m definitely not making that jump. I need to get better.”

Van Gisbergen is cognisant he has to improve, but a last place qualifying performance at Talladega Superspeedway pointed to the equipment being off the pace.

“There’s definitely light at the end of the tunnel,” he admitted.

“I feel like we’re making steps, understanding each other, myself and Stephen (Doran) trying to get better. I don’t feel like it’s a lost cause or anything.

“Certainly, Talladega was tough. We qualified 36th and it’s easy flat the whole way around at that track, so it’s been difficult getting speed out of our cars too.”

Van Gisbergen will continue his season at North Wilkesboro for the non-championship All-Star Race.