Van Gisbergen sits a career-high fifth in the NASCAR Cup Series standings after four races, and has drawn praise from his peers for recent oval performances.

Atlanta bore his best oval result of sixth, and he backed that up with 11th at Phoenix despite a turbulent 312 laps.

Asked about van Gisbergen’s recent run of form, Wallace made a tongue-in-cheek remark before offering some more serious thoughts on his friend.

“Blind squirrel finds a nut every once in a while,” said the 23XI Racing driver.

“I actually went to dinner with Scotty (McLaughlin) last weekend, I said SVG will win on an oval soon. He’s good. He’s really, really good. I have a lot of confidence in him, and it shows.

“His racecraft, we had a hell of a battle at the start of the race last week at Phoenix. It was fun, although I passed him on the outside like he was a rookie, so that was pretty cool.

Wallace’s assessment was put to van Gisbergen, who appreciated the compliment but said he still has a way to go.

“I’m a long way from that. I need luck to get that and I don’t want to win like that,” said the Trackhouse Racing driver in relation to winning on an intermediate oval.

“I certainly feel and can see it now. I know every week I’m learning things and I feel big improvements every week still and know what’s going on now, rather than just being a deer in the headlights.

“It’s a pretty cool compliment, I know I’m still probably a little bit away from a win.”

Van Gisbergen and Trackhouse Racing as a whole has had a lift in performance.

His first top 10 of the season on an oval came just two races in. A year ago, it took 31 races before SVG could achieve that feat for the first time.

“I feel like we’re eighth to 15th most weeks, which probably doesn’t sound like a lot but we started tracks running 30th, so it’s been a huge improvement,” he explained.

“I’m pretty stoked about that but still a long way to go.”

“I feel like we’ve been able to execute and get the most out of our situations, which is awesome.

“Atlanta was a yo-yo. The leaderboard for us was up and down. Pretty cool to do the same at Phoenix last week, but it would be nice to have a trouble-free day.”

Van Gisbergen will make his fourth Cup Series start at Las Vegas on Monday at 8am AEDT. He qualified 16th, ahead of teammate Ross Chastain in 17th and Connor Zilisch in 25th.

Coverage of the Pennzoil 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway is live and exclusively on Kayo Sports and Fox Sports.

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