That’s despite a season-best oval finish of 20th at Darlington Raceway in his #88 Chevrolet Camaro.

The Trackhouse Racing driver has been battling on ovals to find a set-up that suits his car.

Those issues aren’t limited to ovals either. At Circuit of the Americas, van Gisbergen fought to a season-best sixth.

In the latest NASCAR Cup Series race at Darlington Raceway dubbed ‘The Track Too Tough To Tame’, the Kiwi bemoaned a car that understeered mid-corner and oversteered on corner-exit.

“It’s a completely different car on and off the throttle,” he remarked to this team during the race.

A set-up swing brought the car to life late in the race, but by then the damage was done and van Gisbergen was left with very little time to make any meaningful headway.

The best he could do was 20th.

“The day started quite good for the #88 WeatherTech Chevrolet team,” said van Gisbergen post-race.

“We were moving forward. We learned a lot and it was quite fun. And then in the middle of the race, we really lost the handling on the car.

“We struggled to get that back and get it to my liking, which was a shame.

“It’s been a trend we’ve been having the last few weeks, so I need to understand what I’m doing and we also need to understand on the car side what we can do better.

“At the end, I felt like the long runs were really good. I found myself being able to manage the tyres well.

“To get a top-20 after the runs we’ve been having is a great starting point, and now we just need to try and build some momentum.”

The ugly stats underlining van Gisbergen’s horror NASCAR season

Van Gisbergen wasn’t the only Trackhouse Racing driver to struggle. Teammate Daniel Suarez was only 15th having climbed from 30th on the grid.

“The #99 Quaker State Chevy was tight today,” said the Mexican.

“The strategy just didn’t go our way a couple of times. We were just average, we weren’t great.

“But nobody gave up and we were better at the end and had a great pit stop before overtime.

“That’s a decent finish but we have some work to do.”

The NASCAR Cup Series returns on April 14 at Bristol Motor Speedway.

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