Van Gisbergen wary of being ‘sucked into’ playoff pressure

Thanks to his win at Portland Raceway earlier this year, the Kaulig Racing driver qualified for the Round of 12 in the NASCAR Xfinity Series.

The first leg of the knock-out series begins on Sunday (AEST) at Kansas Speedway where van Gisbergen has never raced before.

Van Gisbergen sits fifth in the standings thanks to 17 bonus points earned during the regular season.

After the first three races in the playoffs, the bottom four drivers inside the Round of 12 will be cut before the Round of 8.

The Kiwi has seen what the pressure cooker playoffs are like in the top-tier Cup Series and is wary of falling into a similar trap.

“Watching [the Cup Series] last week, the pressure people are going through, the cut line, you see people driving like they don’t normally drive. It’s crazy,” van Gisbergen said on Stacking Pennies.

“The pressure is so high for these three races. I don’t know how I’m going to feel. I’m approaching it like every other race, trying to be level-headed about it, try and have some fun, but you can see how people get sucked into it pretty hard.”

The three-time Supercars champion likened the NASCAR playoffs to his 2016 title run.

That year, he beat Triple Eight Race Engineering teammate Jamie Whincup to the title.

Van Gisbergen recounted the title-deciding Race 28, in which he spun then-Prodrive Racing driver Mark Winterbottom and plummeted to 22nd before recovering to finish third.

Van Gisbergen said the change in driving style he saw from some Cup Series drivers was a lot like his 2016 championship year.

“The championship decider, I had a good buffer. I started that race on the Saturday and just drove completely different,” said van Gisbergen.

“If my teammate won, I had to finish eighth or something and I was riding around in fifth, way faster than everyone in front, trying not to make mistakes and I didn’t commit to a pass and spun someone out, got a penalty.

“I just drove tight and I was just like ‘Oh, that’s not me’. And then I got the penalty, went to the back, and just drove like crazy how I normally would and got back to fourth or third or something.

“I learnt a lot from that. You’ve just got to relax and try not get caught up in the points situations. Obviously you need to know if you’ve got to get a couple of points but you’re driving the fastest you can normally anyway.”