Shane van Gisbergen’s rivals have a “foot fetish” over his heel-and-toe braking style, according to the NASCAR debutant.
The three-time Supercars champion has made an impression on the Cup Series field in just one official day in the category, topping practice on the brand-new Chicago street circuit and qualifying third, having barely tested his Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet Camaro.
While some tipped van Gisbergen to excel on a street circuit, which is a first for NASCAR, what has also impressed drivers has been his Supercar-inspired braking.
Like most of his usual Supercars rivals, the New Zealander ‘heels and toes’ by dipping the clutch with his left foot and blipping the throttle with his right ankle while hitting the brake with that foot in order to rev-match.
It is a technique which makes him a unique addition to the NASCAR Cup Series field, most of which does not use the clutch under braking, this weekend.
“Everyone’s got a bit of a foot fetish; it’s a bit weird for me,” he said on the NBC telecast during the ongoing rain delay.
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“That’s just normal for me; we always right-foot brake and blip on the down change.
“We use it a bit to control the rear locking, so I was doing it sometimes a bit. Yeah, quite different, [but] seems normal to us.
“We have a flat-shift system on the way up [shift cut] but, here, you have to lift the throttle very quickly on the up change where we just hold it flat over there.”
Right Foot Braking 🙌🏻👍🏻💪🏻 https://t.co/MF3JCBxeEU
— Scott McLaughlin (@smclaughlin93) July 1, 2023
His team-mate for the weekend, Trackhouse regular and last start winner Ross Chastain, would then draw attention to the heel-toe during a subsequent television interview.
Chastain was impressed by fellow Trackhouse driver Daniel Suarez qualifying fifth, not to mention SVG’s exploits, whereas he could only manage 34th on the grid.
“Obviously, my team-mate’s fifth and Project91 with Shane is third,” he noted.
“The footwork that man has inside these cars…!” Chastain quickly added, without prompt.
“We have the same pedals and I don’t understand how he gets his ankles and his feet to do what he’s doing. I’m a left-foot braker in a NASCAR race car.”
Drivers were instructed minutes ago to return to their cars with a start set to come soon.
While right-foot braking is routine, what will be a challenge for van Gisbergen is the wet concrete surfaces which make up part of the Grant Park street circuit surface.
“[It is] going to be real treacherous today, the concrete,” he opined.
“The concrete in the wet, you can feel every slip between the grip surface. It’s going to be super tough.”
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