After being bitten by the bug in 2023, van Gisbergen is now several weeks into his new life as a full-time NASCAR driver.
The three-time Supercars champion sits 14th in the Xfinity Series after his first four races in the sport’s second tier, with results of 12th, third, 37th (DNF: mechanical), and, most recently, sixth.
There has certainly been elements of fortune in both of the top 10s, the third at Atlanta coming in a fuel race in which several ran dry with the finish line in sight.
The sixth last time out at Phoenix was, in part, a product of inheriting positions – eight of them out of a total of 17 – due to crashes ahead.
However, he also crept forward on the road – and in pit lane – then gained four spots in an Overtime finish despite being sent to the non-preferred top side for the final restart.
While the #97 Chevrolet has been up and down like a yo-yo, in part due to the vagaries of NASCAR and in part due to the driver’s inexperience, van Gisbergen has not shown a tendency to cause crashes or even get involved in too many.
Granted, the Daytona weekend was a mess from virtually start to finish, but superspeedways often are.
Van Gisbergen unloaded one car in the Xfinity race at Daytona, an incident for which he took responsibility, but learned a lesson about the power of the side draft and has not repeated the mistake.
He suffered the ignominy of failing to qualifying for the ARCA race that weekend, only granted a start when a rival withdrew, but that was a unique set of circumstances due to the group qualifying format in play.
In Xfinity, his qualifying results in the #97 Kaulig Racing entry read fifth, 13th, 25th (after missing practice time due to inspection failures), and 23rd.
The New Zealander has not been a genuine threat for a(n Xfinity) race win yet – that could very well change with the first road course of the year, Circuit of The Americas, next up – but has shown he is able to run reasonably well in traffic.
That is, of course, a completely different game in oval racing compared to what van Gisbergen has grown up with, and it is worth also considering that he has been to three vastly different types of ovals already.
Still, SVG did admit that the Las Vegas race proved he still has “a lot to learn in NASCAR.”
His Phoenix outing, he declared a “Pretty good day! Lots and learning and patient at the start.
“Played it smart and had good calls on the pit box with our strategy.
“We stayed out of the mess and brought home another top 10 finish.”
So, how does van Gisbergen’s performance as a full-time NASCAR driver stack up to you so far? Cast your vote below in this week’s Pirtek Poll.
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