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The Windy City was the scene of van Gisbergen’s sensational NASCAR debut 12 months ago, when victory in the first ever Cup race on a street circuit set him on a path to leave Supercars for a new career in the United States.
The three-time Bathurst 1000 winner is now the established road course benchmark in the Xfinity Series, winning at both Portland and Sonoma in a Kaulig Racing Chevrolet.
He is on double duty this weekend in Chicago, though, and Trackhouse stablemate Ross Chastain will be looking closely at how van Gisbergen goes about his craft.
“We’ve spent a lot of time together; a lot of time running,” said Chastain.
“The guy is huge into running, so if I want time with him, I’ll go run and we’ll meet.
“Him, Nick Sanchez [Truck Series driver] and I, we just go run and talk and then usually we’ll start running fast enough that I’ll run out of air to talk with and I have to use it to breathe,” he laughed.
“He’s just such a great guy and he’s got little tidbits here and there.
“And then there’s just so much data we can look at, so I can learn just as much hearing from him as I can looking through his stuff; how he made speed compared to me.
“And it’s confidence, a lot of it is confidence. It’s intentionally placing the car where he wanted to place it, and I was trying to place it kind of between the walls and he was placing it at the wall; maximising left and right.
“Easy to say it, but really hard to do it.”
While van Gisbergen is climbing a steep learning curve on ovals, his rivals are in the opposite position, most having never raced on a street circuit until last year’s inaugural Chicago event.
Chastain, who has scored one of his four Cup Series race wins thus far on a road course (Circuit of The Americas), joked that he struggled with the track in its entirety.
“How many turns are there; 20? Then, 20 of them,” he quipped.
“I swear, I didn’t have a comfortable corner there last year. I just couldn’t get comfortable. Like, I wasn’t right off the bat and it never came throughout the race.
“So yeah, looking for a lot more there and just being comfortable with it. I’ve had a year to wrap my head around what that was like; those concrete cannons between the walls. Yeah, all were difficult.”
Action starts on Saturday morning ET/Sunday morning AEST, with Xfinity Practice at 10:00 ET/00:00 AEST, followed by Xfinity Qualifying at 11:00 ET/01:00 AEST, Cup Practice at 12:30 ET/02:30 AEST, Cup Qualifying 13:30 ET/03:30 AEST, and the Xfinity Race at 15:30 ET/05:30 AEST.
