Van Gisbergen hopes he earned NASCAR rivals’ trust

The three-time Bathurst 1000 winner finished just 26th but twice led the race on merit and was surging towards the top 10 in the final laps before his lane was slowed.

It was a stark turnaround even within that race, considering he sank from a starting position of 17th to be the very last of 37 on the lead lap in just the first 15 laps.

Van Gisbergen believes that was down to his rivals trying to stay away from such an inexperienced driver in a restrictor plate track context.

“I guess, at the start, I couldn’t get anyone to push me,” he told Frontstretch.

“I was trying to do stuff and everyone just dropped me and left me for dead in the middle.

“I guess it takes a while for people to trust you. They see the yellow stripes [denoting a rookie] on the name on the back and know ‘don’t trust you yet,’ so that’s going to take some time but it is what it is.”

Asked if he thinks he has earned some of that trust, the New Zealander replied, “Hopefully. I felt like I was pretty stable and managed the gaps and tried to be as smooth and trusting as I could, but it’s completely different, this style of racing.”

One of today’s leaders at @TALLADEGA? @shanevg97 in his Cup Series oval debut! pic.twitter.com/EZ4CtZuNel

— NASCAR (@NASCAR) April 21, 2024

Van Gisbergen was on double duty at Talladega, and was in contention for victory in Saturday’s Xfinity Series race until he ran out of fuel from Row 2 at the first Overtime restart.

He also could well have bagged a top 10 in the Cup race, and the #16 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet was one to watch when he moved up to the third lane in the final laps.

That too, though, is an area where ‘SVG’ admits he needs to learn more about the art of plate racing.

“It was pretty different,” he said.

“I had a lot of fun and moving up front; the fuel saving’s very different to what the Xfinity car is.

“To lead some laps was cool, get the Wendy’s Camaro up front.

“Just at the end, I didn’t really understand how to keep Chase [Elliott] right on me to keep the speed up, and then someone [Ty Gibbs] jumped in front of us and screwed the top lane, but it was pretty fun.”

Van Gisbergen is currently 14th in the Xfinity Series, which continues this coming weekend at Dover Motor Speedway.