Shane van Gisbergen must challenge for the win in his NASCAR return at Indianapolis Raceway Park next weekend, says Dale Earnhardt Junior.
Speaking on his podcast, The Dale Jr. Download, Earnhardt Jr said that he was shocked by the Supercar driver’s confirmation that he’s seeking a 2024 NASCAR deal in what he sees as a huge gamble, and that after van Gisbergen’s Chicago win, anything less than a top five finish at Indy will not be good enough.
“If he’s confirming he has plans to pursue NASCAR full-time ride, I think he’s already got an idea of who this is with. The pressure’s on. He needs to go to Indy and back it up.”
“He needs to go to Indy, lead laps and challenge for the win – if he runs fifth, that ain’t good enough to warrant all the effort that will have to take place to get him over here in that full-time deal. He will… I don’t want to use the word struggle, but he’s going to be challenged at the ovals for a while. I doubt it comes naturally.
“The ownership and team will manage that struggle, and that patience of waiting for the oval stuff to take, and if he’s going to go to all of the other road course that we all know well and just be top five – is that enough?”
Earnhardt Jr suggested that van Gisbergen’s lack of experience on ovals makes success mandatory for the New Zealander on road courses.
To counter this, van Gisbergen was confirmed yesterday as making his oval debut in the Truck Series at Indianapolis on Friday, August 11, with the Cup Series race on Sunday August 13.
The potential lack of oval results will mean that van Gisbergen will have to blitz the field – as he did in Chicago – everywhere else, Earnhard Junior suggests.
“That’s the only reason that this is happening [is] with the idea that yes, he’s going to go to the road courses and be damn hard to beat – much like we showed up at a road course, and Marcos Ambrose was one of the top dogs, in really mid-class equipment.”
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