The 2024 Repco Supercars Championship has started this weekend at Mount Panorama, where, just four months ago, van Gisbergen was celebrating a third Bathurst 1000 win.
By then, he had already sealed a deal to become a full-time NASCAR driver, and made a wild Xfinity Series debut this past week, at Daytona International Speedway.
In the coming hours, he will drive the #97 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet onto Atlanta Motor Speedway for his second Xfinity race, which commences half an hour before Qualifying for Race 2 of the Supercars Championship at Bathurst.
Speaking to reporters before his own qualifying session at Atlanta, van Gisbergen was asked if he had been keeping up with Supercars or focusing on his new life.
“No, I watched it,” he replied.
“Like, I’ve got a lot of friends – drivers and team people – and I watched Practice 1 – that was on at a decent hour – and it was a weird feeling.
“Like, it’s been 17 years of driving out of pit lane with all of those people, so it was a shame to miss it.
“But, I guess I had fun, I feel like I belong here, I’ve definitely done the right thing for my career and racing enjoyment, so I’m not missing it, I don’t feel like.”
The New Zealander’s now former team-mate, Broc Feeney, and his replacement at Red Bull Ampol Racing, Will Brown, enjoyed their first Supercars race as team-mates given they finished one-two.
Van Gisbergen himself has just come off a Daytona weekend which was a rollercoaster of emotions.
He failed to qualify for the ARCA race only to scrape onto the grid thanks to a withdrawal ahead of him, climbed from 34th to 19th in the first three laps, then was spun into the carnage of a classic superspeedway pile-up on Lap 4.
The three-time Bathurst 1000 winner then qualified fifth for the Xfinity race, dropped as low as 25th during a delayed Monday night affair, and finished 12th in the end after being caught up in three accidents, one of which he caused.
Asked if that weekend was fun, van Gisbergen laughed, “One of the races was; the other wasn’t.”
The fun one was presumably Xfinity, although the 34-year-old learned a valuable lesson from taking out Jeb Burton when he moved high and whacked the left-rear corner of the #27 Chevrolet.
“He was passing me at a speed and I went to slot in line, and I didn’t realise how much the side draft would slow him up,” explained van Gisbergen.
“Like, he was passing me pretty quick and as soon as I got beside him, it was like he let off the throttle and I just got his rear bumper.
“That kind of stuff, you don’t learn until you feel it.
“Unfortunately, it was at his expense, but now I kind of know what things do.
“But, it’s crazy, at this speed, how much the air affects the car.”
At an Atlanta event without practice, van Gisbergen qualified 13th for Race 2 of the Xfinity Series season, which starts today at 09:00 AEDT.
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