The three-time Bathurst 1000 winner remains unbeaten on street circuits in stock car racing after his second start in Chicago, in the Cup Series 12 months ago and this weekend’s Xfinity Series encounter.
While he again found himself buried due to strategy before carving through the field in the closing stages, Larson took the fight to van Gisbergen in a hugely entertaining opening stage.
The 2021 Cup champion is a highly versatile driver, as he proved again when attempted the Indianapolis 500-Charlotte 600 ‘double’ just weeks ago and while he might lack the street circuit experience of SVG, he still showed the Kiwi some new tricks.
“I was learning off him too,” said van Gisbergen.
“Some of his techniques and lines and car placement was very, very different to mine and I adapted a bit to him, especially Turn 6, how he would brake and turn
“It was amazing how he got the car to rotate and I thought, ‘Oh, my car doesn’t have enough front grip,’ and then when I adapted to what he was doing, my car was fixed.
“So, I learned a lot as well. Yeah, when you’re racing around guys like that, you’re constantly sort of feeding each other and the amount we were swapping back and forth, we probably elevated each other a bit for tomorrow.”
Larson thought he lacked the skill to seriously challenge the three-time Supercars champion, who said his car was poor until he got onto his second set of tyres and a tweak to pressures transformed the #97 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet.
“I was having a blast,” said the Hendrick Motorsports driver.
“Obviously, I wanted to win today, but I wanted to learn, more than anything.
“I wanted to get to battle with him, because he’s just really good at creating shapes and angles and passing, and that was an objective of mine.
“The first opportunity I got, I wanted to get racing because I just didn’t know if you’d ever have another opportunity to race with him.
👍👍👍 pic.twitter.com/xaboYqYi7V
— NASCAR Xfinity (@NASCAR_Xfinity) July 6, 2024
“My car seemed to be a little bit better than his for maybe a lap or two, which helped me get by him and then able to protect and stuff, but he was so much better than me. He was just being patient and playing with me, I think.
“But, it was it was good fun and probably made for great TV, and the whole race was really exciting, I thought.”
When the ‘shapes and angles’ comment was put to van Gisbergen, he gave a somewhat coy response, but seemed to confirm he is working with the mysterious Josh Wise, who is part of the Chevrolet driver development programme.
“I’m still getting used to that [terminology],” the New Zealander replied.
“That’s kind of how the Wise programme kind of works, which I’m in and I’m still learning, that so it’s probably a question I need answering too.”
Larson eventually finished third, having lost touch with van Gisbergen as they hauled their way from the middle of the field after strategy forced them to pit under the Caution which fell halfway through Stage 2.
“I didn’t do a good enough job,” he admitted.
“I was too conservative in the second part of qualifying, and then we misjudged the timing.
“We went for a push lap, we were going to do a cool-off and then a push again, and we just ran out of time, but I could have got more out of it myself.
“So, the potential is there but these races are ridiculous. Always, something happens, so we’ve got to just try and stay up front, move front, and hopefully we’ll be there at the end.”
The Cup Series Race starts tomorrow at 16:30 ET/06:30 AEST.
You can tell @shanevg97 is enjoying this battle. 👍 pic.twitter.com/AGPC84QHQB
— NASCAR Xfinity (@NASCAR_Xfinity) July 6, 2024
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