The inaugural Chicago race winner will be on a road course for the first time since he made a full-time switch to NASCAR, via both a Cup Series cameo and his usual Xfinity Series ride, and is therefore one to watch at COTA.
He even has experience at the Texas track, albeit on the shorter, ‘National Circuit’ layout, thanks to Supercars’ first and only event in the United States, in 2013.
However, it is track limits – or, for the most part, lack thereof – which has taken van Gisbergen some time to get his head around, as he admitted on the Kevin Harvick’s Happy Hour podcast.
“I’ve done some laps there, and I actually raced there 10 years ago in a Supercar – we did half the track – but I’ve struggled on the sim there, to be honest, with the track limits,” he explained.
“Normally, we’re trying everything we can to stay within the lines; in NASCAR, they’re off the track more than they’re on it.
“…Except for the esses; it’s the only part they police.
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“The rest of it, it seems like everyone just takes the piss and cuts all the corners, goes out wide.
“So it’s taken me a lot of adjusting to get to mid-corner and just gas it up and aim off the track.
“I’ve spent all my life trying to stay on it and it’s very different, the way the rules are, but it looks pretty fun.”
Being a modern Formula 1 track, COTA has expansive bitumen run-off areas, although NASCAR drivers still manage to drag dirt onto the track.
They also create a rare spectacle in the steep, uphill braking zone at Turn 1.
“The track ends up just covered in [dirt]; off-line, it’ll be pretty difficult,” van Gisbergen predicted.
“The way the racing is looks crazy, and that first corner, how everyone just fans out and uses each other as a brake, it looks interesting.”
While van Gisbergen is contracted to Trackhouse Racing, he has been placed at Kaulig Racing, with which the Justin Marks-owned squad has an alliance, for his 33 Xfinity races and the minimum eight now which he will contest at Cup level.
His weekend will start late-Friday afternoon (local time) with Xfinity Practice and Qualifying in the #97 Chevrolet, before the New Zealander gets behind the wheel of a Cup-spec #16 Chevrolet on Saturday morning for the top tier’s Practice and Qualifying sessions.
The differences between a Cup car and an Xfinity include that the latter retains H-pattern shifting rather than sequential.
While H-patterns were still a feature of Supercars when van Gisbergen made his debut with Team Kiwi Racing in mid-2007, left-hand drive has made for another unexpected challenge.
“It’s been hard now in the H-pattern,” he revealed.
“Sequential’s easy – my rally car was sequential – but, at Daytona, the second-to-third shift, going across the gate… I don’t think I’ve ever used that muscle before, so shifting with the right hand on an H-pattern has been difficult.”
The three-time Supercars champion will race in the ‘colours’ of WeatherTech in his first Cup Series appearance of 2024, this weekend.
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