LAS VEGAS – Fresh off winning once again on a road course, Shane van Gisbergen heads into Las Vegas Motor Speedway with optimism and expectations.
van Gisbergen won last Sunday’s Bank of America ROVAL 400 at Charlotte Motor Speedway for his fifth consecutive road course victory, equaling him with Jeff Gordon (1998-2000) for most all-time.
In last Monday’s Actions Detrimental, Denny Hamlin already labeled the 36-year-old as the greatest road racer in NASCAR history. A sentiment the six-time NASCAR Cup Series winner disagrees.
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“I saw that, but I don’t agree with it,” said van Gisbergen during Saturday’s media scrum. “It’s pretty amazing that my peers think of me. I’ve had some amazing races this year on the road courses. My car is obviously very good as well, so thank you to Trackhouse.
“Hopefully, I can race these guys better on ovals and they start thinking of me as a serious competitor on ovals, but it’s pretty humbling for people to say that.”
On top of that, the Kiwi rookie is poised to replicate his efforts at Kansas Speedway two weeks ago, where he scored his maiden top-10 finish on an oval, finishing 10th. That happened after overcoming both an opening lap stop-and-go penalty for unapproved adjustments before practice and serving a pit penalty.
With four races remaining, the entire No. 88 Trackhouse Racing organization is just hitting its stride across the board. To the point where van Gisbergen has gotten a step closer to being a competitive oval racer in the future.
“We’ve had some really nice progress these last few months. Coming off a win is obviously pretty cool, so hopefully it’ll be a good weekend,” van Gisbergen commented.
Fortunately for van Gisbergen, the series will be running the exact Goodyear tire compound from Kansas, but even with that in play, he doesn’t sense any true difference in how to go about tire management.
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“They all feel pretty similar to me. They say they’re different, but they feel the same,” said van Gisbergen with a laugh.
Unlike Kansas, Las Vegas is known for its bumpy track surface, which makes the 1.5-mile ovals distinctive.
“The bumps here are crazy at (turns) 1 and 2. The line you have to do to get around them and then how variable 3 and 4 is, and how different the wind is,” van Gisbergen commented. “It’s amazing because they look the same on paper, but they’re very different in how they drive.”
Sunday’s race will also see van Gisbergen sport a unique paint scheme. Jockey International has teamed up with him to come up with the black and grey colors that highlight his New Zealand roots. It includes the red star from the countrymen’s flag and the silver firms.
van Gisbergen said it’s a privilege to get an opportunity to be a part of the collaboration where he can represent his country as much as possible. A paint scheme folks from New Zealand and Australia, who’ve made the travel overseas to see him race, will surely love seeing him hit the track.
“It’s not often the driver gets to influence the paint scheme, and it looks awesome,” said van Gisbergen. “The first one wasn’t Kiwi enough for me and gave (Jockey) some ideas, and all of a sudden it was. I’m pretty proud to represent it here.”
Television coverage begins at 5:30 p.m. ET on USA. Performance Racing Network (PRN) and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio will provide the radio broadcast of that event. van Gisbergen will roll off 13th on the grid for the 267-lap race.
