Shane Van Gisbergen, in a recent interview, stated that one of his biggest weaknesses throughout his entire transition to oval racing in the NASCAR Cup Series has been qualifying.
You wouldn’t know it looking at his run from Friday at North Wilkesboro Speedway, after the Auckland, New Zealand-native secured the pole position for the NASCAR All-Star Open.
The driver of the No. 88 Chevrolet for Trackhouse Racing completed his qualifying run — consisting of three laps and a four-tire pit stop — in 88.685 seconds, the fastest of the 18 drivers in the All-Star Open.
“I think we finally got all the things right, qualifying being my weakness,” Van Gisbergen said. “My lap was pretty good, and then coming in was good, the pit stop guys were insane, so good for them, and thanks to WeatherTech, thanks to the Trackhouse pit crew.”
STARTING LINEUP: 2025 NASCAR All-Star Open
It’s the first pole position of any kind for Shane Van Gisbergen, who will lead the field to the green for the 100-lap All-Star Open on Sunday evening.
“We’re up front tomorrow, I’ve never started at the front for an oval, so I don’t know what to do there, I’ll have to learn the rules, and see how we go,” Van Gisbergen added.
Carson Hocevar will start from the outside of the front row for Sunday’s NASCAR All-Star Open, after posting a qualifying time just two tenths of a second slower than Van Gisbergen.
Noah Gragson will start from third, with Michael McDowell and Ryan Preece completing the top five. After the 18 drivers from the All-Star Open took time, McDowell’s No. 71 team was leading the Pit Crew Challenge.
Zane Smith, John Hunter Nemechek, Ty Gibbs, and Ty Dillon will round out the top-10 starters for the All-Star Open.
Starting 11th through 18th will be Cole Custer, Erik Jones, Riley Herbst, Bubba Wallace, Cody Ware, AJ Allmendinger, Todd Gilliland, and Chad Finchum.
