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Shane van Gisbergen’s Chase hopes received another major boost at North Wilkesboro Speedway after he equalled his best oval finish in the Cup Series so far.
The Trackhouse Racing driver finished fifth and collected 47 points on the night, sitting in 14th place. This prompted a discussion on The Teardown podcast, where co-hosts Jeff Gluck and Jordan Bianchi noted that SVG’s confidence on ovals is visibly increasing.
While North Wilkesboro generally favored the high lane throughout the evening, SVG successfully utilized the bottom line for much of his performance, which the hosts highlighted as an interesting contrast to the rest of the field.
“It was fun to see, and you can see the confidence in him growing. He’s not afraid to race these guys. He races guys really clean.
“And what’s interesting about him too tonight was this was a racetrack where the high line was really the preferred line, it felt like, for most of the night, which is really atypical of how most historically North Wilkesboro races go. But SVG loved that bottom. He was hugging that bottom a lot of times tonight.”
Starting eighth due to a rained-out qualifying session, SVG surprised the field by competing for the lead and battling Denny Hamlin on track.
In the same Teardown episode, Bianchi admitted he had previously doubted the three-time Supercars champion would make the postseason but said performances like this continue to change the conversation.
“This is a wildly successful year, and he has shown that he is a legitimate contender or not, he’s a legitimate driver of this series who deserves to be…all the accolades because of this.”
Following North Wilkesboro, van Gisbergen moved to 54 points above the playoff cut line, sitting just above Penske’s Joey Logano, giving himself valuable breathing room heading into the final stretch of the regular season.
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Making his fourth appearance in the Truck Series, SVG stood on the podium, finishing 3rd at North Wilkesboro on Friday, before his Cup duty on Sunday.
Driving the No. 71 Chevrolet for Spire Motorsport, van Gisbergen started 19th and steadily moved through the field. He finished Stage 1 in 17th place and improved to 14th by the end of Stage 2. After restarting in 10th for the final stage, he continued moving forward and eventually secured a podium finish.
This performance from the driver quickly caught fans’ attention because it came in different machinery from his regular Cup ride, leading one particular user on X to feel that Trackhouse must consider switching from Earnhardt Childress Racing Technologies (ECR) engines soon enough, given SVG’s performances outside the Cup Series.
They said on X, “I really think Trackhouse needs to consider moving to a Hendrick partnership instead of the RCR alliance they currently have. And it might be happening, SVG and Connor driving the JRM NOAPS cars and Spire Trucks might be a sign of what is coming down the road.”
Read more on the Daytona Racing Digest!
