CHICAGO — There’s a line concerning the pinball wizard within the Who’s rock opera “Tommy” that goes “What makes him so good?”
After Sunday’s Grant Park 165 on the Chicago Road Course, race followers, pundits and opponents alike have been asking the identical factor about Shane van Gisbergen.
The statistics communicate for themselves. On highway programs within the NASCAR Cup Sequence, Van Gisbergen has posted a win, two high fives and 5 high 10s. Most not too long ago, he gained the Mexico Metropolis race by a tremendous 16.567 seconds over runner-up Christopher Bell.
On the Chicago Road Course (not included in highway course stats), he has two victories in three makes an attempt.
His numbers within the NASCAR Xfinity Sequence are much more daunting. In 5 highway course begins, he boasts two victories and 4 high fives.
SVG has gained the 2 Xfinity races he has run on the Chicago Road Course, each from the pole. On Sunday, he accomplished a weekend sweep of the Xfinity and Cup races, having gained the pole for every occasion.
Kyle Busch, who completed fifth in Chicago, is the one different driver to have swept an Xfinity/Cup weekend after successful the pole for each races, a feat he completed at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in July 2016.
Trackhouse Racing proprietor Justin Marks, who fielded the No. 88 Chevrolet Van Gisbergen drove to victory on Sunday, had his personal concepts concerning the New Zealander’s superiority.
“For me, in my expertise driving race vehicles for 20 years, it’s his racing IQ,” stated Marks, an completed highway racer himself. “It’s how strategic he can assume whereas he’s on the restrict of the race automotive.
“Plenty of drivers, it takes your entire psychological bandwidth to drive the automotive quick, and Shane is certainly one of these guys that may drive the automotive on the restrict however be pondering larger image stuff. He is aware of the place he’s within the race, and he is aware of how you can… he’s nice at managing his tires, his gear, all that type of stuff.”
Clearly, SVG’s abilities are ideally suited to the streets of Chicago.
“I feel for his expertise profile particularly, road races are simply… they arrive very, very naturally to him,” Marks stated.
“He’s obtained a whole lot of expertise doing it within the V8 Supercars collection, however I feel in races like this, the place everyone is working so laborious simply to get the apexes and get out of the nook in the precise manner and all of that, he does that simply naturally whereas he’s serious about larger image stuff, so he can actually put the entire race collectively in a brilliant spectacular manner.”
Stephen Doran is the crew chief who units up the Cup vehicles to Van Gisbergen’s liking.
“You watch him, and he’s like a machine on the market,” Doran stated. “He makes no errors, and he simply waits till any person misses an apex in entrance of him and he pounces on them.
“He simply drives by way of the sector. You noticed it (Saturday) and (Sunday). His laps are so constant, and that’s a part of why he saves his tires so nicely.”
There’s extra to it than that. SVG is a three-time champion in Australian Supercars, a gritty collection the place no quarter is given. That very same collection additionally honed the talents of Marcos Ambrose, who loved important success on highway programs after coming to NASCAR racing in 2006.
Fellow opponents noticed how Van Gisbergen was prepared to run JR Motorsports teammate Connor Zilisch large in Flip 1 after the decisive restart in Saturday’s Xfinity Sequence race.
Cup Sequence driver Tyler Reddick took be aware.
“Clearly, I noticed what Shane was prepared to do to win the race on Saturday, and for us needing a win to lock ourselves into the playoffs, I might have raced actually laborious, as a result of I feel he would have accomplished the identical,” stated Reddick, who completed third after chasing Van Gisbergen and runner-up Ty Gibbs over the closing laps on Sunday.
“Nevertheless it didn’t occur, however we will all dream and speculate what it may have been.”
Remarkably, SVG has tailored virtually immediately to the highway course variations of each the Gen 7 Cup automotive and the Xfinity automotive—two vastly completely different platforms.
To rise to Van Gisbergen’s stage of excellence on highway and road programs, opponents in each collection not solely need to sharpen their highway racing abilities but in addition should undertake a take-no-prisoners mentality to match his stage of willpower.
In any other case, “What makes him so good?” will proceed to be an often-asked query.
