Shane van Gisbergen led Trackhouse Racing with a 20th-place finish in the Dollar Tree 301 NASCAR Cup Series race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway on Sunday. Teammates Connor Zilisch placed 35th, and Ross Chastain finished 36th.
“It was a tough day for what we needed,” commented van Gisbergen. “Being that fast on wet weather tires and falling that fast shows that we were missing something to have grip on the slick tires.
“Hopefully there are some learnings on that because Connor (Zilisch) and I just went backwards as fast as we could when the track dried.
“It’s just a disappointing way to end the day. We would love to have more of a cushion heading into Daytona (International Speedway), but the No. 60 (Ryan Preece) did a great job today. I don’t think the No. 2 (Austin Cindric) gained much on us, but we would love to have more heading into a big unknown race next weekend.”
Van Gisbergen started the 301-lap race from the fifth position after a strong qualifying lap on Saturday. The field started on Goodyear wet weather tires after the race was delayed due to inclement weather. From the start, van Gisbergen quickly moved forward and took the lead on lap 26. A competition caution flew on lap 40 and the field changed back to slick tires.
On the restart, van Gisbergen struggled to find grip with his SuperFile Chevrolet and finished the stage in ninth position.
At the stage break, the No. 97 team came to pit road for service. After an issue on pit road, SVG lost track position and lined up 24th to start the second stage. He then was able to work his way up to 15th by the end of the 115-lap segment. The No. 97 Chevrolet was serviced at the stage break and started the final stage, 15th. With a stage that saw multiple cautions, van Gisbergen continued to battle the handling of his car and was credited with a 20th-place finish.
The NASCAR Cup Series will return to action Saturday, August 29 at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway.
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