Shane van Gisbergen led Trackhouse Racing with a fifth-place finish in the Cracker Barrel 400 NASCAR Cup Series race at Nashville (Tenn.) Superspeedway on Sunday night. Teammates Ross Chastain placed 37th and Connor Zilisch was credited with 38th-place after both experienced a mechanical issue and ended their night prematurely.
“It was a pretty awesome day for this No. 97 Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge Chevrolet team,” commented SVG. “Starting up front obviously helps, but it was cool to lead some laps and battle at the front.
“Our Chevy was running really well all night. I really enjoyed myself and I learned a lot. I learned to be comfortable moving around in (turns) one and two, which I’ve never been able to do before.
“We just got the balance better on the two-tyre strategy. When we were on a four-tyre strategy, we were lacking that. The two-tyre stop at the end, we were able to get the balance back again. It was a lot of fun. It definitely feels like we’re making headway.”
Van Gisbergen started tenth after the lineup was set by the metric system due to inclement weather on Saturday. From the start, van Gisbergen battled to maintain top 10 position before the competition caution fell on lap 36. The No. 97 team opted for a two tires pit stop and restarted the stage in the first position with 50 laps remaining.
Van Gisbergen then led 12 laps before dropping to third, until another caution flew on lap 72. He came to pit road for service and ultimately finished the stage, 14th.
In stage two, van Gisbergen started 16th and battled the handling of his Tootsies Chevrolet as he slowly made his way back into the top 10. The No. 97 team opted to come to pit road when a caution flew on lap 174 and restarted 13th with four laps remaining in the stage.
He was just shy of scoring stage points and finished 11th.
In the final stage, van Gisbergen started fifth and maintained top 10 track position in the caution filled final 110 laps. The No. 97 team made a scheduled pit stop on lap 258 under green and reentered the field 22nd with 42 laps remaining. Van Gisbergen cycled back up to seventh after the pit cycle concluded. A late race caution flew on lap 288 and van Gisbergen lined up sixth with four laps to go in the race. Van Gisbergen took the checkered flag, fifth, a career best finish on an oval track.
The NASCAR Cup Series will return to action Sunday, June 7 at Michigan International Speedway in Brooklynn.
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