Shane van Gisbergen will make his second NASCAR Cup Series start at Richmond (Va.) Raceway on Saturday evening at the Cook Out 400. Last year at the 0.75-mile track, the Kiwi driver started 27th and finished 14th in his first NASCAR start at Richmond.
“The short-track challenge is how much the track changes,” said SVG. “There is no real ideal line. The line sort of changes throughout the race, you’re always kind of chasing the track, trying to adapt your car to it. The evolution of a race, it’s way different than any other type of motorsport I’ve done. It’s a really cool challenge.
“Going back to tracks more often and learning them, learning what I want from the car and how I approach the weekends. It’s just a constant learning process and try to get the race cars a little better too, that seems to be helping. It’s good to show some improvement this year and get some great results. Just need to keep that momentum going and let it trickle into the bigger tracks as well. We sort of lack a bit there, but I need to get better too.”
Van Gisbergen will pilot the No. 7 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet Silverado on Friday evening in the NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series race. This will be his fourth start in the series this season. Last month at North Wilkesboro, van Gisbergen drove the No. 71 for Spire Motorsports to a third-place finish, posting his second top-5 in just four Truck Series starts.
Point Standings: Van Gisbergen enters this weekend at Richmond 15th in the Cup Series driver standings, 47 points above the Chase cutline.
“Making the Chase has certainly been a focus of ours this year, trying to maximize every weekend and score points,” commented SVG. “We have a good shot to make it in (the Chase) at the moment, but these next three weekends are going to be tough, a lot of pressure. We can’t afford to have another bad race. It will certainly put us in a bad spot. It’s been good to focus on that every week and put the best car we can together. Hopefully we are able keep us in the top 16.”
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