Shane van Gisbergen Comes Down to Earth After Mediocre COTA Run
9 months agoBecause of his blockbuster Supercars career, his Chicago Street Course win, and his Xfinity Series near-miss on Saturday, NASCAR analysts likely had overinflated expectations for Shane van Gisbergen's race at Circuit of the Americas. He won at Chicago largely because none of the then-NASCAR Cup Series regulars had experience there and he had vastly more experience racing in the rain, which is often regarded as a great equalizer in identifying road racing talent. However, COTA is a track where the NASCAR drivers had much more experience, and this year SVG drives for Kaulig Racing, which has much slower cars than Trackhouse Racing did last year. SVG came down to earth in this weekend's event, with a career-worst 20th-place finish after a course-cutting penalty and losing a gear. He will almost certainly win more road races in NASCAR, but he will probably need more NextGen experience before he regularly dominates them.
Source: Racing Reference
Source: Racing Reference