“He’s something NASCAR has never seen”: Crew chief praises Shane van Gisbergen as he earns Jeff Gordon-level feat after Sonoma

Shane van Gisbergen continued his ever-growing road course dominance in the NASCAR Cup Series by clinching his third win of the season, starting from pole. Moreover, the former Supercars champion hit a rare Jeff Gordon-level mark, which was acknowledged by the Kiwi's crew chief, Stephen Doran.

In his last five starts for Trackhouse Racing, driving the No. 88 Chevrolet, Shane van Gisbergen earned three triumphs, kick-starting his impressive road course run with the historic Mexico City race. Followed by his second win on the streets of Chicago, where the 36-year-old clinched his maiden and debut win back in 2023.

Gisbergen carried his strong momentum to California and took home his fourth Cup win in just 34 starts with the Justin Marks-owned organization. On top of that, he is now tied with four-time Cup Series champion Gordon with three consecutive wins after taking the green flag from pole position.

In a post-race conversation at Sonoma Raceway, SVG's crew chief, Doran, shared his honest thoughts on this rare feat at the Toyota/Save Mart 350 race. He said:

"He's something NASCAR has never seen on road courses. It's just an honor to be a part of it. This team has done a great job building from the beginning of the year until now to get to the point where we can do this, dominate these races. The car is obviously in a good spot, too, but he's amazing. I don't know what else I can say about it. He shows it every time we come to one of these tracks." [2:02 onwards]

Shane van Gisbergen is now tied on the leaderboard with three wins alongside Denny Hamlin, Kyle Larson, and Christopher Bell. While the New Zealanders' all triumphs have been on left and right turns in NASCAR's premier division, he believes the No. 88 team has shown a bit of improvement on the ovals, as the best finish on a traditional track by SVG was P14 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

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"We're learning something every week": Shane van Gisbergen reflects on his rookie NASCAR Cup Series season

Coming from a storied background of road course racing, Shane van Gisbergen is still playing catch-up on the oval tracks of stock-car racing series.

On a recent episode of Kevin Harvick's Happy Hour podcast, Gisbergen shared his real expectation as the Trackhouse Racing team is making slow and steady progress. He said:

"I feel like we're learning something every week and and now we're going to start to go back to tracks we've been to before. So, we got a bit of a notebook. Um, so yeah, hopefully we just keep getting better. It's been good." [34:00 onwards] "Like our average pace positions gone from in the 30s to now in the 20s, you know, so now we got to get into the 10th to 15th area. That would be awesome. And just keep making those little steps and keep improving," added Shane van Gisbergen.

Meanwhile, Gisbergen, the road course ace, will now head for the AutoTrader EchoPark Automotive 400 event at Dover Motor Speedway. The 21st race of the season will go live on July 20 at 2:00 p.m. ET.

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Edited by Mitali