SONOMA, Calif. (AP) — Shane van Gisbergen proved in his NASCAR debut to be an elite road and street course racer by winning in his first career outing.
Two years later, his rivals have gotten a good look at the New Zealander’s technique and have declared him the favorite to win Sunday at Sonoma Raceway. He will start from the pole for the second consecutive week and third time in five races.
“It’s pretty awesome, we’ve had a really cool couple of weeks,†said the Trackhouse Racing driver. “It’s so cool how stoked everyone is and you feel the energy in the shop when you walk in. It’s just a cool atmosphere in the shop, everyone is lifted up.â€
Van Gisbergen is on a two-race winning streak on the specialty courses following victories on the road course in Mexico City (where he won by 16.6 seconds from the pole) and last Sunday on the streets of Chicago (again from the pole). He has five consecutive finishes of seventh or higher dating back to Watkins Glen International last September.
“He’s so good and it’s rare that you see somebody stand out like that and distance himself from the competition,†said Kyle Larson, last year’s winner at Sonoma. “He’s way, way, way better than us at the road course stuff.â€
The secret, his rivals have learned, is a toe-heel braking technique that none of them can master.
“If I tried to learn what he’s doing, it would take me until I retire,†Kyle Busch said.
Added Larson: “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks. There’s zero chance I can learn how to do that.â€
Van Gisbergen, who won at Sonoma in his Xfinity Series debut last year and started from the pole Saturday in that race, will be making his Cup debut Sunday on the picturesque track in Northern California’s wine country.
He is beatable, said Denny Hamlin, but it won’t be easy for any driver to stop van Gisbergen’s dominance.
“I think you are going to need things to not go his way, and then someone is going to have to really hit it,†Hamlin said. “That, to me, is probably going to be challenging. Cautions could turn things upside down. He is beatable, on speed alone, but I would say outright pace? No.â€
In addition to the way van Gisbergen brakes, Hamlin commended the way the Kiwi approaches the courses.
“His approach to how he attacks certain corners seems to be the thing where we’re more reactive,†Hamlin said. “I’m more reactive to seeing how someone approaches a corner to go fast. He’s proactive and knows how to approach it, so he’s better and faster before I am. And by the time I start to get closer, he then refines his technique and goes even faster.â€
No apology offered
Joey Logano had little to offer on his current feud with Ross Chastain. It heated up last week at Chicago when Chastain spun Logano in a retaliatory move that sent Logano to NASCAR to demand punishment for a deliberate action.
NASCAR did not penalize Chastain and the two drivers have not spoken since Sunday’s postrace confrontation.
“We haven’t talked,†Logano said Saturday. “It is what it is.â€
Logano didn’t want to talk about Chastain, anyway.
“He made his choices. I’m just going to go race my car,†Logano said.
As for Chastain? He maintained that “there’s three sides to every story.”
“I think that a lot of people were all running into each other for the last couple of laps,†Chastain said. “That’s what I saw.â€
Bubba and Bowman, meanwhile?
Bubba Wallace tried to fix his frayed relationship with Alex Bowman as soon as they arrived in California earlier this week.
The two had an incident at Chicago for the second consecutive year and have had other run-ins in the past. After the latest dustup, Bowman expressed surprise that the two were still having issues.
“I thought we had squashed our beef, but clearly we have not,” Bowman said in Chicago.
To prove to Bowman that they had indeed moved on, Wallace said he saw Bowman in a Napa Valley restaurant, approached him from behind and wrapped him in a bear hug. He later paid for Bowman’s dinner.
“I told him I messed up like an idiot,†Wallace said of his driving at Chicago. “I apologized. I was down for a couple days about it. So I bought him a meal. It felt right.â€
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