Van Gisbergen, whose only previous NASCAR oval track experience came last season in a Truck race at the Indianapolis Raceway Park short track, had a rough debut in last Friday’s ARCA season opener, getting caught up in an accident on lap 3 of 83.
He managed to eventually return to the track in his damaged car and was the last car running in the race at 29th, spinning a second time while trying to avoid a mid-race wreck.
Monday night’s rain-delayed Xfinity debut produced a much better result for van Gisbergen – 12th and on the lead lap – but also included involvement in some wrecks and several minor mishaps, but nothing that prevented him from staying in contention.
“I tried to like to analyze every wreck, you know all six that I got involved in. I couldn’t figure out a way I could have done things differently,” said van Gisbergen, who is running a full season of Xfinity and partial Cup schedule this season with Kaulig Racing.
“You know, it’s just this style with that racing and something I have to accept. You got to run the risk of getting that good result. But you’re probably going to get into a crash and it’s an amazing mindset to go racing.
“I’ve never had to do that before going to race, thinking you know, it’s 50-50 whether you’ll crash. So, it's pretty different.”
Last July, van Gisbergen became the first driver in more than 60 years to win a Cup race in his debut when he took victory in the inaugural Chicago Street Race driving for Trackhouse Racing.
The victory served as the instigator for the three-time Supercars champion to move to NASCAR competition this season.
The Daytona ARCA event was van Gisbergen’s debut superspeedway race but turned out to be a frustrating experience.
The race was moved up a day due to severe weather and he was basically taken out of contention right shortly after the start.
“When the race started, like I’d never two-wide before and my spotter was awesome and he was pushing me more than I wanted to, to start with,” the 34-year-old Kiwi said. “But it was good, we needed to clear some people.
“So, the first lap was three-wide on the trioval, nearly (expletive) myself. It was just mayhem the rest of the race.”
"I belong here"
Despite the ups and downs of superspeedway racing, van Gisbergen heads into Atlanta Motor Speedway this weekend more convinced than ever that his NASCAR trek is the right one.
“You know, I had fun. I feel like I belong here,” he said. “I feel like I’ve definitely done the right thing for my career and racing enjoyment.
“It’s been awesome. The people and fans as well are really cool. It’s been great to see the response.”
With Atlanta now more of a drafting track, van Gisbergen said he believes he still earned some valuable experience that will help him in Saturday’s Xfinity race.
“Just know how to place the car to get on it, changing the balance and grip and how to stay in line and then learning the proximity of the car to the wall on the right side,” he said. “It took me a while to know where the right side of the car was.
“I hadn’t driven around people. We did some single-file stuff in practice (at Daytona) but no double-file. I kept pulling out of line, which sent us backwards. So, I got to get better at that.”
