Shane van Gisbergen a Better Drafter than Expected
7 months agoShane van Gisbergen makes his NASCAR Cup Series debut on a drafting track today at Talladega, but he's already shown something of a proclivity in drafting in his Xfinity Series starts, finishing 3rd at Atlanta and running in the top five for large portions of this weekend's Xfinity race, including passing Sammy Smith for the lead before running out of fuel and not getting the finish he deserved. While he'll obviously face more competition in the Cup race and the Kaulig cars usually aren't as strong in Cup races as they are in Xfinity races, the NextGen cars are more similar to the Supercars that SVG previously raced. His 17th-place qualifying run for the GEICO 500 is actually better than his qualifying run for the Xfinity race. When considering his teammate A.J. Allmendinger has led the last three Daytona races on track in that car, SVG might do better than you expect.
Source: Racing Reference
Source: Racing Reference