Shane van Gisbergen's Strong Xfinity Series Run Means Little for Southern 500
3 months agoShane van Gisbergen had arguably his best oval performance in yesterday's NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Darlington. Although the race was marred by a spinout of Brandon Jones to end Race 1, SVG rallied to finish seventh and even passed Chase Elliott on track late in Stage 3 before the final caution. However, the Kaulig Racing cars are nowhere near as fast in the NASCAR Cup Series as they are in the Xfinity Series and he has less experience with the Cup Series cars on ovals. As a result, he only qualified 34th at Darlington and this race can best be viewed as a learning experience for him. Van Gisbergen did demonstrate in the Xfinity race his strong abilities at tire-saving and he will likely be able to apply those to the Cup race to some extent, so he will probably finish better than his 34th-place starting position without contending.
Source: Racing Reference
Source: Racing Reference