SVG makes feelings known on ‘underdog’ status in – Sports News
Shane van Gisbergen’s first full-time NASCAR Cup Series season has been one for the historical past books, profitable 4 of the 5 street course races thus far and, in so doing, turning into the winningest rookie of all time.
However, regardless of his outstanding success on roads this season in addition to his regular and constant enchancment on ovals, which stay comparatively new to the New Zealander, many don’t count on the 36-year-old to go far in the Playoffs – together with title favourite Denny Hamlin. By comparability, the likes of 2014 champion Kevin Harvick keep more religion in van Gisbergen’s potential in the weeks forward, on the wheel of the No. 88 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet.
While there could also be doubters, the three-time Supercars Championship winner stays level-headed because the Playoffs strategy, beginning with Darlington Raceway on Sunday, opting to embrace this lack of expectation moderately than battle it.
“It doesn’t worry us. It puts no pressure on us, right?” van Gisbergen instructed reporters in Charlotte on Wednesday. “If we have a good week this week, it makes the next few harder. But if we have a tough week, it puts us in a hole, and it’s going to be hard to get out of it. Hopefully, it will be nice to prove people wrong, too.”
What’s more, van Gisbergen added that he believes “It’s always fun to have your back against the wall, right, and have to push hard. I don’t use it for motivation or anything, but it’s cool being the underdog.”
Ahead of Darlington, he defined how he isn’t approaching the upcoming Round of 16 any otherwise than he would a regular-season race, though he famous that he’s well-aware of the truth that they need to keep away from expensive errors.
“We just have to keep doing what we’ve been doing, but it’s so hard in a NASCAR race, I feel like every race you have a storyline of how the day goes,” van Gisbergen mentioned. “It’s never free-flowing really, so we just have to eliminate or minimize what we do wrong, and just try to get it right every week, and that comes with preparation.”
And whereas he might lack a great deal of expertise on ovals, particularly in comparison with his rivals, he believes that a good outcome at Darlington is within his attain, labeling it, “One of my favorite tracks.”
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“I think you have to be very precise,” van Gisbergen defined. “You’ve got to be millimetre perfect every lap, comfortable to run against the wall and the proximity to the wall, and then the repetition and consistency. I think that seems to suit me, and the way the cars slide around, I really enjoy that place.”
By comparability, van Gisbergen admitted that each of the next races at World Wide Technology Raceway and Bristol Motor Speedway will “be tough,” having by no means beforehand raced on the former, whereas, at Bristol, he “struggled a bit.”
In all, the ever-relaxed veteran admitted that if he nonetheless has a smile on his face come the top of the season, he’ll take into account it a success.
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