Denny Hamlin lauds Shane van Gisbergen for NASCAR – Sports News
NASCAR Cup Series championship hopeful Denny Hamlin was full of reward for Shane van Gisbergen following his wonderful outing at Kansas Speedway within the Hollywood Casino 400 on Sunday.
While Hamlin narrowly misplaced out on what would have been his sixtieth profession victory to Chase Elliott on the final lap of double extra time, courtesy of a conflict with Bubba Wallace, van Gisbergen crossed the road in tenth. For the New Zealander, this marked a main milestone, having by no means beforehand completed greater than 14th on an oval in what has been a exceptional rookie season.
The three-time Supercars Championship winner’s achievement was all of the more spectacular on condition that they have been with out crew chief Stephen Doran was ejected previous to the race attributable to “unapproved adjustments prior to practice,” as per NASCAR. This penalty additionally noticed them begin from the back of the pack whereas having to execute a stop-and-go penalty on pit highway following the primary lap.
“P10 at Kansas Speedway in our @redbullmotors #88! Was difficult starting a lap down, without our crew chief and having that penalty, but Chais our interim crew chief did a great job!” van Gisbergen wrote on social media. “We had really good speed in the race, so I’m stoked to get a top 10, thanks @TeamTrackhouse!”
As for Hamlin, driver of the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota and co-owner of 23XI Racing, he mirrored on van Gisbergen’s efficiency on his ‘Action’s Detrimental’ podcast. “You’ve got to start somewhere, and clearly he’s starting to step up his game on the ovals,” he mentioned.
“Which, realistically, for him or [team owner Justin Marks’] long-term goal for his team, you’re gonna need SVG not just to win on the road courses, especially when they change the Playoff format, you’re definitely going to have to put the whole package together.”
Hamlin later sarcastically commented of van Gisbergen, “Coming to find out he’s actually pretty good. He’s a really good driver.
“Great drivers find a way to adapt to their machine, and SVG is one of those drivers, no matter what you put him in, he’s going to succeed and he’s going to learn it. Things are trending up for him.”
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For highway course maestro van Gisbergen, it appears to be like extremely seemingly this optimistic trend gained’t stop any time quickly, with the Cup Series set to move to Charlotte’s Roval on Sunday, marking the final highway course race of the season. To date, all 5 of his profession wins have come on highway programs, together with 4 of the 5 raced to date in 2025.
However, whereas a win in Charlotte would mark one other momentous event for each van Gisbergen and Trackhouse, it will seemingly not be the most important speaking level of the day, with the race set to behave because the decider within the Round of 12. With Ryan Blaney and Chase Elliott having already secured berths within the Round of 8, the ultimate six spots stay open with the sector within 102 factors of each other.
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