Ultimately, Shane Van Gisbergen isn’t blaming missing out on the Chase for the Championship due to what happened on Saturday night at Daytona International Speedway but instead the entire body of work this season.
Some of it within his control and some of it not.
Van Gisbergen entered the regular season finale with a 31-point lead and even extended it with a Stage 1 victory in which Ryan Preece only finished eighth after being spun from the lead. It felt decisive.
However, Preece went on to win the race, outscoring SVG 67 points to 19 overall, made worse by the need to pit from inside the top-15 that led to his collection in the race ending crash. As it turns out, there were questions inside the Trackhouse Racing No. 97 war room whether or not Van Gisbergen would have enough fuel to make it to the end of the race.
Crew chief Stephen Doran called him in for fuel but also hoped giving him tires would allow him to drive through the field and make up the lost points. It didn’t work out.
“I just think that we’re at a little bit of a disadvantage to the other manufacturers at the moment, fuel mileage wise, and we just had to pit there” Van Gisbergen told Motorsport.com on Tuesday. “We probably would’ve run out of fuel. The guys that were close who made it were not driving Chevys so we probably need to improve there a little bit.
“And I could have managed it a little bit over the stage. Hindsight is a wonderful thing. I could have done a better job. But like I said on Saturday night, one night of the season isn’t why we didn’t make it, because we didn’t accumulate points on the other 20 or whatever weeks, and I don’t just blame that one weekend for our failure, I guess.
Overall, ‘SVG’ has eight finishes outside of the top-30 this season, including one at San Diego where he looked like the favorite until being wrecked on a restart by Austin Hill.
But still, the No. 97 team was the best performing of all three Trackhouse cars this season, even on ovals. Van Gisbergen held his own compared to Ross Chastain and Connor Zilisch. He looks like a legitimate 38 race a year NASCAR driver.
Did that validate his decision to make a full-time go of NASCAR three years ago?
“I don’t really think of wanting validation of anything, but I certainly still enjoy it a lot,” Van Gisbergen said. “I really love racing up the challenge and winning with everyone every week. I feel like I’m closer to my teammates, which was frustrating last year.
“I got clos-ish to Daniel (Suarez) last year, but Ross was always a level above. So yeah, I feel pretty happy that I’ve gotten a lot closer to them on the ovals and I feel like I still have a lot more to improve. There are things I’m still not very good at but it’s a challenge that I love.”
