Shane van Gisbergen absolutely dominated in Mexico City, capturing the checkered flag with the biggest margin of victory seen in any NASCAR Cup race in over 15 years.
Now as the series heads to the streets of Chicago, it's no surprise that everyone is looking to the driver of the No. 88 as the driver to beat. When NASCAR came here for the first time, it was SVG who famously won on debut in a feat not seen at the top level of the sport in over 60 years. That victory set him on the path he is on now, leaving Supercars behind for a full-time career in NASCAR stock car racing.
"This place is pretty cool to me every time I come back," said van Gisbergen on Friday. "I hate cities, so I don't really like the place. But when you get here, it's pretty cool. You know, I have great memories here. This place has changed my life, so I'm going to have special memories of this place forever. But yeah, not enough grass for me (laughs).”
Van Gisbergen has compared Chicago to a hybrid of the Gold Coast and Adelaide circuits, which Supercars fans will know well. He talked about the "daunting" nature of some corners with high speeds and heavy braking, but very little (or no) runoff. He was hoping to go back-to-back at Chicago last year, but got clipped by Chase Briscoe after he lost control under braking. And with a slick track due to rain, it was far from the only incident like that.
Flipping the stage or collecting the bonus points
One thing that has become commonplace at road and street courses is flipping the stages. Drivers will often opt to give away stage points in favor of gaining track position, pitting just before the stage ends and staying on the lead lap so they can cycle to the front for the restart.
And since SVG now has a win in hand, it may the change the way he approaches those stages this weekend.
“We're in a nice position now having won a race," said van Gisbergen. "And it may change our strategy. If we're in a position to get a playoff point, we'll probably try and get that, but that'll put us deep in the field for the next stage. So yeah, there's a bit of a toss-up there what we're going to do, but it's a nice position to be in. And yeah, you're right, we can try some stuff now.”
Looking at the playoff standings, SVG has six playoff points courtesy of his Mexico win (five points) and a stage win (one point) he also got at Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez.
However, another win would remove any doubt of his playoff position. There are still eight races remaining in the regular season and if there are four new winners (16 total), he could be forced out due to his low position in points.
“Someone brought that up the other day, but I try not to think about those things," said van Gisbergen. "You know, we're still -- we won a race, which is extremely hard to do here. And yeah, we just got to focus on our own thing and it should work out. We'll be fine.”
