Shane van Gisbergen shot to fame after his iconic triumph in Chicago, acing the inaugural street race in the Windy City, and created a firestorm in the NASCAR world with his Supercars style racing finesse. However, as the 34-year-old gets past the first five races of 2024 in his full-time Xfinity season, the verdict is that he too is human after all.

The driver who dished out such a dominating performance in Chicago, cutting through the field to trounce the Cup Series regular to earn an invisible tag, now has a brutal turnaround. As we get past the five-race mark, SVG has not quite yet found that winning formula and is ranked outside the top 10 with just one top 5 finish. And his double duty at the 3.41-mile road course, COTA was just another bad day at work.

Does Shane van Gisbergen need more experience?

It was a new dawn for NASCAR or so it seemed when three-time Supercars champion Shane van Gisbergen aka SVG announced his plans to move to the US to transition to stock car racing. The Red Bull driver, who was more accustomed to road races and street courses, did spectacularly well in his debut, dominating the field at Chicago and becoming the first New Zealander to win in NASCAR. From that point on, almost everyone in the NASCAR nation was aboard the idea that it was a new dawn in the circuit until the Kiwi kicked off his full-time season this year in the Xfinity Series. While the driver knew how different things are in NASCAR, the fandom was in for a reality check as the SVG hype train never really took off after Chicago.

Reflecting on this, the DBC podcast crew consisting of Brett Griffin and Freddie Kraft started dissecting what might have gone wrong. “SVG is obviously very, very talented. But we did see that he’s human. 20th in the Cup Race, 27th after his penalty in his Xfinity race,” Griffin said. His co-host and the 23XI Racing spotter Kraft was also quick to respond to this, revealing how unfamiliarity with the track has also been a key factor for SVG’s downfall this season.“I’m not taking it away from he’s a phenomenal road course racer, phenomenol race car drivers but when you get out there with…36 other really good race car drivers, especially places they’ve been and made laps at before, you’re kind of just one of those guys,” Kraft opined. Perhaps SVG needs some more time to familiarize himself with the in-and-outs of the winding asphalt. 

It seems Griffin and Kraft might have been right in their analysis, as Shane van Gisbergen himself also reiterated the same point in a post-race presser at the Circuit of the Americas.

“It’s new to me…” – SVG gets blunt about COTA

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To be fair, van Gisbergen put on a show in COTA until a penalty reared its head, essentially putting an end to the driver’s COTA prospects. All was going well with the Kiwi, who was stuck in a neck-and-neck three way battle for the lead with Allmendinger and Kyle Larson. However, while Larson took advantage of the duel between the Kaulig Racing drivers and snatched the lead, SVG’s runner-up finish was denounced and he was awarded a 27th-place finish after the sanctioning body found the driver cutting the course.

This might have something to do with SVG’s earlier comments prior to the race when he detailed the intricacies of COTA. During his pre-race presser, he said, “Just the track limits are crazy here. It’s so new to me to just open the wheel, mid-corner, and drive off the track. So that’s taken a lot of adjusting to get used to that mindset. I was practicing not cutting on the simulator.. they changed the rules about not being able to cut the corners, and then I saw today they’ve gone back on it. So yeah, it’s pretty interesting, the rules here.”

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While the driver was familiar with the 3.41-mile course, the updated rules and the track’s technicality perhaps got to him. As of now, SVG is 14th in the rankings with 108 points coming from two top 10 finishes and one top 5 finish. Can he change that anytime soon? Only time will tell.