Shane van Gisbergen had an incredible run at Martinsville Speedway earlier this Saturday, where he qualified fifth, proving that the narrative around his oval racing is truly changing. But he isn’t on cloud nine — not at all — as he downplays his success for the hidden issues his team really needs to focus on.

Shane van Gisbergen on Trackhouse’s real issues

“It’s going well, but we still need a bit more speed,” is what SVG had to say after qualifying in fifth place at Martinsville. While it isn’t the front row, the result was rather impressive considering how van Gisbergen usually performs on ovals.

“Those type of tracks we probably need to get better as a team,” he said, referring to the Las Vegas race earlier. “But overall on our side personally, 97, it’s been pretty decent. We need to keep getting better and less mistakes.”

Having raced in the Supercars series back at home in Australia for several years, Shane van Gisbergen has more road course experience than any other full-time driver on the current Cup Series field. In fact, he had managed to win at his debut in Chicago, making him a promising driver for the future.

While almost all road course races guarantee him a race win, Trackhouse’s overall pace has been rather disappointing this season. He finished the race at COTA in second place, a win that was clearly expected from him, as he struggled to snatch the lead from Tyler Reddick. Despite this, he managed to pull off an impressive qualifying result at Martinsville.

Although one might argue that Martinsville Speedway is not the kind of track where SVG is expected to dominate, there’s more to that aspect. The track, although an oval, has some of the strongest braking points compared to other short ovals on the current calendar. The racecraft and overtaking usually depend on how well a driver can brake, get into the apex, and throttle up just right to extract the most out of the car.

And Shane van Gisbergen excels in the same. At the end of the day, it enables him to dominate the track. However, there will be a lot more aspects to the race.

Fellow driver’s comments on Martinsville echo optimism for SVG

As mentioned, Martinsville could potentially be a strong track for Shane van Gisbergen because of the track type and the challenge it will provide to other drivers. Austin Cindric, while discussing his sim sessions practicing the 0.5-mile circuit, had discussed the impact that higher horsepower would have on the track, mentioning:

“Martinsville also comes like a drop gear change, too. So, they’re kind of anticipating some of the power changing things up a little bit.”

This indicated that the drivers will essentially be slowing down a lot more in the corners, which is rather expected. All of that braking and shifting will be key for van Gisbergen to put on a dominant performance. His starting position will already provide him with a great advantage, considering the pace he has had on the track so far. However, he will have to make sure not to sustain any damage so as not to repeat what happened at Las Vegas.

Shane van Gisbergen has showcased a really strong performance this year, and not just on the road courses. He has been improving on the ovals ever since last year, and there is a very visible change that is taking place in his overall driving style and racecraft. After an impressive start to the season, Martinsville could perhaps become his track to clinch his first oval win.