Shane van Gisbergen has work to do from 28th on the grid in this afternoon’s Truck Series race at Indianapolis Raceway Park as he makes his oval debut. The Kiwi will start right in amongst a tight mid-field pack but is showing promising signs of quickly getting up to speed on an unfamiliar circuit in an unfamiliar car.
Taking to the track earlier for a short practice session, van Gisbergen was 32nd quickest in the 39-car field, setting a best time of 24.125 seconds on his seventh lap.
Competitors then took to the track to run two laps in the following qualifying session, with the better of those two times determining the grid. The Kiwi set a personal-best 23.834-second lap on his first circuit, bettering that with a tidy 23.527 on his second time around.
“It’s tough,” he told Fox Sports 1 after his qualifying run. “It’s just all instinctive and reacting to it. On the first lap, I didn’t get the most out of it and expected a bit much. I had a big slide out of Turn 2 onto the back straight. Just getting used to it. Then the second lap, I didn’t know what to expect. Had an awesome time getting better. Looks like I’m going to be right in the middle of it all at the start, so it’s going to be interesting.”
“I’m having a ball,” he added. “Just learning so much every lap, and hopefully, we’ll get some long runs in the race so I can get in a rhythm and just learn a lot tonight.”
Christian Eckes claimed pole position, his 22.884-second best lap bettering Ty Majeski’s by 0.038 seconds. Series leader Corey Heim lines up third, next to Rajah Caruth.
This afternoon’s race begins at 1.00 pm. Velocity News will provide live updates throughout the proceedings.
Just race your own laps and you will do well. Cheers