A new day has brought a change of fortune for Shane van Gisbergen, with the Kiwi qualifying fifth for this morning’s Xfinity Series race at Daytona International Speedway.
Rain saw the start of the session delayed and the schedule altered, allowing for only one round of qualifying instead of the planned two.
The race has now also been pushed back to 11.00 am Eastern Time on Monday (Tuesday 5.00 am NZ Time) due to the weather. It will be broadcast live on ThreeNow.
Van Gisbergen, driving the #97 for Kaulig Racing, set a best lap of 49.830 seconds in Sunday’s qualifying, producing an average speed of 180.614mph (290.67kmh).
That was good enough to put the three-time Supercars champion into fifth overall from 44 qualifiers, 0.128 seconds off the pace of the pole-setting time of Jesse Love.
Van Gisbergen also has teammate AJ Allmendinger for company towards the front, with the #16 Kaulig Racing entry qualifying third.
Rain in the area has pushed back the start time of the race, which is yet to be confirmed.
Racing was due to get underway at 4.30 pm local time (10.30 am NZ Time).
The strong qualifying result comes just 24 hours after a difficult ARCA Series qualifying run where he initially failed to qualify for the race.
He would make the start after a competitor ahead withdrew but was caught out in a major Lap 4 incident that claimed 11 victims. He returned to the track 26 laps off the pace to cut some good laps and finished 29th.
Incredible result, a lot of big names qualified behind him.