Shane van Gisbergen’s second Craftsman Truck Series start has been rewarded with a third place finish despite fuel pressure issues, communication breakdowns, and a runaway mirror in a chaotic race at Watkins Glen.
After qualifying in eighth, van Gisbergen had his work cut out for him while NASCAR Cup teammate Connor Zilisch qualified in fifth. van Gisbergen’s other NASCAR Cup teammate, Ross Chastain, qualified down the order in thirty-third.
Van Gisbergen was unable to move forward on the start and remained down the bottom end of the top 10. He was in ninth by the end of stage one.
At the resumption of stage two, it was clear that SVG was suffering issues with his truck. Comms over the radio between van Gisbergen and his crew-chief highlighted that the Kiwi was having fuel pressure issues and the fuel pressure light was intermittently illuminated on his dash.
This issue combined with the Kiwi stating the car had “no raw speed”, and he was having to compensate for his weaker truck by using his experience to change lines, while trying to extract every piece of performance from his brand-new truck.
At the same time, Zilisch and Chastain were showing their skills out the front, with Chastain putting in a huge effort to climb his way to the front after a poor qualifying performance, but was kept honest at every turn by the fearless Zilisch.
SVG’s crew chief started to ask the Kiwi towards the end of stage two if there was any possibility that any issues could be fixed in pit road, where both team and driver agreed that next time the Kiwi headed into the lane they would do what they could to give van Gisbergen a competitive car.
At the end of stage two, van Gisbergen sat fifteenth after attempting car setup changes in the lane. Zilisch and Chastain both sat towards the front.
To compound van Gisbergen’s issues, his hard work was thrown away after a breakdown in communication between team and driver left van Gisbergen stranded in the lane, leaving him losing precious time. He emerged back on track down the order, in twenty-second.
In a hugely chaotic final ten laps with three cautions, van Gisbergen was able to keep his nose clean to work back up through the pack.
Firstly, a huge caution where multiple drivers crashed out into the tyre barriers in Turn 1 left van Gisbergen sitting around fifteenth after starting in twenty-second. . However, he was lucky to get to that point after having to avoid a spinning Layne Riggs in a wall of smoke.
After another caution with NASCAR Cup winner Carson Hocevar in the wall on the start/finish line, van Gisbergen had once again climbed up the field to sit in the bottom of the top 10.
After a penalty for Gio Ruggerio for jumping the restart, overtime started with Zilisch in front, being chased by ACRA Menards winner Kaden Honeycutt. van Gisbergen was left starting in sixth after cars cycled into the lane, and the Kiwi was immediately able to work his way into third.
Honeycutt was able to hold off Zilisch to take his first Craftsman Truck Series win in the #11 Toyota, finishing a mere three tenths ahead of Zilisch.
Against all odds, van Gisbergen was able to finish in a huge third place after putting it all together when it counts, despite one of his trickiest races in recent memory.
After the race, the Kiwi was ever thankful to his team for their efforts in light of the chaos around them.
“We had a shocker but the guys did great” said van Gisbergen.
van Gisbergen now will focus on the O’Reilly Series qualifying, with the Kiwi back on track at 3:35am NZST tomorrow.
Header Image: Niece Motorsports (Facebook)
