The annual road courses are back to the Cup schedule. Another thing is back as well – the dominance of Oceania people. Last year around this time, Shane van Gisbergen made some jaws drop with his maiden NASCAR Cup win at the Chicago Street Race. Similarly, his Supercars counterpart is set to make a mark at Sonoma Raceway, albeit with struggles.

Driving for Richard Childress Racing, the Aussie driver put on a stellar performance at practice. But the same luck did not play out at qualifying, although beating veteran Kyle Busch is a medal of honor itself.

NASCAR Cup rookie reveals a technical issue

Being an Australian motorsports athlete, Will Brown has eight wins and is the current Supercars points leader. Hence he already had a glittering resume as he hoped to pick up the intricacies of the Next-Gen car. Brown excelled in Friday’s 50-minute practice session at Sonoma Raceway. Driving the No. 33 RCR Chevrolet, he posted the third-fastest single lap behind only Ryan Blaney and Ty Gibbs.

However, the NASCAR debutant bumped into technical difficulties at qualifying. Will Brown elucidated how his car faltered unexpectedly, comparing Supercars with NASCAR. “A bit of a tough one, that one. It wouldn’t start or run at the start. So I couldn’t get it to fire and then run down pit lane. So I think there was a fault in the ECU. And then on our laps, it was reading 75% power. So unfortunately we can’t look at the data with how NASCAR works and all that sort of stuff compared with Supercars…So we’ll have a look after and see if that’s the case.”

He compared his tough luck compared to the stellar practice day. “Yesterday I think we ran really well, I think we put together a good lap and were surprised to see where we finished. But yeah, it’s one of those things, we were a bit unsure after the throttle. There was a fault there so we don’t know yet.”

RCR reportedly fixed the glitch, but Brown could only post the 12th fastest speed. Eventually, he had to settle for 24th place. However, if it is any consolation for the Aussie driver, Will Brown managed to outqualify his veteran teammate, Kyle Busch. The reason may be Brown’s extra simulator practice on Monday in North Carolina.

At that time, Busch was busy participating in a Goodyear tire test at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. But NASCAR’s winningest driver has a strong history at the 2.52-mile road course. Holding two wins and two runner-up finishes, Busch may prove to be a thorn in Will Brown’s side at the final race.

However, Will Brown has an expert guide helping him with all of NASCAR’s tricks.

SVG will have Brown’s back

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After his dazzling victory at the first NASCAR race he ever ran, Shane van Gisbergen laid down a legacy. That helped kickstart a wave of Aussie and Kiwi drivers to test their prowess in a NASCAR Cup car. Hence now Will Brown and Cam Waters, a Tickford Racing star, are trying it out. But Will Brown will have an extra pair of ears guiding him through the nitty-gritty of the Sonoma race.

Just off a fresh Xfinity victory at Portland, van Gisbergen will serve as a second spotter to Brown, besides Brett Griffin. Brown was evidently excited to have the Supercars champion behind his back. “I think Shane’s been running inside the top-ten for his last couple of road course runs, so that would be great if we could do that.” He added, “I’ve watched a lot of what SVG’s doing, but I’ve worked with him a lot. So it’s great to have him as a spotter to be working with him, but there’s a long way to go yet. It was a good start. I’ve still got a lot of learning to do in the car and how to race it, but we’ll see where we end up (Sunday).”

If the RCR No. 33 team could get that nagging throttle issue fixed, the star seems aligned for another Oceania driver to snag a Cup victory this weekend.