Sensational Shane Van Gisbergen Equals a 40-Year-Old Record in His Second Cup Series Race

Flying past the checkered flag on the Chicago street course in pole position last month, Shane van Gisbergen became the first racer in 60 years to win a NASCAR debut. With the entirety of the stock car racing universe looking forward to his second Cup Series appearance in the Verizon 200 race held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the Kiwi international proved that his performance wasn’t a one-time wonder.

In an intriguing conversation on the NASCAR on NBC Podcast, reporter Nate Ryan and former racer Jeff Burton discussed SVG’s accomplishments and what the future held for him.

Shane van Gisbergen parallels a 40-year-old record

Finishing 10th in his first Cup Series oval, the street course winner brought in the accolade of getting top 10 finishes in his first two Cup Series starts. Terry Labonte already accomplished this feat in 1978, but SVG’s victory rewrote history once more and ensured that he remained the most exciting possibility on the racetrack.

Going over the long-forgotten records that Shane van Gisbergen was beginning to unearth and break, Nate Ryan asked Jeff Burton, “So he’s got top tens in his first two Cup starts. I saw stat today, it’s the first time in more than 40 years that that’s happened apparently. I think Terry Labonte in ’78 was the last driver to finish top 10 his first two Cup starts. So, how did you think he did?”

The NASCAR Hall of Fame inductee was equally in awe of SVG’s impressive stock car racing beginnings as the rest of us. Comparing the success of van Gisbergen against the fiddling displays of other drivers who come into NASCAR, he attributed the difference to SVG’s comfort in the “cars that drive so damn bad”. Also responding to Nate’s questions, he talked about how Shane came in with a nothing to lose attitude and got the better of the regular NASCAR drivers.

Watch Story: Trackhouse Boss Justin Marks Could Lose SVG to Bigger Nascar Sharks

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SVG has raised the bar for NASCAR regulars

Impressed with the performance that Shane van Gisbergen put up at Chicago last month, Jeff Burton talked about how everything had been lined up for him and how he committed no mistakes, unlike the regular drivers. He also spoke about looking forward to the Indianapolis race curiously and finding in the aftermath that native racers like Daniel Suarez were actually faster than SVG, owing to their experience on the speedway. Jeff was also of the opinion that SVG’s presence in NASCAR has actually caused the native drivers to step up their game.

Asserting that this was something normal, he said, “So, until when you go a certain speed… If you’re at a test, if you’re at a race, or whatever… It’s the, ‘It’s okay. We’re good enough.’, right? And, I don’t want to say you back it down a little bit, but you don’t push more. Because when you push more, there’s wreck on the other end of that or there’s mechanical issue on other end of that. When he came in everybody went, ‘Oh, I might need to do this a little better’. And so, he raised the game my opinion. He raised the game for everybody.”

Talking about SVG’s continuous NASCAR run, Jeff Burton mentioned that he was very interested in knowing what happens in the future and hoped that “they don’t put him in a Cup car and run a full season”. With discussions ongoing in the Trackhouse racing camp about retaining Shane Van Gisbergen in NASCAR full-time, the community has all eyes on the team’s news outlets, waiting for developments.

Read More: “Don’t Have a Billion Dollar Company” – Under Pressure of Losing SVG, Trackhouse Owner Exposes NASCAR’s “Funny Business”