Shane Van Gisbergen has been the student over the first five weeks of the NASCAR season but this weekend, he is once again the master.
That’s because it’s the first road course weekend and he is participating in both the Cup and Xfinity races at Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas, a track he previously raced on in Australian Supercars competition back in 2013.
Sort of.
“At the last bit of the esses, where there’s a double-right, we turned left and did like a little chicane with a jump and joined the backstraight, so I missed those corners out the back,” Van Gisbergen said on Friday at COTA during a media availability.
“But really, the surface is very weathered in a lot of corners. It looks a lot more slippery now than it did back then, apart from obviously the parts where they just re-sealed. So yeah, it’s going to be interesting to feel what it’s like, but I think these cars will drive very different to the Supercars then.”
It didn’t seem to bother him in the Xfinity Series, where he qualified on the front row alongside Cup Series driver Kyle Larson in the Hendrick Motorsports No. 17. It will also be his first Cup Series start of the season, a part-time effort alongside his full Xfinity Series.
The other big differences are the ‘crazy track limits,’ that NASCAR racing involves sliding off the track and onto runoff areas before getting back into the throttle.
“So that’s taken a lot of adjusting to get used to that mindset,” said SVG. “I was practicing not cutting on the simulator… So yeah, it’s pretty interesting the rules here. We normally have big curbs, so we kind of cut the corners.
“I think it would be a bit difficult, especially when you’re following someone closely, to be able to judge the curbs. So that will take a bit of learning, but yeah just watching the races, it’s crazy that guys are off the track more than they’re on it. That’s the normal here, I guess. But yeah, it looks fun.”
He’s enjoyed learning the oval game and doesn’t feel like his rhythm will be disrupted by returning to the only discipline he’s known.
“No, the variety has been good,” Van Gisbergen. “I just wish I got more laps at Las Vegas, but I really enjoyed Phoenix. I had some great battles with people. There was one guy.. Anthony Alfredo, we had an awesome battle where we were two-wide for so many laps.
“It was bloody annoying because we were the same speed and I couldn’t get away from him (laughs). We were slowing each other up, but it was so much fun just racing with each other. We had an awesome race. So yeah, that kind of stuff, I’m really enjoying. Learning other guys and how they race, and mostly everybody has been pretty good.”
Most importantly, five weeks into his new life, SVG says he’s still having fun in NASCAR, which was the entire point after walking away from a series back home that he could have easily continued to dominate if he so chose.
“Yeah, I love that at the moment, it’s something different every week, and I’m just learning so much,” Van Gisbergen said. “Every stage in every race, so far, I keep getting better and get to the end of the race and go, ‘oh I wish I could start that again knowing what I do now’.
The second-half of the year is going to be good, going back to the tracks I already know. But yeah, just the preparation is so intense when it’s something you don’t know. Especially this week doing both classes, having to watch two races and two sets of onboards and understanding the cars, is probably going to be the biggest thing.
“I had a good chat with Marcos Ambrose last night, and he said the Xfinity car will be unlike anything I’ve ever driven.. the way it brakes and the way the rear end works. He said it’s probably similar to the Cup cars he used to race, so hopefully those things help and helps me speed up the learning process.”
Matt Weaver is a Motorsports Insider for Sportsnaut. Follow him on Twitter.