LEBANON, Tenn. — Recently dubbed the road-course king, Shane van Gisbergen had his crowning achievement thus far on ovals Sunday night at Nashville Superspeedway.
Once again, it was the sophomore driver that led the way for Trackhouse Racing, spending much of the Cracker Barrel 400 inside the top 10. Van Gisbergen even traded the lead back and forth with two-time Cup Series champion Kyle Larson before rallying to fifth at the checkered flag — scoring his first top five on an oval in his 64th NASCAR Cup Series start.
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“It‘s amazing, you start up front and your car feels so nice and then you go to the back on strategy and it felt like a bucket of [expletive],” van Gisbergen said, celebrating his accomplishment but also noting a critical track-position deficit in the middle of the event. “It was good getting strategy back and we got to the front again. It‘s so good racing up front, you get better and better. I enjoyed myself tonight.”
With qualifying canceled by Saturday rain, having a solid outing in the Coca-Cola 600 helped van Gisbergen from the drop of the green flag. The No. 97 Chevrolet took the initial green flag in 10th position and hung around the back half of the top 10 for the opening stint. Crew chief Stephen Doran went off strategy and took two Goodyear tires during a Lap 35 competition caution, getting SVG ahead of the field for the restart.
RELATED: Race results | At-track photos: Nashville
Van Gisbergen led 12 of the next 16 laps, with Joey Logano getting the jump on the restart, only to get passed by the No. 97 car. Larson charged as the first driver on four fresh tires but tussled in taking the lead from van Gisbergen. He bobbled from the top spot on Lap 53, allowing the No. 5 Chevrolet to take control of the race.
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“It was fun and I was surprised how much grip we had on the two tires,” van Gisbergen said of the battle. “It was cool to try to put myself in a good spot and [put] air on him in a bad spot. It was cool to battle. I took back the lead at one point; it was really fun.”
Entering the weekend, van Gisbergen wasn‘t confident in Nashville, noting that concrete surfaces hadn‘t been his strong suit. But he remained poised throughout the race and continued his progression on ovals.
“Something we saw last week, just progress, getting so much better at knowing where to place the car and restarts,” Doran told NASCAR.com. “Just getting better at all the stuff we talked about makes for fun nights.”
Between NASCAR‘s annual marathon at Charlotte Motor Speedway and another endurance race where fellow Trackhouse drivers Ross Chastain and Connor Zilisch both had brake-rotor failure in the opening 81 circuits, van Gisbergen carried on with a slight concern that he might be next.
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The No. 97 bunch assured him that their setup was different, allowing him to focus on hanging around the top 10.
“This is what we need to do with all the ovals,” Doran added. “Top 10s are now the benchmark for us to be satisfied with. I think we can do it the next two, and then we’ve got two road courses after that.”
With multiple bubble drivers having issues at Nashville, van Gisbergen‘s clean showing banked 32 points and netted two positions in the regular-season championship standings. He sits 12th, 44 points above The Chase cutline with 12 races remaining.
MORE: Cup Series standings | 2026 schedule
With the No. 97 team‘s recent performance, van Gisbergen says he believes they have turned the corner. Dating back to van Gisbergen‘s beatdown at Watkins Glen International, he ranks second in the series with a 5.67 average finish across the last three races. Only five-time 2026 winner Tyler Reddick is better at 5.0 during that span.
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“We had a bad couple of months and a few weeks ago, it feels like it‘s turned around,” van Gisbergen said. “It‘s a real momentum-based sport and confidence-based as well. We just need to keep that and lift our teammates up with us. If we‘re all running good, it will really help the team.”
