“I was good to go”: Shane van Gisbergen on where he was better than Kyle Larson at Chicago

Shane van Gisbergen and Kyle Larson started alongside each other in Saturday's Xfinity Series race, the Loop 110. Although much of the first half of the race on Chicago's 2.2-mile street circuit was a Gisbergen-Larson showdown, the Xfinity rookie felt that his Chevy was better adjusted to the short runs than that of the 2021 Cup Series champion.

Both Shane van Gisbergen and Kyle Larson have three victories each in their respective series and are thus tapped into this year's playoff rumbles. Larson and Gisbergen will race against each other again tomorrow in Sunday's Cup Series race. Gisbergen is on a seven-race schedule this year in the Cup Series.

Gisbergen and Larson traded the lead at least five times during the first 23 laps of the 50-lap event. However, they raced each other clean. The former KIWI star even gave Larson a thumbs-up to acknowledge the healthy rivalry between the two throughout the race.

Nevertheless, both speedsters were relegated behind following their pit stops in Stage 2. Although they did work up their way from there, the 2023 Grant Park 220 winner opined that his car was better in the traffic.

Reflecting on the same, Shane van Gisbergen, better known as SVG, said during the post-race media availability (via Matt Weaver),

"We made an adjustment just to bring them on a bit quicker knowing that there probably wasn't gonna be long runs. Straight away from the first lap of restarts, I was good to go from there on and got him at the restart.

With ten laps to go till the checkered flag, Gisbergen was running fifth while Larson was ninth. The last three laps saw Gisbergen passing Richard Childress Racing driver Jesse Love and Joe Gibbs Racing's Ty Gibbs, en route to his third straight road course win. Gibbs, Larson, and Love wound up in the top 5.

"Every time I'd make a pass, I'd be happy I made a gap and he'd get the guy (in) the next corner. I got lucky and made a few good decisions, made good spots every time," SVG added.

Shane van Gisbergen is currently 11th in the Xfinity Series standings with 457 points to his name. He holds the fourth playoff spot behind Chandler Smith, Austin Hill, and Sam Mayer.

"It's relative"- Shane van Gisbergen reveals the secret behind his road course prowess

Shane van Gisbergen is known for his heel-toe maneuver, a technique that involves using the right foot to accelerate and brake while letting the left foot do the shifting. Most Cup drivers, on the other hand, are used to relying on their left foot for braking as the NextGen car does not require clutching while shifting gears.

Needless to say, SVG did the same on Saturday as well. However, this tricky technique feels normal for the three-time Bathurst 1000 winner.

"I think I did the same thing at COTA as well on someone, but to me it's normal," Gisbergen explained during a pre-race presser (3:48). "I see stuff Kyle Larson does on ovals and I go, what the hell, how did he do that...so it's relative, right?"

The Australian Supercar icon opined that as he improves on NASCAR's ovals, the Cup Series regulars would also get better at running road course races.

"What I've always been used to is this kind of racing and making moves like that and on the ovals, there's people doing stuff to me; I'm like, how did he come up with that? I need to get better at the oval stuff and they're gonna keep getting better at the road course stuff as well," he added.

Shane van Gisbergen and Kyle Larson will run in the Cup Series race on the Chicago road course tomorrow, where the latter won the pole. The duo will also race each other in the Cup Series races at Watkins Glen International and Las Vegas Motor Speedway later this year.