Shane van Gisbergen pushing to improve on NASCAR ovals after Portland Xfinity win

Shane van Gisbergen recently earned his first NASCAR Xfinity Series win at Portland. After his historic win on the streets of Chicago last year, this is Gisbergen's second trip to the victory lane in NASCAR. And now that he has his second win, SVG has his sight on the next challenge.

Towards the end of last year, Shane van Gisbergen's schedule for the 2024 season was announced. He was to run full-time in the Xfinity Series as well as select Cup races.

But it is now that SVG can relax and look forward to the races ahead. After his win at Portland, he claimed that what he considered the daunting part of the schedule is now behind him.

"The last six weeks is probably is what I singled out at the start of the year as probably the toughest stretch of races. To get through that with straight cars, good finishes, and we learned a lot every week, I felt like I got more and more comfortable on those ovals. But it's good to have a break now, do some road courses, get a trophy which is good. But now I got to reset and keep getting better at the ovals. There's more Cup races coming up on ovals and obviously Chicago again. So I just got to keep my head down and do the job," Gisbergen said.

Speaking about the race at Portland, Gisbergen deemed it as "a pretty eventful" one in which he went up and down all day. He thanked his team and Chevrolet for the opportunity as he praised the racetrack on which he "had a blast."

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What are Kaulig Racing's expectations from Shane van Gisbergen?

Having started his NASCAR career with a win in his very first race, Shane van Gisbergen announced himself on the big stage in the best way he could have. And now that he is running full-time in the second tier of NASCAR, Gisbergen has high expectations.

The expectations are not just for Gisbergen but also for his Kaulig Racing teammates, Josh Williams and AJ Allmendinger.

This was something that Chris Rice, the President of Kaulig Racing spoke about in a video earlier this year.

"I expect those guys to race really really hard on the road courses but be very respectful. You know, AJ, he underestimates his ability, but also when you look at SVG he’s going to bring something to the table we’ve never had. But don’t forget Josh Williams, very good learner, so I expect him to be in the mix when we go to those road courses," Rice said.

So far this season, Shane van Gisbergen has 7 finishes inside the top 20, 1 inside the top 10, 1 inside the top 5, and a win that came at Portland.

On the Cup front, SVG has run in three races, at COTA, Talladega, and Charlotte. But except for the road course where he finished in 20th place, the Kiwi has finished outside the top 20 on the ovals.