NASCAR insiders sound the panic alarm on Shane van Gisbergen after Darlington
With the Charlotte ROVAL on the schedule in the Round of 12 of the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs, there’s a clear path for Shane van Gisbergen to advance as far as the Round of 8. In order to do that, however, he needs to make it through the Round of 16.
His four wins throughout the regular season gave him some comfort room. That has now evaporated after Sunday’s playoff opener at Darlington Raceway. Van Gisbergen complained about his car throughout the Southern 500, and he eventually finished 32nd. TJ Majors, spotter for Brad Keselowski, is concerned about his chances of staying in the playoffs much longer.
“I’ll tell you who is in trouble already is SVG,” Majors said on Monday’s Door Bumper Clear podcast.
Shane van Gisbergen falls down playoff standings after Darlington
Van Gisbergen is still inside the top 12, though he’s barely hanging on. He’s just three points above the cutline heading into this coming Sunday’s race at Gateway, a track he’s never raced on. It’s why van Gisbergen “couldn’t afford” to have a night like he did at Darlington, said Freddie Kraft, spotter for Bubba Wallace.
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“He couldn’t afford to have that night,” Kraft said. “He was one of the guys who we talked about where he had a 16-point cushion or whatever it was coming in, and if he could run top 15 or top 20 every week, he could use that. … Wasn’t going to have as bad a day — he was going to run I think 25th maybe — I think he ended up 31st.
“He was going to run 20th to 25th, and then he pitted and got burned on a caution. They were just on a different strategy, and they got burned by that. That was really the end of their night.”
The only thing van Gisbergen can do is move on and look ahead to Gateway. His No. 88 team missed it at Darlington, and that’s all there is to it.
“It was a tough day for the No. 88 Chevrolet team,” he said after the race. “Our car was very different from yesterday. [Crew chief] Stephen [Doran] didn’t give up on tuning on it, but we just couldn’t make it better. We tried something different with strategy but got a caution at the wrong time and couldn’t rebound from it.”