Undeterred Shane van Gisbergen reflects on frustrating weekend at Iowa

Shane van Gisbergen (SVG) had a rough performance at the Iowa Xfinity Series race on Saturday but is not letting that get to him. On Saturday night, the 35-year-old NASCAR diver went to X (formerly Twitter) to send a message to his fans after getting into a wreck during the HyVee Perks 250.

“Well that’s the highs & lows of racing! Super tough weekend, tried to save it but just got loose,” van Gisbergen wrote. “I learnt a lot all weekend, had some speed yesterday but the car was difficult today and made a mistake. Gutted for the guys, massive thanks to Kubota [Chevrolet Motorsports] for the support.”

Van Gisbergen got into an accident on Lap 87 after bumping into Blaine Perkins. That led to Kyle Weatherman hitting van Gisbergen who then spun into the wall. Van Gisbergen was in a backup 97 car after getting into a wreck during practice. This comes after he won the last two Xfinity Series races.

Fans showed their support for SVG on social media. One person wrote, “Keep your head up SVG. Just keep grinding at these ovals you’ll get your 1st win on one eventually. Hate you didn’t get to complete all the laps like you have most of the year but all you can do is get ready for New Hampshire next week. Still proud of you no matter what.”

Another fan wrote, “Yes, a tough run today but as that song goes, there’s always tomorrow to make dreams come true. On to the next race.”

Shane van Gisbergen looking forward to more battles with Ty Gibbs

Shane van Gisbergen has made a major impact on NASCAR for what he’s done the last two seasons. And while he has rubbed some drivers the wrong way, the New Zealand native is looking forward to more battles with Ty Gibbs.

“He was fast,” van Gisbergen said about Gibbs’ performance at Sonoma last weekend, per the Stacking Pennies podcast.

“For him, I guess, you’re switching between cars, you’re never going to optimize one. I could see on SMT, all those sectors, he was really quick, he just would make mistakes. So you could tell he was almost as fast as us. And then yeah, the race started, and to stay that close in the wake of the other car, you know, everything’s hot. I was saving a little bit, but not that much, and he was right there the whole time. So I knew he was going to be strong.

“It’s a shame he had a bad pit stop, and then the crash, because that would’ve been a pretty cool battle. Because every time I’ve raced against him, it’s been really good. He’s a good, tough, little racer. So it would’ve been cool to battle that out.”

On3’s Steve Samra contributed to this story.