Shane van Gisbergen has stunned world motorsport, qualifying third on his NASCAR Cup Series debut on the streets of Chicago.
Despite having only tested the Trackhouse Racing-run Chevrolet Camaro once, the Kiwi went quickest in the sole practice session before his run to third in qualifying.
The three-time Supercars champion was only beaten by Joe Gibbs Racing driver Denny Hamlin and 23XI Racing’s Tyler Reddick.
Stan Sport is the only place to watch the 2023 IndyCar Series, featuring Will Power, Scott McLaughlin and Scott Dixon. All the action streaming ad free, live and on demand
Hamlin clocked a 1:20.435s lap, edging out Reddick and van Gisbergen by just 0.044s and 0.153s respectively.
Speaking after qualifying, van Gisbergen said he was surprised with how well he performed considering his relative inexperience.
“I’ve never driven a street track so bumpy, and it was pretty tough,” said van Gisbergen.
“I thought I would take it easy, but everyone was just flat out. I had Austin Dillon, I think it is, just bomb me early on, and it was like a full race, so I tried to find my own piece of track and build up on my own pace.
“Everyone was wild. It was pretty cool. If that’s anything like the race is going to be like, it’s going to be full on.”
Some comparisons have been made between the Supercars that van Gisbergen is used to and NASCAR Cup Series machines.
The 34-year-old said it was somewhere between the old Gen2 cars and the new Gen3-spec Supercars, but “better” across the board.
Van Gisbergen admitted there has still been a steep learning curve, not only with the car but the circuit itself, which is new for the series this year.
“You feel the weight of the car a lot when it slides; it really lets go,” he said.
“I had a few moments and it’s difficult here. I was losing a lot of time (under braking) on the data. It’s so intimidating here because there’s no runoff, there’s just a wall in front of you.
“I didn’t really have confidence to make up the time on the brakes, so I need to keep building up to that tomorrow.
“Just speaking with Daniel (Suarez), my teammate, he changed the bias a bit different to me.
“I’ve got a bit to learn. I was learning every lap trying to push, and it was a lot of fun.”
Formula 1 champion Jenson Button, who lauded van Gisbergen’s ability a day earlier, qualified eighth.
Van Gisbergen’s Trackhouse Racing teammates Daniel Suarez and Ross Chastain qualified fifth and 34th respectively.
Van Gisbergen’s first ever NASCAR race is scheduled to get underway at 7:30am on Monday.
For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by clicking here!
