SVG’s Never in Doubt Rollercoaster
The rest of the team here at The Race Torque know full well that I don’t deal with close finishes very well.
Frankly, the end of today’s Chicago Street Race was a pretty stressful rollercoaster – the sort of stress I haven’t endured on a Monday morning since handling Marcos Ambrose’s PR for Watkins Glen in 2011 and ’12.
But when SVG finally hit the lead with a handful of circuits remaining, the result was never in doubt.
NASCAR threw everything at him, but the best in stockcar racing came up way short.
You don’t become the first debutant race winner in 60 years without being something special.
I called this shot back on May 19th when this NASCAR side project was announced. Thank you, Shane, for holding up your end of the bargain.
Absolutely all of the ingredients were there.
Firstly, there was the Trackhouse Racing side of the equation – the out there gritty underdogs, who vowed to do things differently.
Owned by noted racer Justin Marks and entertainer Pitbull, Trackhouse last year in their first proper season since taking over the former Chip Ganassi squad finished second in the final season standings with Ross Chastain, one weekend on from his wild Martinsville wall ride that booked his place in the final four.
Last year Chastain won two races, his teammate Daniel Suarez won once at Sonoma, while Chastain was a last-start winner for the squad in Nashville. When you’re hot, you’re hot.
And in a point of serendipity, Suarez’s successful Chevy Camaro was the very same chassis that SVG skidded to victory lane today.
The Project 91 entry is what we call in Australia ‘a wildcard’.
It’s essentially a non-chartered entry that makes select appearances in the series, with the Trackhouse squad using the program as a way of promoting NASCAR outside of the sport’s traditional boundaries.
While it was a genuine all-out attempt, the team was very much a part-time effort for two weekends only, with no other 2023 events currently on their schedule.
They were an off-the-bench collection of team members and pit crew, but they combined to come up trumps.
The Project 91 outfit’s inaugural driver was 2007 F1 World Champion Kimi Raikkonen, who stirred the pot at Watkins Glen last year and at the Circuit of the Americas earlier this season.
However, 37th and 29th weren’t results worth writing home about.
The skillset from F1 does not necessarily translate to big brutish stockcars perfectly.
Attracting the Drive to Survive audience might be good for numbers, but not really on the result sheet, a point hammered home again from Chicago with ex-F1 champ Jenson Button, making another Cup Series start today after an earlier drive at COTA and his part in the Le Mans Garage 56 Camaro entry.
Button was quick in the preliminaries, but he got turned trying to make it to pit road early, and ultimately placed 21st.
This was a team that wasn’t here to make up the numbers.
SVG was able to test the car on Monday at the Charlotte Roval, albeit with no adjustments and no running against the clock, while he also got behind the wheel of the full-spec Chevy simulator.
The team threw Darian Grubb on top of the pit box, who’s a championship ring-wearing crew chief, with his list of race-winning drivers reading Jimmie Johnson, Tony Stewart, Denny Hamlin, Carl Edwards, Casey Mears, and now Shane van Gisbergen.
Street Fighter
Compared to some of the elbows-out racing that SVG is typically at the heart of in Australia, there was precious little of it on show in Chicago.
In NASCAR, a series where “boys have at it”, where the rulebook dictates that the drivers sort it out on the racetrack, there was respect given in the direction of the Kiwi.
Did they roll over and make it easy?
There wasn’t a lot of mirror driving and blocking shown his way, but he sure had a hot rod underneath him.
After taking it relatively easy in the opening segment of the race on a slick track, when things dried up, nobody knew which way to look.
It was quite an SVG-styled race, flipping the thing on its head so that he could charge full pelt with new rubber relative to the field ahead in the closing laps.
And it was a display that showed on the lap charts.
He set the fast time in Saturday practice, and qualified in third, which quite easily could have been pole, had Chase Elliot not fenced himself in pursuit of SVG’s slipstream, which brought out the red flags.
Everyone got around Shane when he qualified third, but therein lied the bait – in Australia recently, he hasn’t been able to qualify to save himself.
In the closing laps of the race, it was just like when he plays with his food in Supercars.
Over, under and gone, barely a bump and run in sight.
Screwed
The success was all the more impressive after being screwed not once, not twice, but thrice.
The first came after the crew elected to take a second service for new tyres mid-race.
Others didn’t pit a second time, and when the race was subsequently cut short by 25 circuits, those that stayed out were in the box seat with all-ruling track position.
Mired back in 18th, he had his work to do, and he especially had his hands full to thread his way past a pile-up that involved most of the field.
Emerging from the fracas in tenth, SVG was then relegated back to 18th for the subsequent restart.
Ugh. Righto, here we go again…
But then he worked his way forward, and forward and forward.
When he finally dived under Justin Haley for the race lead, the yellows flashed on for yet another wreck, and he had to give the position back.
Gutted.
Then he made it stick on the following restart, with Haley not giving up without a fight.
The rollercoaster ride wasn’t complete without him having to survive one final yellow and a green-white-chequered flag finish, which he absolutely nailed.
Some drivers looked up tight on the in-car cameras, SVG looked calm and in control, although, the race didn’t have the title implications that it held for everyone else.
When SVG was in front, he never looked in doubt.
Pride
When we watch Supercars races, we probably take for granted the high-quality people and product we have developed in this part of the world.
We’ve seen it before when the likes of Shane, Chaz Mostert and company head overseas for sportscar races and are instantly on the pace. They truly are the real deal.
Shane has called his shot – he’s keen to head stateside when his Supercars contract is up, and we suspect that those armed with microphones will have to learn how to pronounce his name properly, sooner rather than later.
Will we see him make a start at the 2024 All-Star race? He has punched his ticket.
In modern times, Supercars has produced two A+ driving talents: Scott McLaughlin and Shane van Gisbergen, and they have both proven successful in North America’s two biggest race series.
And you don’t have to be an SVG fan to be proud of that.
Mark Walker (administrator)
A vastly experienced Motorsport Public Relations operator, journalist, commentator and photographer, Mark brings his unique angle to The Race Torque in both words and imagery. As well as serving as our key photographer on the ground at major events around Australia (and overseas), Walker will often chime in with his unique and pin-point sharp viewpoint of the racing world via the keyboard too.
