{"id":379818,"date":"2024-03-27T02:00:47","date_gmt":"2024-03-27T03:00:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=379818"},"modified":"2024-03-27T07:03:52","modified_gmt":"2024-03-27T07:03:52","slug":"push-him-off-svgs-weird-new-nascar-habit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=379818","title":{"rendered":"'Push him off!': SVG's 'weird' new NASCAR habit"},"content":{"rendered":"

Shane van Gisbergen<\/a> says racing in the United States is unlike anything he's ever experienced and admits he's still getting his head around being "run over" by his rivals.<\/p>\n

The three-time Supercars champion moved to the United States this year to run full-time in the second-tier NASCAR<\/a> Xfinity Series with a part-time Cup Series program to boot.<\/p>\n

The Kiwi has been impressive in his debut season, finishing third in just the second race of the year.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> 'Stop looking': Indigenous icon questions Latrell act<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Former club doctor drops drugs bombshell on AFL<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

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He crossed the line second after dominating the latest race at Circuit of the Americas but was demoted to 27th for a short-cut penalty.<\/p>\n

\"Shane<\/p>\n

That race saw him engage in a tit-for-tat clash with Austin Hill, who bumped van Gisbergen out of the way at turn one before the triple Bathurst 1000 winner returned serve at turn 15.<\/p>\n

NASCAR is unique in that a bump-and-run to move a car out of the way is acceptable. In almost every other category around the world, forcefully moving a car out of the way for position would warrant a penalty.<\/p>\n

"It's a weird mentality here," said van Gisbergen on Stacking Pennies<\/em> with Corey LaJoie.\u00a0<\/p>\n

"It's something I've never been used to. We're not allowed to do this stuff in any other racing I've ever done \u2013 just hit someone out of the way with no care.\u00a0<\/p>\n

"At turn one, normally what he would have done would have been a penalty. For that would be a 15-second (penalty) or a drive-through.\u00a0<\/p>\n

"I've done that (got moved out the way) and then the whole next two laps my spotter, the crew chief is like 'Get his arse! Get him gone! Push him off!', and I'm like, 'What?'.<\/p>\n

"I had good and bad on my shoulders telling me what to do."<\/p>\n

\"Shane<\/p>\n

Neither van Gisbergen nor Hill ended up winning the race. On newer tyres, Cup Series champion Kyle Larson passed them both out of turn 15 to win the race.<\/p>\n

On reflection, van Gisbergen admitted he didn't know how he would approach that situation differently.<\/p>\n

"It's weird. To now be thinking where could I have moved him differently to pass him in a different spot? People were telling me where I should hit someone out of the way," he said.<\/p>\n

"I've never had to think like that before, so it's crazy. Into (turn 15) he just stood on the brakes and backed it up even earlier. I didn't mean to hit him that early in the corner."<\/p>\n

This year is one of learning for van Gisbergen.<\/p>\n

It's his first season racing on ovals and the first time racing with an H-pattern gearbox since his early years of Supercars in the late 2000s.<\/p>\n

One weakness van Gisbergen admits is that he might be holding back too much.<\/p>\n

"I don't know if I'm too conservative at the start or still learning \u2014 which is good, I take my time but you give up so much," he explained.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/twitter.com\/NASCAR_Xfinity\/status\/1771663767178248207<\/a><\/p>\n

"When I finished Phoenix I would have loved to have started it again at stage one. You'd be so much quicker. I'm just learning so much through the races but taking my time doing it."<\/p>\n

Off the track, van Gisbergen is getting accustomed to life in the United States.<\/p>\n

He stayed in a motorhome at the latest race with his partner Jess Dane and their dog Ronald, something he said is "so different to anything we do in Australia".<\/p>\n

Add to that, race weekends are a far more laid-back affair from his time in Supercars.\u00a0<\/p>\n

"Normally, every morning we'd have so much promotional stuff in Australia," said van Gisbergen.<\/p>\n

"Donald, my PR guy, on Sunday is like 'Yeah, I'll pick you up. 11.30am or something'. What do I do all morning? So it's pretty cool to chill out."<\/p>\n

Van Gisbergen's next Xfinity outing is at Richmond Raceway on Sunday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Shane van Gisbergen says racing in the United States is unlike anything he's ever experienced and admits he's still getting his head around being "run […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":379820,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379818"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=379818"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379818\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":379823,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379818\/revisions\/379823"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/379820"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=379818"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=379818"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=379818"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}