Why Short Ovals Are van Gisbergen's Strong Suit

Shane van Gisbergen has once again proven his prowess on short ovals. The Trackhouse Racing driver finished fifth at North Wilkesboro last month—matching his career-best oval result—while leading a career-high 49 laps.

Now he prepares for another short oval, the one-mile New Hampshire Motor Speedway, on August 24 (AEST). For van Gisbergen, short ovals are where he feels most in control.

"I feel like you can have a little more influence on the car, like you can manipulate it with the brake or brake bias and whatever gear you're running," he explained. "You can vary your line a little more. I feel like there's a little more as a driver you can do."

Read AlsoSVG and Trackhouse Face Contract Puzzle Amid Shakeup

According to him, short ovals place a greater emphasis on driver ability and car control, whereas intermediate and superspeedways rely heavily on car setup. "That just means on the big tracks, I'm not good enough of knowing what I want from the car yet or how to get the car to do what I want—whether that's with feedback to my engineer or just in general," said van Gisbergen.

"I feel like these tracks, you can kind of make up for a deficiency in the car, as well, with whatever tools you have. Whereas on a big track, you're kind of just stuck with what you got sometimes."

Last year at New Hampshire, van Gisbergen recorded his season-career-best oval qualifying of 10th. However, he was an unlucky victim of a multi-car pile-up a little more than a third of the way into the race after a restart.

"It's a very different track," he said. "I was going pretty decent there last year until I wasn't. But it's tough; long straights and short corners. It is a little bit like a road course, the way you approach the corners, trying to make them shorter and straights longer, I guess, so that theory kind of works."

He added, "But I enjoy it. It's a weird oval being so flat. It's a pretty decent track."

This weekend, van Gisbergen and his teammate Connor Zilisch will both sport Superfile liveries at New Hampshire. It's the first time Superfile has expanded its NASCAR presence to two cars. The designs are essentially the same, except for different colored stripes—white for van Gisbergen and yellow for Zilisch.

Heading into the penultimate round of the regular season, van Gisbergen sits 16th in points, 50 above the cut-off line to make the Chase. Ryan Preece from RFK Racing is the next-best-placed driver in 17th, also 50 points below the cut.