Less than 24 hours after winning what turned into a great battle with Kyle Larson in the Xfinity Series, today Shane van Gisbergen looks to stay the only Cup Series winner in Chicago Street Course history.
The history here is that van Gisbergen is a 35-year-old New Zealander with a trio of championships under his belt in Australia’s Supercars series. Last year, Trackhouse Racing—the team part-owned by Pitbull—was looking for a ringer to drive its #91 car at the Chicago Street Course. They found van Gisbergen. Van Gisbergen won.
The #91 car, dubbed Project 91 by Trackhouse, is explicitly for ringers, Trackhouse’s means to collaboration with stars from around the world. When you’re owned by Mr. Worldwide, you kind of have to be a worldwide brand. Former F1 champ Kimi Räikkönen is the only other driver to have driven the #91 car so far, though, which makes me wonder a little if van Gisbergen ruined it for Trackhouse by winning. Not that he actually “ruined” anything, but he became such a big NASCAR story that he overshadowed Project 91. I’m sure Trackhouse would rather accidentally be the ones to discover how talent-rich Australian and New Zealander racing is (IndyCar discovered this a long time ago), but since van Gisbergen won, I don’t think any other #91 drivers have been announced. Even Daniel Ricciardo hasn’t managed to nab a race in that thing.
Anyway: Why is van Gisbergen so good?
The stock answer is that Supercars are more similar to stock cars than open-wheel vehicles are, which makes the transition more natural for van Gisbergen than it was for Danica Patrick, Juan Pablo Montoya, or even Räikkönen. Add in that Supercars drivers are used to street courses, and not just road courses, and van Gisbergen’s Chicago excellence, in hindsight, is portrayed like it should have been predictable. But. The current Cup Series car—the NextGen vehicle—is much more like Supercars (and other sports car-ish things) than traditional stock cars. The Xfinity Series car is a traditional stock car, the kind Patrick and Montoya had to drive. Van Gisbergen dominated yesterday in the Xfinity car.
In reality, then, the answer probably has less to do with van Gisbergen’s experience and more to do with just how good he is at driving. The experience definitely helps. But the guy is a really, really good driver. Probably one of the best in the world. Which, since van Gisbergen wasn’t utterly dominating Supercars, means Supercars is probably a better series than it gets credit for being. Which further demonstrates how motorsports’ talent pools are not very aligned with which series make the most money. Popularity and ability aren’t as correlated in auto racing as they are with, say, soccer. That goes for drivers and series alike.
The race:
- Grant Park 165 – 4:30 PM EDT, NBC
Other NASCAR:
- Hooters is out as Chase Elliott’s sponsor due to Hooters not paying enough money to continue being Chase Elliott’s sponsor. Do you think Chase Elliott’s really bummed about this? But he feels like he’d sound like a perv if he said so?
- Josh Berry is taking over Harrison Burton’s spot in the Wood Brothers #21 next year, which means Burton’s most famous moment in the vehicle will likely remain that time he got flipped on his back at Daytona.
Hit Each Other Again, Please
Accusations of F1 drivers being competitive people were put to rest this week when Lando Norris and Max Verstappen backed down from their short-lived feud.
Unless…
It would be pretty fun if they collided again today. Norris racing in his home country, Verstappen trying to build an even bigger gap in the standings, Lewis Hamilton steering around the wreckage to reenter the conversation. If they don’t? That’s fine. We don’t need these guys to crash. We can find our beefs and our rivalries elsewhere. But again: It’s kind of hard to believe this pair cares that much if they can still be besties after one of them knocks the other out of a race because he knows rules don’t apply to him. They don’t have to care! They don’t have to be competitive! They’re professional semi-athletes who were gifted access into the sport with the smallest talent pool in the world (van Gisbergen is an athlete, by the way). But there’s a lot of claiming that they do care, and that they are competitive. We would like to see them prove that.
(That doesn’t go for Lewis Hamilton. We believe Lewis Hamilton is competitive. Honestly, we believe Verstappen’s competitive too, just in a backstabbing way. This is mostly about Norris. Norris backing down was disappointing unless it’s a ruse and he’s ready to punt Verstappen all the way to Dover today. Hope he does! Get that car in the air, Lando. I bet it’s safe enough.)
The race:
- British Grand Prix – 10:00 AM EDT, ESPN2
What’s a Hybrid?
IndyCar unveils its hybrid engines this weekend.
Nerds!!!!!!
I’m going to confess something: I don’t know what hybrid engines are. 15 years after first becoming aware of them, I’m still unclear on whether you have to plug them in or if they recharge the electric part on their own, on the downhills or something. I should probably figure this out. I’m thinking of getting one the next time I buy a car.
Mid-Ohio’s the stage this weekend. Álex Palou on the pole, looking to build a little cushion in the standings before Josef Newgarden very possibly sweeps the Iowa doubleheader next weekend. I love that the track’s named Mid-Ohio. It’s aptly named. It is in the middle of Ohio. No need for an annoying sponsor. No need for a name that doesn’t really work. It’s just Mid-Ohio, guys. And that’s enough.
The race:
- Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio – 1:30 PM EDT, NBC
