Last July, van Gisbergen became the first driver in more than 60 years to win a Cup race in his debut when he took victory in the inaugural Chicago Street Race driving for Trackhouse Racing.
The victory served as the instigator for the three-time Supercars champion to move to NASCAR competition this season, where he will compete full-time in the Xfinity Series and run at least seven Cup races.
But his 40-race 2024 NASCAR journey started early with his participation in this weekend’s ARCA Menards Series test at Daytona International Speedway, a track on which van Gisbergen has plenty of experience but none on the 2.5-mile oval layout.
Ven Gisbergen is running the season-opening ARCA race at Daytona with Pinnacle Racing Group as part of his preparation for the kickoff to his NASCAR schedule. He spent most of the last day-and-half testing, doing single-car runs and a handful of laps running single-file with other cars.
He has previously admitted ovals – and particularly superspeedway racing – was his big “question mark” entering his NASCAR transition and that opinion hasn’t changed.
“I still don’t have a good answer. I hope I’ll know more in a few weeks. I’ve really only done some single-file stuff (in the test), not two or three-wide. I’ve just been at the back of the train,” van Gisbergen said Saturday after PRG ended its test.
“So, I haven’t really had too much of a feel, but it was still cool to get out there and feel what the car is like and how it moves around and how they are so sensitive to small changes. It’s pretty interesting like when they are tuning a roof flap, or the fenders and it picks up a tenth (of a second) or something like that.
“The driver doesn’t have a lot of input, but you can still feel the changes. I’ve never done anything like this before. I’m a full rookie.”
Van Gisbergen said he found preparation for his first Daytona oval laps to be very technical and focused a good deal on safety.
“I just made sure I was comfortable in the car, switched up from a HANS device from Simpson, which is what I had been running. Just little things to get comfortable to know what I’m in for. Like using a headrest – that’s not something we normally do,” he said.
“Just lots of little things that I’ve never really thought about. Just being safe, being belted in fully. There’s not much movement in the car but also being relaxed while you’re in the…
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