Shane van Gisbergen on Daytona debut:

Van Gisbergen last season so far Having only gained experience in On NASCAR's oval track in a truck race at the short track at Indianapolis Raceway Park, he got off to a rocky start in ARCA. Last Friday, at the start of the season, he had an accident on the 3rd lap of 83. 

He finally returned to the track with the damaged car and finished last. The car started the race in 29th place and spun. For the second time while trying to avoid a mid-race crash. 

Monday night's rain-delayed Xfinity debut gave van Gisbergen a good best result: 12th place and above all In the first lap he was involved in some falls and several small breakdowns, but nothing stopped him from staying in the race. 

“I've tried to analyse every crash, you know, the six I've been involved in. I haven't found a way to do things differently,” said van Gisbergen, who is running a full Affinity season and a partial schedule Cup wins with Kaulig Racing this season.

"You know, it's just the style of these races and it's something I have to accept. To get this good result you have to take risks. But you'll probably have a accident and competing is an amazing mentality.

"I've never had to do that before a competition. I think you know it's 50/50 if you go knocking. So it's completely different. »

Last July, van Gisbergen became the first driver in more than 60 years to win a Cup race on his debut when he took victory. In Track house Racing's first Chicago Street Race.

The win was the catalyst for the three-time Supercars champion's entry into this year's NASCAR season.

The ARCA Daytona event was van Gisbergen's first superspeedway race, but it proved to be a frustrating experience. 

The race was brought forward a day due to bad weather and immediately after the start it was practically out of the race.

“When A the race started, I'd never done two starts before and my spotter was great and pushed me more than I wanted at the start," said the 34-year-old New Zealander. "But it was okay, we had to push some people aside. /div>

"So the first lap of the Trivial was almost a three (expletive) for me. The rest of the race was chaos."

Despite the ups and downs of superspeedway racing, van Gisbergen arrives at Atlanta Motor Speedway this weekend more confident than ever that his journey to NASCAR is the right one.

“You know, I had fun. “I feel like I belong here,” he said. “I feel like I definitely did the right thing for my career and for the enjoyment of racing.

“It was amazing. The people and fans are great too. It was amazing to see the response.  

Although Atlanta is now more of a recruiting avenue, van Gisbergen believes he has still gained valuable experience that will help him become one. “On Saturday you'll learn how close the car is to the right wall,” he said. “It took me a while to figure out where the right side of the car was. 

“I didn't go around people. We basically did some single-file stuff (at Daytona), but no double-file stuff. I was constantly going out of line, which set us back. So I need to improve in that area. »