The road-course king has arrived on ovals and how. After securing his career-best oval finish of sixth at Atlanta, Shane van Gisbergen has beaten his record at Nashville on Sunday, finishing fifth in his 64th Cup start. And he's enjoying it.

The Kiwi got a great boost from the canceled qualifications as he started from the 10th place based on last week's performance. And he made best use of it, staying in those positions for the majority of the race and even leading the pack for a while.

After the race, SVG was delighted with how it had all worked out for him, especially when his improbable strategy played out.

“We battled, yeah, it's easy. It was really good. It's amazing. You start up front and your car feels so nice, and then you go to the back on strategy and it just felt like a bucket of s***,” he said.

SVG also added, “So it was good getting strategy back, and we got to the front again. And yeah, it's so good racing up front. You just get better and better, and I'm really enjoying myself.”

On Lap 35, during a caution, crew chief Stephen Doran changed his strategy and decided to take two tires, and that's how SVG got ahead of the field for the restart.

This shift in performance was also credited by him to his growing confidence in the car.

“I got a little bit more comfort in the car, so I was able to move around with confidence, which I've never been able to do here before. I'm always sort of stuck to the bottom. And yeah, sort of getting the second and third groove going at one and two and felt comfortable with that.”

The issue with Trackhouse has been some recent brake concerns, yet SVG remained optimistic about the team's direction.

“We had a couple of months a few weeks ago, and it feels like it's really turned around. So it's a real momentum-based sport and culture-based as well,” he said.

By showing excellent pace, the driver has managed to eke out impressive performances at Nashville, carrying over strong speed from the Coca-Cola 600. However, brake issues continue to pester the team. Let's find out what such issues are and why they are proving to be such a burden.

Trackhouse’s Nashville brake rotor failures explained

The race for Trackhouse in Nashville completely went off the rails after the failure of two separate right-front brake rotors sent both Connor Zilisch and Ross Chastain out of the race after Lap 72.

The first report came from Zilisch, who said that his rotor exploded before he lost all brake pressure and crashed into the Turn 1 wall. Chastain’s failure, too, was almost identical, as the right-front rotor came apart completely.

The issue comes from a more technical background. The Next Gen cars generate extreme brake temperatures, especially at Nashville’s concrete surface, where drivers repeatedly decelerate from high speeds into Turn 1.

As these temperatures continue to tick upward, the rotor expands, which can cause microscopic cracks that may eventually shatter the rotor.

This technical issue proved itself to be a significant hurdle for Trackhouse, and if not fixed by the engineering team soon, it could potentially wreck their entire season.

You can read more on the Daytona Racing Digest!

Written by

Uday Jakhar

Edited by

Suyashdeep Sason