Only one major problem arose when Shane van Gisbergen strapped into the No. 91 Chevrolet to start NASCAR Cup Series practice for the Chicago Street Race on Saturday morning.
The steering wheel was on the wrong side.
Not actually, but the left-aligned driver’s seat initially felt foreign to the New Zealand native.
“Sitting on the other side of the car is tough. And then climbing through the window,” Gisbergen said with a laugh. “I’ve never done that before. Yeah, it’s quite different. But the technical side of things is pretty similar in the way the car is built. A big, heavy car. A lot of horsepower.”
Though his background as a three-time Supercars Championship titlist has certainly prepared him for the racing ahead, there are still plenty of new factors Gisbergen is facing as he makes his Cup Series debut in Trackhouse Racing’s Project91 entry this weekend.
Along with adjusting to the awkward setup of the cockpit, navigating the narrow street circuit that boasts little run-off is one curveball that Gisbergen, so far, has knocked out of the park.
Other than one minor incident with one of the temporary walls on the 12-turn, 2.2-mile course, it didn’t take Gisbergen long to get comfortable.
“I ended up hitting the wall at the end with the right front, so just misjudging the wall because the whole car is on the other side. That’s probably the most difficult thing,” Gisbergen said.
The remaining 50-minute practice was essentially smooth sailing, as Gisbergen placed the No. 91 at the top of the speed charts. He was third fastest, behind polesitter Denny Hamlin and runner-up Tyler Reddick.
While no one was quite sure what would happen when Cup Series drivers hit the bumpy Chicago streets, most weren’t expecting to see Gisbergen in the top three.
Yet, it shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise, as the New Zealander did his homework before traveling to Illinois.
He had a short test at the Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway ROVAL earlier this week, logged a few sessions in the simulator and attended the Cup Series race at Nashville (Tenn.) Superspeedway with Trackhouse to familiarize himself with how the team operates.
And lucky for him, every driver in the 37-car field is going into Sunday’s race just as blind as the next man, as the Grant Park 220 marks the first street circuit in Cup Series history.
However, one area where the Supercars driver believes he’ll be at a loss involves pit stops.
“The strategy is quite different, so I have to do a lot of study on that. The pits closed when the yellow comes out. Don’t have a pit speed speedometer and stuff like that, so just learning how to manage that side of the race,” Gisbergen said.
The 34-year-old arrived in Chicago with little expectations for his NASCAR debut, other than staying out of trouble on the race track and being “the best I can be.”
As Gisbergen is not in contention for the series championship, he doesn’t need to execute stage strategy as much as he needs to focus on surviving to the end of the 100-lap race.
“I do know our preparation has been good and our team is capable, so I just have to do the job,” Gisbergen said.
The Cup Series field will take the green for the Grant Park 220 at 5 p.m. (ET) on Sunday.