It wasn’t a surprise to see the road course king Shane van Gisbergen win the O’Reilly Auto Parts race at COTA yesterday. But it was kind of one for him, considering how his car handled through the race. While his other JR Motorsports peers were able to showcase some dominant performance, the driver of the #9 team feels they actually struggled with their car.

Shane van Gisbergen’s struggles with his Chevy

“My car was pretty average, really,” SVG revealed to the media after the race. While it is usually the driver and the car’s magic that play together to secure a win, that was certainly not the case for van Gisbergen. He seemed to be downplaying the car’s role in his victory.

“The race run was okay, but in qualifying, start of the race run I just couldn’t switch it on and you need that round here to just light it up. I couldn’t do it so I did a rolling lap and it still wasn’t good. I did my time on my third lap and, yeah, really struggled,” he added.

Despite the challenges he faced with the car, it was certainly his road course skills that got him his win. While many drivers struggled to pilot even perfectly tuned cars, SVG managed to deliver a better performance in his struggling one. He also had a good chance of winning from the front row with fellow Cup driver Connor Zilisch.

In fact, both of these JRM drivers battled out for the lead multiple times, but it was SVG who led the most laps of any other driver. His sheer dominance on the track was too strong to be replicated. While Zilisch faced a late wreck putting him out of winning contention, SVG continued to trade the race lead with multiple drivers.

But he led the race when it meant the most, taking the white flag and then the checkered flag, winning the race. This was a strong start to the weekend for him, as he aims to win the Cup race as well.

Interestingly enough, that was the only road course race he did not win last year, so winning it this year was a huge positive for his team. However, his focus seems to have shifted this season.

Can SVG’s oval improvement lead him to a title race?

So far, before this season, SVG impressed the field often even though he didn’t dominate the ovals. The experience he brought from his Supercars Series naturally helped him become a road course expert first, winning five of the six last year for Trackhouse Racing. But he largely struggled on ovals, often dropping out of the top 20.

However, that seems to have changed this year. His earlier race at the EchoPark Speedway was his best oval performance, despite being a victim of wrecks. ‘Even the leading drivers in the race lost positions, but SVG’s attack continued, and he eventually finished sixth. Before this, he led laps at Daytona, too.

So as of now, it feels like he’s truly making a mark in the traditional racing too, and definitely has potential to go all the way. The improvement graph is increasing with every race. And this is almost necessary for him, considering the new Chase format that will value consistency more compared to one-off wins like before.

Assuming that Shane van Gisbergen continues to dominate the road courses, all he has to do is pull off consistent top-10 finishes on ovals, and he could become a very strong contender for the title. While he will have to start winning ovals as well, his pace of improvement promises that day isn’t far either.