SHANE van Gisbergen’s maiden stock car race on a superspeedway lasted all of three and a bit laps before being caught up in ‘the big one’.
The multiple Supercars champion was an innocent victim in a multi-car crash entering the Turn 1 banking on the fourth lap of the 80-lap ARCA Menards Series race at Daytona.
Van Gisbergen had already moved up inside the top 20 from his 34th-place starting position, when sixth-placed Toni Breidinger was turned sideways in front of the three trains of cars in the draft.
Running in the outside lane, van Gisbergen was hit from behind and sent spinning backwards into Breidinger’s car, while several other cars in the low lane crashed while taking evasive action.
A total of 13 of the 40-car field were involved.
“I tried to slow up but I got run over hard from behind,” van Gisbergen told MRN Radio.
“It was fun for those few laps. I went three wide a couple of times; I felt really comfortable, I just wish it lasted longer.”
Van Gisbergen was taken to the circuit medical centre for checks and was cleared of any injuries and released.
The Pinnacle Racing Group, the team fielding van Gisbergen in the race, worked to repair the #28 Chevrolet in order to get him back into the race to gain more superspeedway race experience ahead of his debut in the Xfinity Series this weekend.
He rejoined the race 25 laps down as the leaders approached the halfway mark of the race, and took the chequered flag in 29th place – avoiding yet another multi-car crash during a one-lap shootout to the finish.
