Shane van Gisbergen commands San Diego qualifying despite wall scrapes
It is honestly difficult to process the form of Shane van Gisbergen. Even after scraping the wall twice during his qualifying run, the Trackhouse Racing driver still managed to snatch the Busch Light Pole for Sunday's Cup Series race at Naval Base Coronado. The 16-turn, 3.4-mile layout is being described as one of the most challenging in the history of the sport—bumpy, narrow, and incredibly technical—yet SVG remains the man to beat.
While the circuit offers picturesque views of San Diego, the drivers expect a war of attrition. Chase Briscoe has warned that anyone who neglected their simulator work will be brutally exposed this weekend. It is a massive test, and while Toyota struggled to put a car inside the top 10 during qualifying, drivers like Austin Hill showed serious pace with a strong five-lap average in practice. Meanwhile, Zane Smith and Todd Gilliland also secured top-five starting spots for Front Row Motorsports.
Strategy will be everything on this brutal track. As van Gisbergen himself noted, the biggest threat to a clean run might be the expected red flags for carnage. With the race set for 4 p.m. ET, we are about to see if the road-course ace can maintain his dominance or if the intensity of this technical monster will force a different name to the front.
