Van Gisbergen reveals unique NASCAR dilemma ahead of debut race at Gateway

Breakout NASCAR star Shane van Gisbergen has opened up on a technical dilemma he and his team faced this week coming into St Louis to race at Gateway.

The road course specialist is known for his ability to exploit the clutch when right-foot braking when he's away from ovals and, with more gear change work than a normal oval this weekend, he admitted that his team had considered whether to set the car up to right-foot brake or not.

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Despite having never visited the track before, the Australian managed to qualify 18th for Sunday's race, ahead of playoff rivals Chase Elliott and Alex Bowman as he looks to stay above the playoff cut line heading into next week's final Round of 16 race at Bristol.

The Trackhouse Racing star sits three points ahead of Joey Logano on the playoff bubble after the Penske star and reigning champion struggled last time out at Darlington, with bigger gaps back to Bowman, Austin Dillon and Josh Berry.

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SVG: Gateway introduction will be tough

Speaking to Fox Sports' Bob Pockrass ahead of Saturday's running, Van Gisbergen admitted: "There's a couple of gear changes, two at Turn 1!

"We had to put a bit of thought into how to put the pedals, whether I went right-foot braking heel-toe or left-foot, we went with left-foot so we'll see how that goes. At Martinsville when you're downshifting, I found that okay left-footing so we'll see how we go."

Asked how he'd been building up to a playoff race at a track he'd never been to, during his rookie season in the series, he admitted: "It's very tough, I've done as much study as I could with film and watching the races, the SMT stuff, but the first time seeing the place will be when I get on track.

"Thankfully it's a track that doesn't have much fall-off, so it'll be pretty consistent in practice and I can get a good rhythm, but it ain't going to be easy. It looks hard to pass watching the racing, so qualifying's going to be pretty tough."

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