The crew chief who gave Shane van Gisbergen the platform to produce a miracle, Stephen Doran, admitted the plan had to change at Watkins Glen.
Van Gisbergen pulled off one of his greatest wins in the NASCAR Cup Series at Watkins Glen.
After the Kiwi pitted on Lap 76 of 100, he soared from 24th to first despite being as far back as 30s from the leader.
To top it off van Gisbergen won by 7.5s from pole, but there were plenty of times where the three-time Supercars champion feared victory slipped away.
Doran admitted he also worried it also drifted, especially when the entire field pitted and van Gisbergen stayed out during a caution.
“The race played out a little differently than I think some of us thought,” He said.
“First half of the race went pretty standard, and then that caution that came out kind jumbled it up.
“The decision was just to stay on offence. Our car was so good. I didn’t want to play defence and just let him go do his thing.
“The thought process was let him know what’s going on, and the fact that he’s got to pass all these guys. I knew the car had the pace.
“There were about ten laps where I was a little nervous. Like, are we going to get there?
“But then they started to fade. Having to save, their tyres were going away.
“With 15 to go I felt pretty good about where we were at, but when he got back out there, we just told him go like hell, you’re going to have to pass all these guys.
“Then ten laps into that run, it looked like we were going to be last couple of laps, and then it kept getting better as we ran, and we caught him with eight or nine to go.”
Doran felt that in addition to van Gisbergen’s brilliance, tyre wear was also a pivotal factor as the Kiwi’s rivals tried to go long and save fuel to stop the #97.
“I think their tyres were just so old, they were gone. I assume they saved enough fuel,” he said.
“I think the #88 (Connor Zilisch) had saved enough to where they could run a little bit harder, but they didn’t have a lot of tyre left.
“Tyre wear was a problem yesterday. Not as much of a problem today. More normal. More like it was last year.”
The win pushed van Gisbergen back into the Playoffs after losing some momentum in recent races.
Doran feels SVG is making progress on ovals and hopes a return to victory lane can be the boost they need.
“It’s been rough for the #97 specifically,” he said.
“We started off fairly good. Five or six races were really good. Then the last three or four have been pretty rough for us.
“It’s a great boost for the organisation. Not as big as it would have been last year, like you said, but it’s still a good boost in points. We still got to work on our oval program to get better.
“I think Texas was a good start in getting our program better. Yeah, we just got to keep building on it, keep pushing, and rack some points up.
“Texas was a step in the right direction at the ovals, but we still have a long way to go. There’s a lot of work happening to get there, and I feel like we can.”
Image: HHP/Andrew Coppley
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