XFINITY

Shane van Gisbergen qualified 18th for the Ag-Pro 300 at Talladega Super Speedway, after the 113-lap event at Talladega Superspeedway commenced, by lap seven, the field formed a single-file line on top of the 2.66-mile Speedway with van Gisbergen scored in 7th. Stage one ended under caution on lap 25 with Van Gisbergen taking the green/white/checkered flag in seventh. Under the stage one caution, the Wendy’s team hit pit road for four tires, fuel and adjustments and following the stop, he rejoined the field in ninth. Under the stage two caution, van Gisbergen brought the Wendy’s Chevrolet down pit road for four tires, fuel and adjustments. Following the stop, the Wendy’s team was scored in 20th, after leading lap 63, van Gisbergen was scored in 8th when the caution flag waved once again on lap 67. Hitting pit road once again for a quick splash of fuel under caution, he rejoined the field in 6th. After lap 75 caution was thrown, van Gisbergen restarted 4th on lap 79 and continued to run inside the top 10 through lap 90. Unfortunately, van Gisbergen ran out of fuel on the first green/white/checkered attempt while running in fourth and crossed the finish line in 22nd.

“It was a pretty awesome day. The Wendy’s Camaro was good. It was pretty exciting, and battling up front was cool. I felt more comfortable today and I’m looking forward to another crack at it tomorrow in the Cup car.”

CUP

van Gisbergen qualified 17th the for Geico 500 Cup Series Race, content to learn his way around the 2.66-mile Superspeedway, he sat 33rd on lap 10. Getting more comfortable as the laps clicked away, he worked his way to 20th by lap 35 and was scored in first when the Wendy’s team made its first green flag pit stop on lap 44. Following a pit stop for four tires and fuel under the stage one break, SVG restarted stage two in 17th on lap 67 and was scored as the leader of the field on lap 69. He dropped to ninth on lap 70, continuing to battle two-by-two in the draft but was a mainstay inside the top-10 from laps 90-100, working his way to 5th by lap 97 and advancing to leading lap 98. The Wendy’s team made a green flag pit stop for fuel only on lap 103 from 8th. Content on riding out the rest of the stage, van Gisbergen took the green/white/checkered flag in 25th on lap 120 and started the final stage 29th. The first caution flag of stage three waved on lap 134 with SVG scored in 14th and he hit pit road under the caution for fuel only and restarted in fourth on lap 140 before another caution flag waved on lap 157. Following varying strategies on pit road, the Wendy’s team restarted in 29th with 28 laps remaining and they went on to finish 28th following a wild, last-lap caution at the finish.

“It was an interesting day for this No. 16 Wendy’s team. Very different from the Xfinity race, as far as the way the car drives. We got to run up front for a couple of laps, so that was fun. All-in-all a good day for this Wendy’s group. I had a lot fun.”