After a strong run in Sunday’s XFINITY 500 at Martinsville Speedway, the top-five count for Shane Van Gisbergen’s second full-time NASCAR Cup Series campaign has reached six, three on the road courses (COTA, Watkins Glen, Sonoma), and three on ovals (Nashville, North Wilkesboro, Martinsville).

The Auckland, New Zealand-native barely missed out on the 16-driver Chase for the NASCAR Cup Series championship this year, but the season hasn’t been a loss, at all, as the three-time Supercars champion continues the process of adapting to a series that primarily turns left.

However, as the eight-time NASCAR Cup Series race-winner gets more repetitions under his belt on the ovals, he begins to find his strengths: primarily short tracks. With top five results at North Wilkesboro and now Martinsville, Van Gisbergen is starting to turn into a short track savant, if you will.

“I think that’s cool,” Van Gisbergen said. “It’s just progression. There’s honestly still some tracks I’m weak at, generally these tracks where we’re going to twice a year, that’s kind of my strength. I’m starting to know the tracks, I’m starting to know what I want from the car, so that seems to be the trend.”

Part of his strength on short tracks above other track types may, of course, just be a result of Trackhouse Racing, and those track types being where the three-car organization is strongest, but the driver of the No. 97 is relishing the opportunity to race against some of the greats in the NASCAR Cup Series, right now, as the team works on elevating its program as a whole.

“That seems to be where we’re strong,” Van Gisbergen said. “At the short tracks we can have some grip, the downforce tracks we are probably lacking a little bit, so, yeah, they’re certainly coming the right way, I feel like we’re getting stronger.”

Martinsville, though, has always been one of the strongest oval tracks on the circuit for Van Gisbergen, posting an average finish of 15.2 in five starts at the half-mile paperclip, and only one result worse than 14th. While often times drivers proficient in road course racing have been strong here, the New Zealander says it’s not because it’s like road course racing, but another factory.

“Yes and no. It’s nothing like road course racing,” Van Gisbergen said when asked about the comparison between Martinsville and road courses. “I drive with a different technique, I brake with a different foot, but certainly you have more tools as your disposal with the bars and the gearing and how you can move around, so yeah, I think as a driver you can get a lot more out of it even when your car isn’t right, but once your car is right, this track is really, really fun.”

There was something notably different about Van Gisbergen’s performance on Sunday, though.

In his prior 12 NASCAR Cup Series top-fives, Van Gisbergen had never started worse than 13th, starting inside the top three for eight of them. But, on Sunday, the driver of the No. 97 Wendy’s Chevrolet Camaro had to drive through the field from 29th, after he “drove in about five car lengths too deep and just about spun out” in qualifying.

To get into a position to compete for a top-five, Van Gisbergen had to drive through the pack.

“It was an awesome day,” Van Gisbergen said post-race. “We had a good car and just kept moving forward all day, and had a little bit of damage, but it didn’t seem to affect our speed, and yeah, kept clicking away at it.”

“Yesterday, I felt like my car had grip but no balance, and they did a good job of making it handle like I wanted and just worked forward every stage.”

Van Gisbergen enters Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series Championship Race at Homestead-Miami Speedway with two wins, six top-fives, and 10 top-10s on the season, with an average finish of 18.5, all metrics that have improved year-over-year for the 37-year-old driver… and for someone with limited experience in the Cup Series, and on ovals, that’s all you can really ask for.

Photo: Aaron Giffin, Racing America on SI