Kyle Busch’s words on Shane van Gisbergen prove why it wasn’t EMBARESSING for the Cup drivers to lose to the Kiwi at Chicago    

Three times V8 Supercars champion Shane van Gisbergen made history last Sunday in Chicago as he scored his maiden Cup race win on his debut. He won the inaugural Street Race in the city of Chicago and became NASCAR’s first-ever Street race champion. Shane van Gisbergen also became the first driver in six decades to win a Cup event on the debut race.

Now two times NASCAR Cup champion Kyle Busch has expressed his opinion on the Kiwi driver outracing everyone in Chicago. He pointed out that while the weekend was the street course debut for most of the Cup drivers, for van Gisbergen, it was just another day. The Supercar championship race in half of the races on such tracks.

The No:8 RCR driver went on to highlight the fact that, like most of the ringers that are coming to race in NASCAR, van Gisbergen has the advantage of racing heavy cars. He makes a living out of racing heavy stock cars-like vehicles in supercars, and isn’t driving light GT or IMSA cars. Busch also added that with the previous experience, he had racing with van Gisbergen in 24 Hours of Daytona, he was sure the Kiwi would be the challenger on Sunday.

“Yeah, obviously being a rookie to NASCAR, yes, but not being whatsoever a rookie in road racing and his expertise that he has. That’s what he’s grown up doing. That’s what he’s done his whole life. Fortunately for him, he’s done it in bigger, heavier stock cars, not lighter-weight GT cars or some IMSA cars or something like that,” Busch said.

“He’s probably, I don’t know, four, five, eight years ahead of us in this sort of car in the things that he’s done with the V-8 Supercars. I’ve worked with him before as a teammate with the Lexus program down at Daytona at the Daytona 24 Hours…Yeah, saw he was talented in that car…He is no slouch. I knew he would be good when he came over,” Busch added.

In case you missed it: “He’s going back to New Zealand to tell his friends how bad we are,” Chase Elliott bemoans Cup driver’s loss to ringer Shane van Gisbergen at Chicago

Kyle Busch believes the Street Race was a success

When asked about how he feels about the general experience of the inaugural street race experience, he pointed out he believes it was a pretty exciting event, and the available racing was good, as well as proven by how well the race winner drove.

“I don’t know. I don’t know how the show was. I thought that probably the race was pretty exciting there with Shane being able to drive through the field and get up towards the front and make some really good moves and make some passes all the way to the lead. As far as being able to race on the streets, yeah, we did it. We accomplished it. We accomplished,” Busch said.

The 2009 Xfinity series champion pointed out that although the wet situation changed the game slightly, it wasn’t a terrible experience for the fans and drivers. He also praised NASCAR for the single-file restarts single-file that helped to make more proper passes during the races.

Discover more:

• NASCAR driver Brad Keselowski and his partner are expecting their third child

• WATCH: “van…Hamburger,” Joey Logano BUTCHERS Inaugural NASCAR Chicago Street Race winner Shane van Gisbergen’s name

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