Shane van Gisbergen’s day at Kansas Speedway shaped up well, as it left him with his first top-10 at an oval. But things weren’t easy for the No. 88 Trackhouse team to start with. Due to an unapproved adjustment on his car, his usual crew chief, Stephen Doran, was ejected from the race, and SVG was handed a stop-and-go penalty.This relegated him to 37th on the field, one lap down in Stage 1. But Gisbergen made that ground back up and got back on the lead lap sooner than expected.During a post-race interview, reporter Dalton Hopkins asked Shane van Gisbergen how the latter went from the back of the field to finishing the race as the highest-placing driver from Trackhouse Racing.“Well, we had speed,” Shane van Gisbergen replied. “Once we got on equal tires and equal laps to people, I was able to tick people off and move around. I never had so much confidence to move around, so just a process of learning, and yeah, I'm getting better.”Shane van Gisbergen made the playoffs this year but got ousted from contention right in the opening round. His teammate Ross Chastain is still in the playoff picture, ranked ninth with a 13-point deficit on the cutoff line. Gisbergen, on the other hand, sits 14th with 2086 points to his name.However, the Auckland native can still compete for wins over the next few weeks, leading to the Championship 4 race in November. 31 races in, Gisbergen owns four wins, four top-fives, and six top-10s. He has led 255 laps so far with an average finish of 21.71.Shane van Gisbergen lauds interim crew chief for “stepping up” amid initial Kansas setbackShane van Gisbergen’s day at Kansas wasn’t off to the best start. For starters, the driver was sent from 24th to the back of the field due to unapproved adjustments on his car. He lost pit selection and was handed a stop-and-go penalty, which made him go one lap down.Furthermore, Gisbergen’s usual crew chief, Stephen Doran, was asked to sit out by the officials. But Chais Eliason stepped in as the interim crew chief for the No. 88 group. Thanks to the duo, Gisbergen was able to get onto the lead lap shortly after Stage 2 began."We’ve obviously got really good depth at Trackhouse,” Shane van Gisbergen said while praising Eliason. “Chais did a great job stepping up. We still prepped hard with Stephen last night and this morning on set-up. Unfortunately, he’s not here with us, but it’s cool. I’m stoked. I’m proud of us. We’re getting a lot better at this stuff.”Next up for the former Supercars champion is the Bank of America ROVAL 400 at Charlotte Motor Speedway road course. Scheduled for Sunday, October 5, the 109-lap event will be televised on USA (3 pm ET) with live radio updates on PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.