Shane van Gisbergen is doing exactly what NASCAR fans thought he couldn't

After the rain finally moved out and the clock struck midnight on the east coast, Denny Hamlin led a Joe Gibbs Racing 1-2-3 finish after clearing Christopher Bell and Chase Briscoe in a three-wide battle to win Sunday's Cracker Barrel 400 at Nashville Superspeedway.

That was even after Hamlin jumped the initial start and had to serve a pass-through penalty, another sign of the Joe Gibbs Racing veteran proving what race fans already knew. While the JGR Toyotas were the class of the field for the majority of the night, there were several drivers who quietly put together solid finishes behind them.

One of them was New Zealander Shane van Gisbergen, who finished a career-best fifth on an oval after leading 12 laps and consistently running inside the top 10 for much of the 400-mile race.

While you can point to van Gisbergen inheriting top 10 starting positions each of the two most recent oval races due to the metric that NASCAR uses when qualifying is rained out, he still kept his No. 97 Chevrolet in contention and mixed it up with the leaders at both Charlotte Motor Speedway and Nashville.

SVG still has a way to go to match what points leader Tyler Reddick and some of the veteran drivers in the sport can do each week. With that said, he continues to make noticeable improvements on ovals, showing how quick of a learner he is when he has a capable car underneath him.

Shane van Gisbergen making huge strides on ovals

Van Gisbergen has the second-best average finish (5.67) in the three most recent races, behind only Reddick (5.0) and just ahead of Hamlin (6.7).

That includes his win at Watkins Glen International, which was expected due to his road racing prowess. However, an 11th place finish at Charlotte and fifth at Nashville were two huge surprises, given the amount of time he spent near the front.

An 11th place finish at Charlotte was not exactly the most encouraging, but when you consider that van Gisbergen scored points in each stage and led 11 laps, he clearly showed signs of improvement on oval layouts and was the clear frontrunner among the Trackhouse Racing contingent, as both Connor Zilisch and Ross Chastain continue to struggle.

He followed that up by taking advantage of a two-tire call from crew chief Stephen Doran during the competition caution at Nashville and pacing the field for 12 laps. Despite constant varying strategy calls throughout the field all race, van Gisbergen remained around the top 10 and picked up his first top five finish on an oval in his 64th career Cup Series start.

There is no denying that van Gisbergen has already become the road course GOAT, but his ability to adapt to ovals and make strides each week has been on full display. That has not been lost on the Kiwi, who has especially noticed the difference between racing at the front and being stuck toward the back of the pack.

"It's amazing, you start up front and your car feels so nice and then you go to the back on strategy and it felt like a bucket of [expletive]," van Gisbergen said, per Dustin Albino of NASCAR.com. "It was good getting strategy back and we got to the front again. It's so good racing up front, you get better and better. I enjoyed myself tonight."

It should be interesting to see how van Gisbergen continues to adapt to oval racing as the summer months roll on, especially if oval qualifying is not rained out. With that said, the races at Charlotte and Nashville prove how much progress he has made and why his 12th place position in points, 44 points above the playoff cut line, is no fluke after the season's first 14 races.

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