One year ago, Shane van Gisbergen stunned the NASCAR world. For just the seventh time in Cup Series history, a driver won in their series debut. He was the first in 60 years.
Following a clutch performance in the inaugural Chicago Street Race, van Gisbergen pondered the idea of what a move to NASCAR could look like. He accomplished everything possible in Supercars, winning three championships.
“It was only meant to be a one off and then it went so well and I enjoyed it,” van Gisbergen told Jayski.com of his Chicago win. “I started thinking it would be a cool thing to come and do.”
Within the next month and a half, Trackhouse Racing formed a partnership with Niece Motorsports to enter van Gisbergen into the Craftsman Truck Series race at Indianapolis Raceway Park to get some laps on an oval. Later that weekend, he churned in another respectable performance in the Cup Series, rounding out the top 10 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course.
Last December, Kaulig Racing announced in a partnership with Trackhouse that van Gisbergen would run the full Xfinity Series schedule and six Cup Series races throughout the 2024 season. With that came relocating to the United States after spending his entire adult life in Australia.
“It’s been a massive change a long way from home,” van Gisbergen said of the cultural shift. “It’s been a little difficult moving, but the racing side has been great.”
To prepare for the Xfinity season, van Gisbergen warmed up to Kaulig, which is filled with mega personalities like AJ Allmendinger and team president Chris Rice. He began to study the Xfinity car, though it races completely differently from the Cup car, which is akin to where he came from in Supercars. He also began honing in on the variety of tracks.
Rice knew that he has one season with van Gisbergen before Trackhouse likely takes him back in house. The immediate goal was to get him experience on ovals and adjust to the grind of the NASCAR schedule.
“It was no secret that Kaulig Racing didn’t want to race against him,” Rice said. “With him coming into this deal, it doesn’t put all the weight on AJ at the road courses because we felt he could win a road course or two and then just get better at the ovals. We want to continuously get him better and get him to where he can do pit stops, restarts.
“We knew all that was going to happen, but our expectation was by the end of the year being over, give him back to Trackhouse with the knowledge to do everything that it takes racing wise in America.”
Out of the gate, van Gisbergen was swinging for the fences. In a chaotic season opener at Daytona International Speedway, he was involved in multiple incidents but managed a 12th-place finish. While some drivers couldn’t stretch their fuel tank at Atlanta Motor Speedway, the No. 97 car finished third.
Adjusting to superspeedways was something entirely different for SVG.
“The racing is crazy,” he said. “My first lap on the track was to qualify and you’re driving one handed, blocking the air. Then, you race and you’re like four or five seconds a lap quicker. It’s ridiculous how the air works, how the cars move around. It’s a wild kind of racing. Not my favorite, but it’s part of it.”
Next up on the schedule was van Gisbergen’s first trip to an intermediate track, Las Vegas Motor Speedway. With an engine expiring early in the first stage, he added very little to his repertoire. But the No. 97 team followed that up with a solid sixth-place outing at Phoenix Raceway.
Van Gisbergen and Allmendinger put on a clinic in the series’ first road course event at Circuit of The Americas. However, on a green-white-checkered restart, the No. 97 car was penalized for cutting the course through the esses while battling Austin Hill for the lead. He finished 27th.
The No. 97 team collected a pair of top-15 finishes at Richmond Raceway and Martinsville Speedway. He appreciates the physicality of short-track racing.
“I enjoyed Martinsville until the last few laps with a green-white-checkered and everyone went stupid,” van Gisbergen said. “Before that, there was a lot of good racing. I got bumped out of the way a few times and got a few people back. That was half enjoyable. It was cool racing and sometimes when someone caught me, I would let them go, they would wave and you would carry on with the lap. Other times, it would be a battle and you get aggressive and I enjoyed that.
“At the end, everyone just loses their mind. It’s wild.”
The biggest adjustment for van Gisbergen has been on the intermediates. Noticing how air efficient the Xfinity chassis is has been a real learning experience.
“The speed, the way the cars move around,” he said of intermediates. “They’re not sliding, they are flexing and the speed is crazy. And no practice either, one lap of qualifying. It’s pretty difficult. The short tracks I feel more comfortable on for sure.”
Van Gisbergen has fit in just nicely on the road courses. He began the month of June with consecutive victories at Portland International Raceway and Sonoma Raceway, and celebrated by punting a rugby ball into the grandstands.
Rice believes that taking an outsider in van Gisbergen and plopping him into one of the best road course teams was a no-brainer. With 11 victories, Allmendinger is the winningest driver in series history on road courses. Nine of those have come since joining Kaulig in 2019.
“It’s a different special,” Rice said of van Gisbergen’s road-course abilities. “AJ came into our place and has been one of the best road course racers ever in this sport. His driving style and SVG’s driving style is so different that SVG is going to be the best racer from Australia and the way they do it and he’s got to learn these cars.
“SVG is a special driver. He has more talent than we’ve seen in a long time come from anywhere else. He’s going to do very well, but when you get to the Cup side, it’s way harder than showing up in Xfinity. He has so much car control, it’s unbelievable.”
Immediately following two wins, van Gisbergen had a humbling trip to Iowa Speedway, wrecking two cars and finishing 34th. Through 17 races, he has four top-10 finishes and is tied with Sam Mayer for the 11th best average finish of full-time drivers in the series (15.8). He sits 13th in the regular season championship standings and is locked into the playoffs with two victories.
“I think it’s been pretty good,” van Gisbergen said of his season. “I’ve gone a bit under the radar, which is what I planned to do. Just do my own thing and get better and better. The second half of the year, especially when we go back to tracks that I’ve been to, that’s where I want to start pressing on and getting better.”
Along with running the full Xfinity slate, van Gisbergen has been getting accustomed to the Cup car. He has a best finish of 20th at COTA in three starts, with a pair of 28th-place results at Talladega Superspeedway and Charlotte Motor Speedway. He is constantly in touch with his mentor, Marcos Ambrose, and 2014 Cup champion Kevin Harvick, as he is represented by Kevin Harvick Inc., for advice.
The goal is for van Gisbergen to be ready for the Cup Series come the 2025 season.
“That’s why I moved here,” he said bluntly about the possibility of moving to the Cup Series in 2025.
Before that, he will defend his Chicago win this weekend.