In just his second full-time season at NASCAR’s top-level, the learning curve for Shane Van Gisbergen is beginning to flatten out.
The Auckland, New Zealand-native came to the United States in 2024 with the knowledge that pursuing a career in NASCAR would require a major overhaul in his process, needing to learn how to effectively race on ovals – a craft that makes up 90% of the NASCAR schedule.
After a full campaign in both the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series (2024) and the NASCAR Cup Series (2025), Van Gisbergen has finally started to find his groove on the ovals – and that could be dangerous for the rest of the field, considering his lights-out dominance on the road courses.
With 12 races to go until “The Chase”, Van Gisbergen is sitting 12th-place in NASCAR Cup Series point standings – 14 spots higher than his Trackhouse Racing teammate, Ross Chastain – and that’s largely because of the No. 97’s consistency on the ovals.
But these last couple of weeks have been on a whole new level.
In last weekend’s Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway, Van Gisbergen ran inside the top 10 for the entirety of the event’s shortened distance and even led a handful of laps in the final stage, before fading to 11th when the checkered flag dropped.
That was, without a doubt, the best all-around showing that Van Gisbergen had put together on an oval, but the three-time Supercars champion wasn’t satisfied, and followed that up immediately with ANOTHER strong performance at the 1.33-mile Nashville Superspeedway.
With qualifying completely washed out for the Cracker Barrel 400, Van Gisbergen got another strong starting spot and maintained it, staying in the hunt for the entire race, and again, just like in the Coca-Cola 600, got the lead (and kept it for a handful of laps) by using a two-tire strategy.
“Awesome race. It was really cool to lead for a bit, I had an awesome battle,” Van Gisbergen said. “The Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge Chevrolet was really good. It’s amazing, you start up front, your car feels so nice, and then you go to the back on strategy, and it just feels like a bucket of shit. So, it was nice to get back to the front again.”
“It’s so good racing up front and getting better and better, and I really enjoyed myself tonight,” Van Gisbergen added.
This time, unlike at Charlotte, the late restarts worked in favor of SVG and allowed the No. 97 to bring home his Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge Chevrolet inside the top five – his first top-five on an oval in the NASCAR Cup Series.
“I really enjoyed myself tonight. I learned a lot. I learned to be comfortable moving around in Turns 1 and 2, which I’ve never been able to do before,” Van Gisbergen added. “We just got the balance better on the two-tire strategy. When we were on the four-tire strategy, we were lacking that. The two-tire stop at the end, we were able to get the balance back again. It was a lot of fun. It definitely feels like we’re making headway.”
Van Gisbergen leaves Nashville sitting 12th in NASCAR Cup Series points, 43 markers above the cutline – with two road courses coming up in the next four weeks. Should things keep progressing like they are, though, we may see the No. 97 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet in “The Chase”, and who knows, maybe battling for a top-10 spot in points.
Photo Credit: Harold Hinson Photography
