During his 2025 NASCAR Cup Series rookie season New Zealand racing champion Shane Van Gisbergen won five races – all on road courses – and qualified for the Playoffs. But even throughout all that success the former Australian Supercars Series champion always spoke about his desire to up his oval-racing game. He came into his sophomore season having scored only one top-10 on an ovals (10th-place at Kansas).
In only three races this season the 36-year-old driver of the No. 97 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet has already answered that with a career best sixth-place showing on the Atlanta high-banks two weeks ago and strong work at the DAYTONA 500 season opener. That combined with a reliable strong run on the Austin road course last Sunday (runner-up) has Van Gisbergen the highest in the championship standings (fifth place) he’s ever been this early in the season.
“This race last year we were at a completely different end of the garage,” Van Gisbergen said with a smile, noting the change in championship order. “The guys enjoy it much more being early in tech and it would be amazing to stay up here. But there’s a long way to go and we really need to just keep having good run, be consistent and score points. Certainly, very encouraging and a cool spot to be in.
“I think it’s been an awesome progression and I feel like we are getting better and learning a lot. It’s good going through two races of data from the same track and coming up with a trend of what we need. That’s been awesome and hopefully we keep showing that progress.”
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