Shane Van Gisbergen and Trackhouse Racing team owner Justin Marks met with the media Saturday morning to address the team’s contract extension with the former Australian Supercars champion and current NASCAR Cup Series Playoff-bound driver.
Van Gisbergen, who has three road course wins this season, is an easy “favorite” for both the weekend’s NASCAR Xfinity Series’ Mission 200 at The Glen and Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series’ Go Bowling at The Glen. The New Zealander is one win away from tying Australian Marcos Ambrose’s mark of five Xfinity Series wins – most for a foreign-born driver. Van Gisbergen also has four career Cup Series victories – including that historic win in his very first NASCAR start in the Chicago Street Race three years ago.
“This has been a really, really fun project for the company obviously everything happened really quickly. … obviously we have someone who can win anytime on the road courses and winning is so important here at the Cup Serious obviously, but I think what really excites us at Trackhouse is his speed of development on the ovals,’’ Marks said. “His talent and work ethic and showing his progression on the ovals has put our company in the position where we feel excited and comfortable to make a longer term commitment to Shane. We think he’s got an oval win in him in the Cup Series. Things are really starting to come together and gel.”
Van Gisbergen, whose contract length was not disclosed, conceded this first fulltime year in the Cup Series has been a learning process, but emphasized he is excited to extend his stay.
“Just right from the start, I’ve enjoyed life here and racing every week and the challenge,’’ said Van Gisbergen with a smile. “It was probably time for me to have a new challenge in my career. I’ve raced Supercars for 15 years or something, so yeah, the timing was just perfect and I don’t regret any minute. It’s been the most fun I’ve had in racing for a long time. It’s been really cool.”
Van Gisbergen was certainly top of mind for most of the competition this weekend. One after another, drivers grinned and shook their head thinking of Van Gisbergen’s road course prowess – fully deeming him a favorite Sunday at the historic 2.45-mile Watkins Glen course.
He won the last three NASCAR Cup Series road course race pole positions coming into Watkins Glen but will start on the outside of the front row after being squeezed out of the top spot by less than a tenth of a second Saturday by Team Penske’s Ryan Blaney.
Van Gisbergen, however, has won the last three road course races and earned his first career berth in the 10-race season championship push that starts in three weeks.
“I really don’t know how to get closer to SVG,’’ said Joe Gibbs Racing’s Chase Briscoe, who has a pair of road course wins in the Xfinity Series (at Indianapolis and Charlotte). “I feel like I can close the gap a little bit but like at Sonoma I felt like I had realistically probably two or three tenths over the entire field but he had eight-tenths to a second over me. I really don’t know what to do different.
“I told SVG it’s really cool how he’s just elevated the whole series to get better at road courses but it is frustrating when you feel like you’re one of the top five to 10 guys but that gap to him is just so much greater than anywhere else in the field. And you don’t really know what to do to get that much closer. He’s just made everybody re-approach how they do road course racing.’’
“He’s just better everywhere. Faster in every corner. It’s just crazy how much more he always has in the bank. He does a really good job at not letting you know how much he’s really got and when he needs to go, he’ll just go.’’
Ryan Blaney, however, might have something to say about all that. The Team Penske driver beat Van Gisbergen to the pole on Saturday afternoon by less than a tenth of a second.
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