Shane van Gisbergen will race with Trackhouse in Cup in 2025

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Shane van Gisbergen will drive for Trackhouse next year in the Cup Series, the team announced in a press conference at Daytona International Speedway on Saturday. SVG will drive the No. 88, a new third entry for the race team co-owned by Pitbull.

The Kiwi, a three-time Australian Supercars champion, currently drives for Kaulig Racing in an alliance with Trackhouse, where he has picked up three wins this season, all on road courses. He set the NASCAR world on fire by winning on his debut at the Chicago Street Race last year

The team picked up a third charter to allow them to bring their driver into the Cup Series alongside the team’s current drivers Ross Chastain and Daniel Suarez. Team owner Justin Marks highlighted the team’s rise since taking the leap and setting up his own team in 2020 to being able to bring global superstars into the sport in one-off drives as part of PROJECT91 to purchasing a third charter to bring a big superstar in full-time.

“This is a big day in so many ways for Trackhouse Racing, Shane, Chevrolet and race fans around the world,” said Trackhouse Racing founder and owner Justin Marks. “This is an important step for our organization and it’s a credit to the men and women at Trackhouse Racing whose hard work and success the last few years has led to us expanding to three Cup teams in 2025.

“It’s also a big step up for Shane who took a chance on Trackhouse Racing, moved here from New Zealand and now joins the most competitive stock car racing series in the world. Everyone will get to watch one of the world’s racing superstars compete in the NASCAR Cup Series next year.”

Marks said that three full-time teams was always his goal: while four is a lot to fund, three entries increases the team’s chance of winning while still being sustainable, he explained.

The number is significant: many of NASCAR’s biggest stars, including Darrell Waltrip, Dale Jarrett, Donnie Allison, Ricky Rudd, Rusty Wallace, Buddy Baker competed in the 88. Most famously, though, it was Dale Earnhardt Jr’s number at the end of his Cup career. Marks said he asked Kelly Earnhardt for permission to run the number, and Earnhardt tweeted his approval following the announcement.

“I was lucky to run a few numbers with so much rich history,” Earnhardt’s tweet read. “Excited to see Shane van Gisbergen and Trackhouse add a new chapter to it. 88 will have a good home there.”

Though van Gisbergen was impressive on debut, he spent a year in the Xfinity Series to learn the ins-and-outs of NASCAR with a few extra Cup starts, and especially learning about oval racing. As he readies himself for the Xfinity Playoffs this season, he feels like he’s got enough out of it.

“This is what I have planned for and I am ready,” said the 35-year-old Auckland, New Zealand native. “I know there is a tough learning curve ahead, but the best way to learn is to go out and do it. I feel I have made progress running the Xfinity Series this year with Kaulig Racing and I can’t thank everyone there enough. I look forward to the Cup Series. Those drivers and teams are the best in the world and it will be an honor to be part of their races.”

Asked about the biggest challenge, SVG responded with a joke: “Turning left!” He explained that he’s been improving “like a sponge” every week, absorbing as much as he can to get better.

He also intends to continue to get as much practice with as many runs in Xfinity as possible next year too, highlighting discussion he’s had with the team at Kaulig Racing where he’s run this year. That team has just switched its Xfinity lineup around, so where SVG will slot in remains unclear. While drivers with more than three full seasons in Cup are limited to five Xfinity starts, that limit won’t apply to SVG.

Any progress in a competitive sport comes at someone else’s expense, of course. Marks confirmed that the charter was purchased from Stewart-Haas Racing, which is closing its doors at the end of this year.

Additionally, SVG’s spot as the third Trackhouse driver means that the team had to get rid of their previous third driver: Zane Smith (who runs for Spire in Cup with Trackhouse backing) and Trackhouse announced that they’d parted ways on Friday, freeing up Trackhouse to promote SVG as its third Cup driver. In fact, it’s Stephen Doran, Zane Smith’s current crew chief, who will sit atop the box for the 88 team next year.

But turning back to the future of the team, it might be possible to see another SVG taking NASCAR by storm, Marks said. He intends to restart PROJECT91 with new drivers in the future, as soon as it becomes a little more manageable to run an additional car.

“Shane is the type of driver we had in mind when we created PROJECT91,” Marks said. “He took advantage of his opportunity and that experience in Chicago launched a whole new chapter in an already successful story.”

Owen Johnson