Shane van Gisbergen doesn’t like cities. He’s made that perfectly clear—repeatedly, unapologetically, and with the same blunt honesty you’d expect from a guy who willingly throws 3,500 pounds of race car into blind corners surrounded by concrete walls.
But here he is, in the middle of Chicago, where the skyscrapers loom, the traffic is intolerable, and the amount of actual grass is… well, disappointing.
There’s just one problem with his anti-city stance: this particular city keeps handing him trophies.
“This place is pretty cool to me every time I come back,” van Gisbergen admitted Friday, reflecting on the same patch of unforgiving pavement where he pulled off his shocking NASCAR Cup Series debut win two years ago. “I hate cities, so I don’t really like the place. But when you get here, it’s pretty cool. You know, I have great memories here. This place has changed my life… but yeah, not enough grass for me.”
Love it or hate it, van Gisbergen is back on the streets of Chicago this weekend, pulling double duty in both the Xfinity and Cup Series races for Trackhouse Racing and JR Motorsports. And based on history—and his rapidly growing reputation—he’s the odds-on favorite to crash the party… possibly without actually crashing.
The Kiwi, who’s far more at home flinging Supercars through Australian street circuits than tiptoeing around Daytona, is still adjusting to life in America’s left-turn-only universe. But when the barriers tighten, the streets get narrow, and the walls get close, suddenly NASCAR’s best start looking like they showed up to a calculus exam without a pencil.
“Yeah, I can just flip what [Joey Logano] says and that’s what I feel on ovals,” van Gisbergen shrugged. “These guys have been doing left-handers since they were 10 years old… but I feel like, yes, they’ve definitely gotten a lot better since the first one on this track, for sure.”
Better? Maybe. But good enough to catch him? That’s still up for debate.
Not that the Chicago layout does anyone any favors. With zero runoff, concrete barriers, and braking zones that lead directly into walls, the 2.2-mile street course offers all the charm of a back alley on a bad night.
“The hardest part here is the no runoff,” van Gisbergen explained. “Like Turn 1 and Turn 5, going straight into a wall at the biggest braking zones… it’s pretty daunting.”
Daunting for most. For the guy who’s already won the inaugural Cup race and last year’s Xfinity event here? Business as usual.
And thanks to his earlier win this season, van Gisbergen rolls into Chicago with a playoff spot locked up and nothing to lose—translation: it’s officially time to get experimental.
“We’re in a nice position now having won a race,” he said. “And it may change our strategy. If we’re in a position to get a playoff point, we’ll probably try and get that, but that’ll put us deep in the field for the next stage. So yeah, there’s a bit of a toss-up there… but it’s a nice position to be in.”
First up, though, is Saturday’s Xfinity Series street fight, where van Gisbergen will square off against young Red Bull prodigy Connor Zilisch—a driver with enough street racing chops to make this an actual contest.
“Yeah, I feel like the odds stuff is pretty cool to read… like it means that people think nice things about me,” van Gisbergen laughed. “But yeah, Connor will be very good and very tough to beat here. He’s been amazing in those cars.”
As for his own ride? Well, it’s been a minute.
“I haven’t driven a Xfinity car all year and it’ll be the first time in a JRM car,” he admitted. “But I’m looking forward to it… those cars race really well. They’re pretty awkward and clumsy, but really fun to race.”
Awkward. Clumsy. Lined with walls. Covered in concrete. Seriously lacking in grass.
Sounds miserable. Which, ironically, means Shane van Gisbergen is probably about to win again.
Greg was a writer for DriveTribe supporting Amazon's The Grand Tour and has been published in major publications across the country including the Los Angeles Times, the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He was also a contributor to Chicken Soup for the NASCAR Soul, published in 2010, and the Christmas edition in 2016. He wrote as the NASCAR, Formula 1, Auto Reviews and National Veterans Affairs Examiner for Examiner.com and has appeared on Fox News. He holds a BS degree in communications, and a Masters degree in psychology. He is currently the weekend Motorsports Editor for Autoweek and a regular contributor to Forbes.