Few American race fans knew who Shane van Gisbergen was before NASCAR’s Chicago Street race, but after he won the event, his Cup Series debut, his profile was immediately elevated. Now, he’s poised to become one of NASCAR’s rising stars. The Kiwi is set to run the Craftsman Truck Series at Indianapolis Raceway Park (IRP) on Friday and the Cup Series Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS) road-course race on Sunday. And in a Wednesday call with media, the three-time Australian Supercars champion made his greater NASCAR ambitions clear.
“I'm trying to get something over here," he said. "I don’t have anything signed up, [but] I’m loving Trackhouse, where I am now, and the plans that Justin [Marks, Trackhouse's owner] has proposed are pretty exciting.”
Van Gisbergen’s NASCAR run was set to be a one-off for Chicago, but after his victory, there was no way it would be his only appearance. “Once the race finished, obviously we were like ‘We're going to come and do this again,’” he said. The August 20th race at Watkins Glen clashed with his Supercars schedule, but the IMS race worked out timing wise, so Trackhouse quickly put a program together.
The opportunity to run Trucks came up even quicker. Trackhouse full-timer Ross Chastain was running some Truck Series races in the #41 Niece Motorsports entry this year, but as he’s now in the Cup Series Playoffs, he had to give up that seat. Marks figured this would be a good way to get van Gisbergen some oval experience in a fairly low-pressure environment. “Justin put no pressure on it, no expectations,” van Gisbergen said.
Marcos Ambrose—a fellow Supercars champion who made his way over to America to race in the Cup Series nearly two decades ago—even sent van Gisbergen a list of tips for oval racing. “His biggest thing was on Thursday at 3:00 verses Friday [night] the track is going to be completely different... so I’ve just got to be adaptable and not get frustrated when it's hot and slick during the day.”
While his Chicago win set the bar very high, van Gisbergen isn’t sure he’ll be running out front in either of his two races. His biggest concern at IMS is the double-file restarts, which are NASCAR’s usual format but were abandoned in Chicago in favor of single-file restarts. “It was a bit easier at Chicago, the single file-onto the straight and the field kind of spread out and you didn't have big stack ups at turn 1," he said. This Sunday will be different. “It’s going to be a fight, I think.”
Van Gisbergen is still fighting for his fourth Supercars title, though he hopes to get more NASCAR seat time before the end of the year, both in tests and races. He also wants to make sure his Supercars team, 888, has a strong replacement, and he says there are a handful of good candidates. The path to a drive in America appears to be clearing. Expect to hear his name a lot more next year.
A car enthusiast since childhood, Chris Perkins is Road & Track's engineering nerd and Porsche apologist. He joined the staff in 2016 and no one has figured out a way to fire him since. He street-parks a Porsche Boxster in Brooklyn, New York, much to the horror of everyone who sees the car, not least the author himself. He also insists he's not a convertible person, despite owning three.
