One year ago, Shane van Gisbergen, three-time Australian Supercars champion, drove a white-and-blue NASCAR Cup Series vehicle in Chicago.
The NASCAR Cup Series raced on a street course for the first time, and van Gisbergen made his NASCAR debut with a one-off entry supported by a part-time road crew.
Record rainfall inundated the track, and the television announcers couldn’t even pronounce his name correctly.
Then Shane van Gisbergen won.
In 2023, the 34-year-old New Zealander competed in Trackhouse Racing’s “Project91” entry, which serves as a “star car” for drivers from other series. The car serves as a showcase for talented outsiders to see what they can do in NASCAR.
Only two drivers have raced with Project91: van Gisbergen and retired Formula One champion Kimi Räikkönen, who ran well but never achieved a strong finish.
Van Gisbergen’s debut victory inspired him to pursue NASCAR full-time in America this year. He recalls how unexpected it was to win that race.
“That feeling when the radio cracks open and the engineer or crew chief comes over, screaming about how exciting the win was, and that short-term spike of emotion,” he says.
The race was difficult, with drivers skating through heavy rain all day.
Jenson Button, the Formula One champion, spun while approaching pit road.On lap two, pole-sitter Denny Hamlin skidded into a tire barrier, followed by Christopher Bell and Tyler Reddick, resulting in water flowing from the barriers upon impact.
Midway through the race, over a dozen cars piled up in the same turn. With 16 circuits to remaining, van Gisbergen finished seventh.
Drivers had various pit tactics, with some teams opting to stay out on old tires for track position while others pitted for new ones.
Van Gisbergen pitted, resulting in more speed but more vehicles to pass.
And he passed. Van Gisbergen absorbed each car, passing race leader Justin Haley with five circuits remaining.
A television announcer made the following comment: “Van Gi-vis-bu-bur…” They abandoned the idea. Van Gisbergen soared to victory, creating NASCAR history and changing the course of his own life.
Americans who were unfamiliar with his name learned it, and the triumph propelled him to his current position: full-time NASCAR driver.
“On the cool-down lap, everyone was coming up and hitting the back of the car or hitting the side of the car,” van Gisbergen told me.
“They were all giving the thumbs up and whatnot. It was overwhelming. Stopping on the front straight with everyone—it was just so unexpected.”
This marks the first time a driver has won their Cup Series debut in 60 years. Van Gisbergen chose a specific race for a reason.
He’s a street-course ace, and the Cup Series’ new race car, the “Next Gen,” is built to turn left and right, unlike previous NASCAR cars that only turn one direction.
This makes it a friendlier vehicle for international racing stars like van Gisbergen, who drove the Chicago event with fellow one-off entry, Button.
Despite improved road course skills among Cup drivers, van Gisbergen had a competitive advantage.
Still, everyone oohed and aahed when he won a race while driving on the left side of the car (as opposed to the right, as in an Australian supercar).
However, van Gisbergen found working with NASCAR’s new five-speed sequential transmission and shift lever to be far more challenging.
“I’ve driven left-hand drive a lot, so switching back and forth doesn’t bother me too much,” she remarked. “The shifting was the only difference.” I had never shifted sequentially like that before.
The rally car featured a shifter, but it was a true rally gearbox, so there was no need to clutch on the downshift or anything like that. The Cup car was a little more specialized in that regard.”
Van Gisbergen’s Chicago victory occurred at a critical juncture in his career. Australian Supercars has launched a new vehicle.
In an interview with Dale Earnhardt Jr. last year, van Gisbergen stated: “The racing sucks.” It’s incredibly boring.
“I was pretty happy racing in Supercars until last year, when the new car came out,” van Gisbergen says.
“The way the series was going, I didn’t like it. Then you have a bright new gadget or chance, which just fires me up.”
Van Gisbergen’s 2023 Chicago performance prompted him to compete in another Cup Series road race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway last season, driving the Trackhouse Project91 vehicle.He qualified eighth and finished tenth.
“When we did Chicago, I definitely didn’t have any plan or intention to come over here or do more races,” says van Gisbergen. “That was a one-off.
But after we achieved that result, things just snowballed.
Things happened quite quickly, thanks to [Trackhouse team owner] Justin Marks’ efforts.” Trackhouse, formed by Marks in 2020, has had a significant impact on NASCAR racing.
Marks describes Trackhouse as an entertainment brand, which is why, unlike many other NASCAR team owners, he did not name the team after himself and continues to pursue projects such as Project91.
Trackhouse is designed to generate hype as well as on-track success, and van Gisbergen’s victory achieved both.
A year after winning, van Gisbergen is now full-time in NASCAR, having signed a development deal with Trackhouse and relocated to America over the offseason. He has won two races in the second-tier NASCAR Xfinity Series, both on road circuits with Kaulig Racing.
This year, he’s competing in a few Cup races to get experience with NASCAR’s oval-based schedule before transitioning to full-time Cup racing.
“I knew I needed a year to learn and adapt, fit in here, and settle in the country before being in the Cup Series next year,” he stated.
“Jumping into the Cup Series after six months of preparation was perhaps not a good idea. It would have been quite difficult to do that.” Van Gisbergen has no wild NASCAR dreams.
He simply wants to advance to the Cup Series and grasp the fundamentals of NASCAR racing. “I want to improve at the ovals,” van Gisbergen stated.
“It would be fantastic to win [an oval] race one day, but I know I’m a long way off—winning one on merit.
I know I’ll always do well on a road course. That will just happen spontaneously. “I need to keep improving on the ovals.”
As van Gisbergen settles into racing in America, he’s quick to thank a friend back in Australia for the nudge.
Retired Supercars champion Marcos Ambrose, who moved Stateside to pursue NASCAR nearly 20 years ago, had been in his ear the whole time. “He just kept saying: ‘You’ve got to get it over there. Make it work. Try and do everything you can to get it over to the States,’” van Gisbergen said.
“He was one of the first guys I rang when I knew that I was getting the drive, and he gave me so much advice about it.” Van Gisbergen said that influence began before he even ran Chicago—the race that changed his life.
“He said, ‘You’ve got to try and go full-time over there. You will never regret it. And I haven’t thus far.”
