Shane van Gisbergen came to NASCAR for ovals; aims to make Chase

The 2016, 2021, and 2022 Supercars champion is starting to acclimate to ovals

Shane van Gisbergen didn’t come to America to keep racing on road courses, he could have remained in Supercars to do that, so the decrease in road courses and a key NASCAR rule change doesn’t bother him any.

Maybe more important to his success is that NASCAR reverted to the Chase for the Championship format this season, meaning ‘SVG’ can no longer simply win his way into the playoffs. He won five times last year, all on road and street courses in his full-time rookie season but otherwise would have finished outside the top-20 in a straight-up points battle.

However, he also started to acclimate to ovals at the end of the year and still finished 12th in the final playoff standings. The purist in him won’t miss the Playoffs.

“Not the real racer in me,” said Van Gisbergen on Wednesday during Daytona 500 Media Day. “I think we can make it in on merit as well if we get everything right. I think it loses some excitement in some ways but as a racing championship, I think this is a better way to do it, yeah.”

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What about NASCAR taking away two road courses with the loss of Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez and the Charlotte Motor Speedway ROVAL?

“I didn’t join the series to do road courses,” Van Gisbergen said. “Obviously, it’s a bonus and yeah, I would love more road courses than less but it is what it is and thankfully we are getting better on the ovals, so that’s good.”

The 2025 season was only the second of any kind that ‘SVG’ raced primarily on ovals, first in the Xfinity Series and then Cup, and even that transition forced him to adapt to two drastically different cars too.

With that said, there were some highlights on ovals, like ripping the fence at Richmond. He was highly competitive at Kansas and New Hampshire in the fall too. There were moments where it started to visibly click for the three-time Supercars champion.

“It's still an evolving thing, you know, so I don't feel like as much of a deer in headlights anymore, which is cool,” Van Gisbergen said. “I sort of feel like I fit in more and can go with the rhythm of the race more over the weekends.

“But I'm still learning a lot. I didn’t know where to start with the driving, the set-ups, the cars and the racing dynamic like how the surface changes. There are so many different things. It’s a completely different discipline to any other driving.”

Shane van Gisbergen, Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet

Photo by: Jonathan Bachman - Getty Images

How about the short tracks, specifically?

“No, I don't think so,” he said. “I still struggle on them, like Bristol for example and Phoenix, they've been probably my toughest tracks. So those are the ones I'm focused on more to try to get better at.”

So all told, ‘SVG’ wants to just keep progressing.

“I've never really been a goal person,” he said. “Making the playoffs would be nice but I just need to keep getting better and keep learning, I guess.”