SVG Building Comfort & Momentum As Cup Playoffs Loom

HAMPTON, Ga. – The more reps Shane van Gisbergen gets in a NASCAR Cup Series car, the more comfortable he’s seemed to become.

Halfway through his first full-time season at stock car racing’s top level, van Gisbergen hopes to continue settling in with Trackhouse Racing in preparation for his first appearance in the playoffs.

Van Gisbergen won his first race of the Cup Series season three weeks ago at Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez in Mexico City to all but secure his place among the postseason contenders.

Headed into a wild card race at EchoPark Speedway (formerly Atlanta Motor Speedway), and with three road courses still to come before the playoffs, the New Zealander is looking to make his year even better.

“It has been an amazing two years (of stock car racing) so far and it’s been great to tick off another win at a historical event for the sport. It’s pretty cool to win another race like that,” said van Gisbergen. “It's a pretty cool thing to do. I feel like we really are getting better every week on the ovals.

“It was nice to have a break in Mexico City, but I’m ready to keep trying to progress.”

The 36-year-old has only one top five and two top 10s in his first full Cup Series season, but the goal remains to win each week.

With Atlanta, the Chicago (Ill.) Street Course, Sonoma (Calif.) Raceway and Watkins Glen (N.Y.) Int’l still ahead, that goal seems highly achievable – potentially multiple times – before the summer is over.

“It was always our goal to win; there’s probably less pressure on road courses now that we have. We can play with our strategy if we want to try and get playoff points now and stuff like that,” he noted. “But each week, with our win, it’s probably less pressure. We can enjoy the road courses a bit more.

“On the ovals, we just need to keep doing what we’ve been doing, keep our heads down, keep improving every week, and try and keep getting good results.”

Despite a 31st place finish in his first trip to Pennsylvania’s Pocono Raceway, the Kiwi is improving his starting positions on ovals. Earlier in the year, he had 13 races where he started 26th or worse on non-road course tracks.

Recently, he’s slightly improved that number, starting near the top 20. While that number still isn’t great, a road course ace slowly improving on ovals is something the rest of the garage is keeping an eye on.

“I knew it was going to be a real grind from April to now. We really struggled at the start. But as I keep saying, I think we’ve gotten a lot better, and we’re really in the mix now,” van Gisbergen said. “We’re qualifying in the mix. It’s been fun battling with these guys, and it's been fun seeing the improvements every week. Once you’re stuck in that tail end of the field, it’s hard to get out. You go out first in qualifying, and you’re stuck at the back. Once you break that routine, you get some momentum going. It's cool to see the metric come out every week and know you’re going to be in a better qualifying spot.

“It's been a huge uplift, and the (team) meetings have been a lot of fun. You really feel a lot more confidence, which is really cool.”

While the road ahead always isn’t clear, the path for van Gisbergen this summer is starting to take shape. He finished 23rd at Atlanta in March, but will see a repeat track for the first time this year, which could lead to a better result.

In the coming weeks, starting in Chicago, is likely where he can really build a hot streak.

Van Gisbergen made a name for himself at Chicago two seasons ago, when he won the inaugural Cup Series race there, but crashed while running inside the top five at one point in last year’s race. He did win the 2024 Xfinity Series street race as well.

Then on July 13, the week after Chicago will be Sonoma. Van Gisbergen hasn’t run a Cup Series race in ‘Wine Country,’ but did win the Xfinity Series race there a year ago.

Those two weeks alone can be confidence builders as the summer rolls on. By the time the calendar gets to August, van Gisbergen could be one of the hottest drivers in the series headed to Watkins Glen.

“To me the racing is the same. I feel like it’s definitely tougher on the tracks that you go to like Watkins Glen and Sonoma, where everyone’s been going to them for years. I’m (playing) a bit of a catch up there, but obviously on the fresh tracks when everyone's green to it, that's where I can do a bit better,” he said. “But with more experience, I’m going to get better and better at these road courses.”

While the playoffs are nine weeks out, van Gisbergen acknowledges things will be hard in the first round with no other road courses after Watkins Glen until October at the Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway ROVAL.

But he said he’s staying in the moment, looking to make progress and capitalize on the given moments he’ll have to compete for wins and top 10s.

“Yeah, I had a look at what tracks are in the first round, and it’s pretty daunting. Bristol’s a tough track, Gateway, I’ve never been there, but they are two left-handers by the looks. Darlington, I’m okay at, but certainly it’s going to be a really, really tough first round,” he said. “By then, hopefully, we’ve got 10 weeks to keep getting better and building it up.

“Looking forward to getting there; having a crack and trying to get through it.”

With that said, momentum can change anything. On Saturday night in a potential equalizer race, ‘SVG’ is looking to continue his Cup Series growth.

Coverage of the Quaker State 400 from Atlanta begins Saturday night, June 28 at 7 p.m. ET, live on TNT, the Performance Racing Network, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, channel 90.