He burst onto the NASCAR Cup Series scene in 2023, earning victory in the first Cup Series race on a street course in Chicago, the Grant Park 220, racing the No. 91 Trackhouse Racing guest Chevrolet-powered Cup Series car. He came to US stock car competition from his native New Zealand by Trackhouse’s founder and team owner Justin Marks, where Shane van Gisbergen (SVG) won three Australian Supercars Champions with Triple Eight Race Engineering. His immediate success electrified the Cup Series paddock.
Trackhouse elected to enter their new driver in NASCAR’s Xfinity Series in 2024, together with several Cup Series races, in order to get their driver tuned into the nuances of American racing, which is far different from what van Gisbergen had experienced in Australia and New Zealand. Competing with Kaulig Racing this year, he’s earned three wins, taken six top 10 results and secured pole position twice thus far in the season.
As NASCAR prepped for its second trip to Daytona International Speedway Saturday night, August 24, Trackhouse Racing announced they’d elevated SVG to a third Trackhouse Cup Series car, having secured a charter for the their newest driver, who joins Ross Chastain and Daniel Suarez for the team’s 2025 Cup Series campaign.
As the 2024 season rolls towards its inevitable close – and before SVG rejoins Trackhouse Racing in 2025 – he’s running an additional five Cup Series races with Kaulig Racing in the No. 16 Chevy, starting with Saturday night’s contest at Daytona International Raceway. He’ll also compete next weekend at Darlington Raceway, a week later at Atlanta Motor Speedway, run his scheduled dates at Watkins Glen Sept. 15, on Talladega Superspeedway’s oval October 6 and Las Vegas Motor Speedway (October 20), together with NASCAR’s short oval Martinsville Speedway November 3.
The Coke Zero Sugar 400 wasn’t terribly kind to Kaulig Racing or Shane van Gisbergen, as the No. 16 Camaro ZL1’s engine smokily expired near the close of the second stage of this night race. SVG said he had no knowledge beforehand, but so it went. The race win segued to the NO. 21 Ford Dark Horse Mustang of Harrison Burton, who earned his first NASCAR Cup Series victory and the 100th for legendary Wood Bros Racing.
As he announced the signing of van Gisbergen for the 2025 season and, ostensibly longer, Marks stated, “This is a big day in so many ways, for Trackhouse Racing, Shane, Chevrolet and race fans around the world. This is an important step for our organization, and it’s a credit to the men and women at Trackhouse Racing, whose hard work and success the last few years has led us to expanding to three Cup teams in 2025.
“It’s also a big step up for Shane,” team founder and owner Marks continued, “who took a chance on Trackhouse Racing, moved here from New Zealand and now joins the most competitive stock car racing series in the world. Everyone will get to watch one of the world’s racing superstars compete in the NASCAR Cup Series next year.”
It’s been van Gisbergen’s mission, since departing the V8 Supercars Series, to come to the United States again and earn a place in NASCAR’s Cup Series. He has competed in IMSA’s Weathertech Sportscar Championship in the past, most recently with AIM Vasser Sullivan, Lexus’ factory GTD PRO team, during the truncated 2020 campaign. In Xfinity this year, he’s won at Portland International Raceway, Sonoma Raceway and the Chicago street race, competing in five Cup Series events to date.
“This is what I have planned for and I am ready,” the 35-year-old Auckland native declared. “I know there is a tough learning curve ahead, but the best way to learn is to go out and do it. I feel I have made progress running the Xfinity Series this year with Kaulig Racing and I can’t thank everyone there enough. I look forward to the Cup Series. Those drivers and teams are the best in the world and it will be an honor to be part of their races,” he said.
For the 2025 season, and with Trackhouse Racing’s third necessary charter, van Gisbergen’s Chevrolet carries the No. 88, a number that has visited victory lane 76 times in NASCAR’s history, with driving legends including Dale Earnhardt Jr., Darrell Waltrip, Dale Jarrett, Donnie Allison, Ricky Rudd, Rusty Wallace, Buddy Baker among those that have won with this number on their cars.
Trackhouse Racing has assigned Stephen Doran, 38, as SVG’s No. 88 crew chief. This is Doran’s initial season as a NASCAR Cup Series crew chief; he’s been working with Spire Mootrsports and its No. 71 Chevrolet driver Zane Smith. A native of Butler, PA, Doran began his NASCAR career in 2006 at Petty Enterprises; he’s served as Kevin Harvick’s lead engineer when that now-retired racer worked with Stewart-Haas Racing, from 2015 through 2023.
Trackhouse Racing debuted in NASCAR’s top series in 2021 with Suarez as its single driver; Marks purchased the NASCAR assets of Chip Ganassi Racing later that season and expanded to a two-car effort in 2022, adding Chastain to the mix. Marks, always an innovator, created PROJECT91 in 2022 to expand Trackhouse’s global reach, fielding the No. 91 Chevy for international racing drivers, including 2007 Formula One World Champion Kimi Raikkonen and SVG.
Van Gisbergen wasn’t terribly well-known in North American racing circles despite his international success, but NASCAR fans worldwide took notice at Chicago in 2023 when he led nine laps and won the Chicago race by 1.259 seconds in overtime. He became one of only six foreign-born drivers to win a Cup Series race and the first since three-time Indianapolis 500 winner Johnny Rutherford who, in 1963 won his first Cup Series start.
“Shane is the type of driver we had in mind when we created PROJECT91,” Marks explained, even as he said he expects another PROJECT91 entry for next season. “He took advantage of his opportunity and that experience in Chicago launched a whole new chapter in an already successful story.”
In its 233 Cup Series races to date, Trackhouse Racing has earned seven victories, posted 41 top-five and 78 top-10 results.
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