{"id":90987,"date":"2023-05-19T08:46:43","date_gmt":"2023-05-19T15:46:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/?p=90987"},"modified":"2023-05-19T11:01:47","modified_gmt":"2023-05-19T18:01:47","slug":"van-gisbergen-tabbed-for-trackhouse-project-91-at-chicago-cup-series-race","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/van-gisbergen-tabbed-for-trackhouse-project-91-at-chicago-cup-series-race\/","title":{"rendered":"van Gisbergen tabbed for Trackhouse PROJECT 91 at Chicago Cup Series Race"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Shane van Gisbergen, a three-time Australian Supercars champion will drive the No. 91 Chevrolet Camaro in NASCAR’s first street race in Chicago – Trackhouse Racing photo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Trackhouse Racing\u2019s PROJECT 91 is reaching to the Antipodes for its next star turn, enlisting three-time Australian Supercars champion Shane van Gisbergen to wheel its No. 91 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 during NASCAR\u2019s first-ever Chicago street race July 2.<\/p>\n

The Chicago Cup Series weekend marks the third time Trackhouse has enlisted an international star to pilot one of its cars; 2007 Formula One world champion Kimi Raikkonen took the nod for the first two occasions that Trackhouse owner Justin Marks tabbed an international star for NASCAR racing duties. He created PROJECT 91 last year to expand his organization\u2019s international reach by inviting racing stars from around the globe to try their hands at Cup Series competition.<\/p>\n

This race marks van Gisbergen\u2019s first NASCAR competition. \u201cI can honestly say I have dreamed about an opportunity in NASCAR., but really never thought it would become a reality,\u201d van Gisbergen said. The New Zealand native \u201ccan\u2019t wait to get to the States to meet everyone and prepare for Chicago. It\u2019s NASCAR\u2019s first time on the streets of Chicago so in some ways everyone will be a rookie like me. I don\u2019t underestimate that it\u2019s going to be a huge challenge,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Regular Trackhouse Racing racers Daniel Suarez (No. 99) and Ross Chastain in the No. 1 Camaros will get to meet their one-time teammate in June, when van Gisbergen travels to the team\u2019s headquarters for acclimatization with the team and fitment. He\u2019ll accompany Trackhouse Racing to the June 25 NASCAR Cup Series race at Nashville Superspeedway, then remain in the States until his time behind the wheel is done. \u201cThere is so much I have to learn about these cars and how the races are run,\u201d he remarked.<\/p>\n

Financial backing for this one-race exercise comes from Enhance Health; the No. 91 Camaro features a Trackhouse crew led by 23-time winning crew chief Darian Grubb, who won a Cup Series championship with three-time NASCAR Cup Series titleholder Tony Stewart in 2011. Enhance Health uses digital technologies and a concierge experience that can streamline the health insurance enrollment process. Associate sponsorship comes from Quad Lock, a Melbourne, Australia-based firm whose phone mounting products are available in more than 100 countries around the world. Van Gisbergen is a Quad Lock ambassador.<\/p>\n

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Shane van Gisbergen – Trackhouse Racing photo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

While Justin Marks noted the positive reaction by American fans to Raikkonen\u2019s two appearances was due to his international fame, \u201cAmerican racing fans might not be a familiar with Shane as they are with Kimi, but if you talk with anyone in Australia, New Zealand and that part of the world, they will tell you he is one of the most talented drivers on the planet. He\u2019s used to street racing in heavy cars, and I think everyone will be very impressed with his performance.\u201d<\/p>\n

Van Gisbergen, 33, drives a Chevrolet Camaro in the Supercars Championship for Triple Eight Race Engineering. He\u2019s won titles in 2016, 2021 and last season, owning 78 victories and 47 pole positions. He\u2019s the fourth-most successful driver in series history and has been victorious twice in the most well-known Supercars race, the Bathurst 1000, in 2020 and 2022. He\u2019s not a stranger to American motorsports, having finished second in the 2015 Rolex 24 at Daytona in GTD class.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe learning curve will be quite steep,\u201d van Gisbergen realizes, \u201cbut I am ready for everything they will throw at me. I know a lot of Kiwi\u2019s and Aussies will be watching and I\u2019m honored to get this opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Australian Supercars champion Shane van Gisbergen will wheel Trackhouse’s No. 91 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 during NASCAR\u2019s first-ever Chicago street race July 2.<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":65,"featured_media":90988,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3424,3470,5029,543],"tags":[9713,5054,1294,127,4437,9712,9198],"class_list":["post-90987","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nascar","category-news","category-racing","category-sports-car-racing","tag-australian-supercars","tag-chevrolet-camaro-zl1","tag-justin-marks","tag-nascar","tag-nascar-cup-series","tag-shane-van-gisbergen","tag-trackhouse-racing"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Van-Gisbergen-Camaro-min-e1684519297236.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p42YSK-nFx","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90987","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/65"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=90987"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90987\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":91003,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90987\/revisions\/91003"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/90988"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90987"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90987"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90987"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}