NASCAR Cup Rookie Shane van Gisbergen Needs to Make Friends at Daytona 500

Yahoo

13-02-2025

The driver simply called SVG—that's so much easier than spelling it out – is entering his first full season in NASCAR's Cup Series.
His 2023 debut in a one-off deal was a stunner: he won the Chicago Street Race.
Despite his two Cup starts and full Xfinity season, the 35-year-old from Auckland feel very much like rookie.
Shane van Gisbergen occasionally watched NASCAR telecasts back home in New Zealand, where he was a well-regarded racing star. His impression of stock car racing: 'I thought, 'this a bit boring',' he said Wednesday at Daytona International Speedway, scene of Sunday afternoon's Daytona 500. 'It was just flat-out the whole way. But when you're in the race, there's so much going on.
'You're jockeying for position, fuel saving, trying to place yourself in the right spots. There's so much more to it. It's fascinating as a driver learning these different skills, placing yourself right for the green-flag starts. Pretty cool learning.'
He'll soon face a 36-race, February-to-November season of 'pretty cool learning' and 'so much going on.' He can't wait to get started.
The driver simply called SVG—that's so much easier than spelling it out – is entering his first full season in NASCAR's Cup Series. His 2023 debut in a one-off deal was a stunner: he won the Chicago Street Race. That victory and his got-to-love-him' accent and personality immediately marked him as exactly what NASCAR needed as it attempted to broaden its international footprint.
He's one of four Daytona 500 entries within Trackhouse Racing's potent Chevrolet stable. Owner Justin Marks has assembled a lineup worthy of a United Nations seat: van Gisbergen from New Zealand, Helio Castroneves from Brazil, Daniel Suarez from Mexico, and Ross Chastain, the homeboy from Florida.
SVG, Suarez, and Chastain will run every race for the first time as teammates. Castroneves will make his Cup Series debut in the organization's most important race; his NASCAR plans after that are unclear.
What is very clear is SVG's positive outlook on his rookie season. As an absolute stock car unknown in 2023 he made two Cup starts, winning at Chicago and finishing 10th on the Indy road course. He won three poles, three races, and had seven other top-10 finishes during the 2024 Xfinity schedule. Van Gisbergen and Riley Herbst are this year's only official Rookie of the Year candidates.
In the Xfinity Series last year van Gisbergen learned that the physical aspect of long-distance racing isn't nearly as important as the mental and emotional aspects. 'It's more mental,' he said of races upwards of 300 miles. 'Some tracks are physical, but most aren't. It's normally just the heat. I try to mentally treat (the Daytona 500) and prepare for it like any other race.
'I try not to get too hyped, and just focus on doing my thing. I try to be excited for every race, try and approach them with all the same amount of prep and focus. Oh, I'm excited for Daytona; oh, we're going to Dover? Something like that.
'(The challenge) is focus on something and find consistency. We're in the car for a long period of time, but you don't have to be particularly fit or strong to do it.'
Despite his two Cup starts and full Xfinity season, the 35-year-old from Auckland feel very much like rookie. His Cup starts were on a made-for-racing street course in Chicago and the Indy road circuit. … right in his comfort zone. His three Xfinity victories came on road courses: back-to-back at Portland and Sonoma, then again at Chicago.
This year's Cup schedule includes the Chicago street circuit again and a new road circuit in Mexico City, plus traditional road courses at Watkins Glen, Sonoma, COTA, and the Roval at Charlotte. All but Chicago will be new to him in a Cup car.
'I feel like a rookie,' he said. 'I feel like everything is new. I feel like I have a lot to learn and improve on and prove myself there. But it's all in preparation? You have to have that clear mind so when you're racing, things become instinctive. Obviously, there's a lot of teamwork with the spotter. He's going to be guiding me.
'Spotters are probably the most important thing of the superspeedway racing. I trust his guidance, or my crew chief will be telling me when we don't need to save fuel. It's very different, this kind of racing.'
As for his feelings about his first Daytona 500:
'The race is obviously still massive, but it's not massive where I'm from,' he acknowledged. 'I guess it's like the Bathurst or the Le Mans 24. Watching the pre-race stuff last year, being here to watch the race was awesome. You see the scale of it.
'In the race you have to make sure you have friends; make sure you got the right kind of cars behind you. I never really had to do that before in any other series. You have to make sure it's a teammate or a Chevy. If you go three-wide, a Toyota is not going to push you. I'm still figuring out who's in what brand. I don't know that yet.'
The guess here is that he'll know that before Sunday.