“Don’t Think It’ll Be This Year” – Tony Stewart’s Former Crew Chief Breaks Silence Over Shane Van Gisbergen’s Future NASCAR Endeavours

Trackhouse Racing Team has come out of the last two races with incredible results. With Ross Chastain breaking the melon at Nashville and 3-time Supercars champion Shane van Gisbergen delivering a historic performance at the Chicago Street Race, good news keeps coming their way. Now, Gisbergen’s remarkable display has ensured that fans keep wanting to see more of him.

While the New Zealand native has not made any clear indications about his future regarding another appearance in NASCAR, there has been a lot of speculation about it.

Gisbergen’s crew chief at Chicago, Darian Grubb, has a different take on the question. Explaining the importance of Gisbergen in the team’s vision of Project 91, Grubb speaks about seeing the 34-year-old in a Cup Series car again on the NASCAR Live podcast.

Trackhouse Racing Crew Chief Discusses Possibilities of the Chicago Winner Returning to the Cup

Grubb is one of the most coveted crew members in the history of NASCAR. Currently working as the Director of Performance for Justin Marks’ team, he is also the crew chief for their #91 car. The #91 Camaro ZL1 has been the ride for stars like Kimi Raikkonen and, of course, Gisbergen.

On being enquired if the fandom will have a chance to see Gisbergen in action once again for Project 91, Grubb said, “I think there is potential, I know Justin has been talking about it.”

“I don’t think it’ll be this year because I think most of the races are conflicts with his season there. But I’m sure there’s something next year we’ll be looking forward to seeing if there’s something out there that we can put him in the car again,” informed the former Hendrick Motorsports technical director, emphasizing Shane’s current responsibilities in a Supercar.

Applauding the driver’s talent at the steering wheel, Grubb then explains the reason why Gisbergen is an important part of their goal to expand the roster of stars with personnel from various fields. Having already managed stars like Jimmie Johnson, Tony Stewart in his championship season in 2011, Darian is the perfect man to lead this project from the pits.

“Cause obviously; he’s an incredible talent. We knew that before it ever happened and to see the crossover between Supercar fans and NASCAR fans has been really amazing. You see a lot of stuff on Twitter with those guys using a promotion with NASCAR and vice versa so I hope we can just keep going all over fanbases by having this crossover between the series,” further added Grubb.

Read More: Ross Chastain Adds Another Name to His Growing List of Enemies in Chicago: “Get Back to His A** & Put Him Into the Fence”

“He’s Just a Leader”: Grubb Compares Shane Van Gisbergen to 7-Time Champion Jimmie Johnson

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Over the years, in his long-spanning career in NASCAR, Grubb has been the voice on the radio for some of the biggest stars and teams in history. From HMS and Joe Gibbs Racing to Stewart-Haas Racing as well, he has been at it all. These teams boast of many great drivers, with Denny Hamlin and William Byron being Grubb’s recent associates. Speaking in a press conference after the Chicago race, he was asked about how high would he consider Gisbergen’s debut win in his long career.

He replied, “I think this one ranks up there pretty high, just the fact that Justin puts faith in the whole group there at Trackhouse Racing, and being able to put this on as an extra effort and come here, and then just see all those guys get to go to Victory Lane, as the shop foreman, as the car chief, Gary Putnam and those guys. They all poured extra into this. It’s outside their normal jobs.”

“We still had to do those, do the shakedown test that NASCAR allows us. We did a lot of extra work. The engineers did an amazing job in preparation. And then I have to say Shane just did an amazing job, as well, just in preparing and asking the right questions, being prepared for this event.”

Not just that, Grubb was all praise for the street course winner and his dedication to the cause. Well, the admiration for him was so much that the crew chief compared him to the likes of the winningest drivers in NASCAR, including record-time Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson.

Showering his respect, he said, “I’d just say like professionalism and everything else, he’s very similar to all those. I’ve been extremely fortunate in my career to be able to work with some of the names like you said, Jimmie Johnson, Casey Mears, all those guys all had different qualities, and I think Shane has definitely got some of those qualities himself.”

“He’s just a leader. He came in very studious. He wanted to know. He was excited about Nashville. Like the commitment level he had, they left early from the Nashville race even though the 1 won.

So Shane van Gisbergen has not just won the hearts of fans, but has earned everyone’s admiration and respect from around the circuit.

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