When Shane van Gisbergen made his NASCAR Cup Series debut, he invented the phrase, ‘burst onto the scene’. After all, winning your debut race at NASCAR’s first street race, has to count for something. Trackhouse Racing really discovered a gem when they recruited him. Since then, he has established himself as a force of nature, especially on road courses. This pretty much earned him the reputation of being a road course ringer.

Now in 2025, SVG is competing on a full-time basis, and this bodes well for his plans. Despite his reputation on road courses, van Gisbergen wants to broaden his repertoire. Currently, two races are done and dusted, and things have not gone to plan for the New Zealand native. At Daytona, he could only muster 33rd place, while he finished 23rd at the Atlanta Motor Speedway.

However, the final results do not tell the full story of the #88 Trackhouse Racing driver. As it turned out, SVG had often been right in the mix and showed a lot of promise. Case in point, running among the leaders at the Daytona 500, before getting caught up in one of the many wrecks. He also led a few laps at Atlanta, but was taken out of the race on the final lap.

Shane van Gisbergem is hoping to hit the ground running at Austin

This weekend’s race presents an excellent chance for the Kiwi driver. As an expert in road course racing, Shane van Gisbergen could be a strong favorite to win the race. Owing to that, there will be a lot of expectations heaped on the driver. He acknowledged his prowess on road courses, but wanted to establish himself on ovals to make himself more well-rounded,

He told Speedcafe, “I miss that, going there and no one knows who I am. I could fly under the radar and do my own thing. Obviously, there’s an expectation now but I’m pretty good at that myself, keeping that under control and just focusing on my own thing. Hopefully it makes for some good racing though. I just want to be someone you think of at an oval. I really want to get better at ovals and every week be a contender, not just five times a year. So that’s kind of my focus.”

In other words, the 3-time V8 Supercars champion wanted to be a serious contender for the championship. Initially, he had hoped to be underrated by the NASCAR drivers and eventually surprise them. However his unexpected Chicago win meant that that was impossible. So his plan B is to improve his race craft, especially on ovals, so that he can be a stronger contender.

The Trackhouse Racing star has been putting in the effort

It is also worth mentioning that van Gisbergen is a very hard working man. The driver is damn knowledgable when it comes to data, and is dedicating a lot of time and energy to that. He sang praises of his Trackhouse Racing crew and appreciated their talent and efforts they put in every single week.

According to the Kiwi, the prep and the level is extremely high, and that has really impressed him. Owing to this, he often makes it a point to study everyone. Once practice is complete, SVG always studies the data meticulously, so will that be the formula for success? For the moment, the driver will be focused on the upcoming race weekend at the Circuit of the Americas.

The best part is that he has qualified 6th on the grid for Trackhouse Racing in the #88 car. Ahead of him are pole-sitter Tyler Reddick and Bubba Wallace, making it an all 23XI Racing front row lockout. Chase Elliott and Carson Hocevar line up on the second row, and Daniel Suarez makes it an all-Trackhouse third row.