Shane van Gisbergen Makes Dale Earnhardt Jr Eat his Words As the Veteran Comprehends Reality

Shane van Gisbergen undoubtedly made an instant impact when he made his NASCAR Cup Series debut. The New Zealand native competed for Trackhouse Racing’s #91 car at Chicago and won in his debut race. Naturally, this drew the attention of everyone in the NASCAR community and he became an overnight sensation.

Now the good news for his NASCAR fans is that van Gisbergen is considering a full-time NASCAR switch. Of course, he does have some people who are skeptical, and one of them was Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Dale Earnhardt Jr is worried that van Gisbergen may make a sacrifice

He told the Dale Jr Download podcast, “I was shocked, I did not think that even after watching him win at Chicago. I’m telling everybody that’s asking me, people in Australia are calling me going, ‘Hey man! Did you think there’s any interest over there?’ He’s curious, he really wants to do this. Do you think there’s a team that would hire him? I don’t know, I don’t think so, not full-time.”

The 34-year-old is currently competing in the 2023 V8 Supercars championship for Triple Eight Race Engineering. Shane van Gisbergen is a 3-time champion and currently sits third in the standings. This puts him behind Brodie Kostecki and Will Brown, the former is expected to make his own NASCAR debut at Indianapolis as well. However, Dale Jr was worried about the Kiwi driver’s future if he pursued NASCAR.

Dale Jr continued, “He can come over here and probably run an unchartered car in all of the road course races next year. Maybe there’s somebody who wants to do that, that’s an expensive ask. But maybe Justin Marks would run him at every road course race next year.

“However, he’s going to have to give up Supercars to probably do it. Would he do that, I just don’t see it happening. I just didn’t think that somebody would put him in a car full-time, given his inexperience on ovals.” Dale might have his doubts regarding SVG but there are a couple of reasons that could be pitted against SVG’s success in NASCAR.

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Will Shane van Gisbergen perform well on his second NASCAR outing?

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To be perfectly honest, this is a very loaded question. The Chicago Street Course race could have been a total fluke, so the Indy road course race will be a real test.

Chicago was a brand new track for all drivers and van Gisbergen probably adapted quicker than his competitors. However, this all goes out of the window at Indianapolis, because his rivals know the track like the back of their hand.

In other words, van Gisbergen could either rabbit away like last time, or his rivals could give him a battle to remember. According to Dale Earnhardt Jr, he acknowledged that he was wrong in his criticism of the Kiwi. However, he did wonder if van Gisbergen wanted a full-time gig, which team would recruit him.

Watch This Story: How Shane Van Gisbergen’s Chicago Victory Became an Embarrassing Nightmare for Cup Drivers?