One of the season’s highlights is Justin Marks roping in Shane van Gisbergen to drive the #91. The New Zealand native drove an incredible race in the Trackhouse Racing Team car to win the Chicago Street Race on a historic debut. After a taste of newfound success in NASCAR, SVG returns for the Cup race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Sunday.

Following his debut in the Truck Series on Friday, rumors about him permanently changing tourneys have been floating around. Admitting the shortcomings of the Supercars Series, Gisbergen highlighted the aspects in which the popular racing series has been deficient in recent times in a conversation with NASCAR legend Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Shane van Gisbergen says Supercars Series is “not enjoyable” in current times

Dale Earnhardt Jr is one of the formers drivers who is adept at analyzing races and jotting down important takeaways from them. Naturally, Junior was curious to know about the mindset and the reasons that could have gone behind luring SVG to a completely different series in a different country. He asked, “How do you make these decisions? When do you make these decisions?”

Gisbergen signalled that even he didn’t expect such an overwhelming result in Chicago. To add to that, a new era has arrived in the Supercars scene with the debut of the Gen 3 ruleset this season that has leveled the playing ground.

“Yeah, I think I’m working with the team now cause earlier in the year, I signed a deal to carry on for one year at least and then I didn’t expect obviously NASCAR race to go so well and it has been a bit of a struggle there with the way the series is at the moment, not as enjoyable so,” explained SVG.

On being asked about the reason for his discontent with the Supercars series, he said, “ I don’t know, just the new tire and stuff.”

“They changed it, a whole new chassis and concept and everyone’s the same. It’s very similar to here. When I read articles about the problems the drivers faced last year and stuff, it’s very similar,” claimed the three-time Supercars champion comparing the situation between Supercars and Cup Series at the time of the introduction of Next-Gen cars last year.

The idea of slowly imbuing the Gen 3 concept cars into the series has not operated very smoothly. Early release of their blueprints for the car were disadvantageous to taller drivers who complained of numbness in the lower body after a few laps in the vehicle. Although each generation of cars in the series have undergone massive changes every time, listening to Gisbergen, it looks like there has been an increase in flaws with the latest crop of cars.

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“It’s so boring”: SVG on racing in Supercars

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“The qualifying there is awesome but the racing s**ks, it’s so boring,” professed Shane as he continued to dissect into the situation back in the Australian continent.

“Driving around and thirty percent of trying to keep the tires. Everyone’s just following each other. Well, the pods are the same, and the cars, have a bit of a narrow setup window, everyone’s running the same setup basically. Everyone drives around at the same pace, the tire just explodes cause it’s running too high, they just follow each other so it’s mind-numbing.”

NASCAR’s concept of Next-Gen cars has also continuously evolved ever since its ideation. With every package update, NASCAR has aimed to improve in one aspect they have been lacking in. The more prevalent problem in the Next-Gen cars have been the quality of racing on short tracks and the handling of the car in dirty air. A road-course expert, Shane van Gisbergen said that he likes the gruelling challenge of NASCAR more than what he has to race in a Supercars.

“Yeah, so I come here, and like the race’s just a hustle the whole time. Driving flat-out that’s what I love.”

SVG opens up on drivers that could replace him amid intentions of move to NASCAR

Speaking about the flaws in the Supercars series that Paul Morris highlighted, he added, “I think fundamentally, it’s an awesome car. It’s just it needs time and changes and it’ll come but yeah it’s like you’ve gone through such a high in your career… I don’t know.”

Morris is the only driver to win all three major racing events at Mount Panorama (Bathurst 1000, Bathurst 6 Hour and Bathurst 12 hour) apart from Gisbergen. Speaking about his relationship with the higher-ups in his team Triple Eight Racing, the 34-year-old admitted that the owners and executives have been benevolent towards him and have understood his decision that NASCAR has been a breath of fresh air.

“My team is awesome. All the bosses you speak to like, from the main one I got a text after the race. He’s like, you gotta get over there next year. That’s fully supportive which is awesome but there’s gotta be another driver to fill the seat. It’s the best team in the pit lane so.”

Shane van Gisbergen has also been open about his intentions to make the big move to the States. Will Brown from Erebus Motorsport has been touted as one of the drivers leading the race to replace SVG. Although his contract runs till the end of 2024, making it difficult to buy him out of Erebus. Addressing the talks about his replacement in the #97 Camaro and the big boots to fill, the three-time champion concluded,

“Don’t think that’s official. It’s just gossip. They’re saying, Will Brown. I know he’s very good. He’s second in the championship so like there are three or four guys on the shortlist. I know he’s one of them but they don’t have anyone officially that we know of.”

SVG’s addition to NASCAR drivers’ list will be a great boost for the sport and their aim of making the sport globally recognized. Not just that, it creates a fanbase in the Oceania region that will be keen to follow up on him.

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