NASCAR will take a step into the unknown this weekend with its inaugural Coronado Street Course race in San Diego, but the challenge ahead is not totally foreign to Shane van Gisbergen.

The nature of the layout means all eyes are on SVG to come to the fore after a tricky last two weekends in Michigan and at Pocono Raceway.

The Kiwi, of course, famously won on NASCAR debut in Chicago and ended up with a remarkable 80 percent strike rate (i.e. four wins from five starts) across the Cup and Xfinity Series on the Illinois streets.

San Diego has effectively taken Chicago’s place as the new annual street course on the schedule.

“I went to the track last week to do some promotional things, Turns 1 and 2, and the first half of the track was laid out, but around the airfield, there was still choppers there,” said the #97 Trackhouse Racing driver.

Double the wiiings for San Diego@ConnorZilisch 🤝 @shanevg97 pic.twitter.com/h5PdSETZ8m

— Trackhouse Racing (@TeamTrackhouse) June 16, 2026

“So, I only saw a little bit of the layout, but it was really cool.

“It’s going to be a really rough and technical course, a lot of unknowns. Thursday will be an important day, when we get on-site and can have a look around the track, get a feel for everything.

“The surface changes stood out to me the most. Some of it’s really nice, there is new tarmac there in Turn 2, and a couple of other places. Then, it’s really rough like Sebring, kind of with the big cracks and old asphalt.

“It’s going to be a real challenge to have a car that works all kind of surfaces and transitions to them.”

All up, it reminds him of a former Supercars circuit – specifically Homebush, which hosted a Sydney street race from 2009 to 2016.

Van Gisbergen tasted victory on four occasions there from 18 starts.

“It’s going to be very bumpy… you’ve got to have good suspension set-up, soft and compliant. It kind of reminds me of Homebush in some ways,” he said.

“It’s a street track I did around the Olympic Park there in Sydney.

“The straightaways into little tricky sections and corners, nothing really flows, it’s all one to the other. Then we will put a corner here and here.

“It’s odd but that makes it a really good challenge. Getting in a rhythm will be really tough but will be important.”

Trackhouse will field four cars in San Diego, with ex-Formula 1 veteran Kevin Magnussen racing the wildcard Project 91 Chevrolet.