NASCAR veteran Brad Keselowski has offered an amusing take on the rise of Shane van Gisbergen in the US.
Speaking on the Dale Jr Download podcast, Keselowski compared SVG to Happy Gilmore – the Adam Sandler movie character who was a makeshift golfer that could outdo any rival for power but was brought unstuck by a lack of short-game finesse.
To spell out the obvious, the van Gisbergen version refers to his supremacy on road/street courses but initial shortcoming on ovals.
Only now, the former Supercars star is making serious inroads on ovals…
“I’ve got a lot of thoughts on SVG,” Keselowski began.
“I had no idea who this guy was.
“I did the track walk at Chicago, I’ll never forget this: I’m walking and I’m like ‘I don’t know who this guy is, he’s either a fan or a PR guy’. The next day, he gets in one of the cars and it’s like ‘oh, a ringer’.
“So, Justin Marks in the summer of ’24 has to make a decision of what to do with SVG. Now keep in mind at that time he has (Daniel) Suárez, (Ross) Chastain, Zane Smith; ‘I’ve got to cut one of these three’.
“I was surprised when they cut Zane for Shane. And I’m going to go ahead and just say it right here, I was wrong.
“But I thought putting Shane in was like ‘alright, so you’re going to win some road courses, this is a team ownership hack to get a car locked in the playoffs. You’re now guaranteed top 16 points, your charter value goes up, your company value goes up’.
“It almost felt like SVG was a prop for the company.
“Now he’s becoming the face of Trackhouse. I think he’s their highest car in points.
“I know we only have like a four-race sample size, but it’s pretty good!
“SVG was kind of like Happy Gilmore if he could learn how to putt… (and now he has).”
Holding fifth in the points – only behind Tyler Reddick, Ryan Blaney, Bubba Wallace and Chase Elliott – van Gisbergen’s next oval race will come this weekend in Las Vegas.