On the NASCAR tracks with the most circuitous sequence of turns, Shane van Gisbergen has shown a remarkably sublime sense of direction.<\/p>\n
But the Trackhouse Racing driver still needs help navigating his new life in the United States \u2014 such as the recent announcement of a 2026 street race in San Diego.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t even know where that is,\u201d the Auckland, New Zealand, native said with a laugh. \u201cI had to find it on a map. It\u2019ll be cool to go. I\u2019ve never been there and get to experience all new things.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Cup Series rookie is an old hand on road courses, which he mastered with 80 victories and three championships from 2007-22 in Supercars (the top racing series in Australia and New Zealand). Those results caught the eye of Trackhouse founder Justin Marks, who took a flier on putting van Gisbergen in a Cup car for the inaugural Chicago Street Race in July 2023.<\/p>\n
After stunning NASCAR at Chicago<\/a> as the first driver to win his Cup debut since Johnny Rutherford in 1963, van Gisbergen relocated to NASCAR last year. He has won at Mexico City<\/a>, Chicago<\/a> and Sonoma<\/a> this season, securing a playoff berth for the No. 88 Chevrolet and a multiyear extension at Trackhouse<\/a>.<\/p>\n With a victory Sunday at Watkins Glen International, a 2.45-mile road course in New York, the 36-year-old van Gisbergen would join 2020 champion Chase Elliott and NASCAR Hall of Famer Jeff Gordon as the only drivers to win four consecutive Cup races on road or street courses.<\/p>\n Though van Gisbergen has only 37 career starts in NASCAR\u2019s premier series, his four victories already rank third among active drivers on street or road courses.<\/p>\n \u201cThese guys have egos, and they are not OK with this,\u201d NASCAR on NBC analyst Steve Letarte said after van Gisbergen\u2019s win at Sonoma last month. \u201cWhen we go to Watkins Glen, I think it\u2019s basically 35 against one, because they\u2019ll be like, \u2018What can we do to bury this guy?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n It starts with getting close enough to rough up van Gisbergen, who has qualified first in his three wins. He won at Mexico City by 16.567 seconds, the Cup Series\u2019 largest margin of victory in more than 15 years and the largest gap on a road course in more than 45 years.<\/p>\n He faced more pressure at Sonoma on multiple late restarts<\/a>, but runner-up Chase Briscoe raced him cleanly (and then compared van Gisbergen’s road course skills with Michael Jordan in his prime).<\/p>\n \u201cI feel like everyone races really well, and I really love the racing here,\u201d van Gisbergen said. \u201cI don\u2019t feel like anyone targets me on the track and tries to take me out, but I feel like we\u2019re the benchmark, which is really awesome. But the best thing on the road course is I\u2019ve never really raced the same guy. Every week, there\u2019s someone different. The spread of talent is quite high here.\u201d<\/p>\n Chris Buescher is the only Cup driver to have gotten the best of him. Racing at Watkins Glen last year in a part-time Cup schedule, van Gisbergen missed a corner entry \u201cby centimeters\u201d and lost to the Roush Fenway Keselowski driver on a last-lap pass.<\/p>\n \u201cI studied it a lot, and that was painful,\u201d van Gisbergen said. \u201cI\u2019m quite self-analytical, and even when I think of it now, it frustrates me.\u201d<\/p>\n He also is a humble perfectionist in addressing his inexperience on oval tracks, which comprise the bulk of the NASCAR schedule. On the advice of 2014 Cup champion Kevin Harvick, van Gisbergen has spent his summer racing Tuesday nights at Charlotte Motor Speedway against preteens in miniature stock cars on a quarter-mile oval.<\/p>\n