![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/SVG-WGI-e1754956407343.jpg\")
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGetty Images\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Shane van Gisbergen celebrates after winning his fourth road course race in 2025<\/p>\n
We want more road courses. No, wait\u2026now we don\u2019t want more road courses. We like road courses, but one person can\u2019t win them all.<\/p>\n
Such seems to be the case right now with multi-winning and playoff-qualified NASCAR<\/a> Cup Series driver Shane van Gisbergen dominating the non-oval tracks. Never, and that\u2019s NEVER, has a driver roared on to the NASCAR scene like SVG and remained relevant.<\/p>\n Sure, there\u2019s been a few Mario Andretti and AJ Foyt moments here and there who were big names before winning a NASCAR race. But, when a driver wins his first NASCAR Cup Series race and then follows it up with even more trips to Victory Lane, people take notice.<\/p>\n So much so that one person is calling to change the series\u2019 schedule<\/a> to avoid more SVG moments.<\/p>\n \u201cIn the moment right now, I want fewer road courses,\u201d The Athletic\u2019s Jeff Gluck said<\/a> on the August 10 episode of \u201cThe Teardown.\u201d \u201cIn fact, I\u2019m revising my previous of \u2018Hey, maybe only three or four a year is fine.\u2019 I mean, I\u2019m almost let\u2019s get back to one or two at this point, and I don\u2019t know what you cut, but this is horrible.\u201d<\/p>\n SVG Isn\u2019t Lucking Into His Success<\/p>\n The 36-year-old New Zealand native was making headlines long before his debut and victory at the Chicago Street Course in 2023.<\/p>\n Growing up racing Motocross, Quarter Midgets and Karts in his native land, SVG moved into the V8 Supercar Championship Series, Toyota Racing Series and various GT Racing Series. In the V* Supercars, he won 80 races, earned 46 poles in 508 races and won three championships doing so in 2016, 2021 and 2022. Those stats place him fourth on the series\u2019 all-time list.<\/p>\n Knocking It Out of the Park in NASCAR<\/p>\n He roared on to the NASCAR scene in 2023 becoming the first Cup driver to win his debut since Johnny Rutherford in 1963. The monumental win at the Chicago 2023 Grant Park 220<\/a> was well received and applauded by many.<\/p>\n The following year was a planned part-time schedule by Trackhouse Racing, where he ran 12 races with a mix of oval tracks and road courses.<\/p>\n This year, so far, SVG has coursed his way to three poles and four wins. Yes, they have all come at road courses, with the most recent being this past weekend\u2019s Go Bowling at The Glen<\/a> where he completely dominated crossing under the checkered flag 11 seconds in front of second-place Christopher Bell.<\/p>\n \u201cThank (you) everyone for coming out,\u201d Shane van Gisbergen said after the win. \u201cWhat an awesome race. The last stint was a bit cleared out, but the battle coming back through I had a lot of fun.<\/p>\n \u201cCar was just amazing again. To get another win, and I definitely gave that Bus Stop wall another meter on that last lap, but yeah, awesome.\u201d<\/p>\n Facts of Stats<\/p>\n Sure, SVG needs to improve his oval track results with hisbest being a 14-place finish at Charlotte in May. In the meantime, his stats and results on the road courses easily garner water cooler talk on Monday mornings.<\/p>\n Won four-consecutive Road Course races, a record While the debate continues whether the NASCAR schedule needs more twists and turns, or less,\u00a0 SVG and road courses are here to stay. Earlier this month, Trackhouse Racing announced a multi-year contract extension<\/a> for it\u2019s playoff-bound driver.<\/p>\n In the meantime, look for more dominate wins by Van Gisbergen and signed rugby balls being kicked into the stands. His unique post-race celebration is new to him, as he explained on the \u201cStacking Pennies\u201d podcast last year.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s a Trackhouse thing,\u201d van Gisbergen said. \u201cDaniel (Suarez) has the pi\u00f1ata, Ross (Chastain) has the watermelon,\u201d SVG said. \u201cThey\u2019re like \u2018You got to come up with something.\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cI didn\u2019t really know what to do and someone suggested a rugby ball.\u201d<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tTim Packman<\/a> Tim Packman is a journalist for Heavy.com covering NASCAR. He grew up around the short tracks of Western New York watching his dad, stepdad and step brother race. His uncle was the head starter at many area tracks and member of the FOAR Score Hall of Fame.
\n\t\t\tMore Heavy on NASCAR\n\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\tLoading more stories\n\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getty Images Shane van Gisbergen celebrates after winning his fourth road course race in 2025 We want more…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":64036,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[49,48,634,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-64035","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nascar","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-nascar","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64035","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64035"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64035\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64036"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64035"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64035"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64035"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nQualified for the Cup Series playoffs, as a rookie
\nWinningest non-American driver in NASCAR history
\nWinningest Cup rookie driver ever in a single season
\nTo Road Course, or Not to Road Course<\/p>\n
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\nTim’s passion for racing took him to the announcer’s tower and writing program stores for multiple tracks in the area. In 2000, he moved to Mooresville, NC to become an award-winning journalist for NASCAR.com. He took a job with Dale Earnhardt, Inc. as the team’s Communications Director and was part of two Daytona 500 wins and two NASCAR Championships.
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\nThe announcing experience led to becoming a Pit Reporter and News Director for MRN Radio. A return to the team side at Richard Childress Racing as the Director of Corporate Communications took place, which also included another Championship.
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\nFrom 2015 to 2018, Tim returned to where his career began in 1994 – Lancaster National Speedway & Dragway – as the Track President. He earned Short Track Promoter of the Year awards in 2016 and 2017.
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\nUpon returning to NC, he joined The Garage Shop as Communications Director and host of it’s Podcast and MAV-TV docuseries “Legacy of Speed” talking about Land Speed Racing at Bonneville, and other places.
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\nTim has hosted two other Podcasts, namely “Pub Table Racers,” and wrote three books. One was with NASCAR Hall of Famer Bobby Allison titled, “Bobby Allison, a Racer’s Racer” and two Children’s books, “Funny Dan the Race Car Man” and “Petey the Pace Car.”
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\nHe also served in the US Navy. More about Tim Packman<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n