{"id":571794,"date":"2026-08-17T15:10:15","date_gmt":"2026-08-17T15:10:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/571794\/"},"modified":"2026-08-17T15:10:15","modified_gmt":"2026-08-17T15:10:15","slug":"supercars-news-anton-de-pasquale-undergoes-nascar-evaluation-program","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/571794\/","title":{"rendered":"Supercars news: Anton De Pasquale undergoes NASCAR evaluation program"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"De\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAnton De Pasquale with Shane van Gisbergen at Richmond. Image: Supplied <\/p>\n

The Team 18 star departed Australia on the Tuesday after the Perth Super440 to take part in a GM academy program conducted by Wise Optimization in North Carolina.<\/p>\n

According to Team 18, \u201cthe program assessed several areas of De Pasquale\u2019s performance behind the wheel, combining physical fitness testing and training with simulator work and a range of exercises focused on driver development\u201d.<\/p>\n

Grove Racing star Matt Payne also underwent testing with Wise Optimization earlier this year amid efforts to propel the Kiwi into a NASCAR drive, which was blocked by Ford.<\/p>\n

While there are no announced plans to hand De Pasquale a NASCAR opportunity, the Victorian went on to attend the weekend\u2019s race at Richmond.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt has been a really cool trip and a great opportunity to experience the Wise Optimization program and then the NASCAR race in Richmond,\u201d said De Pasquale.<\/p>\n

\u201cJosh (Wise) and Scott (Speed) have been awesome.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve worked through fitness training, simulator sessions and several different driving exercises, all focused on helping me become a better driver and learning how they approach driver development over here.\u201d<\/p>\n

De Pasquale\u2019s US trip included touring the GM Technical Centre and several Chevrolet NASCAR team workshops.<\/p>\n

\"Anton<\/p>\n

Anton De Pasquale at the GM technical centre. Image: Supplied<\/p>\n

He watched Saturday night\u2019s NASCR Cup Series race with Trackhouse Racing, which fields Shane van Gisbergen in one of its Camaros.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe GM Technical Centre is an amazing facility,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe scale of the facility and the technology available to support GM\u2019s racing programs is insane, and it was great to meet some of the people working behind the scenes.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m incredibly grateful to everyone at GM and Chevrolet Racing for making the trip possible and giving me this opportunity.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been a really valuable experience, and I\u2019ve learned plenty that I can take back to Australia.<\/p>\n

\u201cRichmond was a cool way to finish the trip. I caught up with Shane before the race and then watched it unfold in the Trackhouse team pit box.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt has been a busy couple of weeks, but I\u2019m looking forward to getting home and heading straight to Ipswich.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve had a strong run of results recently, so hopefully we can carry that momentum into the weekend.\u201d<\/p>\n

De Pasquale will arrive back in Australia on Tuesday ahead of the weekend\u2019s Ipswich Super440.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Anton De Pasquale with Shane van Gisbergen at Richmond. Image: Supplied The Team 18 star departed Australia on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":571795,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[121228,111,139,69,1058,213,29709],"class_list":["post-571794","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-anton-de-pasquale","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-slot1","tag-sports","tag-team-18"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/571794","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=571794"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/571794\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/571795"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=571794"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=571794"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=571794"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}