SHANE van Gisbergen has thrown his support behind NASCAR’s desire to race more overseas, having won the series’ most recent international race in Mexico City last year.

Steve O’Donnell, NASCAR’s freshly installed CEO, has flagged the possibility of an oval race in London.

The format of racing on temporary short ovals has been proven in modern times, with the sanctioning body running the season curtain-raising Clash fixture at the LA Memorial Coliseum.

With that proven experience on board, the format could easily be implemented abroad.

“Internationally, my long-term dream is for NASCAR to become the most popular racing series in the world,” said O’Donnell in a Reddit all-in Q&A.

“When we meet fans who have travelled to the US, they are quick to remind us that they want to see NASCAR in their home countries.

“We currently have international series in Mexico, Canada, Brazil and Europe, and Scott Prime and our international team are working hard to build on that foundation.”

“My personal dream, not an announcement…would be to create an oval race in or around London.

“I would love to showcase our style of racing there, and I’m confident we would create some new NASCAR fans.”

“Yeah, I would love to race more overseas,” said van Gisbergen.

“Mexico was obviously a very cool experience, but yeah, I think the sport is very American, which is awesome.

“I think showing this sport to the rest of the world would be awesome and taking it there because this sport is epic, I love it.

“It would be cool to get more fans interested in it.”

This weekend, the NASCAR Cup Series continues at World Wide Technology Raceway, with the second race of the Chase.

While SVG failed to qualify for the top 16 and the postseason run, he still wants to put his best foot forward over the next nine weekends.

“Just got to make the most of it – just keep building, work hard to get good results,” said van Gisbergen.

“Try to learn some stuff for next year and hopefully start building for that already.

“We have potential, just need to put things together and not do desperate things even though we have nothing to lose.

“We still want to get good results and keep 17th in the driver points standings.”

The Kiwi has one previous career start at Gateway, where last year he finished 25th after qualifying 18th.

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