From ‘50th’ to First: Shane van Gisbergen on NASCAR Turnaround

Shane van Gisbergen says it felt like he was finishing “50th” in every NASCAR Cup Series race earlier this year, before an impressive mid-season turnaround saw him score three wins in the span of five races.

The three-time Supercars champion endured a tough start to his first full Cup campaign, struggling to adapt to the unique challenges of oval racing. In the first 15 races, he broke into the top 10 just once, with an average finishing position of 25.26.

However, the Kiwi finally got his season on track with a breakthrough victory in NASCAR’s inaugural race in Mexico City last month. He then followed it up with back-to-back triumphs in Chicago and Sonoma to strengthen his bid for the playoffs.

While van Gisbergen acknowledges there is still room for improvement on ovals, with all three of his wins this season coming on road courses or street circuits, he believes he and the Trackhouse team have made meaningful strides over the last two months.

“Yeah, it’s weird. We were coming 50th it felt like,” he said of his early-season form.

“But it wasn’t complete end of the world. I felt like I was getting better as a driver, getting closer to my teammates and starting to match what they were doing. You could just feel that we were better than what we were. It just had to sort of click.

“The last month and a half, two months, we’ve really started getting better — the 88 car, and then also the team as well.

“It’s four wins for us now as a team [including Ross Chastain’s Coca-Cola 600 victory], and it’s been an amazing turnaround for everyone.

“I’m not under any illusion we’re going to go out next week and win, but I’d like to keep that progression going and keep building toward the midfield and then the top half of it.”

At Sonoma, van Gisbergen had to survive three late restarts and withstood sustained pressure from Chase Briscoe’s No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, ultimately holding on to win by 1.1s.

“It was tough. There were certainly marbles. This soft tyre leaves so many marbles around the track, and you’re trying to be respectful when you line up two-wide, but you end up pushing each other into the marbles, even though you’re not trying to,” he explained.

“Then we both take off and you could hear the marbles flicking up on the guards and stuff. It was really slippery.

“But you just know all those people up at the front — it was the 19, 24, 20 we were mainly racing — and they’re great guys to race. I always race well with them and enjoy it.

“I knew Chase wasn’t going to do anything stupid, but he got really close at Turn 2 a couple of times, and he had a proper crack. It was cool racing.”