Sportscasting | Pure Sports
Home / NASCAR / Owner: Shane Van Gisbergen Is Best Road Racer I’ve Seen, May Become Best Ever

Owner: Shane Van Gisbergen Is Best Road Racer I’ve Seen, May Become Best Ever

Jared Turner Written by Sports EditorJared Turner
Updated –
We publish independently audited content meeting strict editorial standards. Ads on our site are served by Google AdSense and are not controlled or influenced by our editorial team.
Shane van Gisbergen

Shane van Gisbergen made NASCAR history on two fronts Sunday at the Chicago Street Course.

The 36-year-old became only the second driver to ever win both a Cup Series and an Xfinity Series race from the pole on the same weekend. In addition, the native New Zealander became the first driver from outside the U.S. to score more than two victories in NASCAR’s premier division.

In just 33 Cup Series starts, van Gisbergen has captured three wins — all on road courses.

Those are impressive numbers, to say the least. But is it a little premature to start talking about the three-time Australian Supercars series champion possibly being NASCAR’s best-ever road course racer?

His team owner, Justin Marks, doesn’t think so.

Shane van Gisbergen Earns High Praise From Bossman Justin Marks

In the three NASCAR Cup Series road course races that Shane van Gisbergen has won, which include two on the 12-turn Chicago Street Course, he hasn’t just barely come out on top.

Rather, he’s basically smoked the competition, leaving no doubt about his mastery of tracks where drivers must turn both right and left.

Sunday’s Chicago Street Race, where van Gisbergen led 26 of 75 laps, was no exception. He was even more dominant last month in the Cup Series’ debut trip to Mexico City, where he prevailed by a whopping 16-and-a-half seconds.

“Look, I don’t want to jump the gun, but he’s the best road course stock car racer that I’ve ever seen,” Trackhouse Racing team owner Justin Marks said after Sunday’s race. “I think when he’s done with us all and walks away from the sport, I think he’s going to walk away as the best road course racer that this sport has ever seen.

“It’s like you put him in these situations that he’s got to learn quickly and adapt quickly, and he does it. Mexico was ridiculous. It was just ridiculous. It was an equalizer. Nobody had ever been there before. Everybody had to figure it out, and the guy wins by (over 16) seconds. I don’t his success is more complicated than just going to race tracks and consistently and reliably just beating everybody.”

If van Gisbergen does go on to become NASCAR’s best road course racer ever, statistically speaking, he’ll need to keep winning. Four-time Cup Series champion Jeff Gordon is the all-time leader in Cup Series road course wins. He owns nine of them. Former driver and three-time Cup Series champion Tony Stewart ranks second, with eight.

Chase Elliott, meanwhile, leads all active drivers with seven trips to Victory Lane at road courses.

Can NASCAR’s New Road Course King Translate Road Mastery To Ovals?

Due to his road racing background from his days in Australian Supercars, Shane van Gisbergen naturally has a leg up on most of his NASCAR competition. But that advantage has not carried over to ovals, where he has never finished better than 12th in a points-paying race.

Don’t expect van Gisbergen to always be a one-trick pony, however.

Team owner Justin Marks believes his driver can eventually be a force on other types of tracks, as well.

“We wouldn’t be doing this if we thought we could go win road courses and we know we’re not going to run that good on the ovals because he’s never done it before,” Marks said on Sunday evening in Chicago. “At this level of the game, you have to be a complete package. For his level of intelligence and how he studies and how he adapts and how he learns, there’s a real opportunity here for him to figure the ovals out and get fast at the ovals and be a complete Cup driver.”

Marks noted that van Gisbergen — a first-year full-time Cup Series driver — has already improved his overall performance on ovals from when he first began running on them last season in a part-time role.

“We’ve got somebody who’s talented and that we can make a Cup driver out of,” Marks said. “And while he learns in the meantime, we can win a ton of road courses and punch that ticket to the playoffs and give our sponsors a ton of return for their investment.”

Jared Turner Written by Sports EditorJared Turner
Jared Turner is a motorsports writer who has covered NASCAR for 20 years. He has interviewed over 20 NASCAR Hall of Famers and around 100 drivers, crew chiefs, and team owners, both past and present. He has also covered the sport for FOX Sports (where he was a two-time recipient of the FOX “X” Award for “Xtraordinary” job performance), NASCAR.com, Sporting News, NASCAR Pole Position Magazine, the SPEED network, and plenty of other online and print-only publications throughout his career. Notably, Jared has penned dozens of articles for NASCAR souvenir programs, including several featured prominently in Daytona 500 keepsakes. A Virginia Press Association award winner and former member of the National Motorsports Press Association (NMPA), Jared has racked up accolades both for his writing and his academic work. He studied both Communication and Psychology at Virginia Tech, where he was permanently enshrined in Phi Beta Kappa — the nation’s oldest and most prestigious academic honor society. Jared excels at feature writing and opinion writing, much of which stems from his dedication to all levels of racing.
All posts by Jared Turner
Other News