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3 NASCAR Cup Series Drivers Who Pleasantly Surprised In 2025

Jared Turner Written by Sports EditorJared Turner
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Shane van Gisbergen

Raise your hand if you had Shane van Gisbergen winning five NASCAR Cup Series races in 2025 on your proverbial bingo card.

Yeah, you weren’t the only who didn’t.

But van Gisbergen — though undoubtedly the most pleasant surprise of the Cup Series season that recently ended — wasn’t the only driver who surprised in a good way.

Let’s do a quick review of van Gisbergen and two others who exceeded expectations this year.

Josh Berry

With Josh Berry entering 2025 on the heels of a disappointing first season as a full-time NASCAR Cup Series driver, few pundits and prognosticators had him making a lot of noise with his new team.

At least not early in the year

But noise Berry made, taking the fabled Wood Brothers’ iconic No. 21 Ford to Victory Lane at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in just his fifth start with the organization.

Although Berry never won again, picked up just two more top-fives and performed miserably in the playoffs, his playoff-clinching triumph in Sin City alone was enough to earn him inclusion on the list of the most pleasant surprises from 2025.

Bubba Wallace

Bubba Wallace picking up a single victory in 2025 came as no shocker. After all, the 23XI Racing driver had reached Victory Lane on two prior occasions in the NASCAR Cup Series, prevailing as recently as 2022.

So, Wallace merely winning a race and ending a drought dating back a couple of years wasn’t that major of a story. Far more notable was where Wallace took home the trophy and how he went about doing it.

With Cup Series drivers competing on Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s legendary 2.5-mile oval for the first time since 2020, Wallace dominated the competition. Fending off a late charge from eventual 2025 Cup Series champion Kyle Larson, he collected a decisive and highly popular victory that punched his ticket into the playoffs.

The win ranked as by far the biggest of Wallace’s career to date, but it more importantly showcased his ability to get the job done at one of motorsports’ most hallowed venues and one of NASCAR’s most grandiose stages.

Shane Van Gisbergen

OK, now back to Shane van Gisbergen. By capturing five road course wins and going undefeated in the season’s last five events at places where drivers turn both right and left, the 36-year-old New Zealander broke the all-time record for wins by a Cup Series rookie.

He also became only the second driver to ever win both a Cup Series and Xfinity Series race from the pole on the same weekend.

In addition, the Trackhouse Racing wheelman became the first driver from outside the U.S. to score more than two victories in NASCAR’s premier division.

While the three-time Australian Supercars series champion didn’t make it beyond the first round of the Cup Series playoffs, he still defied all odds. And as a result, many already consider him to be the best road course racer among active Cup Series drivers — and maybe the best ever.

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.
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