CONCORD, N.C. — One week after his first top-10 finish on an oval track, Shane van Gisbergen scored his fifth consecutive road course win in dominant fashion. He continues to grow more comfortable in the Cup Series car, so what is the next benchmark as he prepares for 2026?
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As team owner Justin Marks explains it, this isn't the proper way to view the situation. Sure, it's great for Trackhouse Racing that van Gisbergen consistently runs better on oval tracks, but they view his progression through a different lens.
"When I think about his benchmarking or I think about his progression, it's just to keep doing what he's doing, which is just immerse himself in the data, immerse himself in video, talking to people, learning, spending time with Stephen (Doran, crew chief), spending time with his engineers, and just investing in the process and just knowing that the more that he learns and the more that he is patient, that those results will come," Marks said in response to a question from FanBuzz.
"That's why we signed him to a multi-year deal like we did, because we know that they will come. The fact that he's so quickly already starting to find his way into the top 10 on the ovals, I think that there's a very, very high ceiling there that can make him remarkably dangerous."
Just unreal, great battles and good fun all day. Thank you to @WeatherTech, @TeamChevy and everyone at @TeamTrackhouse for the fast car! pic.twitter.com/23p30JnwY0
— Shane van Gisbergen (@shanevg97) October 6, 2025
Van Gisbergen entered NASCAR last season as a full-time Xfinity Series driver making part-time Cup Series starts. He had no starts on oval tracks in either series; a Truck Series start at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park in 2023 served as his lone oval experience in NASCAR.
The three-time Supercars champion delivered solid results on ovals as an Xfinity Series rookie. He finished sixth in the spring race at Phoenix, 11th in the spring race at Martinsville, fourth at Indianapolis, and seventh at Darlington.
Yet, the Cup Series races played out differently. This did not surprise considering that the Next Gen car is a completely different beast with its fine line between starting to slide and spinning out of control.
This car perplexed veterans such as Kevin Harvick and Kyle Busch when it debuted in 2022, and they had thousands of laps around oval tracks on their resume. Van Gisbergen had to take over this new car and then use it on tracks he couldn't even locate on the map.
Van Gisbergen struggled in his few oval starts last season, and he followed this trend early this year as he kicked off his full-time Cup Series career. He had a stretch of races where he finished 30th or worse five times in six races. A 20th-place finish at Darlington served as the lone exception.
Yet, the situation changed as the season continued. He began to race more regularly in the top 20, and he even put himself in position for top-10 finishes at multiple tracks. Although a multi-car incident at New Hampshire derailed his afternoon.
Van Gisbergen finally scored his first oval top-10 finish at Kansas Speedway last weekend, which marked another step in his growth as a NASCAR driver. This sets him up to potentially be far more than just a "road course guy" who people view as an early elimination from the playoffs.
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"I think at this stage of Shane's development in specific results on the racetrack — top 10s, top 15s, things like this — it's more just him understanding air, understanding the different racetracks, understanding how to unload and be maximally effective the first couple of laps of practice," Marks said.
"Just all of the things that come together and end up in results in a running order on the racetrack, it's still so new to him. He still is not even two years into racing ovals in his life, and I think the fact that he went to Kansas and had a top-10 finish and ran the way he did at Richmond and ran the way he did at New Hampshire I think is incredible."
Marks believes that van Gisbergen's continued immersion in NASCAR and his dedicated work will only make him dangerous heading into the 2026 season, but the driver pushes back against this slightly.
He still has to close out the 2025 season, which features four wildly different tracks. He has to make it through Las Vegas, Talladega, Martinsville, and Phoenix while further marking his progress as a Cup Series driver.
"Yeah, I really think we are getting a lot better, but we needed to execute, and we didn't in the playoffs," van Gisbergen said. "But yeah, I think my learning curve is still pretty steep.
"I feel like as a driver I'm getting more comfortable and understanding the car dynamics, the setup every week. Yeah, I feel like I'm always learning. So, yeah, as long as that doesn't stop, I'll keep getting better."
