{"id":368129,"date":"2024-02-16T02:28:58","date_gmt":"2024-02-16T03:28:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=368129"},"modified":"2024-02-16T04:03:23","modified_gmt":"2024-02-16T04:03:23","slug":"the-grim-trend-prime-van-gisbergen-wants-to-shake","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=368129","title":{"rendered":"The grim trend 'prime' van Gisbergen wants to shake"},"content":{"rendered":"

Shane van Gisbergen<\/a> and his girlfriend moved in December to Mooresville, North Carolina, and so far, he\u2019s experienced only small moments of culture shock after coming from his old home in Brisbane, Australia, where he lived since 2007.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s cold, I\u2019ll tell you that,\u201d he said, laughing. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve never lived anywhere this cold before. It\u2019s pretty cool. I\u2019ve had a good time so far. We\u2019ve settled in pretty well.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Little things are different in the States, too.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou drive on the wrong side of the road,\u201d van Gisbergen said.<\/p>\n

\"Shane<\/p>\n

Van Gisbergen should be a quick study on the American rules of the road.<\/p>\n

There is, after all, a trophy that sits inside the main entrance of Trackhouse Racing that proved van Gisbergen can acclimate himself to any kind of car, on all kinds of streets. <\/p>\n

After all, van Gisbergen floored NASCAR when the New Zealand native won his debut race at the Chicago street course race last July.<\/p>\n

Buoyed by the success at Chicago, the three-time Supercars champion is primed to make a full run at a NASCAR career. <\/p>\n

He packed his bags and landed a development program deal driving in all three national series for Trackhouse Racing. <\/p>\n

\"Shane<\/p>\n

He\u2019s pulling double duty this week with races in the ARCA and Xfinity Series at Daytona International Speedway. He has seven Cup races on his schedule, starting in March.<\/p>\n

Van Gisbergen turns 35 in May, a bit on the older side for a NASCAR rookie. But he said his Supercars career had become \u201cstale\u201d and he was up for a new challenge driving stock cars.<\/p>\n

\u201cI moved halfway across the world to have a proper crack,\u201d he said. \u201cI know it\u2019s going to be a massive learning curve. But I\u2019ve been put in an awesome situation by Trackhouse.\u201d<\/p>\n

Van Gisbergen\u2019s NASCAR interest was piqued in 2022 when he saw Formula 1 champion Kimi Raikkonen drive for Trackhouse\u2019s Project 91 program. <\/p>\n

\"Shane<\/p>\n

The goal for the Project 91 program was to give international drivers a shot at NASCAR. <\/p>\n

Van Gisbergen reached out through friends to team owner Justin Marks about pursuing a NASCAR ride. <\/p>\n

With van Gisbergen\u2019s history \u2014 he finished with 80 wins in Supercars \u2014 he seemed a perfect match to drive for the fledgling program.<\/p>\n

All he did was become the first driver to win his Cup Series debut since Johnny Rutherford in the second qualifying race at Daytona in 1963.<\/p>\n

\u201cInitially, it was going to be the one race,\u201d van Gisbergen said. <\/p>\n

\"Shane<\/p>\n

\u201cBut obviously that went pretty well. It just kind of snowballed from there. It\u2019s just exciting to come from another discipline and whole other part of the world. <\/p>\n

"Hopefully, I can bring a lot to the table, too, with the way I race and provide a good bunch of entertainment and put on a good show for everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also finished 10th at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course and 19th running in the Truck Series race at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park. It was van Gisbergen\u2019s first race on an oval.<\/p>\n

Van Gisbergen made mastering NASCAR look easy in his first start.<\/p>\n

NASCAR, though, is littered with drivers who tried to make the jump into stock cars after success in other racing series and flopped. <\/p>\n

\"Marcos<\/p>\n

Dario Franchitti won the Indianapolis 500 three times but his Cup career flamed out after two ill-fated seasons. <\/p>\n

Juan Pablo Montoya and Sam Hornish Jr. never reached the heights in NASCAR they achieved in open-wheel racing. <\/p>\n

Australian Marcos Ambrose won a pair of Supercars championships before he won just two times in 227 career Cup races.<\/p>\n

Van Gisbergen leaned on Ambrose for advice on making the transition to NASCAR.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wouldn\u2019t say he struggled or failed at it,\u201d van Gisbergen said. <\/p>\n

\"Richie<\/p>\n

\u201cHe had some really good results and moments of brilliance. But yeah, for sure, maybe he wanted his results to be better. <\/p>\n

"It\u2019s almost like this is a completely different sport, NASCAR. It\u2019s definitely a big challenge changing sports like this.\u201d<\/p>\n

A challenge he intends to meet.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a driver, I feel like I\u2019m in my prime now,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Marks tailored van Gisbergen\u2019s 2024 racing schedule to provide him with a variety of NASCAR experience.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

He\u2019ll make this season\u2019s Cup debut at Circuit of the Americas, race twice at Talladega Superspeedway and has races at Charlotte Motor Speedway, the Chicago street race, Watkins Glen and Las Vegas Motor Speedway.<\/p>\n

\u201cShane is one of the best talents I\u2019ve ever seen,\u201d Marks said.<\/p>\n

Trackhouse also partnered with Kaulig Racing to field a full-time NASCAR Xfinity Series ride for van Gisbergen this season.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m going to be in some good equipment, with good people and good teams,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve got every opportunity to make good of it. It\u2019s like 40-something races now. As long I\u2019m learning something every week, and getting better every week, it\u2019s going to be really good.\u201d<\/p>\n

Van Gisbergen also has three victories in the Bathurst 1000, the premier race in Australia. <\/p>\n

He insisted that \u2014 while he has some bucket races on his list, such as Nurburgring 24 Hours \u2014 he\u2019s a NASCAR driver only now and optimistic of running the full Cup schedule in 2025.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve moved halfway across the world," he said, "so I\u2019m committed to it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Shane van Gisbergen and his girlfriend moved in December to Mooresville, North Carolina, and so far, he\u2019s experienced only small moments of culture shock after […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":368133,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/368129"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=368129"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/368129\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":368138,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/368129\/revisions\/368138"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/368133"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=368129"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=368129"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=368129"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}