Shane van Gisbergen left ‘speechless’ by New Zealand…

Shane van Gisbergen is honoring his country of origin with this weekend's paint scheme for the NASCAR Cup race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. The track is about as close as the series ever gets to New Zealand during the year, but still nearly 7,000 miles apart.

The car features the silver fern all around the wrap, as well as the southern cross, and several red stars.

"We have our friends at Jockey back on the car, and amazingly, they let me have some influence on the design," said van Gisbergen in a video posted by Trackhouse Racing. "Of course, I went New Zealand-themed. Amazing to have the silver fern on it ... pretty cool looking race car.

“Obviously, I'm a little biased. Got the red stars of my country and I think it looks pretty tough. Pretty stoked to represent New Zealand as much as I can, and thanks to Jockey for letting me do that. I was pretty speechless when I first saw this car."

This left @shanevg97 speechless 👀

Use promo code SVG88 for 25% off https://t.co/ObibsvnXt1 now through 10/14. pic.twitter.com/hIYffiTQq0
— Trackhouse Racing (@TeamTrackhouse) October 10, 2025

Van Gisbergen, who was eliminated from the NASCAR Cup playoffs in the Round of 16, currently sits 12th in the championship standings after his fifth win of the season last week at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval. Winning by over 15 seconds, he is again tied with Denny Hamlin for the most wins of any driver this year.

While all of his victories have come on road courses, he recently secured his first oval top ten at Kansas Speedway. SVG has also clinched the 2025 NASCAR Cup Rookie of the Year honors.

Outlook for Vegas and impressive qualifying effort

The last time the Cup Series visited Vegas, SVG started 28th and finished 34th after a crash. He also ran this race one year ago, placing 29th with Kaulig Racing. Looking at his obvious oval progression, it's likely the Kiwi is going to improve on that result this weekend.

Saturday at the track looked strong for SVG, as he managed to out-qualify both of his Trackhouse teammates, Ross Chastain and Daniel Suarez. Suarez will start 17th, Chastain 15th, and van Gisbergen 13th for Sunday's race race at the intermediate 1.5-mile oval. He bested Chastain by just 0.008s on the time sheets, and was 0.059s clear of Suarez.

Excluding Dover where qualifying was rained out, this is just the third time this year van Gisbergen has started inside the top 15 for a points-paying race. He started 11th for the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, 10th at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, and now 13th at Vegas (+15 better than his most recent Vegas Cup race).