Shane van Gisbergen is a rookie in the NASCAR Cup Series, but he will enter the playoffs with four wins and over 20 bonus points -- something most of the field can only dream of.
And while there is another road course in the middle of the second round, his longevity in the playoffs will be mostly dependent on how much he can extract from each of the remaining oval races.
SVG’s oval progression has been slow, but a steady uphill climb. His best oval finish of the 2025 season (so far) came in the Coca-Cola 600, placing 14th as teammate Ross Chastain claimed victory in the crown jewel event. SVG has a total of five top 20 finishes on ovals this year.
More track time = more speed
The most important thing for SVG is track time, which is hard to come by in modern NASCAR, with brief practice sessions and two-day race weekends. But the good news is that eight of the remaining 12 races on the schedule are tracks that have already hosted one race earlier this year.
“It's just time for me, and even this week, like I've never been around this track in a Cup car,” said van Gisbergen when asked about his oval progression during a Richmond press conference. “You see the fall-off in practice; it's very tough to get up to speed straight away, so this week, I’ve kind of been studying Denny [Hamlin] and Ross [Chastain] the most. Ross's car is probably most similar to how mine's going to be, so trying to just see what they were doing with gears. You can change gear a lot here, and it changes the car balance quite a lot. I just try and study those two guys.
“But, you know, different tracks might be different people, who stands out, and just try and emulate what they're doing, I guess. But for me, it's just time. You know, I don't know what it's like when I'm out there, and no one knows what the patches are going to feel like at Turn One. Just try and do things by feel, I guess, too.”
Figuring out short tracks, and staying out of trouble
In NASCAR’s most recent trip to a short track at Iowa Speedway, SVG showed solid pace, but two incidents denied him a result reflective of his overall performance. A short track is also the site of his best oval finish in Cup yet, placing 12th at Martinsville in the fall of 2024 while driving for Kaulig Racing.
“Yeah, the short tracks, I feel sort of most competitive and feel most comfortable, I guess, to push, but the results haven't shown that,” explained van Gisbergen. “I feel like my lap times and speed are good in sections of the race, I've just got to put it all together, and hopefully that starts to happen soon. But the short tracks, I feel like there's a bit more driver manipulation you can do with the gear changes, the braking and how to phase sort of the tire wear. You can have a big influence on that, it seems.
“So yeah, these kinds of tracks suit me. I did have a really good race at Martinville last year, but otherwise, the short tracks have been a disaster, so I've just got to put it together, I think.”
Another challenge has been adapting to the fact that there are no pit limiters in NASCAR, making it very easy to get caught speeding. “I started the year bad with trying to push that,” admitted van Gisbergen. “I think I had a stupid amount of penalties, and knock on wood, I haven't had one for a while. I've been behaving and conservative on my speed. That's another part of NASCAR that's tough -- every other series I've been in, you press a button and hold your foot flat and it does it itself. But it's free lap time here, especially on a high fall-off track -- you're touring through the pits quite a lot under green, so it's worth a lot of time and that's where these guys are good, getting in and out of pit road without getting it wrong.”
Coming to terms with what he doesn't know
SVG is spending a lot of time studying the different driving styles of the sport’s top drivers, noting how ‘amazing’ it is that there are so many different ways to approach an oval track. He noted how impressive Hamlin looks on the SMT data, paying close attention to his 'unique' technique around Richmond.
“I'm trying to be as open-minded as possible in changing my style, especially for a track I've never been to before,” continued van Gisbergen. “I probably won't try it today in practice, but if it gets stalled out in the race or in a moment where I've got time to try stuff, I'll experiment a bit. All these top guys have such subtle little differences in the way they drive, and it's really interesting trying to pick things up because I'm sort of like a clean sheet of paper with oval driving, so trying to find a style that works for me.”
And while he is very confident about what he needs every time the series heads to a road course, he’s still unsure of what to ask for in order to gain speed or get a better handling race car at the ovals that dominate NASCAR’s grueling schedule.
Regardless of how things go the rest of the year, SVG seems to be genuinely enjoying the challenge. As showcased by his racing resume, he has never shied away from trying new things. When reflecting on 2025, he told the assembled media at Richmond that he is most proud about how much fun he is having behind the wheel. “Every race weekend, even if it's good or bad, I enjoy going into the shop on Monday and doing the meetings. It's going to work every day, but it doesn't really feel like a job. I'm loving every minute of it.”
SVG starts 27th for the Saturday night race at Richmond, besting one teammate [Chastain] by about a tenth while trailing his other teammate [Daniel Suarez] by a tenth as well.
