Shane van Gisbergen arrived in Chicago in July 2023, an unknown to many of the NASCAR neighborhood. He left as a star after profitable the inaugural avenue course occasion in his first time behind the wheel of a inventory automotive.
Van Gisbergen’s life and profession have been endlessly altered.
“It does not really feel prefer it’s been two years,” he advised ESPN. “However a lot has occurred since then. Yeah, superb. We had a extremely robust automotive there final 12 months, too, and had the potential to win it once more. I am trying ahead to getting again there. Clearly, I would not be right here if it weren’t for that observe. So, it is a fairly cool and particular place.”
Van Gisbergen received that race on July 2, 2023. Two months afterward Sept. 13, Trackhouse Racing introduced it had signed him to a developmental deal for 2024. He ran the total Xfinity Collection season, received 3 times and in addition contested 12 extra Cup Collection races.
For all of it to fall into place, although, Van Gisbergen needed to finish an unbelievable profession in Australian Supercars, the place he was a three-time champion, and transfer to the US. Triple Eight Race Engineering did not stand in his manner and launched him from his contract.
“It modified my life 180 levels,” Van Gisbergen mentioned.
He remembers his first profession win vividly, admitting that he was very a lot within the second. It was the perfect of his life, he says.
Chicago will host its third consecutive, and maybe last, NASCAR occasion this weekend. The road race is within the third and last 12 months of its contract, however there are choice years that may enable town and NASCAR to maintain it on the schedule.
The course is 2.2 miles and 12 turns and sees the sector scream down Michigan Avenue, go over a bridge on Jackson Drive and cross the beginning/end line on Columbus Drive in entrance of Buckingham Fountain.
It will get a nod of approval from Van Gisbergen, who has made a dwelling competing on highway and avenue programs, however he acknowledges that “it is tough” as a result of there are not any runoff areas.
“Flip 1 and Flip 5 face one another, so you may’t have runoff,” Van Gisbergen mentioned. “It is harmful. You are within the quickest a part of the observe, and there is a concrete wall in entrance of you, and it is nice. It is a lot threat versus reward. I believe it is one of many coolest issues, however it’s tough once you get it fallacious. I believe for a avenue observe, [NASCAR has] carried out very properly for his or her first go of it.”
His triumph two years in the past impressed many, however it was the proper storm of variables falling his manner: a avenue course, moist circumstances and a automotive that appeared to swimsuit his driving fashion. NASCAR’s Subsequent Gen automotive, proper or fallacious, has drawn comparisons to sports activities automobiles and Australian Supercars.
Van Gisbergen has had fairly a bit to adapt to, although. And never simply sitting on the alternative aspect of the automotive.
“The load of the automotive may be very completely different [heavier],” he mentioned of his adaptation to inventory automobiles. “The best way the automotive corners is completely different. The downforce is excessive as an alternative of beneath, so the way in which it drives may be very low to the bottom and stiff, whereas the Supercars have been excessive and rolled round. So, they give the impression of being related on paper, however they’re manner, manner completely different. They’re shut, however they’re additionally not.”
The load and the tires are the most important variations that Van Gisbergen factors to. When requested if there have been traits from both automotive that he would love to mix, or if there may be one which he most well-liked over the opposite, he described the present model of the Australian Supercar as a “piece of s—.”
“Which is without doubt one of the the explanation why I left,” he laughed. “However the outdated Supercar was superior. It was a extremely cool automotive. So, I do not miss the Supercar.”
Van Gisbergen is discovering loads of enjoyment driving the Subsequent Gen automotive now as a full-time rookie within the Cup Collection within the No. 88 Chevrolet for Trackhouse. It has been an adjustment and tough at instances with up-and-down outcomes, however he has embraced his new life and routinely expresses how enjoyable it has been. He’s studying one thing each week.
“I nonetheless get excited by that,” Van Gisbergen mentioned. “It is nonetheless enjoyable seeing us enhance in areas and nonetheless missing in so much that we have now to get higher at, too.”
It is also been fairly some time since he has been on the backside of the pecking order as an alternative of dominating a sequence. NASCAR is a completely completely different sport than what Van Gisbergen is accustomed, and regardless of having carried out plenty of racing around the globe, he feels there may be nothing like inventory automotive racing.
Earlier than profitable on the highway course in Mexico Metropolis final month, his second profession win, Van Gisbergen was languishing at thirty third within the championship standings. Now, he will probably be within the postseason.
Earlier than then, there are alternatives for extra wins. Chicago, for example, the place van Gisbergen will probably be a favourite. Or in Sonoma, the next week. If not there, Watkins Glen is early subsequent month. Oh, and if he and his staff can handle to advance out of the primary spherical of the NASCAR postseason, the Charlotte Roval is ready within the second.
“That is probably the most I’ve loved my racing in a very long time,” Van Gisbergen mentioned. “Each week, it is a new problem. It isn’t simply the identical sort of observe each week. Even once you go to 2½-mile racetracks, they’re utterly completely different from one another. So, each week feels refreshing, which is cool, and there may be all the time one thing to attempt, and the automobiles are endlessly growing.
“It is fairly cool.”