Shane van Gisbergen admits he has “struggled” on NASCAR’s oval tracks
The Kiwi has the potential to succeed in NASCAR, but the first few races of 2025 have proved to be challenging.
Shane van Gisbergen has admitted that he has “struggled” to achieve results on oval tracks at the start of his first full season in the NASCAR Cup Series.
The three-time Supercars champion has scored a single top-10 finish in the first five races of 2025, courtesy of his impressive run to sixth at the Circuit of the Americas - the only road course in the first half of the 36-round calendar.
But it’s the short and long ovals that have proved to be his Achilles Heel, not helped by him getting caught up in other incidents at Phoenix and Las Vegas.
Heading into Sunday’s race at Homestead-Miami, the Kiwi sits 31st in the championship, four places behind fellow rookie Riley Herbst.
The driver of the #88 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet described his early non-finishes in 2025 as a “pain”, but is confident that he has the potential and the speed to achieve better results.
“I feel like we’ve showed a lot of promise but we have nothing to show for it, really,” van Gisbergen said. “COTA was a good day, but on the ovals we’ve really struggled and we’ve had a lot of accidents and they haven’t really been our fault.
“It’s really tough results-wise but I see a lot of potential and speed. Just got to put it together and get to the end of the races and things will start clicking for us, I think.
“It has been hard because I’m not really known for crashing too much and not finishing, so it’s been a bit of a pain really.
“Just have to stay out of trouble and get through it. The first stage we’re always going good and improving and thinking the rest of the race is going to be good then something seems to happen, so hopefully we stop that this weekend.”
Van Gisbergen was one of the biggest stars of his generation in Supercars, but he started showing interest in racing in America in the last few years, following in the footsteps of his rival Scott McLaughlin, who is now a multiple race winner in IndyCar.
Van Gisbergen stunned everyone by winning the Chicago street race on his Cup Series debut in 2023, and he left Supercars at the end of the same year to pursue a career in NASCAR.
This saw him contest the full NASCAR Xfinity season in 2024 and make a handful of appearances in the Cup Series.
This year marks his first full campaign in NASCAR’s premier category.
