History of Foreign Drivers in NASCAR: Has Anyone Been Successful?

It’s not every day that we get to see a foreign driver compete in NASCAR, but that does not mean that we haven’t had anyone good from outside of the country. Throughout the years, there have been quite a few notable drivers that have successfully made it into NASCAR. At the present moment, the Mexican sensation and Trackhouse Racing driver Daniel Suarez is one such example.

Another notable driver in between his transition to a full-time Cup Series career is Australian V8 Supercars champion, Shane van Gisbergen. The Kiwi driver rose to the spotlight after winning the inaugural Chicago Street race during his debut in the Cup Series.

Now with the help of Trackhouse Racing, van Gisbergen is going to compete a full season in the Xfinity Series starting this year. There’s a lot of hope for him to be able to find success within the American stock car racing realm, considering his career achievements and how he effortlessly merges into anything he is presented with.

NASCAR has seen only a handful of successful foreign drivers

Taking a look back a couple of years, we had the likes of Juan Pablo Montoya who previously raced in Formula 1 with Williams and McLaren. In his Cup career stint which lasted nine seasons, he won two races, and claimed 59 top tens and nine poles, making his foray into the top flight of American stock car racing quite successful. Later on, he went on to race in the IndyCar championship for another six years.

Meanwhile, another prominent driver that raced in NASCAR was Marcos Ambrose. Now he did spend a lot of his career racing in Trucks, Xfinity, and the Cup Series. Ambrose started in the V8 Supercars championship, just like van Gisbergen, where he won the 2003 and 2004 championships.

He then left the Supercars series at the end of the 2005 season in hopes of making a career in the Cup Series. Across his seven seasons in the top division, Ambrose was able to secure two wins, 46 top tens, and three poles.

Now justifying success can be a hard thing to do. It’s not about winning championships, but rather being able to comfortably find a sweet spot where they can win races as well as be competitive. Hence, looking back at all of these drivers and people like van Gisbergen who are the new generation of foreign drivers entering the foray, we could see more and more talents from across the world attempt to taste success in this premier division of Motorsports.