Dale Earnhardt Jr. on People Butchering Shane Van Gisbergen’s Name: “You Just Gotta Own It”

Recently, while speaking on his podcast show, former NASCAR driver and a member of the NBC broadcast booth, Dale Earnhardt Jr, shared his thoughts on everyone mispronouncing Shane van Gisbergen’s name. With the conclusion of NASCAR’s first-ever street course race, we got ourselves a winner who was not from the existing NASCAR grid.

It was the Australian V8 Supercars championship driver, Shane van Gisbergen.

However, after the Kiwi driver won his NASCAR driver, there had been several instances where several people within the NASCAR community had managed to mispronounce his name.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. talks about mispronouncing Shane Van Gisbergen’s name

While speaking on his podcast, Junior stated, “I kept seeing comments about like how none of us were pronouncing Shane Van Gisbergen’s name right. And I’m like, well, that’s got to be impossible because I think we are all doing it differently. So certainly someone’s getting it right. I thought I was doing the best.”

NEW @DaleJr Download Live from the Beach w/ TJ Majors
🚀Chicago Street
🏆 SVG Impressed
🇦🇺Aussie Rules
🐠Lasso Fish

Listen 👇
Apple: https://t.co/yWSE7hTRMS
Spotify: https://t.co/JhWd88IFsE
Web: https://t.co/Bifc95zRhQ pic.twitter.com/5TwQpvxlUL

— Dirty Mo Media (@DirtyMoMedia) July 5, 2023

His co-host intervened and said they should have stuck with the initials “SVG,” since the same was mentioned on Gisbergen’s race suit.

Junior then said, “I thought that would be the lazy way to do it…” Adding, “I know, but Steve even could not get that right. Talking about SVJ. I’m like, goodness gracious. But you know… When you’re human, you’re flawed and you’re imperfect and you are going to make those mistakes. And you just gotta own it.”

Will Gisbergen leave Supercars Championship for NASCAR in the future?

After winning at Grant Park 220, Gisbergen had told the press that he had one more year left back in Australia. Then stating, “I’d love to come over here,” following his Supercars contract run out. This would not be the first time that SVG decided to quit the Supercars series. He quit the series once before as well back in 2013. Although, he did sign a new deal just two months after his rather strange announcement.

But realistically, would it be possible that the Auckland native would come down to run full-time in the Cup Series?

Well, after his extraordinary performance in Chicago, it would be hard not to think that several teams would like to offer him a seat whenever he feels to come down to the United States. Furthermore, Gisbergen had signed a contract with Red Bull Ampol Racing for the Supercars championship.

However, as per reports, it seems that the contract only runs till the end of the 2024 season. Gisbergen had told the American press, “I still love Supercars and hope it goes well there. But in (20)25, who knows? I’m doing one more year in Aus, then I’d love to come over here.”

Gisbergen has not made it clear if it is the Cup Series that he would be driving for come 2025, but he sure does seem to be interested in the prospect. Therefore, the floodgates for his career remain open from the 2025 season.