When NASCAR was about to conduct its first-ever street course race, not many expected a non-NASCAR driver to absolutely shred the regular competition. Well, that is what ended up happening when the Australian V8 Supercars driver Shane van Gisbergen set foot in the Project 91 car by Trackhouse Racing. SVG became an overnight sensation after his stupendous performance over the duration of the race.
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He went on to grab the checkered, scoring his first win on his debut. It has been some time since, and the Kiwi racing driver is set to return this weekend at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course race. Recently, while speaking with Dale Earnhardt Jr., he addressed the current problems with the Supercars series, and how it would make sense for him to jump across the pond soon and be a NASCAR driver.
Shane van Gisbergen talks about his plans on joining NASCAR next season
While speaking on Dale Earnhardt Jr’s podcast, SVG mentioned, “My team is awesome… All the bosses you speak to, from the main one I got a text after the race. He’s like you gotta get out over there next year. So they are fully supportive which is awesome. But I gotta get, there’s gotta be another driver to fill the seat. It’s the best team in the pit lane…”
After winning his debut race in the Cup Series at Chicago, SVG told the media how he would be interested to come and race in NASCAR after his contract was up in the Supercars series next year.
Moreover, for SVG exiting the Supercars championship might be a good call at the moment. Why? Well, it has something to do with the new generation of race cars that have been introduced back there.
SVG opens up on the new Gen 3 V8 Supercars problem
The start of this season saw the V8 Supercars championship introduce the Gen 3 car. The new cars have apparently been causing problems for the drivers in the series. SVG then explained how the racing had become boring since the introduction of these new cars.
SVG mentioned, “They changed to a whole new chassis and concept. Everyone’s the same, same parts. It’s very similar to here like… But yeah, when you read all the articles from last year about the driver’s problems and stuff, it’s very similar. Like the qualifying, there is awesome, but the racing sucks, is so boring. Like you are driving around at 30% trying to keep the tires and everyone’s just following each other.”
“All the parts are the same, and the car’s got a very narrow set up and everyone’s running the same setup, basically. And there’s a minimum tire pressure rule 17 pounds… The tire just explodes because it’s running too hot and just follow each other around it’s mind-numbing.”
Such similar problems also occurred when the Next Gen car was introduced last year. But since then, NASCAR has done a good job of improving the cars significantly. Judging by SVG’s words about the current state of affairs at the Supercars series, it might make sense for him to move into a fresh racing series to get rid of monotony.
