NASCAR’s decision to return to the Chase format has drawn praise from a wide swath of the garage, including veteran drivers, team insiders, and long-time viewers of the sport. Yet for specialists, the shift carries some real consequences. Drivers such as Shane van Gisbergen entered the Cup Series during an era when the format played to their strengths.
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The “win-and-you’re-in” provision created a clear runway for road-course (or other track) aces to secure playoff berths without struggling through a full season of oval consistency. With that safety net removed, the topography has changed, and van Gisbergen understands the size of the mountain now in front of him.
Speaking candidly during a scrum interview, the Trackhouse Racing driver gave an unscripted assessment of NASCAR’s revised direction. While acknowledging the challenge it presents, he also recognized the logic behind the move.
“I think it kind of needed a change, yeah. But it’s hard for me. Like the reason I’m in the series is because of win and you’re in, right?” van Gisbergen explained.
His path into the Cup Series came as a result of that opportunity, and he did not shy away from admitting it. At the same time, SVG pointed to the strides he has made on ovals.
“But I feel like I’ve gotten better at ovals to the point where I don’t have to rely on it. But, yeah, it’s certainly going to be an achievement to make that top 16. But I think it’s a good target for us and something that is achievable.”
“I think it rewards those top guys now that are always winning, and they were the guys calling for it, I guess. But, yeah, for me that’s more of a pure racing championship, so probably a good thing in that regard,” he pointed out.
“It’s hard for me because the reason I’m in this series is because of win and you’re in.”
But @shanevg97 went on to say The Chase is more of a “pure form of racing championship” adding that the format needed a change.
Big words from SVG pic.twitter.com/ZU7a3iKi8I
— PRN (@PRNlive) January 23, 2026
Van Gisbergen’s progression on ovals over the course of the 2025 season was pronounced, bordering on a night-and-day transformation from where he began his Cup journey. Early struggles gave way to growing comfort, and repetition helped him learn better. Reflecting on that learning, he noted, “Just the knowledge. Like I’m going to all these places for the second, third, fourth time, and I felt so much more comfortable at the end of last year.”
“And I think I read that we would have been near the top 16 or right in it, and you know we were 35th or 58th or something in points halfway through the year you know it felt like so we had a really bad start to the year and still made it so yeah maybe we can do the same this year it’d be really cool to start a lot stronger.”
Statistically, SVG began 2025 struggling to crack the top 30 on ovals, yet by season’s end, he was logging top-10 finishes and collecting stage points. For example, in Kansas, he recorded his first top-10 finish in a Cup Series oval race. In the penultimate race at Martinsville, he finished 14th. He matched that position at both Charlotte and Richmond, and at Talladega Superspeedway, he brought the car home 11th.
Then, at Michigan, during the FireKeepers Casino 400, he showcased a steady uptick by advancing from P26 to P18, to get his third top-20 finish in four oval starts at that stage of the season.
Those results followed a difficult opening stretch, where five of his first six oval races in 2025 ended outside the top 30. As the weeks passed, his average finish improved to 22nd, and he captured his first stage points.
The road-course ace himself emphasized the technical growth behind those numbers, explaining that he learned to run inches from the wall at speed at tracks like Las Vegas, confronting and overcoming the fear of “missing the apex on purpose.”
