The Kiwi ace, Shane van Gisbergen, who stormed onto the NASCAR Cup Series scene with a win on debut in Chicago, now has six victories to his name in just three years, including his first in 2023. But what makes his story unique is that he never even pictured himself in NASCAR until Trackhouse Racing came calling.
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Before Justin Marks’ Project 91 initiative bridged global motorsport cultures, SVG’s focus lay firmly on Australia’s V8 Supercars Championship. NASCAR was barely on his radar.
“I followed NASCAR a bit when [Aussie Cup driver] Marcos Ambrose was racing, but when he stopped, I didn’t really pay much attention again until Trackhouse co-owner Justin Marks launched Project 91 in 2022, with the goal of letting the world’s best driver have a go in NASCAR,” said SVG.
Even Roger Penske’s interest in Supercars, which had brought a sliver of NASCAR awareness down under, hadn’t quite sparked his interest. That changed in 2022, when Marks launched Project 91. The program debuted with 2007 Formula 1 world champion Kimi Räikkönen, and while SVG admired the effort from afar, he didn’t think he’d ever get a call.
“I put out feelers through former NASCAR Cup driver Boris Said,” he recalled. “Boris knew Justin and sort of started the conversation. To my great surprise and joy, Justin reached out and told me, ‘There’s a new race happening in 2023 on a street track that I think you’d be perfect for. Give me a few months to find some sponsors and partners.’ That was an awesome conversation, just because I didn’t go into it thinking something would come of it.”
A few months later, Marks called back to say ‘Yeah, this is going to happen.’ The timing also favored SVG’s run. The Chicago event landed on a free weekend in SVG’s Supercars calendar.
Though he had dabbled in American racing before, with appearances in IMSA and the Rolex 24 at Daytona, this was a different beast. It was his first NASCAR start, and he made history that weekend, outdueling seasoned Cup veterans on debut.
While SVG once had ambitions of making it to Formula 1, he knew the odds were slim. He admitted that he was halfway decent at open-wheel racing. But he has always been a pretty big guy, and most open-wheel drivers look like they should be 14 years old, he joked. SVG’s time in the Toyota Series confirmed that weight was his enemy, robbing him of speed.
So he pivoted. Touring cars became his proving ground, and from there, his dominance in Supercars cemented his legacy. Now, with his focus on mastering ovals, having already started two races inside the top 10 and finishing top 10 at Kansas in 2025, the Kiwi driver’s American chapter is only just gathering steam.
What began as an unlikely crossover has evolved into one of NASCAR’s most captivating modern success stories, a Kiwi racer crossing oceans and disciplines, finding his feet in a different form of racing altogether.
