‘Simply Not Been Good Enough’: Shane van Gisbergen Breaks Down Tough Start to Cup Season After Much-Needed Darlington Result

Jerry Bonkowski | 07/04/2025
Shane van Gisbergen watches the action on the giant TV screen as he and the crew wait for their qualifying run, Saturday February 17, 2024 for the United Rentals 300 at Daytona International Speedway.

Shane van Gisbergen is not having the kind of first full season in the NASCAR Cup that he had hoped for. In fact, it isn’t even close. The New Zealand driver’s struggles continued in Sunday’s Goodyear 400 at Darlington Raceway, as he finished 20th.

If there’s any type of positive to come out of Sunday’s mid-pack finish, it’s that it was van Gisbergen’s second-best finish — and best showing overall on an oval track — thus far this season. His only decent outcome this season was sixth place on the road course at Circuit of the Americas.

But the flip side of that is that van Gisbergen has still finished 20th or worse in seven of the first eight races this season, with five of those finishes lower than 30th.

“It’s not the best result, I guess, but for us and how it’s been going, we struggled a bit for balance but our long run speed was good and we were able to make some passes, so yeah, we’ll take 20th,” van Gisbergen told podcaster Nikolai P. Culp. “It’s something to build on.”

“It’s been one of the toughest starts in any type of racing I’ve ever had,” Gisbergen said. “We’ve just had one thing after another with our car failures or someone else’s crash, or I’ve just simply not been good enough.

“I feel like I can run with these guys, qualifying is still a struggle for me the way this car works, but my race pace is alright. I just keep getting caught up in stuff early on.”

And now, with next Sunday’s race at Bristol Motor Speedway — van Gisbergen’s first career Cup start on the high banks of the .533-mile oval — the odds of snapping out of his poor start thus far in 2025 aren’t looking overly optimistic.

Gisbergen enters the Bristol race, which marks the one-quarter mark of the 36-race NASCAR Cup season, a disappointing 33rd in the standings.

“Next week’s going to be really, really tough,” he said. “I’ve never been at Bristol in a Cup car and with limited practice, tracks like that are insane, how fast they run at.”

But van Gisbergen isn’t giving up on himself or NASCAR Cup racing,

“Yeah, it’ll come in time,” he concluded. “I just need time.”

Post Edited By: Srijan Mandal
Bristol Motor Speedway Darlington Raceway NASCAR Cup Shane Van Gisbergen

About the author

Jerry Bonkowski

Jerry Bonkowski

Jerry Bonkowski is a veteran sportswriter who has worked full-time for many of the top media outlets in the world, including USA Today (15 years), ESPN.com (4+ years), Yahoo Sports (4 1/2 years), NBCSports.com (8 years) and others. He has covered virtually every major professional and collegiate sport there is, including the Chicago Bulls' six NBA championships (including heavy focus on Michael Jordan), the Chicago Bears Super Bowl XX-winning season, the Chicago White Sox and Chicago Cubs World Series championships, two of the Chicago Blackhawks' NHL titles, Tiger Woods' PGA Tour debut, as well as many years of beat coverage of the NFL, MLB, NHL and NBA for USA Today. But Jerry's most notable achievement has been covering motorsports, most notably NASCAR, IndyCar, NHRA drag racing and Formula One. He has had a passion for racing since he started going to watch drag races at the old U.S. 30 Dragstrip (otherwise known as "Where the Great Ones Run!") in Hobart, Indiana. Jerry has covered countless NASCAR, IndyCar and NHRA races and championship battles over the years. He's also the author of a book, "Trading Paint: 101 Great NASCAR Debates", published in 2010 (and he's hoping to soon get started on another book). Away from sports, Jerry was a fully sworn part-time police officer for 20 years, enjoys reading and music (especially "hair bands" from the 1980s and 1990s), as well as playing music on his electric keyboard, driving (fast, of course!), spending time with Cyndee his wife of nearly 40 years, the couple's three adult children and three grandchildren (with more to come!), and his three dogs -- including two German Shepherds and an Olde English Bulldog who thinks he's a German Shepherd.. Jerry still gets the same excitement of seeing his byline today as he did when he started in journalism as a 15-year-old high school student. He is looking forward to writing hundreds, if not thousands, of stories in the future for TheSportsRush.com, as well as interacting with readers.

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