Shane van Gisbergen is in the middle of his first full-time Cup season this year after his stint in the Xfinity Series last year, where he bagged three wins and finished twelfth in the standings. This season, although he has only managed one top-10 finish in his first seven Cup starts, which came at COTA — a road course — Kurt Busch seems confident that SVG’s oval skills will soon match his road course skills.
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Kurt highlighted van Gisbergen’s adaptation to the NASCAR scene and predicted that the new driver would soon excel, particularly on more worn oval tracks like Las Vegas, Texas, and Homestead-Miami, which offer a better grip for rookies.
He explained, “Those [worn-out ovals] are easier for a new driver to feel, and that might sound the opposite. Fresh asphalt, there’s no room for error. Once you slip, you’re gone.”
Kurt is keen to scan SVG’s progress on the oval tracks of NASCAR, believing that the continuous circuit exposure will hasten his adaptation, and is optimistic that SVG could start winning races on the Cup Series ovals as early as 2026.
This confidence stems from the fact that while some drivers struggle to transition from the Xfinity Series to handling the Next Gen cars — such as Noah Gragson or Ty Gibbs — SVG’s experience in the SuperCars Series, which features vehicles akin to NASCAR’s Next Gen cars, gives him a leg up in terms of familiarity with their functionalities and handling.
He explained that on typical NASCAR tracks, drivers need to finely balance the downforce due to high speeds, often navigating turns at 180 mph in a sideways drift, which requires skill and adaptation.
In contrast, road courses present less of an aerodynamic challenge, as high speeds are typically only reached at the end of straightaways, reducing the complexity of aerodynamics involved.
Kurt compared SVG‘s shift to NASCAR to that of Juan Pablo Montoya, who initially shone on road courses before he got the hang of ovals. Montoya eventually became a challenging competitor on both track types, securing wins at Sonoma and Watkins Glen and later excelling on ovals as well.
Busch noted that one advantage for van Gisbergen has been the transaxle gearbox, similar to what’s used in Supercars and positioned at the car’s rear — a setup that many veteran Cup Series drivers have had to adjust to.
Similarly, Kurt‘s brother, Kyle Busch, who was a powerhouse during the Gen6 era with 35 wins and an average 12th-place finish, has seen a dip in his performance with the introduction of the Next Gen cars, his average finish worsening to 16.7 with only 4 wins since.
The same trend holds for RFK Racing owner Brad Keselowski, who has seen his average finish drop from 12.4 in the Gen6 era to 16.8 in the Gen7 cars, stressing the adjustments even seasoned drivers face with new technology in the sport.
