After the inaugural Chicago Street race, all attention turned toward Shane van Gisbergen. The New Zealand-born driver took everyone by surprise by clinching the win in NASCAR’s first-ever street course race. Intriguingly, this was also Gisbergen’s debut in the NASCAR Cup Series, making his victory even more remarkable.
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As curiosity about the Kiwi grows, people would want to know about his past involvement with NASCAR, the series he currently drives in, and the net worth he’s accumulated over his racing career. So, the question arises: who really is Shane van Gisbergen?
A brief history of Shane Van Gisbergen
Gisbergen is a V8 Supercars Australia driver, driving with Triple Eight Race Engineering. Driving a Camaro ZL1 with the number 97, the Kiwi has won the Supercars championship three times (2016, 2021, and 2022) in his illustrious career. Furthermore, having started his career in the 2007 Supercars series, he has accumulated a total of 499 starts, 80 wins, 174 podiums, and a win at the iconic Bathurst 1000 race.
Interestingly, the winner of the Grant Park 220 race, also made history as the first NASCAR driver to win in their inaugural Cup Series start since 1963. The last time anyone had done it was the IndyCar legend, Johnny Rutherford.
Leveraging his Supercars Championship experience, he entered the Chicago race with better-winning odds than regular NASCAR drivers, unfamiliar with street courses. In the end, that paid off well for him, despite the rain-affected race.
After all, for someone who won at Bathurst, a street race would not be that much of a challenge, right?
What is Gisbergen’s history with NASCAR and net worth?
The race at Grant Park was not the first time, he came close to the NASCAR fraternity. In fact, he had run a race before alongside Kyle Busch in the same program as him once in 2020. Although, the race wasn’t exactly a part of NASCAR. In fact, it was the iconic 24 hours of Daytona.
Throughout his years in racing, the 34-year-old, Auckland native, had managed to accumulate an estimated net worth of $5 million. It seems quite less, when compared to NASCAR drivers, although the number remains speculative. Perhaps if he decides to join the NASCAR grid in a full-time capacity sometime soon, who knows maybe he could grow that amount by quite a lot.
Given his remarkable victory in Chicago, it’s likely that several Cup-level teams would be interested in having a talent like Gisbergen to join their ranks. Although this would remain speculative, unless, the Kiwi makes an official announcement following his Supercars series career sometime in the future.
