Shane van Gisbergen, the three-time Australian Supercar champion who took NASCAR by storm with his historic win in July’s Chicago Street Course race, has signed a development deal with Trackhouse Racing for the 2024 season, the team announced Wednesday (Sept. 13).
Van Gisbergen, 34, will compete in all three national NASCAR series, in addition to late models and other series.
No specific races were included in the announcement.
The New Zealand-native has made three NASCAR starts to date. Following his Chicago win, van Gisbergen made his oval racing debut on Aug. 11 in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park in Indiana. He finished 19th in a truck owned by Niece Motorsports.
Two days later he made his second Cup Series start with Trackhouse Racing, placing 10th in the race on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course.
“This announcement means so many things to me,” van Gisbergen said in a press release. “I’m proud of what I have achieved here in Australia, but I’m excited by this new chapter in my career and the opportunities that it brings.
“I’m so thankful to everyone who has played a role in my career so far, especially Triple Eight Race Engineering, and looking forward to finishing our year with a few more highlights!”
Van Gisbergen is one of six foreign-born drivers to win a Cup Series race and the first driver since Johnny Rutherford in 1963 to win his first Cup Series start.
Van Gisbergen’s path to NASCAR began as a result of PROJECT91, the program created by Trackhouse Racing and team owner Justin Marks to bring International racing starts to the Cup Series.
In a press release, Marks said van Gisbergen’s 2024 schedule will be aimed at getting him “acclimated” to the various forms of oval track racing, including superspeedways and 1.5-mile tracks.
“This is going to be a tremendous challenge for Shane, but he is a tremendous driver as we have all seen,” said Marks. “It’s obviously going to be a learning process, but we think Shane will perform quite well.”
About the author
Daniel McFadin is a 10-year veteran of the NASCAR media corp. He wrote for NBC Sports from 2015 to October 2020. He currently works full time for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette and is lead reporter and an editor for Frontstretch. He is also host of the NASCAR podcast "Dropping the Hammer with Daniel McFadin" presented by Democrat-Gazette.
You can email him at danielmcfadin@gmail.com.
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Good luck, dude. Thes guys will probably not be as polite next time