Trackhouse Racing as a whole has been in a funk to start 2026. Ross Chastain is lacking overall speed and competitiveness. Connor Zilisch understandably is still acclimating to the NASCAR Cup Series and what it takes to be a contender on a week-in and week-out basis.
That leaves the guy who just may be showing the biggest pulse for Justin Marks’ team on the ovals: Shane van Gisbergen. In showing flashes during his rookie season at Kansas Speedway and New Hampshire Motor Speedway, the New Zealand native has started to turn the corner in being an all around Cup Series driver.
But is he already Trackhouse Racing’s best on ovals? Thomas Dunn and Christopher Hansen evaluate that on this week’s 2-Headed Monster.
Welcome to the SVG Show
Before ever turning a single lap for Trackhouse Racing in the NASCAR Cup Series, \van Gisbergen’s strength throughout his professional racing career has always been on road courses.
Given his background racing Supercars before making the move to the United States to pursue a career in NASCAR, success in NASCAR’s top series on road courses seemed inevitable.
Road course racing is where van Gisbergen has excelled in his young Cup Series career, as the Auckland, New Zealand, native won five of the six Cup Series races on road courses last year, leaving his competitors in the rear-view mirror with his dominant outings.
Despite being the favorite week-in and week-out on road courses, those tracks make up a very small portion of the Cup Series calendar, with traditional oval racetracks making up the rest of the schedule.
As to be expected for an incoming rookie driver, van Gisbergen’s results on
ovals early in 2025 reflected his rookie status. Four straight finishes of 30th or worse showed that it was going to take time for van Gisbergen to adapt to a style of racing he didn’t have a lot of experience in.
As the season progressed, the overall finishes also showed an upward mark as van Gisbergen started running better on ovals, especially at tracks the series raced at earlier on in the season.
In the first seven races of the 2026 season, SVG has turned in some impressive showings on the ovals, with three finishes inside the top 15 and only one finish outside the top 30 coming at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Compared to his Trackhouse Racing teammates Chastain and Zilisch, it’s clear right away that SVG has established himself as the best oval driver from Trackhouse only seven races into the campaign.
Zilisch, competing in his first full Cup Series season, is going to struggle as he learns the ins and outs of driving a Next Gen Cup car, which drives vastly different than the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series car, in which Zilisch won a series-best 10 races in last season.
Trackhouse’s senior driver, Chastain, who many thought was going to have an upward tick in performance compared to 2025, has struggled through the opening seven races of 2026. Chastain’s best finish on a true non-drafting oval this season is a 16th-place finish, which he achieved at Darlington Raceway and this past weekend at Martinsville Speedway. In comparison, van Gisbergen’s best oval finish on non-drafting tracks has been a pair of 11th-place finishes at Phoenix Raceway and Martinsville, even more impressive considering that he ran in the top 10 the bulk of this past weekend.
Three times this season, van Gisbergen has been the highest finishing driver on ovals over his two teammates Chastain and Zilisch. This signifies that van Gisbergen has indeed made noticeable improvements on ovals compared to his longer tenured teammate Chastain.
The season is still young with only seven races completed, but van Gisbergen has already made a big statement on ovals by outrunning his two Trackhouse teammates most weekends. The bad news for Chastain and Zilisch is that van Gisbergen is only going to get better over time on ovals to where he’ll likely start contending for top-five finishes and eventually challenge for race wins. – Christopher Hansen
I See It … I Will Wait to Believe It
There’s a lot to like about what van Gisbergen is bringing to the table in year two, no doubt about it. However, right now that’s a prisoner-of-the-moment perspective.
Chastain still has five oval wins, a Championship 4 appearance and a performance to remember in last year’s Coca-Cola 600, going from last in a backup car to winning one of NASCAR’s biggest crown jewels.
SVG is absolutely setting the standard in what has otherwise been a paltry start to Trackhouse Racing’s 2026, but there’s still a body of work that we need to reference. He had the most speed of anyone in the Trackhouse stable at Martinsville and has more than held his own at Phoenix and Darlington, but it takes time before we can anoint him as the best oval racer there.
After all, SVG is still in pursuit of his first career NASCAR oval win.
Now, the Kiwi native has had some real solid runs over the backhalf of 2025 and into the early parts of 2026. Compare his aforementioned Darlington outputs from year one to two and there’s a stark difference. Last year’s fall Kansas race, he was all but done for on lap 1 after having to serve a penalty immediately and made it back to the top 10 by the finish.
There’s not only potential but clearly a drive to get better from one of the most versatile drivers on the planet.
But it still takes quite a bit of time before we put these monikers to him. Moreover, it would be a little overzealous to put this argument out there even if SVG continues his solid start on ovals, simply because of what Chastain has shown at his peak. In 2022 Chastain was seen as one of the up-and-coming stars of the sport, and it didn’t come from thin air.
Now, should we celebrate SVG for what he’s doing in his second full-time season in the Cup Series? 100%. We’re watching someone who is so far away from his main discipline work towards being someone to watch on a week-in and week-out basis. Even the young prodigies that we’ve seen over the years sometimes don’t ever make that sort of leap.
Shane van Gisbergen may very well become the best oval racer at Trackhouse down the line. But for now let’s just enjoy the comfort of someone not skipping the steps but developing at a pace that should have fans noticing that he will become a player in the future. –Thomas Dunn
Thomas is in his second year covering NASCAR at Frontstretch. A Bay Area NASCAR fan for over 15+ years, he found his love for the sport through Jeff Gordon. He helps manage the 2-Headed Monster Column.
Thomas has enjoyed several trips to Sonoma Raceway in his time and currently covers college athletics in the Bay Area, writing about the California Golden Bears and doing play by play broadcasting.
You can’t use the not used to the car excuse for Zillisch, he is supposedly the best driver in NASCAR right now and Shane won in his first race. Shane is doing very well yet you still trash talk him. Why don’t you, Harvick and Bowyer offer to fight Shane, one at a time for charity. You all want him of of NASCAR, so put up or shut up.