Shane van Gisbergen, a three-time Supercars champion and the winner of the inaugural NASCAR Cup Series Chicago Street Race, will join Trackhouse Racing to drive in a combination of events in NASCAR’s National Series in 2024.
“This announcement means so many things to me. 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,” said van Gisbergen. “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.”
The organization, which fields two full-time entries in the NASCAR Cup Series for Ross Chastain and Daniel Suarez, will put together a program that will see the 34-year-old get his feet wet in select NASCAR Cup, Xfinity, and Craftsman Truck Series events, as well as Late Model events and other races.
“It is time for a new challenge and this adventure into NASCAR will be the biggest challenge of my career and one I’m really looking forward to,” the New Zealander continued. “I want to thank Justin Marks and everyone at Trackhouse Racing who have taken a chance on me and given me this opportunity. I’m excited to get to America and getting the season started.”
Scoring top-10 finishes in his first two events at Chicago’s Street Course and the Indy Road Course, van Gisbergern became the first driver since Terry Labonte in 1978 to score a pair of top-10s in his first two starts in the NASCAR Cup Series.
Finishing 10th in Sunday's #Verizon200 at @IMS, @ShaneVG97 became the first driver since Terry Labonte in 1978 to start their #NASCAR Cup Series career with back-to-back top-10 finishes.#SrigleyStats feat. @RacingAmerica pic.twitter.com/NsL2uZkY8m
— Joseph Srigley (@joe_srigley) August 13, 2023
The Auckland, New Zealand native also made his oval debut while in Indianapolis, finishing 19th in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series event at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park in the No. 41 for Niece Motorsports.
Justin Marks, owner and founder of Trackhouse Racing, says that Trackhouse Racing is designing the perfect 2024 schedule, in order to introduce him to NASCAR.
“This is going to be a tremendous challenge for Shane but he is a tremendous driver as we have all seen,” said Marks. “Next year will be about getting him acclimated to oval track racing, superspeedways, 1.5-mile tracks and everything he has never experienced in his career. It’s obviously going to be a learning process, but we think Shane will perform quite well.”
An exact schedule of events, plus where he’ll be racing in each of NASCAR’s top three series, will be released at a later date, as will the sponsorship partners for this groundbreaking project.
