Prior to Saturday night’s Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona International Speedway, where Shane van Gisbergen will make his fifth NASCAR Cup Series start of the season, Trackhouse Racing made a significant announcement in regard to the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season. The organization has acquired a third-team charter and will field the No. 88 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 with van Gisbergen as the full-time driver of the entry.
Trackhouse, who will reveal sponsorship partners for the effort in the coming weeks, revealed the No. 88 car’s number font on Saturday.
Stephen Doran, who has served as the crew chief for the No. 71 Spire Motorsports entry with contracted Trackhouse Racing driver Zane Smith, will serve as the crew chief for the effort next season.
The team made the news official with a press conference in the media center at Daytona International Speedway. Team founder and owner Justin Marks calls the announcement an important step for the Trackhouse team.
“This is a big day in so many ways for Trackhouse Racing, Shane, Chevrolet, and race fans around the world,” said Marks. “This is an important step for our organization and it’s a credit to the men and women at Trackhouse Racing whose hard work and success the last few years has led to us expanding to three Cup teams in 2025.
“It’s also a big step up for Shane who took a chance on Trackhouse Racing, moved here from New Zealand and now joins the most competitive stock car racing series in the world. Everyone will get to watch one of the world’s racing superstars compete in the NASCAR Cup Series next year.”
While he didn’t explicitly state in Friday’s press conference whether the new Team Charter came from Stewart-Haas Racing, Marks heavily implied that the Charter was indeed from SHR. He also refused to put a number or ballpark number on the cost of the Charter purchase.
Van Gisbergen, 35, has been a quick study in his brief stint as a NASCAR National Series driver. The New Zealander scored a NASCAR Cup Series win in his debut event, which came in the 2023 Grant Park 165 at the Chicago Street Course while driving Trackhouse Racing’s PROJECT91 entry.
While under contract with Trackhouse Racing, SVG has been on loan this season to Kaulig Racing, who have fielded the No. 97 Chevrolet for the driver in the NASCAR Xfinity Series this season. The results, at least on road courses, have been impressive. Now, he’ll look to continue showcasing his incredible road course skills as a NASCAR Cup Series rookie while also honing his abilities on ovals in 2025.
“This is what I have planned for and I am ready,” said van Gisbergen. “I know there is a tough learning curve ahead, but the best way to learn is to go out and do it. I feel I have made progress running the Xfinity Series this year with Kaulig Racing and I can’t thank everyone there enough. I look forward to the Cup Series. Those drivers and teams are the best in the world and it will be an honor to be part of their races.”
Van Gisbergen has amassed three victories through his first four road course starts in the NASCAR Xfinity Series ranks. The driver has easily locked his place into the 2024 NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoffs by virtue of his three wins, and he has progressively found more speed on oval tracks as the season has gone by.
While he has shown to be roughly a top-15 driver on ovals for the majority of the season, the three-time Supercars champion has had a few eye-popping finishes on non-road courses this season.
Van Gisbergen finished third at Atlanta Motor Speedway, which has been a hybrid intermediate/superspeedway track since its reconfiguration in 2022. He also finished sixth at Phoenix Raceway, a very technical and flat one-mile oval. He also scored a fourth-place result in the Brickyard 400 around the iconic 2.5-mile Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
