It was a mistake, and Shane van Gisbergen doesn’t make mistakes, at least not on road courses. And here he was, leading the race on the last lap at Watkins Glen, hounded by Chris Buescher with only a few corners to go. No matter. He had this.
And then he didn’t. Going into one of the final turns, SVG got a bit high, allowing Buescher to close on him. Buescher tapped SVG’s bumper, causing him to wobble, then got inside him to take the lead.
SVG would close on Buescher one last time, but as he tried to go outside, Buescher came down to block, SVG fishtailed slightly, and Buescher took the checkered flag.
That was then, 2024 to be exact, and this is now. Then, SVG was running 12 races in a car prepared by Kaulig Racing, a nondescript NASCAR team which has never been competitive.
Now, he has a fulltime ride with Trackhouse Racing, a well organized tier two team just a notch below the top Toyota, Chevy and Ford organizations.
Trackhouse is led by Ross Chastain, who has won at least one race every year since NASCAR’s Next Gen car came on line in 2022, and the pairing of road course king SVG and Chastain, who has been very competitive on the ovals, has given the group some extra juice.
The team also has a third driver, Daniel Suarez, but he has been a disappointment and is being let go at the end of this season.
SVG’s rise to the top in NASCAR has been meteoric and totally unexpected. From New Zealand, the 36-year-old is a veteran of the Australian Supercar series which runs strictly on road courses.
But he was a complete unknown when he ran the Chicago street race in 2023, his first time in a stock car, and won. And he hasn’t looked back.
Last Sunday, he avenged his 2024 loss at Watkins Glen by winning there, his fourth straight road course win of the year. Although he is only 25th in points, that makes him second in the NASCAR playoff standings (SVG is sixth in the Old Guy Sport competition index) and the four wins are the most ever in NASCAR for a rookie driver.
Justin Marks, who owns Trackhouse and brought SVG to Chicago for his first race, is not surprised by his road course success. “What he’s doing right now is sort of why he’s in the car,” Marks commented on NASCAR’s media site after SVG’s win at the Glen. “We feel like he had an opportunity to do this.
“But when these wins just keep coming in the way that they are and the fact that the rest of the series, the rest of the drivers, are watching him and getting better but he’s getting better too, and it seems like they can’t do anything with him right now, is just an amazing thing to watch,” Marks said.
While it’s easy to concentrate on SVG’s success, all of it has come on road courses. It’s been entirely different for him on ovals, where his best finish so far is a 14th at Charlotte. He is simply not competitive on the tracks that host the majority of NASCAR races.
And while he intimidates the competition on road courses; mentally, the other drivers almost concede the victory to him and admit they are racing to be best in class, his performance on ovals must improve markedly before he can be considered among NASCAR’s elite.
“I’m very encouraged by his rate of learning on the ovals,” Marks remarked. “I think he has only just begun to put it together. I think the ceiling is really high for him, and he’s here for a while.”
That may be, but it hasn’t really shown up yet. SVG has consistently run around 20th on ovals this year. Still, he’s made the playoffs, he’s proven he can win and he seems to be getting more comfortable in his car.
Plus, Trackhouse has put everything it’s got behind him. “If you can catch lightning in a bottle like we have with SVG, you’ve got to really lean into it,” Marks declared. Hard.
NASCAR NOTES
Three most likely winners at Richmond: 1-Chase Briscoe, 2-Denny Hamlin, 3-Kyle Larson. Last year’s winners at Richmond: First race-Hamlin. Second race-Austin Dillon. Top five in first race: 1-Hamlin, 2-Joey Logano, 3-Larson, 4-Martin Truex, 5-Chase Elliott. Second race: 1-Dillon, 2-Hamlin, 3-Tyler Reddick, 4-Bubba Wallace, 5-Ross Chastain.
Last week’s Old Guy Sport competition index picks at Watkins Glen: 1-Shane van Gisbergen, 2-Elliott, 3-Reddick. Watkins Glen winner: Shane van Gisbergen. OGS season record: 10-9.
OGS competition index after 20 races: 1-Hamlin 470 points, 2-Larson 365, 3-Briscoe 328, 4-William Byron 326, Christopher Bell 326, 6-van Gisbergen 295, 7-Ryan Blaney 258, 8-Wallace 149, 9-Elliott 147, 10-Ty Gibbs 122.
OGS competition index on short tracks (tracks similar to Richmond): 1-Hamlin 211, 2-Larson 135, 3-Briscoe 112, 4-Bell 110, 5-Byron 80, 6-Elliott 50, 7-Blaney 37, Brad Keselowski 37, 9-Gibbs 40, 10-Alex Bowman 34.
