Former Supercars champion Shane van Gisbergen lands full-time Cup Series ride with Trackhouse Racing

Updated Aug. 24, 2024 6:28 p.m. ET

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DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Three-time Supercars champion Shane van Gisbergen will drive full time in the NASCAR Cup Series in 2025 for Trackhouse Racing.

Team owner Justin Marks made the announcement Saturday at Daytona International Speedway with van Gisbergen by his side. The 35-year-old New Zealander will drive the No. 88 Chevrolet for Trackhouse, taking over a number that was last used in the series by Dale Earnhardt Jr. at Hendrick Motorsports.

Van Gisbergen will join Ross Chastain and Daniel Suarez to give Trackhouse an expanded, three-car team. Trackhouse bought a third charter — the contract that guarantees cars entry into each Cup race — from Stewart-Haas Racing, which is shuttering its doors at the end of this season.

“I never thought it would happen this quick,” van Gisbergen said.

Marks previously announced that Trackhouse and Zane Smith will part ways after this season. Trackhouse loaned Smith to Spire Motorsports for this season because Trackhouse had only two charters.

Van Gisbergen’s rise made it “an easy decision,” Marks said. Van Gisbergen floored NASCAR when he won his debut race at Chicago’s street course race in 2023, becoming the first to do so in the ultra-competitive Cup Series since Johnny Rutherford in the second qualifying race at Daytona in 1963.

“Shane checks a lot of boxes for a really, really compelling story of building a great business in this sport,” Marks said. “He’s incredibly talented, he’s incredibly dedicated. …

“Obviously, the Chicago street race is kind of in his wheelhouse. But the rate of adaptability of everything else, just the competition, the restarts, the pit stops, the way you prepared for that race, man, this is a superstar.”

Buoyed by his success at Chicago, van Gisbergen packed his bags and landed a development program deal driving with Trackhouse. Van Gisbergen has three wins and six top-10s in 22 starts in the Xfinity Series this season and has led 14 laps in four Cup starts.

Van Gisbergen said his Supercars career had become stale, and he welcomed a new challenge driving stock cars.

Van Gisbergen’s NASCAR interest was piqued in 2022 when he saw Formula 1 champion Kimi Raikkonen drive for Trackhouse’s Project 91 program. The goal for the Project 91 program was to give international drivers a shot at NASCAR. Van Gisbergen reached out through friends to Marks about pursuing a NASCAR ride. With van Gisbergen’s history — he finished with 80 wins in Supercars — he seemed a perfect match to drive for the fledgling program.

NASCAR has been littered with drivers who flopped trying to make the jump to stock cars after successful careers in other series. Dario Franchitti won the Indianapolis 500 three times, but his Cup career flamed out after two ill-fated seasons. Juan Pablo Montoya and Sam Hornish Jr. never reached the heights in NASCAR they achieved in open-wheel racing. Australian Marcos Ambrose won a pair of Supercars championships before he won just twice in 227 career Cup races.

But Marks believes van Gisbergen will be different, and the early returns agree.

“This is somebody that we were really excited about committing to, knowing that it’s a relatively unconventional path to a Cup car,” Marks said. “But we wouldn’t be doing it if we didn’t think this guy could win lots and lots of Cup races and be a playoff contender. It was honestly a pretty easy decision.”

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AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing

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