Shane van Gisbergen won't set goals for inaugural Cup season
HUNTERSVILLE, N.C. — Shane van Gisbergen doesn’t have any goals for the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season.
It will mark the first full Cup season for the three-time Supercars champion, and he will take the same approach that has worked well for him in recent years.
"I don’t go racing with goals," the 35-year-old New Zelander told FOX Sports during his preseason production day Wednesday. "For a while I’ve been like that. Just doing my best every week and just have the same approach every week.
"I know I can do the job. ... It's just time. I know I can get there. It's just how long it's going to take on the oval side."
Since winning in his Cup debut in the inaugural Chicago street course race in 2023, van Gisbergen has trailblazed a path to NASCAR. While under contract last year with Trackhouse, he ran a full Xfinity season last year for Kaulig Racing while also competing in 12 Cup races.
He won three Xfinity races — all on road courses — but got knocked out of the playoffs following the opening round. He averaged a finish of 23rd in his Cup events, where he also drove for Kaulig.
With Trackhouse’s expansion to three Cup teams, van Gisbergen will drive the No. 88 car in 2025, likely being a threat on road courses while still trying to understand what he needs when racing in circles.
"I don’t have any expectations for it. I guess it is another learning year again because the cars are so different," van Gisbergen said. "Of course, the results are going to have to start coming and improving, especially on the oval side."
And even on the days when he doesn’t run toward the front, van Gisbergen insists he can find enjoyment. He did last year in the Xfinity race at Bristol, where he finished 18th.
"I got lapped, and it was one of the best races I've ever had, just battling with people the whole time on the fence [up high and then] down the bottom — I've never learned so much in one day," van Gisbergen said. "The race was epic. It was the most fun I've ever had. And we were mid-pack."
Before his Cup season starts, van Gisbergen will begin his 2025 with the Rolex 24 sports-car race this weekend. Trackhouse has a team with its drivers van Gisbergen and Connor Zilisch teaming with Scott McLaughlin and Ben Keating.
McLaughlin, a Team Penske IndyCar driver, and van Gisbergen are quite familiar with each other after staging some epic battles in Supercars.
"It’s definitely very weird having one of your fiercest rivals [as a teammate]," van Gisbergen said. "But now we're really good friends and working together has been awesome ... just seeing how Scotty goes about it, we're very different.
"But what we asked for in the car was the same."
Among the similarities? The same seat insert is being used by van Gisbergen and McLaughlin, who isn't as stocky as his formal rival.
"We're not too different in size," van Gisbergen said. "And the GT [sports] cars are pretty small, so I'm quite cramped — but it's actually one of the comfier GT cars I've driven, the Corvette, the way you sort of slump in it, I guess it's kind of like an open-wheeler.
"He kind of liked it as well. It's kind of like his IndyCar, I guess."
Bob Pockrass covers NASCAR for FOX Sports. He has spent decades covering motorsports, including over 30 Daytona 500s, with stints at ESPN, Sporting News, NASCAR Scene magazine and The (Daytona Beach) News-Journal. Follow him on Twitter @bobpockrass.
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