Shane van Gisbergen has spent most of this NASCAR Cup season proving he belongs. The three-time Supercars champion has looked far more comfortable on oval tracks, got his first oval top-five at Nashville, and steadily chipped away at the biggest weakness in his game. But just when it looked like the momentum was building, San Diego brought everything to a halt.

The inaugural Cup race at Naval Base Coronado ended in disaster for Trackhouse Racing. Van Gisbergen started from pole, looked like one of the strongest cars in the field, and was running near the front before a Lap 32 pileup wiped out his day. And even days later, the frustration was still fresh.

“We do need to get some speed going. I’m still pissed today, but you’ve got to keep smiling somehow,” Shane van Gisbergen said on Kevin Harvick’s Happy Hour. “There’s another race in a few more days, and hopefully we’ll have a better result next week.”

He was talking about the advice his mother has always given him. She never tells him how to race. Instead, she reminds him to enjoy it and have fun, no matter the result. That is easier said than done after San Diego.

Van Gisbergen came into the weekend as one of the favorites. But his race lasted only 32 laps. On the restart into Turn 1, Austin Hill locked his rear brakes and slid into Trackhouse teammate Connor Zilisch.

The 19-year-old hit the outside wall, and the narrow street circuit was instantly blocked. Running third, van Gisbergen had nowhere to go. He slammed into the wreckage as nine cars piled up, ending the day for both Trackhouse entries.

The crash dropped him to 17th in the Cup standings and pushed him below the playoff cut line. Still, Shane van Gisbergen believes there are positives. His oval racing has improved, and he feels more comfortable every week.

“I’ve made a lot of gains, but I still have so much to learn,” he said. “There have been more glimpses this year of big progression. I feel like we still have a lot to go with our car performance. All three of us kind of struggle sometimes, but there have been flashes of getting it right.”

Then there was the biggest takeaway from the interview.

“We’re frustrated. We’re not as fast as we want to be. The atmosphere in the team is still good, but we do need to get some speed going, that’s for sure,” the 37-year-old added.

It was an honest assessment. Van Gisbergen isn’t questioning the effort inside Trackhouse. He is simply saying the speed has to improve if they want to stay in the playoff fight. Before the team turns the page, though, San Diego left another issue hanging over the garage.

Back-to-back crashes have turned SVG’s frustration toward Austin Hill

The San Diego wreck was the second straight race where van Gisbergen’s afternoon unraveled after an incident involving Austin Hill. A week earlier at Pocono, Hill tried to force a three-wide move and triggered a multi-car crash that damaged van Gisbergen’s Chevrolet and ruined a likely top-10 finish.

San Diego was even worse. Hill locked the rear tires into Turn 1 on the Lap 32 restart and washed into Zilisch, setting off the chain reaction that eliminated both Trackhouse cars. NASCAR had to stop the race under a red flag while crews repaired the concrete barrier.

Shane van Gisbergen didn’t hide how he felt. Instead of heading straight to the garage, he stopped his heavily damaged Chevrolet across the entrance to pit road, forcing Hill to wait behind him until safety workers arrived.

Later, outside the Infield Care Center, he summed it up in one sentence:

“Two weeks in a row, taken out by the same spud. I’m just filthy about it.”

In Australian and New Zealand slang, calling someone a “spud” is another way of saying they made a clumsy or careless mistake.

The timing could hardly have been worse. These results have dragged van Gisbergen into the middle of the playoff battle after weeks of steady progress. His oval results have improved dramatically this season, highlighted by a fifth-place finish at Nashville and solid runs at Phoenix, Darlington, and the Coca-Cola 600.

Now the focus shifts to Sonoma, one of his strongest tracks. But after San Diego, van Gisbergen made one thing clear. His own progress is no longer the biggest concern. If Trackhouse wants to stay in the playoff picture, the cars need to be faster.