Ask anyone at Trackhouse Racing how frustrating their 2026 season has been, and they might just point you to the Southern 500. All three of its drivers looked completely out of sorts. Rookie Connor Zilisch continued his miserable rookie season with a 34th-place finish, while Ross Chastain and Shane van Gisbergen, two drivers who once looked like Chase hopefuls, clashed rather bizarrely after the race.

Chastain, on the cool-down lap, appeared to slow his No. 1 Chevrolet in front of Van Gisbergen’s No. 97 car, held out his left hand, and gave him a thumbs-down. We’ve seen drivers flip each other off during races — Carson Hocevar to Corey Heim most recently — but this was a gesture that deserved special attention. Van Gisbergen was asked about it ahead of the Enjoy Illinois 300.

“We just had a bad, bad race, and I raced pretty shit. After the restart, I put myself in bad spots, and it was just a combination of everything. I went straight to him and apologized, and he was fine about it. But yeah, just a pretty average day for our team,” van Gisbergen said to NASCAR journalist Jeff Gluck.

The New Zealander, who missed out on a Chase spot on the final day of the regular season after Ryan Preece’s win at Daytona, finished 26th at Darlington. Chastain finished just ahead of him, with the two Trackhouse teammates fighting hard for the Lucky Dog after the final restart. Chastain, however, was not happy with the way Van Gisbergen was racing.

After the race, Van Gisbergen had admitted to being “p*ssed” at Chastain, and everything in general that evening. That’s how bad the vibes were at the Trackhouse garage. He did acknowledge that he and Chastain “doored” each other for absolutely nothing.

Before the rumors of a brewing animosity filled the garage, Van Gisbergen decided to shrug the incident off in Illinois. Everything was ‘fine’, and the Red Bull athlete even joked that it was “the biggest thumbs down I’ve ever got”. Behind the scenes, though, this moment may have just exposed how difficult life is in the Trackhouse organization.

2026 marked the first time since 2021 (when they were formed) that Trackhouse failed to have any of its drivers in the postseason. Van Gisbergen looked like a sure-shot entrant at one point, considering he won in both Sonoma and Watkins Glen this season. But a horrid finish to the regular season helped Preece get into the Chase with a Daytona miracle.

Chastain, meanwhile, was eliminated from contention in the penultimate race of the regular season at New Hampshire when an engine issue forced him to retire from the Dollar Tree 301 after just 41 laps. Then there’s Zilisch, who, with nine DNFs, has endured a terrible rookie season, especially considering the high reputation he carried into the Cup Series. He sits 34th in the standings after 26 races.

There’s a shake-up bound to happen at Trackhouse too, with Zilisch set to join Hendrick Motorsports in 2028. Both SVG and Chastain enter the next season with their contracts up, and there seems to be no guarantee that they will stick to the organization.

For Trackhouse, the thumbs-down may have been a small moment, but it summed up a frustrating season. With all three drivers missing the playoffs and major changes looming, the team has plenty to fix. The biggest challenge now is making sure the frustration doesn’t carry into 2027.