Shane van Gisbergen had been racing for the V8 supercars before he moved to NASCAR in a wild-card race with Trackhouse Racing’s Project 91 entry. Putting a stop to his brilliant supercar career, Gisbergen left Australia to move to the US for a NASCAR career in 2023, when he first made his debut with the street course race. His time in New Zealand had been productive, but not only in terms of racing.

Having moved to NASCAR, Shane van Gisbergen shared his Australian knowledge with his Kaulig Racing teammates. Not only this, he showed off his linguistic skills in the Australian language by coming up with words completely foreign to his teammates.

Shane van Gisbergen turns into a language teacher

Shane van Gisbergen sat with his NASCAR teammates for a New Zealand language lesson. The video featuring Gisbergen with his teammates was shared on Twitter by Kaulig Racing. The post was captioned, “It’s been a bit of a learning curve getting our American drivers to learn some of SVG’s New Zealand language!”.

The Kiwi picked up words from his native place and asked his teammates to guess their meaning. His Kaulig Racing teammate, A.J. Allmendinger, however, surrendered to not knowing much of the language, despite having stayed in Australia for about eight weeks. The guessing game began with the word “chur.” A.J. Allmendinger guessed it wildly for a chair, but Gisbergen corrected him. Chur in New Zealand, he said, is used for thanks.

This was followed by terms such as snag for barbecue sausage topping and togs for bathing suits. Next on the list was the term Dunny, to which Allmendinger reacted, “It’s got to be shit.” A confused Josh Williams said in disbelief, “Terrible. Oh, that’s not. No”.

He was succeeded by Daniel Hemric, who took a more precise guess as he said, “Oh at the bathroom, at the toilet”. Shane van Gisbergen approved Hemric’s guess, saying, “Dunny is a toilet”. The other words, as taught by Gisbergen, are dairy for a convenience store and squiz for having a look at something. Gisbergen’s language session ended with Kia Ora which is used for greeting with a hello in New Zealand.

His transition from supercars to NASCAR

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Despite having a brilliant supercar career, the three-time supercar champion has now moved to NASCAR in 2023. His entry into the world of NASCAR was a remarkable one in July last year. Shane van Gisbergen secured victory on his debut while driving at the Chicago Street Course in the NASCAR Cup Series. This was after 60 years since a NASCAR driver won his debut Cup series after Jonny Rutherford in 1963. This feat is deserving of appreciation, as he only had limited experience driving a cup car for a single half-day before his debut race.

Shane van Gisbergen has thus entered NASCAR with a triumph and is a developmental driver for Trackhouse Racing in 2024. He is competing in various race series with partner teams and is driving the No. 97 Chevrolet for Kaulig Racing this season. Gisbergen is driving for seven Cup series races. 

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These include races on the tracks of the Circuit of the Americas (COTA), Talladega Superspeedway, Charlotte Motor Speedway, Chicago Street Race, Watkins Glen International, and Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Gisbergen is sponsored by WeatherTech as Trackhouse forms a partnership with the automotive accessories brand for all these seven races.

One can say, Shane van Gisbergen’s time in Australia taught him more than just racing skills.