It is relatively well-known that Ross Chastain is a watermelon farmer. The #1 driver proudly owns that fact, as he loves to celebrate his wins by smashing a watermelon on the tarmac. Now, it seems his unique lifestyle has inspired his Trackhouse teammate to consider walking the same path as him, even if it’s a tough one financially.

Shane van Gisbergen has picked up a new hobby

The Kiwi isn’t exactly growing watermelons, but he did admit that he grew up in the countryside. Shane van Gisbergen spoke on Kevin Harvick’s Happy Hour, “I grew up on farmland. My mum always had horses, sheep, cows and stuff like that. I would help mum a little bit. I loved it, but we had motorbike tracks so that was more important to me. My wife Jess, she loves horses too and just wanted some space out here. It’s an amazing place. Cool city, but not far out of the city, there’s a lot of land. It’s a really cool place to live.”

He also shared an interesting story with Harvick about one of the new critters on his farm. Apparently, his family rescued a cow from across the road. He revealed that their neighbor was going to let it die, so SVG’s family rescued it. The bovine has been fondly named Annie and continues to live on the farm.

What’s interesting about all of this is that Shane van Gisbergen revealed that the farm is not something that rakes in a lot of money. He said, “Horses are a money pit and nothing comes back.” Despite that, he vouches for it.

For now, the three-time Supercars champion is more focused on his racing career. So the sedentary life of a farmer will not be particularly appealing to him just yet. Maybe in a few years’ time, when he has officially called time on his racing career, he will settle for the life of a farmer eventually. Until then, he is content with pursuing his passion for racing for as long as he can.

How has the Trackhouse Racing star performed so far in NASCAR?

When he made a splash in the NASCAR scene, he was pegged as a road-course expert. In 2025, when he joined on a full-time basis, van Gisbergen proved that with his five road course wins. However, the one thing he would and did struggle at was racing on ovals, and last year was a learning year. 2026 will be the real test because now there is no more hiding, especially on ovals. So far, he’s done well.

At the Daytona 500, he was up among the lead pack for a while. That lasted until the race’s usual chaos dropped him all the way to 30th place. Fortunately, the EchoPark Speedway in Atlanta was a lot kinder and let him capture his best on an oval with his sixth place finish.

Finally came the DuraMax Texas Grand Prix at the Circuit of the Americas. Since this was a road course and SVG’s bread and butter, he was the favorite to win. However, there was Tyler Reddick to stop him this time who enjoyed his third straight win, creating history. SVG could only be the second-best.

Despite that loss, it seems very clear that his oval game is much more stronger than how it ended last year. He will definitely be a force to watch out for this season, whether it’s a road course or not.