Shane van Gisbergen is one win away from tying Jeff Gordon’s record. The Kiwi speedster logged five consecutive road course race trophies in 2025, and it is yet to break. With the first road course event coming up on the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series schedule, all eyes will be on SVG – or will they? That is because the upcoming racetrack, COTA, is the only one SVG has yet to get under control. And some powerful rivals are facing him, too.

Shane van Gisbergen has reasons for worry

“Drivers to finish in the top-10 in all five COTA races in the Cup Series: Tyler Reddick…Alex Bowman.” NASCAR Insights wrote this in just one of several posts on X that reveal COTA insights. However, none of those posts carried Shane van Gisbergen in first place. Instead, Tyler Reddick leads other rivals in terms of the highest chances in COTA’s race this weekend.

Without a doubt, Tyler Reddick is Shane van Gisbergen’s number one threat. Coming off two back-to-back victories in Daytona and Atlanta, Reddick is looking to extend a streak of his own. He has an average finish of 4.6; across five starts in COTA, Reddick has captured two poles, four top fives, and a 2023 victory.

There are other remarkable trendsetters on road courses lining up in offense against Shane van Gisbergen. While the Trackhouse Racing driver has been the fastest driver in all other road course events, the only outlier was COTA, where Kyle Busch was the fastest. That was also the only event SVG could not win, with Christopher Bell clinching the victory.

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“Chris Buescher has finished on the lead lap in the last 40 consecutive road course races, dating back to Sonoma in 2017…This is the longest lead lap finish streak ever achieved on road courses in NASCAR history,” NASCAR Analytics wrote in another post. Buescher’s 17 top tens are also the most on road courses in the NextGen era (23 total races).

Clearly, Shane van Gisbergen will be facing a strong contingent of NASCAR’s traditional guard. However, there is also a newbie on the Cup Series grid who can potentially rise to be SVG’s biggest threat this season.

Wary of an inside job 

Well, Shane van Gisbergen will clearly hoist the Trackhouse Racing flag against many rivals. But he would not do so against someone on his own team – none other than rookie Cup Series driver Connor Zilisch. The 19-year-old phenom took the sport by storm last year, winning 10 O’Reilly Auto Parts races and facing off against SVG in Sonoma and Watkins Glen.

Although the first twin superspeedway races in 2026 started with disaster, Connor Zilisch may be fast approaching redemption in COTA. He closed last year’s O’Reilly Auto Parts Series schedule by winning four consecutive road races himself. This is a streak that started after SVG’s late-restart pass on him at the Chicago Street Course.

Despite the many rivals on the grid, Shane van Gisbergen is packing heat.

“You know, he’s so good, and it’s rare that you see somebody stand out and distance himself from the competition as much as he is,” Kyle Larson said of SVG last summer. “He’s way, way, way better than us at the road course stuff. And he’s got his own [heel-toe braking and shifting] technique, you can call it.”

The Cup Series grid is gearing up for a road course racing talent this weekend. Let’s wait and see what Shane van Gisbergen has in store for them at COTA.