As the NASCAR Cup Series pivots to its first road course challenge at COTA, one defending champion is already conceding the advantage to the two-headed monster at Trackhouse Racing. With five wins in his first full Cup Series season last year, Shane van Gisbergen will be the man to watch out for at the 2.3-mile road course.

Ryan Blaney drops a realistic claim

“I’m just too far behind,” Ryan Blaney said in the latest episode of the Door Bumper Clear podcast. “I can’t just learn how to right foot break, never get to Shane’s level, but not even get to my own level of what I’m doing now. So there are things that he does that I think are possibly obtainable from a driver standpoint, but other things I think you have to really switch up your style of how you approach everything.”

The threat from Trackhouse is twofold. Van Gisbergen, still riding the momentum of a five-win 2025 season, is now paired with Connor Zilisch, whose own dominant 10-win Xfinity rookie campaign proved his road course prowess. Having already traded paint at tracks like Sonoma and Watkins Glen last year, their combined force now presents a united front that has rivals like Blaney on high alert.

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And Ryan Blaney is dreading exactly that. Shane van Gisbergen has already found success in the first two races of the season, which were notably on ovals. He was in the top 10 during the Daytona 500 before getting caught in a crash. Then last Sunday, SVG made jaws drop by grabbing a 6th-place finish even amidst the carnage at EchoPark Speedway.

With a road course ahead, Ryan Blaney talked about SVG’s classic right-foot braking skills. “Even with all the data out there in the world, I have never personally been able to do a very good job of making myself drive like somebody else,” Blaney said. “I mean, we’ve talked about it for years…Shane kicks our a-s every freaking road course. And it’s like, well, just do what he’s doing. It’s like, well, it’s not that simple. It’s not if that was the case, then I would go be a brain surgeon.”

“Yeah, I think it’s going to be the Shane and Connor show this weekend,” Blaney went on to say. “I could be wrong, but I look forward to hopefully seeing him, and I can watch it from a handful of seconds on television.”

While Blaney worries about the on-track challenge, Van Gisbergen is also locking in his off-track support system, reuniting with a key partner for his COTA assault

Chasing another spot of glory?

When Shane van Gisbergen broke into NASCAR, fans were left starstruck. The former Supercars driver won a rain-battered race in Chicago in 2023. Then, as SVG kick-started his career with an Xfinity Series role in 2024, a Sydney-based company, SafetyCulture, partnered with him. Since then, SVG has collected 8 wins overall in NASCAR, and SafetyCulture is coming back to help him fetch more trophies.

The company will sponsor SVG’s double duty in COTA in the Cup Series and O’Reilly Auto Parts Series. Its colors will feature on both the No. 97 Trackhouse Racing and No. 9 JR Motorsports Chevrolets.

“Last season was unforgettable, and we wouldn’t have achieved so much success without SafetyCulture,” Shane van Gisbergen said. “They helped keep our team prepared and focused, so we could show up every weekend and compete for wins.”

With a steadfast partner by his side, Shane van Gisbergen is sure to leave a blazing trail this season. As the Cup Series heads to its first road course of the year, Blaney’s candid admission sets the stage: all eyes will be on the Trackhouse duo to see if they can live up to the hype.