2024 will see the 3-time Supercars Champion Shane Van Gisbergen participate in his first-ever full-time season in a NASCAR competition, the Xfinity Series. The Kiwi racer will begin his career in the Cup Series in 2025 and the upcoming season will be a preparation for that new challenge. The 34-year-old will race full-time next year in the Cup with Trackhouse Racing but this season, he will be part of a joint program with Trackhouse and Kaulig Racing, taking part in a full Xfinity Series season and select Cup Series races. Ahead of appearing in Daytona, the Kiwi spoke about everything that NASCAR does better than the Supercars Championship.

The 34-year-old made a huge impact in his NASCAR debut last year at the Chicago Street Race. There was some hype going into his debut in the competition but no one probably expected him to win his very first race. Since that victory, the NASCAR audience has been taking the Kiwi superstar a lot more seriously. If he settles well into the art of stock car and oval racing, he could be a strong contender for the Cup Series in the future.

Shane Van Gisbergen is a fan of media interactions in NASCAR

In today’s world, a race weekend isn’t just about the racing. Sponsorship duties and media interactions are a big part of the event and that is the same across all kinds of motorsports, including NASCAR and Supercars. However, as far as SVG is concerned, media interaction in the States is a lot better than in Australia as per a report in Forbes. One of the key differences the 34-year-old noted is that the media duties are not as much here as they were in Supercars.

“Like, we go to the track on a Tuesday and we’re doing promotions all week and yeah, it’s different,” he said of how it worked in Supercars. “Whereas here you seem to do less, but you do more. You do bigger appearances, and it means much more, you know, you meet people…It seems to have much more meaning and productiveness so it’s different but very good here,” the 34-year-old said of what he has experienced so far in the States.

The 3-time Supercars champion also believes that the questions posed by the media personnel involved with NASCAR are better and more varied compared to what he experienced in Australia. “It’s the same s*** every time,” the Kiwi said, taking a dig at the media personnel covering the Supercars Championship.

No matter how much these media interactions may matter, the most important thing about any race weekend is, of course, the racing. For SVH, this will be a completely new experience and it wouldn’t be surprising to see him struggle at some tracks in 2024. The Kiwi is well aware of this and he also has a few tracks in mind which may be tough to navigate.

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Oval racing is something that the Kiwi is not used to at all and the NASCAR Cup Series has some of the trickiest speedways and superspeedways anywhere in the world. Even seasoned NASCAR veterans struggle at tracks like Atlanta, Daytona, Martinsville, and Talladega to name a few. However, for SVG, the two tracks that he is most looking forward to testing himself on are Las Vegas and the iconic Darlington.

“You know, everyone’s talking about Vegas, turn one, and two. How hard that’s going to be for me, and Darlington. Probably those are the ones I’m most excited about. You know, I’m here for a challenge and I’m sure those tracks are going to be very difficult… I just want to get out there and feel what everyone’s saying, how bad and tough it is, so it’ll be interesting,” the 34-year-old explained.

Things will be tough in his first season, but SVG’s career has been one of grit and perseverence. The Kiwi would be looking to write his name into the history books with a NASCAR trophy. Will he be able to achieve his dream? What do you think?

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