At present, there is only one road racing god in NASCAR. That is none other than Shane van Gisbergen, who clinched his season’s fourth win last weekend. After Watkins Glen, SVG has tied with Jeff Gordon and Chase Elliott for the most consecutive road course wins. But while his road course glory rises to a fever pitch, the Trackhouse Racing star is still trying to wrap his head around ovals.

Since its inception in 1949, NASCAR’s traditional mainstay has been on ovals. Putting a car on the edge of spinning out in tight, close-quarters racing is what NASCAR drivers do on these racetracks. SVG, more used to the hard-charging precision of road courses, still scratches his head. As the 2025 playoffs approach, he could not help but blurt out his problems.

Shane van Gisbergen breaks down his slow climb

Before 2024, Shane van Gisbergen had never competed on a paved oval, much less in a premier stock-car racing series’ oval event. The former Supercars champion’s learning curve has been steep. A turning point came during a test in May 2025 at Charlotte. One week later, in the All-Star Open, SVG led 54 laps on the 0.625-mile short oval at North Wilkesboro Speedway. This progress got an even bigger jump recently when SVG won the Pro Legends A-feature at Charlotte’s Cook Out Summer Shootout. He defeated Jake Bollman by 0.417 seconds after a 25-lap battle. Despite these glaring signs of improvement, the Kiwi still laments about his lack of progress.

Between his wins in Sonoma and Watkins Glen, Shane van Gisbergen again fell to two 30th or worse finishes in Dover and Iowa. This continued misery prompted him to confess on a Sport Nation NZ episode: “It’s just difficult. You’d think two corners only would be easier, but the style of racing over here is just so different…It’s so different, the way the cars react, the way they’re set up, the way they load into the corners, the banking of the corners. And, of course, the speed we’re going. Like, the average speed is almost 300 ks for most of the tracks. It’s ridiculous how fast you’re going and how close you are to everyone.”

What hinders Shane van Gisbergen‘s learning pace even more is the lack of practice. A meager 20-minute session is provided to drivers for most races, and 50 minutes in a few. So SVG complained, “And then you have bugger all practice. There’s only 15 minutes every week. Whereas on a circuit in a normal series, you have half an hour to an hour every week. Yeah, so it’s not much track time, and then they throw you in the deep end of the race, and you’re sort of learning on the fly. So, just taking time.”

No matter the setbacks, Shane van Gisbergen continues to strive for that elusive oval victory. But one of the sport’s veteran drivers said that it will be challenging.

The tides may be too strong for SVG

When Shane van Gisbergen moved to NASCAR from Supercars, he was 34 years old. Hence, the Kiwi speedster, owning 81 Supercars race wins, got a late start to the new sport. So, not only is his learning curve steep, it is magnificently different from other rookie drivers who are younger with more passion and energy. What is more, the playoffs present a particularly strong challenge for SVG. Although there is a road course, the Charlotte Roval, in the second round, getting to that safe spot will be hard. SVG will need to tackle Darlington, Gateway, and Bristol first. His Darlington starts resulted in 20th and 26th-place finishes, and SVG has never raced at Gateway. In Bristol, SVG finished 38th last year after suspension issues.

All these pointers are bad signs for Shane van Gisbergen’s oval racing goals. And Denny Hamlin is not here to console him. The Joe Gibbs Racing driver said, “On the road courses, it’s a little more straightforward. As long as there’s not an ill-timed caution. … There’s no doubt the guy can go through traffic. Zero doubt on my mind. Is he the best road course racer I’ve ever seen? Absolutely. I competed against the Tony Stewarts, the Jeff Gordons — all those guys. He’s better than all of them. But the only thing you’re going to have to mix this up, to keep him from winning every single road course race, is — it’s going to have to take something wacky. Or else you can just go ahead and write the script for the next foreseeable future.”

Clearly, Shane van Gisbergen has a tough journey ahead. Let us wait and see if he can stretch his prowess beyond road courses soon.