Shane van Gisbergen is in a league of his own. Now that the dust has settled and the 2025 season is officially over, it’s fair to say that the Kiwi’s rookie full-time Cup Series campaign surpassed everyone’s expectations. In a remarkably short time, the 36-year-old made it abundantly clear that at tracks that turn left and run, there’s nobody better than the three-time Supercars Champion. Five wins at NASCAR’s highest level are impressive to say the least, and the NASCAR community couldn’t help but notice his dominance.

He won at the inaugural Mexico City race, followed by Chicago and Sonoma, showing his consistency across road and street layouts. Such kind of dominance is rarely seen in the modern NASCAR landscape, which is why two insiders couldn’t help but heap praise on the racer, who will be entering his sophomore year soon.

Doug Rice believes SVG’s road course domination deserves more celebration

Speaking on the PRN Live podcast, Doug Rice, joined by Brad Gillie, can’t help but remark on SVG’s historic season. Rice said, “So, it was an interesting story, and I know people will take issue. I feel like it’s been underserved and under-celebrated. You won five races, yes. They were all left and right turns, but you still went out and beat, supposedly, all the best stock car drivers in the world. Over and over again.”

As SVG was collecting wins on the road courses, doubts about him being the best road course driver were looming. While the answer may seem obvious, many drivers, who have way more experience in NASCAR, backed him up on it. In fact, Denny Hamlin said, “ Is he the best road course racer I’ve ever seen? Absolutely…. He’s better than all of them (Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart).”

Moreover, across just 3 Cup Series starts at the Chicago Street course, SVG had already claimed two victories, dominating at the venue more than any other driver since 2023. When it comes to making the most out of every opportunity, few can match his efficiency.

On a per-race basis, his road course stat is even more striking. The Auckland native has won one out of every three Cup races held on circuits with both left and right turns. To put things in perspective, that’s more than double the win rate of stars like Kyle Larson or even his mentor, Marco Ambrose, long considered one of the elite road course specialists in NASCAR history, as noted by NASCAR.

Part of what makes the Auckland native’s rise so compelling is that he is directly challenging the records of the full-time NASCAR Cup champion road course king, Jeff Gordon. Gordon currently holds the record for consecutive road course wins in the Cup Series, six straight from August 1997 at Watkins Glen through June 2000 at Sonoma. By securing his fifth road course victory at last month’s Bank of America Roval 400, Shane van Gisbergen matched only the second-best mark in Cup history and put himself on the cusp of Gordon’s long-standing six-race streak.

Adding to Doug’s sentiment, fellow broadcaster Brad Gillie couldn’t help but add, “And I’ll repeat it. You’ve won all short track races. Okay, we don’t qualify that. If you’ve won all Speedway events, we don’t qualify that. Martin Truex Jr. won a championship on mile-and-a-half tracks. We don’t qualify that. Shane Van Gisbergen is a five-time winner this year alone on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule, period. No other qualifier.”

Moreover, Gordon’s total career road course wins remain the benchmark, and while SVG has fewer races under his belt so far, his winning percentage is a hint that he might surpass Gordon’s total if the trend continues. That being said, the 36-year-old driver has also acknowledged his weaknesses on ovals. But that did change, and the fans themselves couldn’t help but acknowledge it in practice.

Shane van Gisbergen has also made significant improvements on short tracks throughout the year. These efforts didn’t go unnoticed by his Trackhouse Racing team, which surprised him with a No. 97 car number, which is associated closely with the New Zealander’s family. This gesture left the 36-year-old driver very emotional. But in a recent interview, SVG broke down how NASCAR wasn’t even on his radar.

Shane van Gisbergen recalls how he got into NASCAR

Shane van Gisbergen’s rise in NASCAR reads like something no one, including himself, ever saw coming. The Kiwi star who shocked the racing world by winning his very 1st Cup Series start on the streets of Chicago now has six victories across just three seasons, beginning with that breakthrough win in 2023.

For most of his career, the Auckland native’s attention was fully on Australia’s V8 Supercars Championship. NASCAR barely registered beyond the years when fellow Aussie Marcos Ambrose was competing in the Cup Series. As he put it, “I followed NASCAR a bit when [Aussie Cup driver] Marcos Ambrose was racing, but when he stopped, I didn’t really pay much attention again until Trackhouse co-owner Justin Marks launched Project 91 in 2022, with the goal of letting the world’s best driver have a go in NASCAR.” Even Roger Penske’s involvement in Supercars, which brought bits of NASCAR exposure to the region, didn’t quite reel him in.

That change in 2022 was thanks to Project 91. The program first appeared with 2007 Formula One champion Kimi Raikkonen, and Shane van Gisbergen admired the effort from a distance without expecting he’d ever be part of it. He eventually reached out through former Cup driver Boris Said, who helped him to Trackhouse Racing’s Justin Marks.

SVG recalled, “I put out feelers through former NASCAR Cup driver Boris Said. Boris knew Justin and sort of started the conversation. To my great surprise and joy, Justin reached out and told me, ‘There’s a new race happening in 2023 on a street track that I think you’d be perfect for. Give me a few months to find some sponsors and partners.’ That was an awesome conversation, just because I didn’t go into it thinking something would come of it.”

The stars aligned further when the Chicago Street race fell on an open weekend in his supercar schedule. Although the 36-year-old driver had prior experience racing in America, through IMSA and the Rolex 24 at Daytona, NASCAR was a different challenge altogether. Yet in his very first start, he outclassed the field and wrote his name into the history books. What began as an unexpected experiment has turned into one of NASCAR’s most compelling modern storylines.