Last year, if there was someone who had the best season dominating in a non-traditional way, it was Shane van Gisbergen. The New Zealander indeed suffered at the ovals, but he showed considerable improvement there, too, by the time the season ended. And now, at the Clash, he led laps in a field of oval experts. Despite this upward improvement, he had a humble confession to make about his traditional game.

SVG’s honest admission over his oval learning

In a recent press conference, SVG had a healthy Q&A with the journalists where he reflected on his oval learning curve. Reporters asked him how he feels in NASCAR now as compared to before, and what other differences he’s looking forward to. To this, SVG replied, “It’s still an evolving thing. I don’t feel like as much of a deer in headlights anymore, which is cool, and I sort of feel like I fit in more, but I’m still learning a lot.

Another reporter asked him about the biggest lesson he has learned about ovals. “I don’t know where to start. It’s the driving, the setups, the cars, and the racing dynamics; the surfaces change. There are so many different things. It’s a completely different discipline from any other driving.”

As NASCAR goes back to its traditional ways, there is no doubt the new Chase format is a clear warning bell to drivers like Shane van Gisbergen to pull up their socks if they want to stay in the game. When another reporter asked him what he feels about the Chase format since the road course wins cannot get them locked into the top 16 anymore, SVG replied,

News served to you like never before!

Prefer us on Google, To get latest news on feed

Prefer Us on Google

“As I said earlier, our goal is to just accumulate points now. You have to try and achieve as many points as you can every weekend, and it probably changes the way you take risks, if you’re probably gonna be like us or a guy trying to point our way in, you know, so yeah, I probably will approach it a bit differently, I think.”

His bold statement comes with lots of progress in oval. As SVG accepts, he isn’t the best at ovals, but he’s on his way to proving that he can do so much better with time.

What exactly bothers SVG about ovals

Shane van Gisbergen indeed had a hard time with oval struggles in 2025. During a conversation, he told Speedcafe in December 2025, “Like a lot of races this year we went into, and you’re just stuck with what setup you had as well.”

He continued, “And you just feel the car’s not going to turn, and the only way you’re going to make it turn is by taking the rear out of the track, and that’s an even worse issue. So, we were struggling a lot this year to make the right calls. I didn’t know yet what tools were in the toolbox to ask for to make the car better.”

SVG was out of the top 30 in the Cup Series for a long time in 2025. SVG himself admitted that tracks like Las Vegas troubled him a lot. But regardless, Trackhouse was standing by the side of the New Zealander.

SVG steadily improved his oval races in the second half of the 2025 season. In September 2025, at Kansas Speedway, he secured his first oval track top 10 finish in 10th place. And in October, it finishes in the top 15 at Talladega and Martinsville.

As the new NASCAR season is about to start in a few days, SVG is all set and ready to once again prove his oval skills and hopefully grab some victory lanes this year.