DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Trackhouse Racing has acquired a third charter and added Shane van Gisbergen to its Cup roster for 2025, the team announced Saturday at Daytona International Speedway.
The 35-year-old van Gisbergen will drive the No. 88 Cup car for Trackhouse Racing next year. He will join Ross Chastain and Daniel Suarez as teammates next season. Stephen Doran will be the crew chief. Sponsors will be announced at a later date.
Car owner Justin Marks confirmed Saturday that Trackhouse is purchasing one of the Stewart-Haas Racing charters. Front Row Motorsports previously confirmed it had purchased one of the three Stewart-Haas Racing charters available after this season.
Saturday’s news was expected based on van Gisbergen’s success in Xfinity — three wins this season — and Trackhouse announcing Friday that it would parted ways with Zane Smith after this season.
“The reason we chose to go with Shane for this third car is that, yeah, there’s not a lot of experience in the Cup Series, there’s some unknowns, can be a lot of hard work, but Shane checks a lot of boxes for a really, really compelling story and building great business in this sport,” Marks said. “He’s incredibly talented. He’s incredibly dedicated.”
As for choosing the No. 88, Marks said: “Numbers are important. They’re a big part of the branding in the sport. Numbers represent history and they represent legions of fans and historic drivers and historic moments in the sport. We don’t take our number choices lightly.”
Trackhouse Racing talked with Hendrick Motorsports, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Kelley Earnhardt Miller about the number before making Saturday’s announcement.
“There’s some amazing drivers attached to that number, so it is a lot of responsibility and we certainly accept that,” Marks said.
Trackhouse Racing loaned van Gisbergen to Kaulig Racing for this season since Trackhouse does not have an Xfinity program.
This season has been used as a chance for van Gisbergen to get comfortable with oval track racing since his background is in road courses and street courses in the Australian Supercars Series, which he won the championship three times.
van Gisbergen will compete in seven of the final 12 Cup races this season. He will run those races with Kaulig Racing.
He will compete at:
Saturday — Daytona
Sept. 1 — Darlington
Sept. 8 — Atlanta
Sept. 15 — Watkins Glen
Oct. 6 — Talladega
Oct. 20 — Las Vegas
Nov. 3 — Martinsville
Marks also said that he plans to continue the team’s Project 91 operation. That is the program that led to van Gisbergen making his Cup debut in the 2023 Chicago Street Race, which van Gisbergen won.
“I think Project 91 is something that 100% in my mind I’d love to continue,” Marks said Saturday. “It was difficult to do this year because we have so much on our plate, supporting other drivers and other programs. Just a lot of business development stuff that we’re working on.
“I would expect Project 91 to be back sooner rather than later.”