The next time Shane van Gisbergen drives in NASCAR could be 2024, as team owner Justin Marks told NBC Sports that “I don’t anticipate him being over here between now and the end of the Supercars season.”
The Australian Supercars season ends Nov. 26 — well after the Cup season finale Nov. 5 at Phoenix — although there are a number of weekends that don’t conflict between the two series the rest of the season.
Van Gisbergen was one of six drivers in last weekend’s Cup race on the Indianapolis road course born outside the U.S. Australia’s Brodie Kostecki and Japan’s Kamui Kobayashi both said they’d like to run again in Cup. Germany’s Mike Rockenfeller will be back in the No. 42 car for Legacy Motor Club for Sunday’s race at Watkins Glen International (3 p.m. ET on USA Network).
Van Gisbergen won the Chicago Street Race in his Cup debut in July and finished 10th last weekend at the Indianapolis road course. He drove both races for Trackhouse Racing’s Project 91, which is geared toward giving international drivers a chance to compete in Cup.
Marks said work continues to put together a plan for van Gisbergen to move to NASCAR next season. Van Gisbergen’s Supercars team announced Wednesday that Will Brown will replace him next season, allowing van Gisbergen to move to NASCAR in 2024.
“We have to be very, very calculated and intelligent about how we build a program for him,” Marks told NBC Sports. “If he wants to come do this full-time, it doesn’t make sense to just win the Chicago race, come run 10th (at Indy) and then just go Cup racing full-time.
“Darlington and Dover, 600 miles at Charlotte, 500 laps at Bristol, those are lifts for someone who’s never done that kind of thing before, so we have to be really smart about how we build the program around him.
“Trackhouse is a NASCAR Cup Series team. We’re not an Xfinity team, we’re not a Truck team, we’re not an ARCA team, so we have to lean on partners in how we sort of build that program, which is sort of what we’re in the middle of right now.”
Trackhouse Racing has connections to other teams. It supplies pit crew members to Kaulig Racing, which competes in the Cup and Xfinity Series. Trackhouse also has a relationship with Niece Motorsports in the Craftsman Truck Series — van Gisbergen drove for Niece in his oval debut in last Friday’s Truck race at Indianapolis Raceway Park.
Van Gisbergen’s schedule for next season could include ARCA, Truck, Xfinity and Cup races.
“I think I just have to do everything,” van Gisbergen said after the Truck race about what he feels he’ll need to do next season.
With so many different types of ovals, van Gisbergen admits that “I got a lot to learn. I need to try all different cars (and) all different types of ovals.”
Funding also will be key.
“It’s expensive to do all this stuff,” Marks said. “Luckily we have got some amazing partners, Enhance Health, fundamentally and other partners at Trackhouse that are excited about this program and want to get behind it.
“It’s not about selling paint schemes. It’s about investing in a marketing and promotional platform. We’re trying to build something that delivers a lot of value for the partners while he learns at the same time.”
Van Gisbergen is the second driver in the Project 91 program, which debuted at Watkins Glen last year with former world champion Kimi Raikkonen.
Marks was thrilled to see so many international drivers in last weekend’s race at Indianapolis.
“What was represented in the race (Sunday) internationally in Formula One, sports cars, Supercars was incredible,” Marks said. “Racing is for everybody. It’s for everybody around the world. … There’s a lot of people around the world that want to come be here. That’s been proven by Project 91 with Kimi (Raikkonen) and now with Shane.
“We’ve got some other exciting things in the works for next year. If I can deliver value to the sport and make NASCAR more internationally relevant, then that’s great with me because I’m a fan of all racing.”
Kostecki, the Supercars points leader, was thrilled about his experience in his Cup debut at Indy.
“A fun weekend for me,” he told NBC Sports. “I hope I get to do it again. … When someone calls, I’ll come.”
Kobayashi, a former 24 Hours of Le Mans winner, made his Cup debut at Indy, driving for 23XI Racing.
“I want to come back,” Kobayashi said. “I understand what I need to do (for the next time) and I got good experience. Let’s see what happens. This experience was really amazing because I always dreamed of racing in NASCAR at one point when I was a kid.”
Indianapolis marked the second race that 23XI Racing has fielded a third entry in a Cup race. Travis Pastrana drove for the team in the Daytona 500 at the start of the season. As for any more races the team will run a third car, co-owner Denny Hamlin said it could happen again.
“You can do it when it financially makes sense, when you have some backing behind it,” Hamlin said, “but other than that it’s very, very difficult.”
