HAMPTON, Ga. — Shane van Gisbergen knows his prowess is on road courses. That’s why he’s so keen to raise his floor, so to speak, and improve as an oval racer entering Year 2 as a full-time NASCAR Cup Series racer.
On Sunday, SVG achieved his best oval finish yet with a sixth-place finish in the Autotrader 400 at EchoPark Speedway.
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If only it were that simple.
MORE: EchoPark results | At-track photos: EchoPark
Driving Chevrolet’s redesigned Camaro ZL1, the New Zealander overcame two separate slides through the frontstretch grass — one of his own doing; one of someone else’s — to charge back through the field in his No. 97 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet and notch his first top-10 finish of 2026 and first single-digit result on an oval.
“I think it was good,” van Gisbergen told NASCAR.com. “We’re really still learning the new car. I think it’s a bit different, and we started the race really loose. Couldn’t hardly hang on. Like, I went to the back. I started good, then blew the rear (tires) off, and then Stephen (Doran, crew chief) and the guys made good adjustments. And from the second stage, I could race, and it felt like I had a good day. But got involved in a bit of stuff and made a mistake myself, and got sick of passing cars. But it was awesome fun.”
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His first off-roading experience on Sunday came at the conclusion of Stage 2. Coming to the green-checkered flag, Kyle Larson dove from the top lane to the bottom — exactly where van Gisbergen was running in a fight for third. Larson spun, then nosed into the SAFER barrier, while SVG went for a lazy slide through the grass and across EchoPark’s interwoven quarter-mile fronstretch oval. Just 39 laps later, van Gisbergen went for a near-identical trip through the terrain after losing traction while competing just outside the top 10.
Those excursions were just bumps in the road. Van Gisbergen took lessons learned from his two outings at the 1.54-mile Georgia oval last year and improved upon what he and his Trackhouse group found fits him.
“I felt confident here last time we were here, too, so kind of built on that,” van Gisbergen said. “And, yeah, felt comfortable making moves. Got too adventurous sometimes, going three-wide bottom, and then you get no help. But just more and more comfortable with these races the more I do them.”
Shane van Gisbergen races three-wide with Brad Keselowski and Christopher Bell at EchoPark.
Van Gisbergen’s stout effort was no surprise to anyone who also tuned into last week’s Daytona 500, where SVG was a frequent flyer inside the top 10 of the prestigious season-opening race before getting collected in a crash toward the front of the field that left him 30th. Starting the season with such momentum — evidenced by a 16th-place standing in the current points tally — goes a long way inside the Trackhouse shop.
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“I think it’s awesome,” van Gisbergen said. “We’ve got a good bunch of people here, and it’s fun prepping during the week, and then at the race track, it’s good vibes. I really enjoy the team I work with, and we’re in a position where we need to accumulate points every week to make this Chase. So last week was pretty disappointing, and then, yeah, great to get sixth today. It’s a huge amount of points. Pissed at myself. I was fourth going into the last corner and let the two guys (Carson Hocevar and Daniel Suárez) inside me. But it’s a pretty good day.”
MORE: Cup Series standings | Cup Series schedule
That strong start can quickly turn into a better one, too. NASCAR next heads to Circuit of The Americas on Sunday (3:30 p.m. ET, FOX, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). COTA is the only road course on this year’s Cup calendar where he has made a start but not won a race. He and his No. 97 group are eager to change that this weekend.
“I need to do better on these (oval) weekends and keep scoring those points,” van Gisbergen said. “There’s less road courses in the main season, so for me, it’s all points accumulation, and we’re fighting hard to get stage points and that’s a huge positive. We didn’t really get stage points on ovals last year, so we’re in a lot better position, which is awesome. And the road courses, again, are like holidays for us. Just go and have fun and score as many points as we can.”
