“That guy is unbelievable on road courses. He’s just so good. He’s really raised the bar on this entire series.” Chase Briscoe said these words after sweating it out in vain at Sonoma Raceway. He started and finished in runner-up place, as he could not upgrade that one spot due to a formidable rival. That is none other than Shane Van Gisbergen, NASCAR’s present-day road course ringer. Presently, SVG’s Chicago rival, Michael McDowell, just bumped his respect for the Kiwi.
The Spire Motorsports star has been on a tough streak in 2025. McDowell has managed to clinch only 3 top tens and 2 top fives so far. However, he has been a force to reckon with on his signature racetracks – road courses. Yet recently, he had to make room for his rival.
Shane Van Gisbergen defies past and present
Well, foreign drivers in NASCAR have dazzled fans before. Marcos Ambrose is one of them, another Supercars star who won the Australian V8 championship in 2003-2004. Ambrose ran his first Xfinity Series race in 2007, after 22 Craftsman Truck Series starts in 2006. He went on to clinch 7 road course race wins, 5 in Xfinity and 2 in the Cup Series. But all of those victories came over a long 9-year tenure. Shane Van Gisbergen, on the other hand, has only been in NASCAR for two years, and he already owns 8 victories across 17 road course starts. The Kiwi speedster is even a threat to young prodigy Connor Zilisch, as he beat the 18-year-old with a few aggressive moves in Chicago.
Although Zilisch did come back at him in the Sonoma Xfinity Series race, Michael McDowell hailed SVG anyway. In a recent interview with ‘Door, Bumper, Clear’ hosts, the Spire driver highlighted Shane Van Gisbergen’s high standard. “The level of execution that SVG has is incredible for somebody new in our sport. Because we’ve seen fast guys…With Connor, he’s super fast. He’s just as fast as SVG, but crashes in practice, makes mistakes…But not speeding on pit road…he had to execute three perfect restarts yesterday as well…So he’s done a great job at executing.”
Michael McDowell
In Chicago, Michael McDowell led for the opening 31 laps, but a mechanical issue in his No. 71 Chevrolet let SVG get ahead. That is why McDowell acknowledged the advantage that Shane Van Gisbergen accrues from the Next-Gen car. Had Marcos Ambrose belonged to this era, SVG would have been challenged. McDowell said, “This car…and the amount of races we have now is different. I think Ambrose would have probably been in that conversation, had he sat in a Gibbs car, had he sat in a Hendrick car all those years, right? Because he had that edge. He did, I mean, he was a standout as well.” He continued, “Times are definitely different now. And I think that he and Ambrose would definitely be neck-and-neck if they were in the same era.”
The proliferation of road courses is also helping Shane Van Gisbergen. However, a veteran rival is not such a huge fan of that situation.
Harping on the essence of NASCAR
Well, oval tracks are indeed the essence of the sport. Since its inception in 1947, NASCAR has mostly been confined to short tracks, superspeedways, and intermediate tracks. Road courses were traditionally limited to Watkins Glen and Sonoma. But recently, that number has expanded to 6. The recent additions have been the Chicago Street Course (2023) and the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez in Mexico City (2025). With Watkins Glen and Charlotte Roval remaining in the 2025 schedule, Shane Van Gisbergen has a huge advantage. He might thump his way into the playoffs as a formidable force.
This situation has left veterans like Brad Keselowski worried. Not only because of SVG’s dominance, but also because of the multiplication of road courses. The RFK Racing team owner said that “two to four” of these tracks are more than enough, comparing the sport with IMSA. He recently lamented on X, “NASCAR was successfully built as a primarily oval racing series. IMSA was built as the primary road course series in North America. IMSA will always do road racing better than NASCAR and that’s OK.” The IMSA-like Next-Gen car does not display particularly compelling performances on the circuits.
Nevertheless, for 2025, we are witnessing Shane Van Gisbergen’s brilliance, and his rivals cannot do much about it. As the season rolls forward, let us see where the Kiwi conjures his magic again.
The post Veteran NASCAR Driver Explains Why No One Matches SVG’s Road Course Brilliance appeared first on EssentiallySports.