“There are some guys that I’m two seconds a lap quicker than around a road course, but on an oval, they are unbelievable.” Shane van Gisbergen said this about his oval races last year driving in the Xfinity Series. The three-time Supercars champion scripted history when he won the inaugural Chicago Street Race in 2023, and that opened the doors for him as a full-time competitor in NASCAR.
Last year, he ran his rookie season in the Xfinity Series for Kaulig Racing in partnership with Trackhouse Racing. And guess what? He won three races on the road and street course combined to book his spot in the playoffs. The Kiwi speedster is a road course ringer, but when it comes to oval racing, he’s still learning the tricks of the trade. But fast-forward to 2025, he’s now wearing the big boy pants and competing against the best drivers in the Cup Series. But again, the ovals are proving to be a daunting task for SVG and the #88 team.
If we are to take the Darlington and Atlanta races out of the equation, he has finished 31st or worse in the rest of the oval races. The big surprise was the COTA race, where he wasn’t able to fire off and could only muster a 6th place finish, his best result so far this year. With three road course races and a Chicago race lined up in the regular season, there’s a possibility that Shane van Gisbergen will book his playoff ticket with a single win. And that could rile up some fans, we saw that last year when Harrison Burton pulled off a one-off win at the Daytona fall race. But JGR driver Denny Hamlin won’t mind SVG securing his spot in the final 16 doing that.
Rather, he is impressed with how the Kiwi driver has performed so far. Instead, he questioned Trackhouse Racing’s ability to give him the right resources to be competitive. “Road course racing is more part of our schedule now. I don’t have an issue with it. The fans more likely, when and if it happens, and Shane is in the 30s in points. They’ll probably have something to say about it, but that’s what he was built to do. Come over here and win some road course races and be somewhat competitive as he could on the ovals.” Hamlin said this on Actions Detrimental Podcast.
It’s not that SVG can’t produce a good result on the oval tracks. Last year, he notched two top 5s at Atlanta and Brickyard, and this was followed by three top 10 runs at Phoenix, Darlington, and Kansas. Clearly, something is off at the Trackhouse Racing team, and they haven’t been able to weed out last year’s issues.
CHICAGO, IL – JULY 01: Shane van Gisbergen 91 Trackhouse Racing Enhance Health Chevrolet talks with Bubba Wallace 23 23XI Racing McDonald s Toyota during qualifications for the NASCAR, Motorsport, USA Cup Series Grant Park 220 on July 01, 2023 in downtown Chicago, Illinois. Photo by Joe Robbins/Icon Sportswire AUTO: JUL 01 NASCAR Cup Series Grant Park 220 EDITORIAL USE ONLY Icon573230701038220
“I thought that there was races early on in the year where it was like, man, he was doing really, really well. The Atlanta race, I ran behind him, and he was doing good. He did good during the Clash, maybe it’s a team thing. Is Trackhouse off? It appears so. I don’t know how much of it is car or driver. You got to have low expectations when you’re in his rookie season to have him finish in the Top 10 every week. It’s not a realistic goal,” Hamlin added.
Heck, even Ty Gibbs wasn’t able to find a win when he entered the Cup Series on the back of his Xfinity Series championship. Unlike SVG, he made his name driving on the oval tracks. So, if the driver of the #88 Chevy snags either of the road course races, it shouldn’t come as a surprise. If anything, it’s a smart move by Trackhouse, knowing that SVG is likely to take them to victory lane once or twice this year.
Where has Trackhouse Racing gone wrong this season?
Back when Trackhouse entered the Cup Series, they took everyone by surprise. Ross Chastain bagged two wins and finished the season 2nd in points. The next year, he went elbows out against the likes of Denny Hamlin, Kyle Larson and Chase Elliott. Of course, who can forget the iconic hail-melon he pulled off at Martinsville Speedway? At the same time, we also had Daniel Suarez, who bagged his first win at Sonoma in 2022 and snagged a thrilling three-wide race win at Atlanta last year.
But, apart from the single wins by both the drivers last year, they were off by a mile. Chastain couldn’t even make it to the playoffs, and that indeed was a big fall off from the highs of 2022 and 2023. And that story seems to be repeating in 2025. Chastain and the #1 team are holding their own with four top 10s and a top 5 finish. Yet, he’s never been in the picture when it comes to contending for a race win. With only 39 laps led, he is the only Trackhouse driver above the cutline in 11th spot.
Suarez has two DNFs and six races where he couldn’t even crack a top 20 finish. Apart from the P2 finish at Las Vegas, his season has been a struggle. Right now, after nine races, he sits 29th in points standings and well below the cut-off line. SVG can bank on one race win to bag a playoff spot, but Suarez and Chastain are seasoned Cup drivers, and if they are not firing on all cylinders, the team has some problems. The good news is that they still have plenty of opportunities to overturn their misfortunes.
The post Denny Hamlin Backs NASCAR’s Struggling Rookie Pushing the Blame on Underwhelming Chevy Team appeared first on EssentiallySports.