NASCAR Cup Series
Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez
Team Chevy Driver Quotes
June 13, 2025
Shane van Gisbergen, driver of the No. 88 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet, met with the media in advance of the NASCAR Cup Series race weekend at Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez.
Media Availability Quotes:
Walk us through your travel day getting here and what that was like…
“Yeah, it wasn’t real fun. Yesterday was a long day. But yeah, pretty scary when the plane launched itself on take-off.
But yeah, they stopped and were trying to just get another plane. And then it was first thing this morning, so early start this morning. I think we got up at 3:30 a.m. at home and got on an early flight down here.”
Shane, welcome to Mexico. I know the road course is more like your Australian style for your career. How do you feel about this road course?
“Yeah, it’s cool to be here. Always good to come to a new track. I haven’t been here before and trying to study the place and learn what it’s like. Unfortunately, I missed the track walk this morning, so the first look will be on the drive around. But yeah, it looks great. Should be some good racing. Nice to have a little break from the ovals for me, even though we’ve been getting a lot better the last few weeks. We’ve got a good run of road courses coming up. Time for us to start getting some good results. Looking forward to putting some good races together, and hopefully this weekend being competitive.”
Do you feel behind at all? There’s only a few guys working on your car right now…
“Not really. They’ve got it all pretty under control. Obviously, it’s not ideal, but it’s fine. Thankfully, practice being delayed has given us more than enough time to get everything sorted. It’s fine.”
Are you good with the way NASCAR has handled this whole situation?
“Yeah, I’m fine with it. You can’t predict that kind of stuff happening. You know, there’s so many moving parts. I think what they got us, everyone’s down here now. I think it’s all the important people, I guess, needed for today, so I think they’ve done a good job salvaging it.”
I saw Ryan Ellis was also on that plane. He said your way to take off speed, all of a sudden you hit the brakes, and you heard the boom. He likened it to a bunch of crazy people that hit walls for a living… o one really panicked. What was your take on the way that everybody on the plane acted, and what happened?
“Yeah, I don’t know. I guess it’s a big deal when you think about it, but I’m not really too fussed about it. I’m already focused on today. But yeah, obviously not ideal, but it happened and we fixed it.”
Shane, after you went to Chicago and won that race, and that was a new circuit to everybody else in the field, there’s a lot of speculation that you’re going to have an edge or be the favorite here this weekend. Do you agree with that at all?
“I don’t know, that’s your guys’ jobs, but I do know that we will be competitive if we get everything right. It’s so hard to know what the car’s going to be like – it’s a different track, how it’s going to be affected by the altitude and the surface. Watching those NASCAR Mexico cars drive around, they look like they’re driving on ice. It’s going to be interesting to feel what our cars are like in these conditions. But yeah, we should be up front. These are the types of tracks I’m good at, so we’ll see.”
There’s the potential of rain, as well. Is that something you actively root for, given your proficiency there?
“I absolutely hate racing in the rain, but I’m good at it. I’d rather it didn’t rain, but if it happens, we put the wets on and go.”
You say you hate it. Clearly, you’ve proven you’re really good at it. How can you hate something that you’re very good at?
“I just don’t enjoy it. It’s just never fun. You’re always sliding around, and it just turns stuff into chaos. It’s fun to watch, but I don’t really enjoy driving.”
And then kind of a big-picture question… How would you evaluate where you are in your transition to a full-time NASCAR career?
“Yeah, it’s been definitely a big upswing the last few weeks. I feel like I’ve had to start again.
Last year taught me a lot and helped me get acclimated into American racing, but the cars are just chalk and cheese different. There’s no comparison to how they drive; how they react in the air. I feel like I’m learning everything again. I went to Nashville the other weekend and the cars drive nowhere similar. I feel like I’m not a complete rookie altogether, but the results are improving and the pace is getting better. I feel like we’re not forcing it. I’m not doing stupid stuff trying to keep up every week. I think we’re being methodical; getting better every week, learning our processes and our genuine competitiveness has gotten a lot better. We’ve been frustrated with 18th or whatever it’s been the last couple of weeks because we had potential to be at the back end of the top-10 or 15th, which is a decent result for how it’s been going. If we keep progressing on the ovals and with these road courses coming up, anything can happen. I’m relatively happy.
Justin has been amazing in supporting me and just giving me all the time I need and not putting pressure on me. It’s been really cool.”
My question is kind of along those lines, but the progress that you’ve made on the ovals and the confidence obviously that you’re picking up, is it good to take a break and go on a road course, or do you kind of wish you were still only going over the ovals, or is this kind of a good spot to come for you to continue with the confidence?
“A bit of everything. You just feel the confidence in the team and even the pit crew guys. Everyone’s just uplifted the last few weeks. Not that everyone was down, but it was a bit of a grind. The last few weeks, things have started to come a lot easier. Our pit stop averages are much quicker. Just all the simple things were getting a lot better and better. My restarts are finally in the positive, with it being well negative for the first half of the year. Every single area, we seem to be getting a lot better in, so it’s been fun.”
On the stretch of road courses coming up to end the regular season…
“It feels like a holiday for me, I guess. Yeah, it’ll be fun. There’s some good tracks coming up. Sonoma, I haven’t raced a Cup car at, but looking forward to that. Obviously I’ll be in a competitive Xfinity car, as well, to do some fun races. Looking forward to being out there.”
I understand you haven’t been on the track, but what are you curious to see on track and how it compares to the sims, since that’s your only point of reference at this point?
“Yeah, we didn’t do all that much sim racing. Just study as much film as I can. There was a TCR race here not long ago, trying to understand what they can do. But it’s more about the bundles and how they’re going to move. And then also there’s some corners that don’t have bundles, how they’re going to police them, and if you can use the curbs. But the best thing is, which I really enjoy, is the long practices. We get time to try some stuff, not only with car setup, but with driving. Every time we’ve had a long practice, I’ve been at my most competitive, especially on ovals, as well. So yeah, I’d love if we had more weekends like this, where we could try some stuff and play with the cars a bit more.”
What might it be like to race your teammate Daniel (Suarez) for the win at this place, and how aggressive could you be, or how easy would it be, to put it out of line that it’s Daniel and it’s just another car?
“Yeah, when you’ve got the helmet on, I normally have no problem with whoever it is. Obviously, you’d race your teammates a bit with a little bit more leniency. But yeah, if I spin out the No. 99, I’ll be hiding under cover trying to get out of this place (laughs). But I won’t be doing that.”
You talked about the ovals, and you talked about the other courses, but next week we’re at the Triangle. Have you studied Pocono at all, or are you prepared for that?
“Yeah, I enjoyed that place last year. It was very difficult, that track. It’s so hard to get in the rhythm, and every corner was different, but it was awesome. The speed that you’re going down into turn one is crazy. So yeah, I’m looking forward to that track. I like the variety of our schedule. You’re not just doing mile-and-a-halves every week, every track, and the style of the racetrack is so different. So yeah, you never get bored of what we do in this series, so I’m looking forward to that.”
About General Motors
General Motors (NYSE:GM) is driving the future of transportation, leveraging advanced technology to build safer, smarter, and lower emission cars, trucks, and SUVs. GM’s Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, and GMC brands offer a broad portfolio of innovative gasoline-powered vehicles and the industry’s widest range of EVs, as we move to an all-electric future. Learn more at GM.com.
