NASCAR CUP SERIES
POCONO RACEWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER QUOTES
JUNE 21, 2025
Shane van Gisbergen, driver of the No. 88 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet, met with the media in advance of the NASCAR Cup Series practice and qualifying session at Pocono Raceway.
Media Availability Quotes:
Two years ago, you burst onto the scene with the Chicago win. A few weeks later here at Pocono, I talked to many drivers, and a lot of them have the sentiment of, yeah, it’s cool that you won at a road course, but try the ovals. And now, two years later, you’re fully invested in NASCAR in a full-time capacity. You have another historic win, ironically, on a road course. But now, here we are. Even though your success on ovals has still been limited, and you’re still learning, what do you say to all the drivers that were like, just do it? How do you respond, I guess?
“I don’t know where to start with that one… but yeah, firstly, good morning, everyone.
Yeah, it’s been an amazing two years, that’s for sure. And it’s been great to tick off another win at a historical event for the sport again, Pretty cool to win another race like that. And it’s been an amazing week — amazing for the team and celebrating our achievement. It’s a pretty cool thing to do. But yeah, I feel like we really are getting better every week on the ovals. It was nice to have a break last week and turn right, which is good, but ready to keep trying to progress. This track will be a tough one. I struggled here, actually, last year, but also our cars weren’t that good either. I was racing my teammates near the back, so it was a tough one. But yeah, just looking forward to keep improving every week, keep learning something. And yeah, it’s not long now until we go to tracks for the second time and looking forward to getting better at them.”
With the win, how does the mindset shift for the rest of the regular season?
“Good question. I don’t think it really has. It was always our goal to win. There’s probably less pressure on road courses now. We can play with our strategy if we want to try and get playoff points now and stuff like that.
But yeah, probably less pressure. We can enjoy the road courses a bit more. But yeah, the ovals, we just need to keep doing what we’ve been doing; keep our head down, keep improving every week, and try and keep getting good results. We’ve been frustrated with top-20s the last couple of weeks, which is a huge improvement for us for how we started. Our potential is getting a lot better, and hopefully we keep getting close to that back-end of the top-10. That would be good.”
You got the opportunity last weekend with celebrating your victory with the first loser and second loser, I guess, is what some people would call it. What was it like to share a podium, since that’s not traditionally done here? I know you’ve done it both ways. Would you prefer having the focus more on the winner as opposed to sharing the second and third?
“Yeah, I guess that’s the way that I’ve grown up doing it, and the way the rest of the world does it. But I love the focus on ‘win or nothing’ here, as well. There’s so much spectacle just behind the winner, and you get all that spotlight.
But it’s damn hard to get second and third in these races, too, so I think it’s good to celebrate that, as well. I can see both sides of it, but I do love the way the winner’s circle or victory lane is here. It’s a really cool privilege to be in that, I think. I’m on the fence, really. I don’t know what’s better, but I like both ways. I like champagne, too, that’s always fun (laughs).”
I know that you’ve talked about just the boarding and the progression that you’ve had to make, and I’m sure it’s as much week by week, but to be in the stretch where there are so many road courses and there are so many really, really good opportunities for you, what does it mean to be at the stretch? Is it something that you were looking forward to, or was it something that was hard to look ahead because there was so much work to be done on everything else?
“I knew it was going to be a real grind from April to now. We really struggled at the start. But as I keep saying, I think we’ve gotten a lot better, and we’re really in the mix now. We’re qualifying in the mix. It’s been fun battling with these guys, and it’s been fun seeing the improvements every week. The metric here, once you’re stuck in that tail end, that’s hard to get out. You go out first in qualifying, and you’re stuck at the back. Once you break that routine, you get some momentum going, and it’s cool to see the metric come out every week and know you’re going to be in a good qualifying spot. It’s been a huge uplift, and the meetings have been a lot of fun. You really feel a lot more confidence, which is really cool.”
I want to ask you first about the Chicago Street Race. Obviously, it’s a special place for you. You got your first win there a couple of years ago. I want to go a little bit deeper into that and ask you, what is it like as an event, overall, racing in the middle of a downtown city as a street course? What’s your thoughts on that as a concept as a whole in NASCAR, and what excites you about going back in a couple of weeks?
“I think it’s really good. I think NASCAR people maybe should go to Gold Coast, as wel,l and get some ideas about that event. Gold Coast Street Race in Australia, it’s not as good as it was, but that atmosphere and party style is really, really cool. It’s sort of similar… the track’s by the water. It’s got all the buildings. It could still be better from an atmosphere, race, party kind of view. But I think for their first crack at it, it’s been really good. A little unlucky with the weather both years, but I’ve really enjoyed that race.
I think for a street race, it’s got a lot of passing zones, which is very rare for a street circuit. The race has provided, the last couple of years, it’s been an exciting race and seems like a race most people look forward to watching.”
Road courses are undoubtedly a driving strength of yours, but Pocono isn’t your typical oval. It’s the Tricky Triangle for a reason. Do you feel your road racing skills can translate here, and what are the biggest challenges for you here?
“It’s just time. I figured this year, all the tracks I’ve done in Xfinity and everything I’ve learned, I’ve had to throw in the bin basically. The cars are so much different and the way you attack the track, so I’m starting from scratch almost at all these new places. This is tough with the gear changing. I’m not really that good yet at changing down gears with my left foot, which I’ll do here today. I need to keep improving with that.
This track is going to be very difficult for me, but hopefully by the time the race starts, we’re progressing forward again.”
Shane, that win obviously last weekend locked you into the postseason. Have you given any thought at all? Have you looked at the first round of the playoffs and looked at that schedule to try to sit down with your team and figure out maybe what’s our game plan for that first round?
“Yeah, I had a look at what tracks it was, and it’s pretty daunting. Bristol’s a tough track. Gateway, I’ve never been there, but there’s two left-handers by the looks. What’s the other track? Darlington, which I’m okay at, but certainly it’s going to be a really, really tough first round. By then, hopefully, we’ve got 10 weeks to keep getting better and building it up. Looking forward to getting there; having a crack and trying to get through it.”
You mentioned 10 weeks left, wo of those races are road courses going to Chicago and then going to Sonoma the very next week. There probably would have been an emphasis on those for you anyway, even in a must-win situation for the playoffs. But now that you’re locked in, those are excellent chances for you to build playoff points. Is that going to be something you’re looking at maybe going for the win as opposed to a stage win, or a stage win as opposed to a 15th-place finish? Does that change your strategy at all, your postseason outlook?
“Yeah, that’s what happened last year in the Xfinity. We started sacrificing a little bit of track position to try and accumulate points because they’re pretty important in that first round. It may change it, but also winning races is pretty cool, too, so we’ll probably just try and keep putting ourselves in the best position to win those ones.”
Cam Waters is going to get another shot in the Truck Series. Have you talked to him since about the opportunity, and how cool is it seeing some more of your fellow Supercars drivers get more shots in NASCAR?
“Yeah, I haven’t spoke to him about the truck race, but he was trying to do Chicago in the Cup Series. Unfortunately, that didn’t work out. He’s probably the favorite to win next week now, so it’ll be really cool to see how he goes and how that race is. I guess it’s a new track. But I wish he was doing the Chicago race, too. It would have been cool to have him in there. I think he’s one of the best talents in V8, so hopefully he can get over here. Let’s go to the left side over here.”
Obviously track position is important, but typically everybody tends to undercut. But now that you guys were able to get that win, do you think that we’re going to start seeing more teams maybe staying out at the end of Stage Two, trying to get to stage points and still being in the track position?
“Yeah, it’s something that we talk about often, as well… that kind of strategy with one less pit stop. But I think at that stage (in Mexico City), the weather was quite threatening, so we were trying to get to the window for that rather than extending the stage. But yeah, it kind of was a surprise on me. I burnt my stuff up trying to get to Ty and get past him. And when I was told we were staying out, I was a bit worried at the time because I didn’t have much tire left, but thankfully, they re-fired okay. It would have been really interesting to see, if that race went green, where Ty would have come out and if he could have caught us. So yeah, it would have been fun to see, but unfortunately we didn’t get to find out.”
Looking at your short time here, at least in the Cup Series, just from the road course perspective, how much has the game changed in terms of maybe strategy or your approach going into each race from when you started at Xfinity to now in the Cup Series?
“I think when I first started, there was no stage breaks, so that’s kind of changed. I think in 2023, there weren’t stages, which was actually better I thought. But yeah, it kind of locks you in on your strategy and everyone kind of just does the same thing now. So yeah, I prefer no stage breaks in the road courses, but it is what it is.
But yeah, the racing is the same. I feel like it’s definitely tougher on the tracks that you go to like Watkins Glen and Sonoma, where everyone’s been going to them for years. I’m a bit of a catch up there, but obviously on the fresh tracks when everyone’s green to it, that’s where I can do a bit better. So yeah, but with more experience, I’m going to get better and better at these road courses.”
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