NASCAR CUP SERIES
CHICAGO STREET RACE
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER QUOTES
JULY 4, 2025
Shane van Gisbergen, driver of the No. 88 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 and and the No. 9 JR Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro SS, met with the media in advance of running double duty at the Chicago Street Course. The 36-year-old Auckland, New Zealand, native is the only driver to earn victories in both divisions at the “Windy City” circuit – scoring the win in the 2023 Cup Series race and the 2024 Xfinity Series race.
Media Availability Quotes:
You’ve been on other street courses before. How do you compare the build, the layout, the configuration of this one versus what you’ve raced elsewhere?
“It’s a bit like Gold Coast in some ways… like the 90-degree corners and stuff, and Adelaide in some sections. But yeah, it’s different in its own way. The hardest part here is the no runoff… like turn one and turn five, going straight into a wall at the biggest braking zones, is pretty daunting. So yeah, normally you have runoff in the tricky corners, so that’s probably the hardest part about this place.”
Is there anything about the design, other than the braking spots, that jump out to you that you like or don’t like or that kind of thing?
“It’s just a track, yeah. I don’t know, it’s very challenging. It’s difficult, but nothing out of the ordinary, I guess.”
Since you have a win, is there anything you have asked your team to maybe experiment with here just to see if it works on a Cup car and if you like it on a road course?
“We did that at Mexico, and we’ll continue to make it better here. So yeah, it’s been good to try a few things. It’s difficult here because it’s a closed sort of practice…what you turn up with is what you’re stuck with. It wasn’t a risk at Mexico, we could change it if it wasn’t very good. But yeah, we just keep trying to make the car better. There’s some feelings I’ve struggled with in the car the last couple of years and it’s nice to try some things. But yeah, we can obviously — you know, we’re in a nice position now having won a race. And it may change our strategy. If we’re in a position to get a playoff point, we’ll probably try and get that, but that’ll put us deep in the field for the next stage. So yeah, there’s a bit of a toss-up there what we’re going to do, but it’s a nice position to be in. And yeah, you’re right, we can try some stuff now.”
When you come back to Chicago, do you feel any special connection to this city where you got your first win?
“Yeah, I do. This place is pretty cool to me every time I come back. I hate cities, so I don’t really like the place. But when you get here, it’s pretty cool. You know, I have great memories here. This place has changed my life, so I’m going to have special memories of this place forever. But yeah, not enough grass for me (laughs).”
Four playoff spots remain in the final eight races of the regular season. Even though you’re currently locked in, how safe do you feel in the spot you’re in, and is a second win a must?
“I don’t know… someone brought that up the other day, but I try not to think about those things. You know, we’re still — we won a race, which is extremely hard to do here. And yeah, we just got to focus on our own thing and it should work out. We’ll be fine.”
I know the win obviously puts you in a great position for the playoffs, but is there something to be said for building some momentum for you and your team in this stretch here? Obviously Chicago, that you’ve had a lot of success at, and then going to Sonoma, another road course, kind of building toward the playoffs?
“Yeah, and our oval stuff really was getting better and better. We had a bad week at Pocono, but again at Atlanta, I felt like we made a huge step and a huge gain from earlier in the year at Atlanta. We were running up front, even before half the field got taken out. But I was having some great times there and learning. You know, I had learned so much since the start of the year. I felt really comfortable up front, so yeah, I think we’re really still learning, getting better every week. It’s been a really fun road to be a part of this, I’m enjoying it. And then, as I’ve said before, road courses are just a bonus for us. We know we’re going to be good and we can just focus on trying to get results there.”
Joey (Logano) was up here just a minute ago and he was talking about how he still feels like the rest of the field is trying to catch up to someone like you who has so much road and street experience and skill. Do you feel like the rest of the field has made strides in the last couple of years in this race when it comes to this competition?
“Yeah, I can just flip what he says and that’s what I feel on ovals. You know, that’s the reasons why I’m doing Summer Shootout and stuff, just trying to get experience on ovals.
These guys have been doing left-handers since they were 10 years old. You know, they’re two completely different sports, and although there has been road racing in NASCAR forever, it’s not that much. So yeah, just the experience levels are different in what we do. And I feel like, yes, they’ve definitely gotten a lot better since the first one on this track, for sure.”
The odds basically have you head-to-head with Connor Zilich for the win on Saturday’s Xfinity Series race. How do you feel that battle will go with him with your fellow Red Bull racer?
“Yeah, I feel like the odds stuff is pretty cool to read… like it means that people think nice things about me. That’s cool. But yeah, Connor (Zilisch) will be very good and very tough to beat here. He’s been amazing in those cars. I haven’t driven a Xfinity car all year and it’ll be the first time in a JRM car. So yeah, I’m looking forward to that. Looking forward to driving it tomorrow and seeing what it’s like. That Xfinity race last year was one of my favorite races. I had a lot of fun in that and those cars race really well. They’re pretty awkward and clumsy, but really fun to race.”
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