Shane van Gisbergen will be making his fifth NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series career start in this upcoming weekend’s Black’s Tire 250 at Richmond Raceway in Richmond, Virginia, on Saturday, August 14. He will be driving the No. 7 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Silverado RST entry for Spire Motorsports.
The news comes as the three-time Supercars champion from Auckland, New Zealand, is currently campaigning in his second full-time season in the Cup Series division with Trackhouse Racing as he holds a pair of road-course victories and is above the Chase cutline in 15th place in the standings. It also comes as van Gisbergen has made a trio of Truck Series starts this season between Niece Motorsports and Spire Motorsports.
Van Gisbergen recorded a 19th-place result in his first career Truck start at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park in August 2023 and in a one-race appearance with Niece Motorsports. This past May, the New Zealander made his second career start at Watkins Glen International as he drove Niece’s No. 4 Chevrolet entry to a career-best third-place result. Two races later, he made his first start with Spire as he finished in 15th place while piloting the No. 71 entry.
During van Gisbergen’s recent Truck start at North Wilkesboro Speedway in mid-July, he achieved his career-best result on an oval-shaped circuit by notching a third-place result in Spire’s No. 71 entry. He backed up this result by scoring his first top-five oval result in the Cup circuit by finishing in fifth place. Amid his steady progress on ovals, van Gisbergen will strive to be two spots better for Friday night’s event at Richmond and contend for his first Truck career victory.
This Friday’s event at Richmond was scheduled to mark the eighth and final Truck start of the 2026 campaign for two-time Cup Series champion Kyle Busch. After Busch’s passing in mid-May, Corey Day, Rajah Caruth and Chase Elliott have since competed in place of Busch in the No. 7 events for his scheduled starts at Charlotte, Nashville Superspeedway and North Wilkesboro, respectively.
Spire Motorsports’ No. 7 Chevrolet team, which is led by crew chief Kevin ‘Bono’ Manion, is currently ranked in fourth place in the 2026 Truck owner’s standings, with the entry being piloted to Victory Lane twice by Busch at EchoPark Speedway in mid-February and Dover Motor Speedway in mid-May. The entry has also finished in the top-10 mark 10 times through 16-scheduled starts. Additional competitors who have piloted the No. 7 entry throughout this season, along with Busch, Day, Caruth, and Elliott, include Michael McDowell, Connor Mosack, and Sammy Smith, with van Gisbergen set to join the list of No. 7 drivers.
The 2026 Black’s Tire 250 at Richmond Raceway is scheduled to occur on Friday, August 14, at 7:30 p.m. ET on FS1, NASCAR Racing Network and SiriusXM.
