NASCAR CUP SERIES
2025 PLAYOFF MEDIA DAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER QUOTES
AUGUST 27, 2025
Shane van Gisbergen, driver of the No. 88 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet, met with the media in advance of the start of the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs.
Media Availability Quotes:
How does it feel to be in the playoffs this year?
“Yeah, it’s a privilege I guess to be here and we’ve had an amazing year and run, so hopefully keep going.”
You’re getting better on the ovals. A few weeks ago, Larson said if you ever figure out these ovals, they’re all in trouble. So what have you attributed to your growing success on the oval tracks?
“Just time. I don’t know anything different. It’s taken me a long time to learn the ovals, particularly because I haven’t done them before. So finally starting to go to tracks for the second time and yeah, hopefully go better.”
Of the three coming up, is there one that you’re looking at more favorably? Do you feel more comfortable once you get back down.
“Well, just the first round is difficult. Gateway I have never been to, and Bristol was very, very difficult. So, yeah, hopefully it goes good.”
Then you have a roval coming up, but we can’t just automatically give you the trophy, even though based on what you did this year.
“Every race is tough, right? But we’ve had an amazing run on the road courses. Hopefully it continues, but it certainly won’t be easy, that’s for sure. If we get to that point, it’ll be a nice one for us.”
The information you’re sharing with the crew chief and the engineers, has that gotten better and better as time has gone on, going back to these tracks, getting more used to them?
“100 percent. And because it’s all new crew at Trackhouse and people I haven’t worked with before. It took us a little while to gel and just learn each other and get better. The gains we’ve had since the start of the year, it’s been really cool to see that progression and how much enjoyment there is in doing it.”
Was last year the first time you had run a playoff format in racing?
“Oh yeah, this is probably the only sport I know of that has it like this, yeah.”
You made the comment last year that you were just trying to figure out how it works. Do you feel like you understand it now going into this one?
“Kind of, yeah, but the better you do it, it just looks after yourself. So I try not to get caught up in how many points and stuff like that. I know that if I do my best and get good results, it’ll look after itself.”
From the experience last year, even though the series is different, the drivers are different, the competition is going to be different, were there things from the experience of the Xfinity playoff that you can apply as a driver going into this one?
“I remember last year, the way it was approached was different to the rest of the season. We got caught up in the moment a little bit too much. We did a silly strategy at the Roval. It was an unexplained mistake really. I think this year it’s been good… just trying to stay level-headed, take it week by week. We’re in an amazing spot to be here and we have no expectation to make it through the second round. No one knows what we’re going to do. If we go and perform, we can surprise some people.”
It seems like people are already writing you off ahead of the first round.
“Yeah, which is great. It doesn’t worry us. It puts no pressure on us, right? If we have a good week this week, it makes the next few harder. But if we have a tough week, it puts us in a hole and it’s going to be hard to get out of it. Hopefully it will be nice to prove people wrong, too.”
Are you the kind of guy who people, if they count you out, you’re like, yeah, we’ll just…?
“It’s always fun to have your back against the wall, right, and have to push hard. I don’t use it for motivation or anything, but it’s cool being the underdog.”
You’ve always been great on road courses, but what is it that you’ve noticed this year about the competitiveness, the intensity of the Cup Series, races in general, outside just all those road courses, just the intensity every week?
“It’s just how much it means every week, the racing, and how intense it is. It’s not surprising, but the energy level you’ve got to have every week is pretty intense, and the amount of study you have to do, it’s full on. It’s fun, though.”
What do you notice about the atmosphere, just being at the track every week, and now that you’ve seen it?
“At home, we would have 12 events, and three or four of them would be massive ones. It feels like pretty much every weekend is a big event. And especially at these tracks you only go to once, it feels huge, so yeah, pretty cool.”
So Supercars do not have any sort of a playoff? I thought like at the very end there was…
“Oh, they have it this year, but it’s even more confusing than this one. It’s new.”
Do you have to approach it differently than the regular season? I mean, is there anything you’re doing or approach mentally that you’re doing differently?
“No, I’ve tried to keep it the same, but you just know that you can’t make the mistakes because it would be hard to dig ourselves out of that. We just have to keep doing what we’ve been doing, but it’s so hard in a NASCAR race, I feel like every race you have a storyline of how the day goes. It’s never free-flowing really, so we just have to eliminate or minimize what we do wrong, and just try to get it right every week, and that comes with preparation.”
What does success over the next 10 weeks look like for you?
“Having a smile on my face at the end of it!”
And does anyone else on the road course impress you with their road course talent this season?
“Every race there has been a challenger… it’s been different guys most of the time. At every race someone shows up and has a crack. The talent level on road courses is very, very high here so we’ve had some good races.”
People think that it’s so easy for you and that it’s a piece of cake taking candy from a baby, but it’s not. Define that as you head into the playoffs.
“It’s tough. We’ve just had a really nice run and it’s been good to execute, but the days haven’t been easy. It’s ended up pretty well with a great result but there’s always been a tough part to each day. It’s been amazing. We had the ability to win all the races and to go and execute it and get almost all of them has been special, really cool.”
Is there a little bit of some things that makes you feel good? I mean the fact that you’ve won major championships before. Could you just talk about what that experience does? I know it’s not directly the same thing but in a big scheme it is.
“It still means everything. Coming in on the race on Sunday, I’ll be nervous as anything. You get all that anxiety about it and you learn. This means everything to us. We’ve worked all year for this, and that feeling you learn to channel it. It’s good to be nervous, it means you care about it. So I kind of embrace that more nowadays and you know if you don’t feel that you’re probably in the wrong sport.”
What does it mean to have some familiar people around? I can’t imagine going somewhere, halfway around the world and doing what you’re doing and being isolated.
“It’s cool. You still keep in contact with everyone relatively easy these days messaging, but it’s always awesome to have people over at your house staying for a couple of weeks. Just getting to show them how different it is here. They flew to Orlando on a Thursday and I flew Friday morning for the qualifying. They couldn’t believe I was arriving on the race day. It’s just so different, like how long the weekends are, how efficient everything is. It’s just such a different world here from what everyone’s used to.”
For this weekend in Darlington, is there a certain point total or finish that you think would be great if you reached that.
“Nah, not really. I think it’s just going to be law of averages for us, right? We’ve got to be above average and that’s the shot we’re going to have to get through. We’ve got to have three decent finishes and we’ll be able to get through the round, right? But I don’t know about the points total, how many certain points is the average to get through. But I know I need to get better to make it work.”
Besides road courses, what do you feel is your biggest strength and your biggest weakness heading into these final 10.
“Strength, I guess, is my team. I’ve got awesome people in my corner and I know they’ll do anything for us to succeed. Seeing the work and preparation in the team has been awesome. The vibe and how knuckled down everyone is… it’s really cool to be a part of that. The weakness is me. It’s my inexperience and I’ve got those people helping me to get better.”
You spoke about the improvement you’re trying to have on ovals. You’ve shown some improvement at some of the places here recently. What are some of the ones that are coming up in the playoffs that you maybe have circled that you might perform better than what people are expecting you to do.
“Probably Darlington. That’s something I’m getting a bit. It’s one of my favorite tracks and I’m enjoying it. Gateway and Bristol are going to be tough. I haven’t been to Gateway and Bristol I struggled a bit at.”
What is it about Darlington? What is it about Darlington that suits your driving style?
“I think you have to be very precise. You’ve got to be millimetre perfect every lap, comfortable to run against the wall and the proximity to the wall, and then the repetition and consistency. I think that seems to suit me, and the way the cars slide around, I really enjoy that place.”
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