NASCAR road course ace Shane van Gisbergen will be getting some more seat time on the ovals later this month with Spire Motorsports.
CONCORD, N.C. -- NASCAR road course ace Shane van Gisbergen will be getting some more seat time on the ovals later this month with Spire Motorsports.
'SVG' will race Spire Motorsports' No. 71 Chevrolet Silverado in the May 22 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at Charlotte Motor Speedway oval. It'll mark the Kiwi's first NCTS start since the Aug. 11, 2023 TSport 200 at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park.
SVG has seven career wins and a 2025 Chase appearance in the NASCAR Cup Series, as well as five wins and a 2024 Chase appearance in the NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series, but he has only made two NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series starts.
His most recent NCTS start was last Friday at Watkins Glen where he finished third, two days before he scored a win that put him back into contention for the Cup Chase.
When he made his first NCTS start, life was much different.
A little over a month before he made his NCTS debut, in August 2023 at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park, he won on the Chicago Street Course in his NASCAR Cup Series debut, totally catching some people off-guard and fast-tracking himself to the top of Trackhouse Racing's Cup Series prospect list.
With support from Trackhouse in 2024, SVG competed full-time in the NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts for Kaulig Racing. He won three times, made the playoffs and ran well enough in his limited Cup schedule to warrant a promotion in 2025.
With Trackhouse proper in 2025, SVG obliterated the field on road courses. He won five of the six road course races that season with an average margin of victory of 10.993 seconds. The old format rewarded his success with a spot in the playoffs but three finishes of 14th or better in three of the final five oval races, including a top-10 finish at Kansas Speedway, rewarded him with a 12th-place finish in the final points standings.
The 2026 season started strong for SVG with five finishes of 14th or better in the first seven races:
- Atlanta: Sixth
- Circuit of the Americas: Second
- Phoenix: 11th
- Darlington: 14th
- Martinsville: 11th
After Phoenix, SVG found himself fifth in the points standings but a lack of speed at places like Las Vegas and Kansas and trouble at Bristol knocked him out of Chase contention. However, he reentered Chase contention with a win at Watkins Glen last Sunday and now sits six points above the cutline.
To stay there, SVG will need to continue to get better. This is where starts like Friday will be important for him, especially in a vehicle like a truck that has proven to have knowledge most transferable to the Cup Series of any other national series vehicle.
SVG will go truckin' Friday, May 22, at Charlotte Motor Speedway on FS1, NASCAR Racing Network and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90 at 7:30 p.m. ET.