On the NASCAR tracks with the most circuitous sequence of turns, Shane van Gisbergen has shown a remarkably sublime sense of direction.
But the Trackhouse Racing driver still needs help navigating his new life in the United States such as the recent announcement of a 2026 street race in San Diego.
I dont even know where that is, the Auckland, New Zealand, native said with a laugh. I had to find it on a map. Itll be cool to go. Ive never been there and get to experience all new things.
The Cup Series rookie is an old hand on road courses, which he mastered with 80 victories and three championships from 2007-22 in Supercars (the top racing series in Australia and New Zealand). Those results caught the eye of Trackhouse founder Justin Marks, who took a flier on putting van Gisbergen in a Cup car for the inaugural Chicago Street Race in July 2023.
After stunning NASCAR at Chicago as the first driver to win his Cup debut since Johnny Rutherford in 1963, van Gisbergen relocated to NASCAR last year. He has won at Mexico City , Chicago and Sonoma this season, securing a playoff berth for the No. 88 Chevrolet and a multiyear extension at Trackhouse .
With a victory Sunday at Watkins Glen International, a 2.45-mile road course in New York, the 36-year-old van Gisbergen would join 2020 champion Chase Elliott and NASCAR Hall of Famer Jeff Gordon as the only drivers to win four consecutive Cup races on road or street courses.
Though van Gisbergen has only 37 career starts in NASCARs premier series, his four victories already rank third among active drivers on street or road courses.
These guys have egos, and they are not OK with this, NASCAR on NBC analyst Steve Letarte said after van Gisbergens win at Sonoma last month. When we go to Watkins Glen, I think its basically 35 against one, because theyll be like, What can we do to bury this guy?
It starts with getting close enough to rough up van Gisbergen, who has qualified first in his three wins. He won at Mexico City by 16.567 seconds, the Cup Series largest margin of victory in more than 15 years and the largest gap on a road course in more than 45 years.
He faced more pressure at Sonoma on multiple late restarts , but runner-up Chase Briscoe raced him cleanly (and then compared van Gisbergens road course skills with Michael Jordan in his prime).
I feel like everyone races really well, and I really love the racing here, van Gisbergen said. I dont feel like anyone targets me on the track and tries to take me out, but I feel like were the benchmark, which is really awesome. But the best thing on the road course is Ive never really raced the same guy. Every week, theres someone different. The spread of talent is quite high here.
Chris Buescher is the only Cup driver to have gotten the best of him. Racing at Watkins Glen last year in a part-time Cup schedule, van Gisbergen missed a corner entry by centimeters and lost to the Roush Fenway Keselowski driver on a last-lap pass.
I studied it a lot, and that was painful, van Gisbergen said. Im quite self-analytical, and even when I think of it now, it frustrates me.
He also is a humble perfectionist in addressing his inexperience on oval tracks, which comprise the bulk of the NASCAR schedule. On the advice of 2014 Cup champion Kevin Harvick, van Gisbergen has spent his summer racing Tuesday nights at Charlotte Motor Speedway against preteens in miniature stock cars on a quarter-mile oval.
He recently earned his first win on the short track, whose four turns encourage the full-contact racing that largely is absent on road courses.
I had 12-year-olds bump me and know exactly how to place their car, and Id never hit anyone on purpose to pass them, said van Gisbergen, who made his oval debut only two years ago. Its a skill that we dont get taught because youre not allowed to do it (in Supercars). So yeah, its been really beneficial and a lot of fun. Its just more racing and more combat.
He figures to be battle-tested when the Cup playoffs begin in three weeks. The first round is held exclusively at ovals, where van Gisbergen has an average finish of 26.7, but he will start the playoffs with a points cushion because of his wins.
He is confident of advancing to the second round simply by avoiding mistakes at tracks located in Darlington, South Carolina, suburban St. Louis and Bristol, Tennessee while also enjoying their divergent cultures.
Australia is the same size country, but from one side to the other, theres not much difference in the accents, van Gisbergen said. Here, its very diverse, and the way people talk is so different. Every part of the country feels like a different country. Its been an awesome experience just trying to learn about it.
Odds and ends
According to BetMGM Sportsbook, van Gisbergen (+125) is the favorite, followed by Connor Zilisch (+500), Christopher Bell (+1200) and Kyle Larson (+1200). With his 63rd start on a road or street course Sunday, Kyle Busch will tie Terry Labonte for most in Cup Series history. Both of Buschs top-five finishes this season have been on a road or street course (fifth at Circuit of The Americas and Chicago). Three-time and defending series champion Joey Logano will become the 13th Cup driver to make 600 consecutive starts.
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AP auto racing:
在弯道迂回曲折的NASCAR赛道上，谢恩·范吉斯伯根展现出了极其卓越的方向感。
但这位Trackhouse Racing车手仍需要适应在美国的新生活，例如近期宣布的2026年圣地亚哥街道赛。
“我甚至不知道那地方在哪儿，”这位新西兰奥克兰人笑着说道，“我还得在地图上找找。去那里应该挺酷的。我从未去过，可以体验各种新鲜事物。”
这位杯赛新秀实则是公路赛道的老手——2007至2022年间，他曾在澳大利亚和新西兰顶级赛车系列赛Supercars中斩获80场胜利并三度夺冠。如此辉煌的战绩引起了Trackhouse创始人贾斯汀·马克斯的注意，他大胆启用范吉斯伯根驾驶杯赛赛车，参加了2023年7月首届芝加哥街头赛的角逐。
范吉斯伯根在芝加哥站一鸣惊人，成为自1963年约翰尼·卢瑟福之后首位在杯赛首秀即夺冠的车手，随后他于去年正式转战NASCAR。本赛季他先后在墨西哥城、芝加哥和索诺玛站夺冠，不仅为88号雪佛兰车队锁定季后赛席位，还与Trackhouse车队签下多年续约合同。
如果36岁的范吉斯伯根能在周日赢得纽约2.45英里长的沃特金斯格伦国际赛道比赛，他将与2020年冠军蔡斯·埃利奥特及NASCAR名人堂成员杰夫·戈登比肩，成为仅有的三位在公路或街道赛道上连续四次夺得杯赛冠军的车手。
尽管范吉斯伯根在NASCAR顶级系列赛中仅有37次职业生涯首发，但他在街道赛或公路赛上的四场胜利已位列现役车手第三。
NBC纳斯卡赛事分析师史蒂夫·勒塔特（Steve Letarte）在上月范吉斯伯根（van Gisbergen）索诺玛站夺冠后表示："这些车手心高气傲，他们可咽不下这口气。等到了沃特金斯格伦站，我估计会是35对1的局面——他们准会盘算‘怎么才能让这家伙翻不了身？’"
比赛伊始，对手便试图逼近范吉斯伯根（van Gisbergen）施加压力——这位车手在三场夺冠赛事中均以杆位发车。他在墨西哥城站以16.567秒的优势夺冠，这一成绩创下纳斯卡杯系列赛15年来最大胜差纪录，同时也是45年来公路赛道上的最大领先优势。
在索诺玛赛道的多次后期重启中，他承受了更大压力，但亚军蔡斯·布里斯科始终与他公平竞技（随后还将范吉斯伯根的赛道技巧比作巅峰时期的迈克尔·乔丹）。
范吉斯伯根表示：“我觉得每位车手都表现得很出色，我十分享受这里的比赛氛围。虽然不觉得有人在赛道上针对我或试图逼退我，但能成为其他车手的对标基准，这种感觉棒极了。而公路赛道最妙之处在于，我几乎从不会与同一名对手反复较量——每周都有不同的竞争者，这里的车手实力分布非常均衡。”
克里斯·布舍尔（Chris Buescher）是唯一在杯赛中对范吉斯伯根（van Gisbergen）占据上风的车手。去年在沃特金斯格伦（Watkins Glen）参加兼职杯赛时，范吉斯伯根因入弯时偏差“几厘米”，最终被鲁什·芬威·凯瑟洛夫斯基（Roush Fenway Keselowski）车队的车手在最后一圈超越落败。
“我反复研究过那段经历，过程非常痛苦，”范吉斯伯根说道。“我是个习惯自我剖析的人，即便现在回想起来，仍会感到沮丧。”
面对椭圆形赛道（这类赛道在NASCAR赛程中占绝大多数）经验不足的问题，他始终保持谦逊的完美主义态度。在2014年杯赛冠军凯文·哈维克（Kevin Harvick）的建议下，范吉斯伯根（van Gisbergen）整个夏季每周二晚间都在夏洛特赛车场，驾驶微型赛车与青少年车手在四分之一英里椭圆形赛道上竞逐。
他近日在短道赛道上斩获首胜——这种设有四个弯道的赛道会激发激烈对抗，而这种对抗在常规公路赛道上几乎不存在。
范吉斯伯根（van Gisbergen）表示："12岁的孩子都能精准地用车顶撞我，还知道如何卡位，而我绝不会故意撞人来超车。"这位两年前才首次参加椭圆赛道比赛的车手补充道："这种技巧没人教我们，因为在超级房车赛中不允许这么做。但说实话，这确实让我受益匪浅且充满乐趣——本质上是更激烈的竞速与对抗。"
当三周后杯赛季后赛开始时，他预计将经受实战考验。首轮比赛仅在椭圆形赛道举行，范吉斯伯根在此的平均完赛名次为26.7位，但由于此前的胜利积累，他将带着积分优势开启季后赛征程。
他自信只需避免在南卡罗来纳州达灵顿、圣路易斯郊区以及田纳西州布里斯托尔的赛道上犯错，就能顺利晋级第二轮，同时还能享受这些地方迥异的文化魅力。
范吉斯伯根表示：“澳大利亚的国土面积相当，但口音从一端到另一端却没什么差异。而这里（美国）非常多元化，人们的说话方式截然不同。这个国家的每个地区都像是一个不同的国度。尝试了解这一切真是段奇妙的经历。”
零碎杂物
据BetMGM博彩公司数据显示，范吉斯伯根（+125）是夺冠热门，紧随其后的是康纳·齐利施（+500）、克里斯托弗·贝尔（+1200）和凯尔·拉森（+1200）。本周日，凯尔·布施将迎来个人第63次公路/街道赛首发，由此追平特里·拉邦特保持的纳斯卡杯系列赛历史最高纪录。布施本赛季两次跻身前五的成绩均来自公路/街道赛道（美洲赛道第五名、芝加哥站第五名）。三届系列赛卫冕冠军乔伊·洛加诺将成为纳斯卡杯赛事历史上第13位达成连续600场首发成就的车手。
美联社赛车新闻：
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