After spending sixteen years competing for a Supercars Championship (achieving it thrice), Shane van Gisbergen will pursue a NASCAR Xfinity Series title. On Wednesday, Trackhouse Racing Team and Kaulig Racing announced van Gisbergen will run at least forty races in 2024; he will be in Kaulig’s #97 Chevrolet Camaro for the full Xfinity calendar, along with returning to Trackhouse’s #91 Camaro for seven Cup Series dates.
“After winning in Chicago, I could not stop thinking about racing full time in NASCAR,” said van Gisbergen. “I am still stunned at how quickly this has all come together. I must thank the NASCAR industry and fans for embracing me and allowing me to chase this dream. I respect every driver who has put in the work to make it to the Cup Series, and I am ready to put in that same effort. I am anxious to get started.”
Van Gisbergen did not need long to get used to driving a stock car when he won in his maiden NASCAR race at the inaugural Chicago Street Race in July, becoming the first Cup driver to win on début since 1963. He followed it up with a top ten in his second Cup start at Indianapolis the following month, while also scoring a nineteenth in his oval début in the Craftsman Truck Series at IRP two days prior.
Shortly after Indianapolis, his Supercars team Triple Eight Race Engineering permitted him to pursue NASCAR on a full-time basis in 2024. His final Supercars season ended with five wins and a runner-up championship finish to Brodie Kostecki, who also raced the Cup Indianapolis event. He ends his Supercars career with eighty-one wins and titles in 2016, 2021, and 2022.
For 2024, his Cup schedule consists of Circuit of the Americas (24 March), Talladega Superspeedway (21 April), Charlotte Motor Speedway (26 May), Chicago (7 July), Watkins Glen International (15 September), and Las Vegas Motor Speedway (20 October). COTA, Chicago, and Watkins Glen are road courses, Talladega is a superspeedway, and Charlotte and Las Vegas are intermediate tracks. Trackhouse also hopes to let him enter late model and Truck Series races during the year before he permanently moves up to the Cup Series.
“We know Shane will be incredibly competitive at the road course events in both the NASCAR Cup and Xfinity series, but we wanted to get him as much experience on NASCAR ovals as possible so I am really excited about his 2024 schedule,” said Trackhouse owner Justin Marks. “Kaulig Racing has a history of winning in the Xfinity Series and as a fellow Chevrolet team, we are so thankful Matt Kaulig and Chris Rice see the potential in Shane that we see. The anticipation for this season is palpable.”
Van Gisbergen’s addition further solidifies Kaulig as the top road course team in the Xfinity Series as he partners up with A.J. Allmendinger, who drops back down to Xfinity. Allmendinger, who also won a Cup road race in 2023 at the Charlotte Roval, has a record eleven career Xfinity wins on such tracks. Josh Williams will also race for the team in 2024.
“We started our talks with Trackhouse about the possibility of putting SVG in a Xfinity car for a few races quite some time ago, and from there the talks evolved to discussions about how much it would cost to run a full season,” commented Rice, who runs Kaulig Racing as president. “Once we knew we had an open seat for next season, it became the perfect scenario to put him in the car. We partner with Trackhouse’s pit crew department, and with their key support from Chevrolet, it made teaming up an easy decision.”
