Shane van Gisbergen's improvement on ovals has been one of the hot talking points of the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series season, especially after Sunday night's Window World 450 at North Wilkesboro Speedway. The New Zealand native started eighth and finished fifth, leading 49 laps and recording an average running position of fourth.
This comes on the back of a sixth-place effort at EchoPark Speedway the week before, which is the same result he achieved at the Atlanta track in February. Van Gisbergen also finished fifth at Nashville Superspeedway and came one spot shy of recording top 10s at Phoenix Raceway, Martinsville Speedway, and Charlotte Motor Speedway.
All in all, he's 14th in Cup Series points with a 54-point cushion to make the Chase, with only five races remaining on the regular season schedule.
Not many people predicted van Gisbergen to be part of the 16-man field before the year, and if he was going to make it, it would have to be because of either a significant speed improvement for Trackhouse Racing or because he swept the road courses and hoarded up all those precious bonus points.
Neither of those things have happened. And he's still kicking butt.
Shane van Gisbergen is overachieving in a way few other Cup Series drivers are... yes, even on ovals
At North Wilkesboro, van Gisbergen didn't just finish fifth. He finished fifth while his teammates, Ross Chastain and Connor Zilisch, finished 27th and 32nd.
That's 2022 Cup Series championship runner-up Ross Chastain, by the way. And generational NASCAR prodigy Connor Zilisch.
Both of them have had vastly disappointing seasons, sitting 21st and 34th in points, respectively. It's not because they suddenly can't drive. It's because, in addition to what continues to be an avalanche of bad luck for Zilisch in particular, they are competing in what might legitimately be some of the slowest cars in the field from any multi-car organization.
The only guy who's not struggling in Trackhouse's equipment is the guy who was supposed to just not embarrass himself for 32 out of 36 weekends. The guy who was brought to NASCAR from halfway around the world specifically because the playoffs had been designed as such that you only had to win once to qualify, which he can do on a road course in his sleep.
When van Gisbergen came to the United States, he was expected to be another Marcos Ambrose: an elite road racer and a middle-of-the-pack oval driver. Instead, he's the greatest road racer of all-time, while routinely punching well above his weight on tracks with only left-hand turns. If Trackhouse was still 2022 Trackhouse, there's a decent chance he'd have already won on one.
At this point, the only mark against van Gisbergen is that most of his best oval runs have been races in which he's inherited a strong starting spot from qualifying being rained out. He hasn't yet shown an ability to surge through the field after losing track position, which is the most telling skill of a truly elite driver.
But you also need a fast car to be able to do that, which he doesn't have. Defending what he's given is all he can do, and van Gisbergen is squeezing out every drop that the No. 97 Chevrolet has in it and then some.
Aside from the obvious top tier of Denny Hamlin, Ryan Blaney, Tyler Reddick, and Kyle Larson, there might not be anybody else in the sport having a more impressive season right now when accounting for the strength of his team. It is officially time to start talking about van Gisbergen as one of the best drivers in NASCAR, and without the "on road courses" distinguisher.
