Shane van Gisbergen is a driver any NASCAR team would want to have in their lineup. The Kiwi's incredible 17 years of experience in Supercars have made his transition to NASCAR look effortless, and should make teams bid for his services. At least that is what renowned NASCAR broadcaster Mamba Smith believes.

Despite his performance at ovals, where he is still improving, SVG comes with incredible road course strength and can easily be held as the favorite to win races at such tracks. And this puts him at an incredibly advantageous position with five non-oval races in the calendar.

"I mean, there should be a bidding war, right?... But it also depends on the schedule because the schedule changed. But the advantage that he had was that he had a road course in the last 10 races, and right now, he doesn't have that," Smith said on the SPEED with Harvick and Buxton podcast.

The only road course in the 2025 season was the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval, which was held under the playoff format. Now in the Chase this year, there's none, which naturally is a disadvantage to SVG should he qualify in the cutoff.

Despite this, the NASCAR expert feels Trackhouse should keep him, given Connor Zilisch is already linked with a move away from the team. As per paddock chatter, Zilisch might make a move to Rick Hendrick's Hendrick Motorsports to replace Alex Bowman.

"People coming after Connor Zilisch, like they're like, is Connor going to move over to Hendrick in the 48, and what are we doing there? And so if they in fact lose Connor, then you damn sure can't lose Connor and SVG, you know what I mean? So you're going to have to lock him in," Smith, who works with FOX, said in the Speed with Harvick and Buxton podcast recently.

Currently, Shane van Gisbergen is under a multi-year, full-time contract with Trackhouse, and, according to reports, it will expire at the end of 2027. And if they lose Zilisch to HMS, Justin Marks' team needs to look at SVG's situation and keep him on the team for the years to come.

When Trackhouse boss hailed Shane van Gisbergen after Watkins Glen win

When Shane van Gisbergen won the race at Watkins Glen in May this year, he took his tally to seven wins at road courses. Hailing his achievement, Trackhouse Racing owner Justin Marks shared words of praise.

"We have a race car driver that is at a level that I don’t think this sport has ever seen before on these road courses," Marks said. "I thought, seven wins, by this point, the field would have figured out how to close the gap, but he just continues to deliver at such an incredibly high level." (Via Speedcafe.com)

Van Gisbergen joined Trackhouse in 2023 as part of its Project91 program. It was a part-time obligation before moving to full-time in 2024.

Fast forward to July, SVG has eight wins to his tally, thanks to his win at Sonoma. With this, the Kiwi driver took his tally to 14 wins in NASCAR (8 Cup Series and 6 O'Reilly wins), one of the fastest drivers in the sport's history to do so.

He is now exactly one victory shy of tying Jeff Gordon's all-time NASCAR Cup Series record of nine road-course wins.

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Written by

Sabyasachi Biswas

Edited by

Suyashdeep Sason