Van Gisbergen and McLaughlin each left Australia to pursue careers in the United States and have enjoyed varying levels of success.
Three-time Supercars champion McLaughlin has been an IndyCar race winner and believes SVG would go well in the single-seaters.
“I think he’s a little scared of us on the ovals,” McLaughlin told Speedcafe when asked if he could ever see van Gisbergen in the Indianapolis 500.
“He’d be awesome at it. He’s just very diverse with what he does with his racing, and he’d be totally fine.
“It’d be pretty cool, definitely be pretty cool to see him in IndyCar.”
There is one limiting factor in McLaughlin’s mind, however.
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“I tell you what, he would be right on the max point of being able to fit in it though,” McLaughlin explained.
“He’s a big boy, and it’s not just like height, he’s pretty broad. That’d be another challenge, but I think he would be bloody quick for sure.
“Just be able to fit in those things – until we get the new car – it’s just a little tight right now.”
Van Gisbergen’s career began by winning Formula Ford in New Zealand and continued in the Toyota Racing Series (now Formula Regional Oceania Trophy).
After transitioning to tin tops in the late-2000s, it was nearly two decades before he got back in an open-wheeler.
SVG has shown himself to be more than capable in single-seaters, winning the New Zealand Grand Prix after starting from the pit lane at Hampton Downs in 2021.
Although the three-time Bathurst 1000 winner has well and truly shifted his attention, doing double duties is not unprecedented for stock car racers.
Many have tried and failed to complete the famous double across IndyCar and NASCAR, competing across the Indianapolis 500 and the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
Kyle Larson was the most recent to try it. The mammoth, two-week program saw the American split his commitments between Hendrick Motorsports in the NASCAR Cup Series and McLaren in the IndyCar Series.
Only Tony Stewart has completed the full distance of 200 laps at Indianapolis and 400 laps at Charlotte.
Asked about the transition from NASCAR to IndyCar, McLaughlin said the two are more similar than some might expect.
“I feel like they’ve both got their like technicalities,” he said.
“Speaking to Larson when he was doing the double, he said that the current Cup car is a lot closer to the Indy car than he thought it was going to be in the way it drives and understeers.
“Back in the day, the older Cup car was definitely completely different to drive. [Van Gisbergen] probably jumped into NASCAR at the right time for sure.”
Larson ruled out a third attempt at double duties in 2026.
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