The Trackhouse Racing driver has spoken about enjoying mid-pack battles on short ovals, often finishing just outside the top 10. However, the NASCAR sophomore said that mentality has to change in 2025.
Van Gisbergen’s solitary season in the second-tier Xfinity Series was all about learning but with the expectation that he would succeed on the non-ovals.
He delivered on that promise, winning two of the five road course races and the single street race. Now, it’s time to get serious.
His move up to the Cup Series comes with a step up in the competition level but a desire to deliver better results on the ovals.
That’s not to say he won’t enjoy the racing, more so that he won’t be content with finishing in the mid-pack as he has in the past.
He’ll have his first points-paying outing as a Cup Series full-timer at the Daytona 500 on February 17 (AEDT).
“The expectation and reality of what you’re going to finish every week certainly changed,” said van Gisergen of 2024, speaking with Speedcafe.
“Bristol, for example, I’ve never had so much fun coming 18th and getting lapped. Like it was the best race I’ve had – and you’re just battling the whole time.
“I forget who I was battling, but we were swapping from the inside to the outside, just on the edge the whole time. Then all of a sudden I’m getting hit by the leader as he’s lapping me, it was crazy.
“Obviously, you can’t just be having fun. I need to start getting results on the ovals and I really felt like we were getting better and better. We were on a real upward trajectory. And then we had a crew chief change and some other things and we sort of plateaued a lot, or even went backwards.
“But yeah, eventually I’ve got to stop having fun and start trying to push forward. That’s what I think the second half of next year [2025] will be like.”
Van Gisbergen ruled the roost in Supercars until his final season in 2023 when he was beaten by Brodie Kostecki to the title.
The Kiwi often bemoaned the Gen3 package. While he never blamed the formula for his lacklustre final season, he said he has no regrets about ditching Australia for the United States.
Indeed, it was another champion, Marcos Ambrose, who encouraged him to make the leap.
“I don’t have any bad thoughts about missing out on potentially another championship in Supercars,” said van Gisbergen.
“It was Marcos Ambrose. He just pushed me so much. He said, ‘You’ve got to go back, go over there, and have a crack while you can. You won’t regret it’ – and I definitely haven’t.”
Ambrose was a keen observer in van Gisbergen’s first season in the United States. As the Kiwi got the hang of things, that communication wound back.
“At the start of the year, it was pretty much every single week we would talk, which was great,” van Gisbergen explained.
“Then it petered out throughout the year. But we message a lot. He was an amazing person to talk to. He and Kevin Harvick were my main coaches, or go-to people for advice.
“But he [Harvick] would forget that I have never done this before. The basic stuff to him, it was like he learned when he was 10 years old. It was stuff like, what Marcus would tell me, the basics that you just know. Kevin doesn’t even think about.
“So it was good sounding off those two guys, and Marcus basically knowing what I’d go through and what I struggle with and what I need to look for.”
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