Circuit of the Americas will host the second-tier O’Reilly Auto Parts Series and Cup Series across Sunday and Monday (AEDT).
Van Gisbergen will contest both – the former in the #9 JR Motorsports Camaro and the latter in the #97 Trackhouse Racing Camaro.
While SVG was dominant on road courses in 2025, COTA remains the one circuit where he has not won in either series.
In 2024, during his maiden Xfinity Series season, he missed out on the win after Kyle Larson surged through on the final lap to beat van Gisbergan and Austin Hill.
In 2025, racing in the Cup Series, van Gisbergen was plagued by tyre wear trouble and finished sixth.
“Thanks for rubbing that in,” said van Gisbergen when reminded of his record.
“It’s a track I like but I’ve never gone well at. Hopefully we do.
“Personally, I’d just like to do well. I’ve never had a good result there. Just need to do that.”
A week out from the race, van Gisbergen’s peers aren’t optimistic about their chances – even if COTA hasn’t been kind the #97 driver in the past.
“He definitely is making everyone step up a level,” said Kaulig Racing’s AJ Allmendinger.
“We just have to get better, and I have to get better in the car to get back to where we were.
“I can’t speak on every other driver, for me, I’ve studied everything that I can study, in-car-wise, and I will continue to do it going into next week.
“Where he’s really good at in the Supercars series, at least from the outside of what I watched, is all about – it’s tyre saving.
“[In Supercars] you roll out of your pit stop and you immediately go into tyre conservation. That’s where he’s so good.
“The outright speed, we’ve shown in qualifying that you can run with him or you can be quicker than him, but he’s so good on still being quick but never overstepping the tyre.
“As Goodyear has softened these tyres it has made that gap bigger and bigger. I think that’s where a lot of us have to be better and figure out.
“If we knew exactly how to beat him, he’d get beat. So, maybe [Connor] Zilisch can help us out with that.”
Van Gisbergen’s teammate Ross Chastain made light of the slim chances.
“At least for one more week I can say I’ve won at COTA and he has not,” said Chastain.
The watermelon farmer said he would be happy to finish third behind van Gisbergen and Zilisch.
Zilisch is among the favourites too, having beaten van Gisbergen in an epic one-on-one duel at Sonoma last year.
“[COTA is] the only [road course] Cup race that he lost last year,” Chastain added.
“We got our cars a lot better after that race, so it’s challenging, for sure.
“Try being me on the road course as a Trackhouse driver, it’s tough. But I love the challenge.
“I want the best people around me. I do not want to be the smartest person in the room.”
After missing out on the chocolates at COTA in March, van Gisbergen had to wait until June for a second shot at a road course.
Mexico City represented the first of five straight wins on road courses. He started off in style, winning the first by 16 seconds.
Wins followed on the streets of Chicago (under caution), Sonoma (one-second), Watkins Glen (11 seconds), and the Charlotte Roval (15 seconds).
Even Tyler Reddick, who has won the first two Cup Series races of the year, is confident he’ll be beaten.
“It drives me nuts going to a road course and getting just dusted by Shane,” said Reddick.
“So, we’ve been working really hard to work around our road course program, look at some things.
“We’ve had decent speed firing off, and that’s just not good enough. We’ve been working hard, trying things, seeing what things are like in sim.”
Reddick has three road course wins to his credit in the Cup Series, but the best he could muster in 2025 was third on two occasions.
Like Allmendinger, Reddick reckons the added emphasis on tyre conservation has helped van Gisbergen’s strengths and only made it harder for the seasoned drivers.
“I give him a lot of credit, and I don’t want this to sound like I’m taking anything away from him when I say this, it’s just something about the direction of road course racing over the last year and a half has gone in his wheelhouse,” said Reddick.
“So, that’s kind of telling for me. Obviously, he was getting his feet wet, understanding what the Next Gen car is like versus what he was used to, and when he came into this, we had harder tyres and more downforce.
“I felt like guys like me were right there with him, if not better at some of these racetracks. The more the downforce has come off the car, the more the tyre has softened up. And we’ve added more horsepower now, too. It seems something about that really fits how he drives a race car.
“I wouldn’t say that he finds another gear, he just manages his stuff great.”
NASCAR is live and exclusive on Fox Sports and Kayo Sports. Sunday’s O’Reilly Auto Parts Series race gets underway at 7am AEDT. Monday’s Cup Series race is scheduled for 7:30am AEDT.
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