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Shane van Gisbergen has reiterated that he remains committed to Supercars in 2024 for now despite seemingly being given the green light to leave early for NASCAR.
The New Zealander has caused a stir in NASCAR by becoming the first debut Cup Series race winner in six decades with his triumph on the streets of Chicago.
Already, it had further fuelled speculation that he would exercise a get-out clause in his new contract with Triple Eight Race Engineering to compete full-time in the United States in 2025.
However, Team Principal Jamie Whincup then seemingly stated that he would let van Gisbergen walk even earlier, meaning Triple Eight would be imminently on the hunt for a replacement.
The three-time Supercars champion, however, is not agitating for an exit at the end of 2023 at this point in time.
Asked broadly about the prospect of being back in NASCAR, he told media today in Townsville, “My phone’s been running hot but I don’t have any proper offers yet, obviously.
“I really want to keep going and try some more stuff and, as I said, I’m committed to here next year but obviously I’ve read Jamie’s comments, which are interesting.
“I haven’t spoken to Jamie yet, though.”
SVG was in a unique position given his debut happened to be NASCAR’s first ever street race, and hence was a foreign discipline to almost all of his rivals, with Jenson Button being something of an exception.
While the Kiwi cut a swathe through the field in the closing stages, he cautioned again that he would have a different experience on an oval.
“The oval is a completely different world,” he declared.
“I have no illusion that I’d go there and run up the front; that would take a long time.
“Obviously, you want to try, but having six to eight road courses in the coming years, that’s appealing.”
The two-time Bathurst 1000 winner was driving Trackhouse Racing’s third, ‘Project91’ Camaro which is entered in a handful of races as a means of injecting foreign talent into NASCAR.
With Kimi Raikkonen having already contested the Circuit of The Americas event in Car #91, there are no firm plans at this point for any more starts in 2023, although van Gisbergen is in the box seat next time it does run, according to Trackhouse co-owner Justin Marks.
“The last thing I want to do is have Project91 be a drain on [Trackhouse’s two full-time entries] or take anything away from that,” he explained, post-race in Chicago.
“So, I think three is really sort of the limit for us.
“If we ever expand to a third full-time team [entry], it’s good that we’re going through this exercise right now with the 91, because, we’re doing sort of three teams’ worth of work in the shop as we lead into the Project91 races.
“But I think, beyond that, it starts to become a third team deal, which is a whole ‘nother conversation for our company.
“And then beyond that, I’m pretty confident that it’s Shane’s seat right now.
“You know, he did such an incredible job, obviously just put on an incredible race today.
“Project91 is about bringing all different kinds of drivers in and we certainly still have the desire to rotate drivers through, but winning feels pretty good and Shane just did it, so I think if he can continue to deliver that, the door is open for him to do more, for sure.”
Van Gisbergen is back in his Red Bull Ampol Racing Camaro Supercar this weekend, with practice at the NTI Townsville 500 starting tomorrow at 10:10 local time/AEST.
