Triple Eight: SVG is still under contract

Triple Eight Race Engineering has responded to Erebus Motorsport’s announcement that Will Brown has been released from his contract.

It reads, in its entirety: “Shane [van Gisbergen] is a contracted driver with Triple Eight until advised otherwise.

“If this changes, it will be communicated by the team. We will be making no further comment.”

The statement was issued within half an hour of Erebus’s confirmation that Brown is leaving the team at season’s end, a year before his contract was due to expire.

The Queenslander is expected to replace van Gisbergen at Red Bull Ampol Racing if/when the three-time Supercars champion does depart for NASCAR.

However, the communication out of Banyo this afternoon makes it clear that it has not yet released the #97 Camaro pilot from his deal with the team.

Van Gisbergen signed a new, two-year contract with Triple Eight in April, theoretically tying himself to the squad for the 2024 Supercars season, but leaving him with a get-out clause for overseas opportunities in 2025.

The 34-year-old now wants out of Supercars in order to pursue a career in NASCAR, and Team Principal Jamie Whincup had expressed a willingness to let him leave at the end of the current campaign.

Van Gisbergen had expressed misgivings, though, about potentially leaving Triple Eight in the lurch, with the best alternatives within Supercars thought to be locked up for 2024 already.

Speaking on The Dale Jr Download in the last 24 hours, SVG said of Brown, “There’s like three or four guys on the shortlist [to replace him] and I know he’s one of them, but they don’t have anyone official yet that I know of.

“That gives me a bit of hope that there’s someone good going to be there and I feel better about leaving.”

Broc Feeney is contracted to Triple Eight for the 2024 Supercars season, as Brown’s current team-mate, Brodie Kostecki, is signed on for Erebus.

Van Gisbergen and Kostecki are both competing in this weekend’s NASCAR Cup Series race on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course, with the former also to make his oval debut in the Trucks race on Friday night (Saturday morning AEDT) at nearby Indianapolis Raceway Park.