Shane van Gisbergen is the greatest talent to arrive in NASCAR . . .

Jeff Gordon Super Fan

Jeff Gordon Super Fan

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since prime Rainbow Warrior Jeff Gordon and Ray Evernham.

Shane isn't just winning these races- he's dominating these races. Shane led 97 laps today at Sonoma, which is the most at a road course since Cale Yarborough at Riverside in 1977.

Shane has achieved 3 consecutive road course poles and 3 consecutive road course wins- something that hasn't been done this century.

Shane is the first driver to win 3 races from the pole in a single year since Jimmie Johnson did so in 2008.

Shane is the first driver to win 3 races in his rookie season since Jimmie Johnson in 2002.

Shane is the fastest driver to win 4 races in his Cup Series career since Parnelli Jones in 1967.

Shane has won more road courses this season than Dale Earnhardt and Jimmie Johnson won in their entire careers. Combined.

Shane won Red Bull its first victory in the Cup Series in 4,991 days.

AND THIS IS JUST THE BEGINNING.

Juan Pablo Montoya figured out oval racing to an extent, as did Marcos Ambrose, A.J. Allmendinger, and Robby Gordon.

Shane is better than all of those guys. If he figures out the ovals even a little bit, we're looking at a premier championship contender for the next decade.

The greatness of his team will determine the rest, but he's already clearly ahead of everyone on the road courses, and he's already improved a little bit at the ovals, and will continue doing so.

Major credit to Justin Marks and Trackhouse. This isn't a Richard Childress or Joe Gibbs situation where they're filling their cars with unlikeable relatives.

The 88 has arrived.
 
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He was brought in because by winning a road or street race, he makes the chase and the team financially benefits from that. If he progresses into being a championship contender, great for them. Not entirely the intent though.

TBH after a year or two of that I wonder how many multicar teams might switch their weakest ride to a road course ringer.
 
That is the most ridiculous post I have ever read. Talk to me when he starts making the top ten on an oval. Then talk to me when he wins one. I have to assume OP was drunk while posting this.
 
virtualbalboa said:
TBH after a year or two of that I wonder how many multicar teams might switch their weakest ride to a road course ringer.
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Yeah, that approach may get a team a playoff spot, if that's the goal. I see a few things against it. One, the more road course experts, the less likely each is to win. Two, there are plenty of 'non-ringer' Cup drivers who are competitive on twisties and ovals too. Three, Shane is indeed dominant and I don't see him losing that edge anytime soon; he could be a singular talent.

We'll see how Shane does in the round of 8 but those road course experts who have turned to full-time Cup drivers have had little success on ovals. Jordan Taylor doesn't light up the supporting series when he shows up. Other SuperCars drivers seem most likely to come in with the shallowest learning curve.
 
Charlie Spencer said:
Yeah, that approach may get a team a playoff spot, if that's the goal. I see a few things against it. One, the more road course experts, the less likely each is to win. Two, there are plenty of 'non-ringer' Cup drivers who are competitive on twisties and ovals too. Three, Shane is indeed dominant and I don't see him losing that edge anytime soon; he could be a singular talent.

We'll see how Shane does in the round of 8 but those road course experts who have turned to full-time Cup drivers have had little success on ovals. Jordan Taylor doesn't light up the supporting series when he shows up. Other SuperCars drivers seem most likely to come in with the shallowest learning curve.
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If you have five races where you give yourself a good shot, that's still 5 races. That's more than you've got plate races before the cutoff. I do agree that V8 Supercars guys seem like the best options, which also makes sense. That's the closest thing to this car. Also, if you think about GT3 drivers, the best ones are under factory contract and honestly probably don't have much or any interest in transitioning into stock car racing. You'd have to go recruit them. Admittedly, it would be funny to see Cup teams start passing over American short track talent for the Alessandro Guidis of the world at some level but it's self defeating.
 
Jorge De Guzman said:
“If he figures out the ovals” not to rain on the parade, that’s a pretty big IF. He’s still competing against guys that have been on ovals their whole lives, on a cup schedule that is still predominantly oval based.
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I have always subscribed to the belief that you can teach a road course racer to race an oval, but you can't take an oval racer to race a road course. Arguable as hell...especially when we consider that our dirt racers have proven that this skill set helps learn how to drive road courses. Having said that, I do believe that IF Shane is serious about winning a championship, he will figure it out. The lack of testing helps the NASCAR regulars immensely.
 
virtualbalboa said:
He was brought in because by winning a road or street race, he makes the chase and the team financially benefits from that. If he progresses into being a championship contender, great for them. Not entirely the intent though.

TBH after a year or two of that I wonder how many multicar teams might switch their weakest ride to a road course ringer.
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The Project 91 thing was always there to give world class drivers a place to play in NASCAR. How many ringers have kicked ass like this? SVG is good for the sport.
 
Revman said:
The Project 91 thing was always there to give world class drivers a place to play in NASCAR. How many ringers have kicked ass like this? SVG is good for the sport.
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Other than Dan Gurney from the early days that's it. Nascar developed their own drivers who could drive their equipment quite well. SVG is good for the sport but he has to unlearn some things to be at least decent on ovals. SVG is 26th in the points, but he is a driver like so many other road course ringer types that you look forward to watching when a road course comes around.
 
The fun part of the race was to watch SVG's approach. He'd gap Briscoe just enough, and then manage the gap. I swear to God he probably drove that race at 75% until he needed something with the restarts. He just dicks with the field. He really does. He is that much better.
 
Efisher131 said:
Connor Zilisch already has ovals figured out and is just as good a road course driver… at 19 years old. Shane has 5-6 good years left, Connor has 20-25.
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I was going to say. I think Connor Zilisch is the best talent I've ever seen

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Revman said:
The fun part of the race was to watch SVG's approach. He'd gap Briscoe just enough, and then manage the gap. I swear to God he probably drove that race at 75% until he needed something with the restarts. He just dicks with the field. He really does. He is that much better.
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Briscoe when interviewed said so too. He was laughing about it. He said it was like playing basketball with Michael Jordon lol. I am hoping Connor gets moved up next year and they race both Xfinity and Cup road races.
 
Revman said:
I have always subscribed to the belief that you can teach a road course racer to race an oval, but you can't take an oval racer to race a road course. Arguable as hell...especially when we consider that our dirt racers have proven that this skill set helps learn how to drive road courses. Having said that, I do believe that IF Shane is serious about winning a championship, he will figure it out. The lack of testing helps the NASCAR regulars immensely.
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If you come up racing ovals, then you already know that there's a world of oval racing there for you should you decide to race them after your NASCAR national touring series career ends. And that's what happens, right? Kasey Kahne is still out racing ovals. Bobby Labonte is still out racing ovals. Ryan Newman is still out racing ovals; David Reutimann, Dave Blaney, Jeremy Mayfield, Ken Schrader, Kenny Wallace etc. - that's what they do. It makes sense for them, they have the experience, and the costs are reasonable.

Now, Jeff Gordon came up with ovals, but Jeff Gordon also made a lot more money than these guys and had a different sort of perspective, let's say, towards racing in his development and when he was a star. When he races now, he races Porsche Cup, which costs a lot more and gets a lot less back than Bobby Labonte running with SMART Modified Tour. Paul Menard's father is a billionaire: he races Trans Am now which costs a lot more and gets a lot less back than either Kasey Kahne Racing sprint car does to take off the trailer. But he started with ovals. So I would say the biggest determining factor about whether or not someone wants to road race more or be better at it seems to be how much money they have available to them. Which, you know, makes sense since there's no professional road racing below the absolute top levels.
 
NASCAR needed SVG. NASCAR needed these road courses. NASCAR needed Red Bull.

It has reignited my interest in the sport.

I have been a NASCAR fan for 30 years. It got really boring with the nepotism and the corporate cookie cutter personalities. Chase Elliott and Kyle Larson are like watching paint dry. They have the best equipment for sure, and they are very good overall, but something's missing.

I need Shane to win 10 races next season. Chastain and Suarez have won on ovals, so the speed should be there.

Just keep improving.
 
My opinion is there are too many road courses. When it was only 2 I wanted more but they went too far. I think 4 would be a good number or road courses.
 
I love it for Trackhouse and kudos to SVG. He brought so much experience and savvy to his move, and is handling the learning curve on ovals decently. But as someone said, his time window is relatively short. Trackhouse is really positioned great; has a strong oval driver in Ross (who has developed into a pretty decent road race in his own right), has SVG and now adding The Prodigy next season.
 
Daytripper said:
My opinion is there are too many road courses. When it was only 2 I wanted more but they went too far. I think 4 would be a good number or road courses.
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Personally, I think the current lineup is okay, just don’t add even more!
 
In my opinion, the amount of road courses in the current schedule is near perfect. Oval races are fun, but road courses put driver talent to the test.

There are many questionable things NASCAR does according to the fans, but adding more road courses isn't one of them.
 
StandOnIt said:
There is a certain 18 year old that beat him on Saturday that would like a word about this dominance thing.
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And when Conner moves up, that will be one less seat for a potential ringer to occupy.

As @virtualbalboa said, even if other teams wanted to hire their own ringers, where would the talent come from?
 
A testimony to the effed up win and your in BS point system. A system that just begs for an Austin Dillion bulldozer mindset that has fueled so many dumbass shietshows during the closing laps.

Shame on Nascar for not respecting the science of racing enough to prevent the garbage.

SVG is a great RC driver, but the elites are really good almost every weekend.
 
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