What began as a one-off Project91 race in 2023 and continued as a successful Xfinity Series campaign in 2024 will turn into a fulltime Nascar Cup Series season in 2025 for New Zealander Shane van Gisbergen.
Trackhouse Racing announced on Saturday (Sunday NZ Time) it had acquired a third charter for the three-time Supercars champion, who will join Ross Chastain and Daniel Suárez in the team’s 2025 Cup Series lineup.
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“This is a big day in so many ways for Trackhouse Racing, Shane, Chevrolet and race fans around the world,” said Trackhouse Racing founder and owner Justin Marks.
“This is an important step for our organization and it’s a credit to the men and women at Trackhouse Racing whose hard work and success the last few years has led to us expanding to three Cup teams in 2025.
“It’s also a big step up for Shane who took a chance on Trackhouse Racing, moved here from New Zealand and now joins the most competitive stock car racing series in the world. Everyone will get to watch one of the world’s racing superstars compete in the Nascar Cup Series next year.”
Van Gisbergen said his mission since leaving Supercars was to come to America and earn a place in the Cup Series. He has raced full-time with Kaulig Racing in the Nascar Xfinity Series in 2024, winning at Portland International Raceway, Sonoma Raceway and the Chicago Street Race.
He has also raced in four Cup Series races in 2024, with plans to run in seven more.
“This is what I have planned for and I am ready,” said the 35-year-old from Auckland. "I know there is a tough learning curve ahead, but the best way to learn is to go out and do it.
"I feel I have made progress running the Xfinity Series this year with Kaulig Racing and I can't thank everyone there enough. I look forward to the Cup Series. Those drivers and teams are the best in the world and it will be an honor to be part of their races.”
Van Gisbergen’s Chevrolet will carry the number 88 in 2025. That car number has been driven to victory lane 76 times in Nascar history by legends including Dale Earnhardt Jr, Darrell Waltrip, Dale Jarrett, Donnie Allison, Ricky Rudd, Rusty Wallace, Buddy Baker and others.
Trackhouse Racing will announce the No 88’s sponsors in the upcoming weeks.
The path to the Cup Series began in 2023 when Marks convinced Van Gisbergen to climb behind the wheel of Trackhouse’s Project91 Chevrolet at the inaugural Chicago Street Race.
Marks created Project91 in 2022 to expand the organization’s global reach by fielding a Cup Series entry for renowned international racing drivers. 2007 Formula 1 champion Kimi Räikkönen raced for Project91 at Watkins Glen International in 2022 and at Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas in 2023.
Van Gisbergen, though popular around the world, was little known to most of the Nascar audience despite a resume that includes Supercars championships in 2016, 2021 and 2022, plus 78 wins and 47 pole positions making him the fourth most successful driver in series history. He also won the Bathurst 1000 in 2020, 2022 and 2023.
The Nascar world took notice at Chicago in 2023 when he led nine laps and won the race by 1.259 seconds in overtime.
Van Gisbergen became one of six foreign-born drivers to win a Cup Series race and the first driver since Johnny Rutherford in 1963 to win his first Cup Series start. He returned later in the season to finish 10th on the road course at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
“Shane is the type of driver we had in mind when we created Project91,” said Marks who expects another Project91 entry in 2025. “He took advantage of his opportunity and that experience in Chicago launched a whole new chapter in an already successful story.”
Van Gisbergen signed a driver development agreement with Trackhouse Racing that led to a full-time Xfinity Series seat at Kaulig Racing in 2024, along with competing in a handful of Cup Series races.
In 232 races, Trackhouse has won seven races, posted 41 top-five and 78 top-10 finishes.
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