By David Morgan, Associate Editor
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Shane Van Gisbergen has gotten the call. He’s moving to the NASCAR Cup Series full-time with Trackhouse Racing in 2025.
The move completes the journey for the 35-year-old New Zealander, who burst onto the NASCAR scene with his win at Chicago in his first-ever start in 2023 before moving into the Xfinity Series on a full-time basis in 2024 and now going full-time at NASCAR’s top division next season.
With Trackhouse obtaining a third charter for its efforts to field a car for Van Gisbergen, he will join fellow drivers Ross Chastain and Daniel Suarez under the Trackhouse banner when the green flag flies on the 2025 season.
“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.”
Since his first start at Chicago, Van Gisbergen has competed in five additional Cup Series races, along with six more over the remainder of the 2024 season. Including Saturday night’s Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona, he will race at Darlington, Atlanta, Watkins Glen, Talladega, and Las Vegas.
In 22 Xfinity Series starts this season, Van Gisbergen has won three times (Portland, Chicago, and Sonoma), as well as five top-five finishes, six top-10 finishes, two poles, 79 laps led, and an average finish of 15.7.
“This is what I have planned for and I am ready,” said the 35-year-old Auckland, New Zealand native. “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 will pilot the No. 88 Chevrolet starting in 2025, taking over the mantle of a car number that has been most commonly attributed to Dale Earnhardt, Jr. during his tenure at Hendrick Motorsports from 2008 until his retirement at the end of the 2017 season.
Others that have driven the number have been Alex Bowman, Darrell Waltrip, Dale Jarrett, Donnie Allison, Ricky Rudd, Rusty Wallace, and Buddy Baker.
“It’s important for us to have the endorsement, a great exchange with Dale Jr. saying like, look, it’s not my number. I mean, I added to the legacy of it. It was important to me personally, but, you know, he was, he was proud to see it in good hands. And that’s just something that’s super important to me and to this company,” Marks said of getting the endorsement from Earnhardt to run the No. 88.
Trackhouse Racing President Ty Norris, explained further noting how in addition to Earnhardt and the parties involved at Hendrick Motorsports, he made sure to get the most important endorsement from Kelley Earnhardt Miller before truly cementing the No. 88 for SVG.
“Yeah, I got a phone call from Jeff Gordon one day, and he says, you talked to me about it, Marshall about it. I know you talked to Dale Junior. Have you talked to Kelley yet? Kelley Earnhardt? I went, no. And he goes, she’s the boss, call her now.
“And so, I want to thank, Dale Junior and Kelley for letting us, and there’s some amazing drivers attached to that number. And so it is a lot of responsibility and we certainly accept that.”
Stephan Doran, who currently serves as the crew chief for Zane Smith on the No. 71 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet, will continue in that role for Van Gisbergen when he move up to the Cup Series next season.
As a result of Trackhouse bringing Van Gisbergen into the Cup Series fold full-time, the team announced that it will be parting ways with Zane Smith at the end of this season. Smith is in his first full-time season in the Cup Series driving for Spire while contracted to Trackhouse in what had been a multi-year deal.
On Friday, the team and driver announced that they had parted ways mutually, allowing Smith to look for other opportunities after this season concludes.
“Obviously, I am disappointed that I’ve been put in a tough spot. I am diligently exploring quality driving opportunities and hope to quickly wrap up my plans for next year,” said Smith.
“Meanwhile, kudos to our #71 Cup team. We’ve turned our year around this summer with six top-20 finishes in the last ten races, which includes a top-10 last weekend and a runner-up finish in Nashville. With more determination that ever, I will continue to do what I know best and that is to work hard, race my heart out, and prove myself. Thank you to everyone has and continues to stand behind me.”
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