Trackhouse boss 'working hard' on SVG NASCAR deal
Trackhouse Racing owner Justin Marks says his team is "working hard" on a deal for Shane van Gisbergen, who could shift to NASCAR next year.
Where and what van Gisbergen will race in 2024 remains unclear amid the Kiwi’s likely shift Stateside next year.
The Kiwi's pathway to NASCAR was paved last week as Erebus Motorsport confirmed Will Brown had been released from the final year of his contract.
Van Gisbergen raced alongside Brown’s Erebus teammate Brodie Kostecki last weekend at the Indianapolis road course, and finished 10th.
It came after van Gisbergen took Trackhouse and Project91 to a stunning first-up victory on the streets of Chicago in July.
Van Gisbergen has repeatedly said he is unsure whether a 2024 deal would be full-time, but recently impressed on his NASCAR oval debut last weekend. In his first paved oval start, the 34-year-old finished 19th at Indianapolis Raceway Park.
'He's just really, really good'
"We're working hard right now on putting a deal together for him," Marks told media in the United States.
"It's my plan, he'll race for Trackhouse next year alongside some of our partners in the Chevy family.
"He wants to do this. He's done everything that he wants to do in Australia and he's really excited and really really good.
"He's just really, really good. When he goes through the learning process on an oval I think he'll get really quickly up to speed. We're just really excited about that."
Critically, Marks said his team doesn’t yet have a charter — which guarantees competition in the Cup Series for regular season points and the Playoffs — to field van Gisbergen in 2024.
Marks is working to get van Gisbergen into his squad, but it remains in an as-yet-to-be-confirmed capacity. The Kiwi also requires super speedway experience ahead of a full-time tilt.
It could see van Gisbergen complete track time in all three tiers of NASCAR competition — the Cup Series, Xfinity Series and Truck Series.
"I don't know if it matters," Marks said of the NASCAR charter system.
"The charter thing is a funny business right now. Look, I'm running a racing business here. I don't have a billion-dollar company that I can lean on or anything like that. We've got a lot of people that are interested.
"The barrier of entry is high financially right now and I'm not convinced you have to have one to go race. We're going to try and expand and grow as a business, that's not 100 per cent dependent on us and our ability to buy a charter.”
Marks, regardless, believes van Gisbergen will be up to the task, saying: "His rate of adaptation has been such that we really believe this is a guy that can come in and be a star in this sport.
"We're working on a transition for him next year, get him a lot of experience, a lot of track time in different divisions and really being intelligent and methodical with how we build that program. Then we'll see what the future holds."
Van Gisbergen will return to Australia for this weekend’s OTR SuperSprint.
