Shane van Gisbergen has dominated the Supercars Championship in Australia in recent years, winning three championships since 2016, but after a victory in his NASCAR Cup Series debut, the New Zealander sounds more than ready for a massive career change.
SVG will be on the track this weekend at the Indianapolis road course in the Cup Series, and is also making his NASCAR oval debut on Friday night at Indianapolis Raceway Park in the Craftsman Truck Series.
In a discussion with Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Mike Davis on the Dale Jr. Download, van Gisbergen explained that recent changes to the Supercars series have made the action much more boring for him as a driver, calling race days “mind-numbing.”
“It’s not as enjoyable…. they changed [the car]. A whole new chassis and concept. Everyone’s the same, same parts. It’s very similar to here [in NASCAR], a year delayed. When you read all the articles from last year about the drivers’ problems and stuff, it’s very similar.
The qualifying there is awesome, but the racing sucks, it’s so boring. Like, you’re driving around at 30 percent trying to keep the tires and everyone’s just following each other. All the parts are the same and the car’s got a very narrow setup window, everyone’s running the same setup basically. And there’s a minimum tire pressure rule of 17 pound. So everyone goes out on 17, they come on at the same time, drive around at the same pace. The tire just explodes because it’s running too high and you just follow each other around. It’s mind-numbing.
I come here and the race is just a hustle the whole time, you’re just driving flat-out. That’s what I love.”