KEY Triple Eight Race Engineering personnel have had their say on Shane van Gisbergen’s looming NASCAR Cup Series debut and how they think he’ll fare.
The Brisbane team’s managing director Jamie Whincup expressed his delight at the deal coming together – and while he’s supportive of van Gisbergen chasing his dream, is adamant the Kiwi will still be under his employ for at least one more season.
“I’m so happy for him, it’s a huge opportunity. It’s a serious campaign, straight into the main series,” Whincup told V8 Sleuth.
“I’m just praying he has a good result and goes well.
“I’m certainly not sitting here going ‘oh I don’t want him to do it because we might lose him as part of the team’.
“Of course I don’t want to lose him but when he rang up and asked to be able to do it, I said ‘absolutely’.
“And that applies to anyone I employ. The last thing I want to do is hold somebody back from doing something that they want to do and he is so passionate about going over and doing it, and doing it properly as well. I’m really excited for him.
“I think the whole country is going to be watching, Australia and New Zealand are going to be watching how he goes and hopefully he has a good run.”
Triple Eight team manager Mark Dutton echoed those sentiments and was particularly excited about the circumstances which will see van Gisbergen appear on a street course in a car run by leading squad Trackhouse Racing.
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“If you did an oval, mistakenly a lot of people think an oval is simple but it is definitely not. It’s one of those things that if he had a crack at that with all the level of experience of his opposition, that I believe would be much harder,” said Dutton.
“I still think he would do amazing but that would be a harder thing to step into and compete straightaway against the likes of the regulars over there.
“But being a street track, I think he’ll do really well. It’s something that we’re so excited for him to do and see how he goes.”
Van Gisbergen’s Supercars teammate Broc Feeney grinned from ear to ear when asked about the 34-year-old’s gig.
“It’s bloody awesome, I think it’s so cool. Obviously he told me about it a while ago about what was going on and to see it finalised and him racing at Chicago is going to be awesome,” said Feeney.
“I wish I was 21 because if I was, I would probably go over there but I have got to wait another couple of months so I told him he better do it again next year so I can go over and support him.
“But I’ll be tuning into that, I’m so keen to see how he goes.
“The first street race in NASCAR, I think he is going to do pretty well, so looking forward to it.”
The Chicago race will take place on July 2 (local time).
The most recent NASCAR race, on the weekend at World Wide Technology Raceway, was won by Kyle Busch, whose Richard Childress Racing team had welcomed Erebus Motorsport’s Brodie Kostecki, Will Brown and Barry Ryan among others as guests.
