When it was announced that the oval was replacing the Roval at Charlotte Motor Speedway this season, no one expected SVG to be making any headlines. Overall, the return to the oval was a great success. Chase Briscoe grabbed the majority of the headlines by winning the race. Briscoe grabbed back to back wins. It makes sense that grabbed a majority of the headlines.

While Briscoe deserved the headlines, there was another major success in the Bank of America 400. Shane van Gisbergen finished p7. The previous week, at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, SVG finished p9. That’s back to back top 10’s, on 1.5 mile ovals. Other than EchoPark Speedway, which is essentially a different style track due to the rules package, 1.5 mile ovals have been where Trackhouse and Shane van Gisbergen have struggled most!

Two top 10’s in a row is no big deal for a top tier team. Trackhouse has not been a top tier team this season, at least not in terms of performance. For the most part, Shane van Gisbergen has carried this team on his back all season. Ultimately, he fell just shy of making the Chase after the chaos in Daytona. We have seen him improve at every type of oval this season, except for 1.5 mile ovals. With back to back top 10s at 1.5 mile ovals, I think we can safely say he has finally improved at this type of oval greatly. SVG could be a weekly threat, or at least presence, in 2027.

Previous Performance

This is not his first set of back to back top 10’s. Heck, this is not even his first set of back to back top 10’s on ovals. His first two races in the Cup series were top 10s. He had his win at the Chicago Street Course, which he followed up with a p10 finish at the Indy Road Course. Those were the only two races in which he competed during the 2023 season.

Beyond that he has had back to back top 10’s multiple times. Still, I believe these two finishes are more impressive than any of the previous ones. In this statement, I am including his back to back wins at the Chicago Street Course and Sonoma in 2025. Why? The reasoning is rather simple. First, 1.5 mile ovals have been difficult for just about everyone but Toyota this year. Second, Trackhouse has struggled even more than stronger Chevy teams. Finally, Shane van Gisbergen has shown solid consistent improvement at just about every other type of oval. Back to back top 10s at his weakest style of oval is super impressive.

Many in the NASCAR or general auto-racing arenas have noted this accomplishment, but I feel they’re missing the bigger picture. Both Trackhouse and SVG are improving in this meaningless-to-them Chase. I will be very interested to see how the rest of the season goes for them. Regardless, I can honestly say, I think 2027 will be a much better year for them.