Remember the name Shane Van Gisbergen.
NASCAR history books certainly will.
The New Zealand-born driver in the Supercars Championship series in Australia won NASCAR’s first street race through downtown Chicago on Sunday evening — something instantly historic.
But there was more history on top of that, too: van Gisebergen won in his first Cup Series start.
It had been 60 years since a driver had won in his Cup Series debut. (And that’s saying a lot because NASCAR, of course, is celebrating its 75th anniversary this year.)
When asked if he thought a win was possible right after the race, van Gisbergen shook his head and smiled.
“No of course not, but you always dream of it,” he said. “Thank you so much to the TrackHouse team and to all of Project91. I mean, what an experience, in the crowd out here. This is so cool.”
The driver of the 91 car competed for TrackHouse Racing under Project91 — an effort to bring in some of the biggest names in motorsports around the world to specific Cup Series races and to have them competitively represent THR.
But no matter how much Gisbergen believed in the project, he admitted he didn’t realistically believe a trip down Victory Lane was possible, he said.
Until it was.
“Anything is possible,” he said. “The fans in Australia and New Zealand, the response this week, the coverage — I can’t explain it. The support has come from everyone, and even over here, how welcoming everyone has been. I can’t believe it. A dream come true.”
The win for van Gisbergen, in addition to being historic, was also unlikely midway through the race. The driver started Sunday in third and ran in the Top 10 all day until the end of Stage 2, right around Lap 45.
What happened then? A lot.
Alex Bowman spun out and prompted a caution. Cars were running single-file under yellow. And then, of course, chaos rained down: NASCAR announced that the race would be shortened to 75 laps instead of the planned 100 because of impending darkness — and that meant that a bunch of cars in the back of the pack that had pitted right before the end of Stage 2 could make it the rest of the way on fuel.
The race’s complexion, thus, changed: The front half who were racing for Stage 2 points had to file down pit road, while everyone else leap-frogged them.
The Top 3 for so long consisted of van Gisbergen, Tyler Reddick, Christopher Bell and Kyle Larson.
But after Lap 45, a new crop of drivers showed up in winning contention. Among them: Justin Haley, Austin Dillon, Chase Elliott and Kyle Busch.
But, somehow, van Gisbergen stayed resilient, rising back up through the field as others couldn’t. He then passed Haley with five laps to go for the lead, stayed perfect even after a caution emerged with two laps to go — and won it all in overtime.
The New Zealander’s win certainly amplified the “international” aspect of this event. The Chicago Street Race, after all, was meant to be a flex of innovative muscle for NASCAR as well as an introduction of the sport to a whole bunch of prospective fans from all around the world.
Those new fans got a handful on Sunday. They saw nine cautions for 21 laps, seven lead changes and five different leaders. Among those leaders were Bell (who led a race-high 37 laps), Haley (23), van Gisbergen (9) and Reddick (8).
Those fans also saw van Gisbergen waving a checkered flag, making history.
The burning question came up soon after he came out of his car victorious: Would van Gisbergen come race in America full-time?
When asked, he modestly shrugged, as if he was still in awesome disbelief.
“I’m doing one more year in Australia,” he said, “and then I’d love to come over here.”
