New Zealand’s best chance of a NASCAR championship this season ended on the last lap of a race in Florida, and it ended in a way that would not have been possible a year ago.
Shane van Gisbergen won two Cup Series races in 2026 and still missed the postseason. The Aucklander finished the regular season 17th in the standings, one place outside the 16 drivers who carry on to race for the title, after the finale at Daytona International Speedway on Saturday 29 August.
It was a cruel night to go out on. Van Gisbergen won the opening stage, which was his first stage win on an oval track in four years of Cup racing, after race leader Chris Buescher wrecked coming to the tri-oval. He then pitted for four fresh tyres under the final caution and dropped outside the top 25 while the race ran to a green, white and chequered finish.
Leader Zane Smith was bumped on the last lap, spun and slammed into other cars. Ryan Preece took the chequered flag under caution, won his first Cup race and, with it, the 16th and last spot in the championship field. The Associated Press reported that Preece needed the win to pass van Gisbergen, and that he got it.
“This is redemption,” Preece said. Van Gisbergen was blunter about his own night. “Shame we’re not in it,” he said.
What makes this more than ordinary bad luck is the rule book. In January, NASCAR announced it was bringing back the Chase, the championship format it last used in 2013, across its top three national series. The top 16 drivers on points after 26 races qualify. The rule that automatically put any race winner into the postseason, known in the sport as win and you’re in, was scrapped. Bankable playoff points were dropped as well, and a race win went up in value from 40 points to 55.
That single change is the difference between van Gisbergen racing for a title this month and watching other people do it. Last year he won at Mexico City in June and locked up a postseason berth on the spot, then won three more times, took Rookie of the Year and finished 12th. This year he won at Watkins Glen and again at Sonoma, where he held off Chase Briscoe in late June, and neither win bought him anything more than the points on the day.
Van Gisbergen has been careful not to make that sound like a grievance. He told a Trackhouse Racing team statement, reported by RNZ, that he would have been “pretty stoked” at the start of the year to be told he would be fighting for a place in the field at all.
“The reality is that we have struggled a bit, but I’m happy on #97 side, personally, to have matched Ross,” he told Speedcafe, referring to his team mate Ross Chastain.
“We know how good he is on the ovals and I think I’ve made a big jump this year to be able to match him most weeks.”
The ovals are the whole story. All eight of van Gisbergen’s Cup Series wins, from his stunning debut victory on the streets of Chicago in 2023 through to Sonoma in June, have come on road courses or street circuits. He is the first New Zealander to win a Cup race, and when he did it in 2023 he became the first driver in 60 years to win on debut. On left-turn ovals, which make up most of the calendar, he has been learning in public against people who have been driving them since they were children.
By that measure 2026 was progress rather than failure. He finished ahead of Chastain, who is one of the more experienced oval racers in the garage, and ahead of the highly rated rookie Connor Zilisch. He collected five top five finishes. And he finally won a stage on an oval, in the very race that knocked him out.
“And obviously Connor as well, is a huge talent, so to be comparable to those guys has been really cool for me this year,” he said. “There’s a lot of hard work going on, but we definitely need to improve if we want to have that opportunity at making it next season.”
Ten races remain. Everyone still races, but only the 16 can win the championship, and those 16 had their points reset before the run home. Denny Hamlin, who sealed the top seeding at New Hampshire in late August, starts on 2100 points, with each seed below him five points back, down to Preece on 2000. Van Gisbergen carries his regular season total of 605 and races for wins.
He says he intends to enjoy it. “I guess we can try things now, take a bit more risk and just have some fun, low stress,” he said. “But also work to do the best we can and learn more about what we need out of the car at certain tracks and prepare for next season.”
The run home starts with the Cook Out Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway on Sunday 6 September, United States time, which is Monday morning in New Zealand. It is an awkward place to begin. Darlington is a narrow, egg shaped oval that eats cars and rewards patience, and van Gisbergen has one top 15 finish there from four starts. Speedcafe reported he was also due to make his debut in the CARS Tour for late model stock cars at Florence Motor Speedway in South Carolina on Friday night, which is the sort of extra seat time drivers take when they are trying to teach themselves a discipline in a hurry.
None of it changes the wider picture much. Van Gisbergen is 37, he is a three time Supercars champion with 80 race wins in Australia, and he has already done something no New Zealander had done by winning at the top level of American stock car racing. What 2026 has told him is that winning on the days he is best is no longer enough to get him into the fight for the trophy.
What do you make of the new NASCAR format and Shane van Gisbergen’s season. Leave a comment below and tell us whether you think he cracks the ovals in 2027.
This article was written by AI, briefed to report the facts, hopefully without some of the bias people bring to the job 🙂
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