“Ovals” are race tracks shaped like ovals, usually with long, fast turns. The driving and car behavior can be different than on twistier tracks because you’re going fast for longer and the aerodynamics matter a lot.
Place
mountainsville
“Mountainsville” likely means Martinsville, a famous NASCAR track in Virginia. It’s a shorter track with lots of braking, so the racing feels different than on big oval tracks.
Clean air means the car is moving through air that isn’t being messed up by another car. When you get clean air, the car’s handling usually feels better; when you’re in dirty air, it can feel loose or harder to control.
A “sprint car” is a small, fast open-wheel race car, often raced on short tracks. The way it handles and how drivers position themselves can be different from NASCAR-style cars on bigger tracks.
This is about where you drive relative to other cars. Because the air around the cars affects grip, your position can change how well your car sticks to the track—and it can affect the car behind or beside you too.
An “aerodynamics set up” is how the team adjusts the car to work with airflow. Small changes can make the car stick to the track better or slow down less, which strongly affects handling at speed.
Strategy is how the team times its decisions during the race—like when to pit and how to manage tires. Even if you’re not the quickest car, smart timing can help you win.
A “yellow” is when NASCAR slows down because of something happening on the track. If it comes at the wrong time for you, it can mess up your race plan—hence “unlucky.”
A road course is a track with lots of turns, not just left turns like many NASCAR ovals. It usually requires different driving skills and car setup to handle the corners well.
San Diego is brought up as the location of a race weekend. The speaker is saying the track felt different over the weekend, so teams had to adjust how they drove and planned their race.
Race craft is how good drivers handle real racing moments. It’s about when to pass, how to defend, and how to drive smoothly so you don’t lose time or positions.
Practice is the time before the race where teams test how the car feels. Drivers use it to learn how the track is behaving so they can drive better during the race.
“Turn two” means a particular corner on the track. The speaker is saying that corner has a noticeable bump/crest and then you have to slow down hard and set up the turn.
“Car setup” means how the team tunes the car for a particular track. It can include suspension and tire settings so the car feels right and sticks to the road where it needs to.
“Compliant” here means the suspension can soak up bumps instead of jolting the car. That helps the tires stay planted and the car feel more controlled over rough pavement.
“High grip” means the tires can stick to the track better. When the track has more grip, the car can be set up to turn in harder and carry more speed through corners.
“On the edge” means the driver is pushing the car as hard as it safely can. It’s fast, but it leaves little room for error if the tires lose traction.
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80 career wins, you're a dominating, you're a winning championship.
What was the thought process like?
I mean this sport was going through some changes there that had like that new car
and it kind of stopped really and it just, I was not enjoying it.
You know, just, just farming was perfect to do something different.
California's Kevin Harvick's Coming Soon!
What's going on, Closers?
Welcome to Kevin Harvick's Happy Hour podcast.
In the hot seat today, you got your boy, Mamba Smith, and I'm excited
because I get to talk to a homie.
I like to call him Superman, especially when it comes to the road courses.
SVG, Shane, Vankersberg, and Shane, how are we doing, homie?
I'm great. I hope you are too.
I'm good, man. Well, let's tell the people where you're at right now
because we just left San Diego, but you stayed on the West Coast. Where you at?
Yeah, so we're at Santa Monica, which is where Red Bull are based.
So we're doing some cool stuff later today and the guys are doing some pit stops
at Red Bull and working out and checking it out there.
So yeah, I think it's a bit easier than heading home for a week or a couple of days.
Yeah, no doubt. No doubt. You got anything else planned out there?
I know you guys are going to work and like you just said, you got the pit crews
going to be doing their stuff, but I heard maybe some golf trips in order out there.
No, not for me, but I have some friends from New Zealand over.
So I'll try to catch up with them tonight and try and go for dinner or something.
But yeah, it's pretty quiet a couple of days, which is good.
And then I get ready for Sonoma.
For sure, bro. So I want to, I want to talk to you about something that we've
spent a decent amount of time together, but we've never really got to really
get cut up like this before. So I watched last night the runaway Kiwi doc.
And I thought that was so cool.
I didn't realize that you had come from dirt racing.
And then that's kind of how you got to super car.
Can you explain the gap and how you go from dirt racing with quarter minutes
to super super car racing? I don't understand.
Yeah, that was a cool documentary that safety culture did for us.
Yeah, I started like the late nineties in quarter midgets and New Zealand racing
and I raced like quad bikes and stuff around then too.
And didn't really do much go karting until I was probably 13 or 14.
I think I started so a little bit late compared the most.
And then, and then sort of went the more traditional route of, you know,
circuit racing with single-seaters and the junior formula.
But yeah, it was a cool way to start.
And I love the quarter midgets and got pretty fond memories of racing.
It seems like you guys over there, you just have a good time, man.
You guys just put some cars together in a field, make a track and just go wreck them.
That looks like such a good time over there with your friends.
Yeah, we do that every year.
We have a race with bomb cars.
We call them and do them up, pretend they're race cars and go racing
and then trash them at the end of the day.
So yeah, that's always one of the highlights of my year is going home, racing with my friends.
And yeah, good to always see everyone and everyone gets competitive,
but it's a pretty good day to you.
Yeah, looking at it and seeing your dad talk.
Can you tell me the nickname of his nickname?
Is it cheese?
Is his nickname?
Where does that come from?
Yep.
Just it's an easy version of our last name, I guess.
When we were kids.
When he was a kid, I think that's when he got nicknamed and that stuck with him forever.
So most people don't know his first name, so they just call him cheese.
It was awesome getting to hear him talk about like you and your friends
and him teaching you guys how to drive just down around a little quarter midget
and then it flipping into you running supercars.
So when you got to the supercar level, obviously over there, that's like the pinnacle,
but you were able to keep it the main thing, which is having fun.
I think that that's a really important thing.
How have you been able to continue that?
Yeah, I mean, just having good people around us and I think in racing,
like even an example, just a weekend gone, like you're pissed and it's the end of the world at the time,
but we get to be race car drivers.
It's a pretty fun job, really.
It's not really a job, but it's a pretty fun thing we get to do.
So you just got to keep yourself grounded and remember that.
And yeah, I love getting to do what I do.
And even though it's pretty hard and frustrating sometimes,
it's one of the coolest things you can do as a career.
I feel like even when you're a little frustrated, somehow you keep a little smile on your face.
And you talked about in the doc that your mom always reminded you to make sure you're enjoying it and having fun.
Is that kind of her instilling that in you?
Yeah, she would never really tell me what to do or how the race is going to go.
She'd just say, make sure you enjoy it or have fun.
So yeah, try and have that.
Yeah, even on, as I said, the weekend, like I'm still pissed today, but you know, got to keep smiling somehow.
There's a race in a few more days and hopefully you have a better result next week.
So in 2023, you come over, you do the Chicago Street course.
You obviously, it's history.
We know what happened.
You win the race.
And then, but what I didn't realize is you went from winning that race to two months later,
getting flipped over to having a full-time ride.
How quickly did that really happen?
And like, how did you even get your mind wrapped around making the move to America?
I mean, it's a whirlwind how it happened.
And it's a bit of a blur now because it did happen so fast.
And yeah, just I remember Justin just, you know, laying it out there and saying,
this is what we should probably do and do you want to do it?
And yeah, just the process behind it giving me kind of a year to settle and learn and the Xfinity series at the time.
And yeah, man, it was unbelievable how went from being a lifer in VA supercars.
I've been there for 16 years or so, I think, and was happy to keep going there to, yeah,
move into the other side of the world and changing, uprooting my whole life.
It was pretty crazy, but I'm very, very glad I did it.
Yeah, being able to race in some cool places, meet some cool people and I love the NASCAR series.
And yeah, I really enjoy it.
What was the main factor to you deciding to make the move?
Because obviously 80 career wins, you were dominating your winning championships.
And to your point, I remember you said winning championships is everything to you.
So you kind of left that to kind of reset.
What was the thought process there?
I mean, the sport was going through some changes there.
They had like their new car and it kind of sucked really.
And I was not enjoying life, you know, just timing was perfect to do something different.
And it's amazing when you hear, you know, the stuff I was going through was like,
you hear what people went through when they went to the next gen car here, you know,
how it drove and how they didn't like it.
You know, it was kind of similar to what I was going through.
It's kind of interesting reading it now, but I come here and it's a refresh for me, you know,
whereas the other guys aren't liking it here.
It's just whatever world you're in, I guess.
But yeah, the timing was just perfect.
The sport was making some changes there.
And yeah, I needed a fresh start and I didn't know it, but it's been amazing.
Like these are the, you know, I love my racing there.
I love the people I work with.
But these last two or three years is some of the most fun I've had in racing.
And you were able to bring Red Bull with you over.
I was actually got to spend a lot of time at the Red Bull Energy Station, which is super cool.
If anyone ever gets a chance to go to it, you definitely need to hang out there at the racetrack.
But they basically were like talking to me about how you were like,
hey, I want to go try this America thing out.
Like, are you interested in coming with me?
And they were like, absolutely, you're a guy.
That's so cool to be able to bring them back to the sport.
I mean, yeah, it's amazing to be one of the people, I guess, that's brought them back.
But yeah, I had an amazing time with them in Australia and becoming a Red Bull athlete and part of that brand.
But yeah, to have them come back over here, especially how, you know,
I didn't realize at the time how bad NASCAR was 10 or 15 years ago when they were in the sport,
how bad of a time they had, I guess.
Amazing to bring them back and, you know, we've won a couple of races now with them
and just, you know, seeing the activations and how involved they are in the sport.
You know, having two cars on the weekend, the energy station,
and yeah, I've never seen so many fans excited to have a sponsor back in the sport, you know,
and having a brand like such as Red Bull back in the sport is amazing.
And yeah, proud to represent them.
And yeah, it's a bit of a privilege really to wear the Red Bull helmet.
I'm stoked with that.
You're talking about how excited the fans were for Red Bull to be back
and the branding internationally is just amazing, obviously.
But you yourself, I don't think you understand how many closures we have that are from New Zealand and the Australia area.
Like we have a lot of people that are always tuning into the show.
What does it mean to you to be able to represent for those people?
And we had New Zealand people that were at the track that came to the stage where I was at coming by
and there are SVG stuff on everywhere.
What does that mean to you that you have so much support from back home?
Yeah.
I mean, it was amazing.
I'm surprised they let so many New Zealand flags on the Naval back.
So again, it was awesome, you know, I guess this is the closest race to home
and had a lot of people come over and obviously some road courses as well.
So they expect some results and yeah, it's been been amazing.
And even when I have a bad race like the weekend seeing the comments and the supporters.
It's awesome.
It's amazing how many people back home watch this racing and pretty stoked to represent my country.
Speaking of revenue country, you had your countrymen over this past weekend.
The New Zealand soccer team, they call them the all whites.
That is what was that like being to hang out with them?
I mean, you guys are basically holding the flag for New Zealand over here together.
Yeah.
We're a pretty small country, but I guess we bat above our weight on the international stage.
And I don't know.
There's a thing about us Kiwis when you see each other overseas, you just naturally gravitate
towards them and support them.
So it's been awesome to see them a couple of times in the last week over here in the West Coast.
And yeah, had an awesome time, but unfortunately they lost on Sunday too.
So it was a pretty devastating day all around.
But yeah, they got one more game and hopefully it's a good result and they can get through to the next round.
You got some other friends here, one of our mutual friends, Scotty Mack.
Scotty McLaughlin that races for Team Penske in the IndyCar series.
You guys both raced legend cars last year and the team was it was a sheep shaggers racing.
Was that what it was?
No, no, it was Scott Shane racing.
Oh, Scott Shane racing.
Okay.
Okay, just making sure how much fun has it been kind of living this experience with one of your good buddies over in America?
Because you don't get that opportunity to do anything with your friends like that.
But you guys get to live your racing dreams together out here.
Yeah.
And he was one of the influences, I guess, to get me over here the way he talked about it and how different it is.
So yeah, really thankful to that.
And yeah, getting to know him again as a friend the last few years has been cool.
And we did some fundraising in the legend car and he didn't want to do it again this year.
Him and Bubba had a bad time getting beaten up by 12 year olds.
I actually won the last race.
So I got fond memories of it.
The weeks before that I had some crashes.
So I didn't need it.
But it was a lot of fun doing that.
And I think that was a good skill to learn as well as short oval stuff.
But I had fun too.
When you look at looking at the season, I feel like you've made some huge gains throughout this year,
especially on the ovals, obviously, because that was where you had the most gain.
But I feel like you've done everything that we expect you to do, which is to get better and improve.
Where do you feel like your season's at?
How do you feel like you've improved on the oval stuff?
Yeah, thanks.
You made a lot of gains, but I still have so much to learn as well.
But there's definitely been more glimpses this year of big progression.
But yeah, I still have a lot to learn.
And it's been cool to lead some races.
And a lot of it's obviously down to strategy or qualifying being brand out.
We're not naive about that, but it's still been good to run up front and keep learning.
I feel like we have a lot to go with our car performance.
All three of us struggle sometimes.
But there's been flashes of getting it right.
So yeah, it'll come.
We've just got to keep our heads down, keep working.
But really, it's all about points accumulation at the moment.
We're so close to the cut line and we can't afford more bad weeks on these points days.
So we're watching that closely.
And I just got to try and keep scoring as many points as I can.
Last year, I think it was after Vegas.
You had a really cool tweet that broke down like the air bubble in the pocket up against the wall.
And I was like, wow, he really is seeing it now.
He's seeing it.
So now at least you know, he knows what he's up against.
But Nashville, you really put together a good race.
You were able to run up front, have some of those things that you were talking about in that tweet.
Is it being able to be able to put it in practice now for things like Nashville?
Yeah, it just adds up.
You know, every week I have, I'm still having a light bulb moment, still learning things and still seeing things on the track or what people are doing.
And yeah, I still feel like I'm a sponge just taking it all in.
You know, even after this is my second season and cup now, I'm still learning so much.
It's, yeah, it's a really difficult series where so many little details add up.
And yeah, I'm still getting there.
But yeah, I feel like I'm certainly getting closer.
When you look at the race craft and the things that you do, you know, inside the car,
is there what has helped you the most get acclimated to the overall racing?
Is it more, you know, we look at Kyle Larson and Christopher Bell, Chase Briscoe.
They have a dirt background and we always talk about how much that has helped them.
Do you think it's your dirt background that's helped you the most or being in the supercars?
Like, what do you think you get the most help from of race craft?
None of it.
I think it's a completely different sport.
Like, I've never, I'm just learning from zero.
Like it's, yeah, none of it really relates or translates on the ovals.
A little bit like at a mountainsville or something where you're braking and changing gear,
but at these big tracks, nothing, nothing is like it.
You know, maybe sprint car a little bit where you're moving around trying to get clean air,
but all the tracks I race sprint car on were quite slow.
So it's not really, not really relative.
Yeah, like I've had to learn so much.
Like I can't believe it still blows my mind how much air makes a difference.
You know, like moving your car around where you place it compared to other people
and how they can affect you or you can affect them.
Like it blows my mind at the speeds we do, how much air affects the car.
And, you know, the aerodynamics set up, it's, it's ridiculous.
And yeah, it's, I've told people, you know, it's like football versus football where it's American football versus soccer football.
It's, it's you're playing with a, with a ball, but it's two completely different sports.
It's, it's crazy different.
For sure.
You, you talk about a team and the group that you have around you and how much fun it's been.
And Trackhouse is doing stuff differently.
And honestly, you were one of the main components of doing stuff differently with Project 91.
How has it been growing with the team as you, you're growing as a driver and they're growing as a team.
Everything's new.
So how has that been and where, where is it now compared to where it was when you started?
Yeah, it's been tough this year.
You know, everyone's pushing hard, but we're, we're struggling a little bit to be honest.
And I feel like our group within the group, you know, the 97 guys, it's, it's a pretty good atmosphere there.
And I guess we've been sort of the best of them, particularly in the start of the year.
But yeah, it's frustrating.
We're not where we want to be or need to be.
So it's cool fighting every week and trying to get better, but obviously we're frustrated.
We're not as fast as we want to be.
So the atmosphere and the team is still good, but we, we do need to get some speed going.
That's for sure.
Steve, during, during your crew chief talked about in the, in this doc, how much effort and time you put it in the Sim and all the work that you put in.
How are you able to do that out this week?
Cause it's a little different, a little bit different.
Or is it Sonoma and you're like, no, I feel like I got a good handle on this.
So we're kind of in a different spot.
Yeah, it depends week to week, how much some we do.
Like some weeks is really beneficial and we learn a lot other weeks, not so much.
So this week, yeah, we haven't, haven't done too much really, but we have a good base set up to rely on.
We were pretty good there last year.
So we kind of just built off that set up and I still had some things I could have done better and wanted from the car as well.
So yeah, we made sort of set up changes based off that.
And hopefully we can improve the car a little bit and be a bit faster again.
I don't know, man.
You've led about 88% of the laps last year.
You had a lick last year.
That was an amazing performance.
But I will say, I feel like you have made everyone better on the road course stuff.
Like you've made the bar so much further out that everyone had to be better if they wanted to win a championship.
And when you look around, you had an amazing quote.
I felt like over the weekend where you're like, I'm kind of mad that everyone makes me so much the favorite because I feel like it's disrespectful to the competition because there are so many good guys out here.
Do you feel, do you feel like the amount of respect that you get is too much?
Or do you think that it's, you know, that's right where it should be?
I feel like it is too much.
Like we've obviously had a good run and won a lot of races, but true execution.
There was a lot of races last year where we probably weren't the fastest.
You know, I think even Mexico.
Ty Gibbs was beating us until we got him on strategy, you know, that he got an unlucky yellow there.
So there's times like that that have added up.
We've been on the good end of it.
Even Chicago, I think Rick was faster.
He was catching us at the end.
So, you know, we've just been on the good end of it.
But I think looking at Sonoma, you know, I think I said on the weekend, there's 10 guys probably on a road course who can put it together and win if they get it right on that weekend.
So, you know, we're obviously going to be close to the front, but there's guys who are going to compete and probably be better than us at points.
So, yeah, I think being such a clear favorite is a little disrespectful to those guys and their teams because yeah, it's, um, it's never easy for us.
That's for sure.
Can you kind of break down San Diego, which was like, obviously we've never been there, never seen it.
The track changed from the time you guys unloaded to the checker flag to Sonoma and kind of race craft.
Just how are you going to approach it two different ways?
Yeah, it was amazing seeing practice, you know, normally in NASCAR, everyone goes flat out from the start and practice and just straight to the limit, even the tough ovals.
But yeah, I found that San Diego people started slowly.
You know, they gave the track a lot of respect, including myself and we all sort of built up to it, you know, gaps to the walls were getting closer and closer.
We kind of all started leaving the walls some space and like turn two was crazy with that jump into a big break.
Oh my God, it is unreal, unreal.
Yeah, but you saw it started the weekend, people were lifting or taking it easy over that and yeah, we kind of all built up and got faster and faster.
But yeah, we go to Sonoma and first lap of practice will all be on the limit because there's a bit more room to make the mistakes and everyone knows the track and everyone's got sort of a base set up there.
So I think we'll find everyone pushes straight to the limit.
You'll see a lot more mistakes at Sonoma, whereas San Diego, we'd watch everyone sort of make mistakes and crash and those practices before us.
So I think we all under drove a little bit in practice.
So at Sonoma, you the feel that you're looking for versus the feel at San Diego, maybe is all the same footwork is everything the same?
Or like you've flown the car differently.
Just how do you approach from that perspective?
Yeah, like the car setup will be very different.
You know, at San Diego, we were very high, very soft to try and get over the bumps and get the car nice and compliant.
When we go to Sonoma, it's very smooth and high grip.
So the car will be stiff and low and everyone's cars will be on the edge.
You know, you got to have it like that to make grip.
So it's cool to watch the differences.
It was cool to see differences in the cars on the weekend.
And then, yeah, this weekend will be similar again.
Everyone will be pushing hard setup for the high group.
Do you look at these tracks and do you have like a favorite corner?
I've never asked this before.
I'm like, I wonder if the guys have a favorite corner or a favorite section of a track in road course racing?
Probably a section.
Yeah.
The end of Sonoma where you leave the happen and you come down the hill.
There's those fast right, left.
And before you get to the happen, that's a really challenging but rewarding section to get right.
There's a lot of time you can gain or lose there.
And yeah, coming back down the hill is probably pretty spectacular to watch.
It is always great to watch.
Shane, appreciate your time, man.
Enjoy a little bit of time, half time off out in California with your Red Bull family.
And we're looking forward to seeing you in Sonoma.
Cool.
Thanks, buddy.
See you soon.
Thanks, buddy.
Bye.
About this episode
Hosts and guests bounce from Red Bull pit-stop activity in Santa Monica to a racing journey that starts in quarter midgets and dirt-style roots, then climbs into supercars and NASCAR. The conversation connects a 2023 Chicago Street win to a rapid career jump, and explains how “next gen” car changes and aero/“clean air” realities shape learning. California pride shows up in the fan talk, while Sonoma vs. San Diego setup differences drive the on-track strategy discussion.
From a three-time V8 Supercars Champion in Oceania to a dominant force in American stock car racing—Shane van Gisbergen’s journey to NASCAR is one of the greatest gambles in modern motorsport history.
In this exclusive FOX Sports interview, the "Runaway Kiwi" opens up about the massive decision to leave a legendary career behind to start completely over in the United States. SVG takes us behind the scenes of his partnership with Justin Marks and Trackhouse Racing, explaining how the innovative PROJECT91 initiative changed his life forever. He also reflects on what it means to represent the iconic Red Bull livery on the grid, carrying the family No. 97, and earning his spot among NASCAR's elite drivers.
While a chaotic weekend in San Diego shook up his points standing, SVG’s focus is entirely on the bigger picture. Ahead of Sonoma Raceway, Shane breaks down his transition from street courses to heavy American asphalt, his rapid progression on ovals, and why betting on himself was the best decision he ever made.
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