NASCAR star claims TV does bad job of representing NASCAR

Shane van Gisbergen has claimed that watching NASCAR on TV leaves fans without the full picture of the sport.

The New Zealander moved over to America after a long and successful career in Supercars in Australia, but has admitted that some of his friends back home have yet to grasp just how talented drivers in the Cup Series are.

The Trackhouse Racing star was asked by The Athletic's Jeff Gluck what he's stopped trying to explain to people, and explained that he's learned to stop trying to justify bad weekends at the track to people who can't understand just how good and tightly-matched the drivers he's competing against are.

Van Gisbergen claimed that TV doesn't – possibly can't – accurately convey just how fast Cup Series drivers are going, and how close to the absolute limit of their grip the drivers are holding the cars.

NASCAR TODAY: Kyle Busch put on watch as star's Texas penalty confirmed

Van Gisbergen: You have to see it to understand

The man fondly referred to as SVG said: "Especially here [in NASCAR] – you can run 20th to 30th and have a decent day, but people are just better here.

"Everyone at home [in New Zealand] wonders what’s going on and expects so much out of you, but it’s hard to explain how good and how close everyone is here, especially on ovals.

"I had a friend come to Kansas a couple weeks ago, and I just said, 'For qualifying, go down to Turn 1 and stand there. It’ll blow you away'. And yeah, he couldn’t believe it – how fast we go and how much the cars are moving around, on edge. You have to see it to understand. I don’t think TV does a good job of that."

He added: "Even when we’re watching qualifying from the car and seeing guys sailing past into Turn 1, it’s like, 's***, these guys are ripping'. Then you’ve got to go do it yourself. It’s pretty cool."

While Van Gisbergen might be done with explaining away bad days, he hasn't had as many to explain away in 2026 anyway. The Kiwi sits 19th in the standings after 11 races with – crucially – three of the year's four road course races still to come, where he's expected to take enormous hauls of points.

NASCAR Cup Series standings ahead of Watkins Glen

Pos	Driver	Manufacturer	Points (Stage)	Wins	Top 5s	Top 10s
1	Tyler Reddick	Toyota	526 (87)	5	7	8
2	Denny Hamlin	Toyota	417 (91)	1	5	7
3	Chase Elliott	Chevrolet	409 (61)	2	5	7
4	Ryan Blaney	Ford	371 (87)	1	3	7
5	Chris Buescher	Ford	345 (62)	0	2	6
6	Carson Hocevar	Chevrolet	333 (53)	1	3	5
7	Ty Gibbs	Toyota	330 (66)	1	5	7
8	Kyle Larson	Chevrolet	318 (91)	0	3	6
9	Brad Keselowski	Ford	311 (50)	0	2	4
10	William Byron	Chevrolet	308 (57)	0	2	6
11	Bubba Wallace	Toyota	304 (71)	0	1	6
12	Christopher Bell	Toyota	291 (73)	0	3	4
13	Ryan Preece	Ford	273 (43)	0	0	2
14	Daniel Suárez	Chevrolet	271 (31)	0	1	3
15	Austin Cindric	Ford	248 (49)	0	1	3
16	Chase Briscoe	Toyota	242 (38)	0	3	4
17	Joey Logano	Ford	235 (54)	0	2	3
18	Ross Chastain	Chevrolet	216 (22)	0	1	2
19	Shane van Gisbergen	Chevrolet	215 (24)	0	1	2
20	AJ Allmendinger	Chevrolet	199 (19)	0	0	1
21	Zane Smith	Ford	198 (11)	0	1	3
22	Erik Jones	Toyota	196 (10)	0	0	2
23	Michael McDowell	Chevrolet	189 (19)	0	1	2
24	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.	Chevrolet	187 (19)	0	1	2
25	Todd Gilliland	Ford	186 (19)	0	0	1
26	Kyle Busch	Chevrolet	182 (16)	0	0	1
27	Austin Dillon	Chevrolet	182 (8)	0	0	0
28	Riley Herbst	Toyota	173 (12)	0	0	1
29	John H. Nemechek	Toyota	157 (14)	0	0	0
30	Josh Berry	Ford	155 (30)	0	0	2
31	Noah Gragson	Ford	153 (4)	0	0	1
32	Ty Dillon	Chevrolet	136 (0)	0	0	0
33	Connor Zilisch	Chevrolet	124 (2)	0	0	0
34	Alex Bowman	Chevrolet	115 (11)	0	2	2
35	Cody Ware	Chevrolet	92 (4)	0	0	0
36	Cole Custer	Chevrolet	91 (3)	0	0	0
37	Casey Mears	Chevrolet	9 (3)	0	0	0
38	BJ McLeod	Chevrolet	3 (0)	0	0	0