NASCAR star Shane van Gisbergen makes reveal that will give Cup Series rivals the fear

NASCAR star Shane van Gisbergen has made a fascinating reveal that should strike fear into his Cup Series rivals heading into 2026.

Van Gisbergen is undoubtedly the current road course king in the Cup Series, taking five victories away from NASCAR's traditional oval layout in Mexico City, Chicago, Sonoma, Watkins Glen, and the Charlotte Roval last season.

Only Denny Hamlin won more races than van Gisbergen in 2025, and his victories also saw him qualify for the playoffs and bank a substantial amount of playoff points ahead of the postseason.

However, despite the advantage that those playoff points gave him, the Kiwis' struggles on ovals meant that he exited the playoffs at the Round of 16 stage.

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Van Gisbergen reflects on playoff struggles

Reflecting on his playoff exit in a recent long-form interview with Speedcafe, van Gisbergen revealed that he and his team were actually confident of progressing past that round when the playoffs kicked off at Darlington.

"We went into Darlington thinking we'd be okay because we were quite good there in the spring race," van Gisbergen explained. "And we just struggled.

"I got frustrated trying to get more out of the car and [it] kinda just snowballed. I know I didn’t do a good enough job, and that’s the pressure of the playoffs.

"It felt like we were getting good momentum, and then we just struggled a little bit. I didn’t drive well enough."

SVG risk pays off

Van Gisbergen's playoff exit might prove very beneficial in the long term, however, with the Trackhouse Racing star revealing that the risks he and his team took beyond that point allowed them to learn a lot heading into 2026.

"As soon as the playoffs ended, the very next week, we tried some different setups, you know, thinking that, ‘Oh, we’re out of the playoffs. We’ll take some risk with some cars'", the Kiwi said.

"I generally struggle with front turn compared to my teammates, so we went outside the box, and we really found something that we liked in the setups.

"I forget the order of the races, but maybe it was New Hampshire, straight away, I found a lot in the car, and that set a direction for the rest of the year.

"I wish we had tried it a bit earlier, but it’s part of learning. It's hard to get outside the box when you have such good references of setups from everyone else.

"I spent the year really struggling for front turn and just thinking, 'Okay, the other guys are driving it, I need to just learn the techniques'.

"But, when we did try some things, it did really help me, and I felt like we had some really good races later in the year."

The race after New Hampshire, van Gisbergen recorded his only top-10 finish on an oval, and before the season was out, he came close to doing so again at Talladega (11th) and Martinsville (14th).

It will certainly be interesting to see if Trackhouse Racing's new risk-averse strategy when it comes to the Kiwis' setups carries through to 2026, and fortunately, we don't have too long to find out.