Van Gisbergen Eyes Playoff Momentum at Daytona

Shane van Gisbergen enters Saturday night’s Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona International Speedway already locked into the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs, but with plenty still to race for.

The #88 Trackhouse Racing driver has delivered one of the standout rookie seasons in modern Cup history. His Watkins Glen victory earlier this month was his fourth of 2025, tying him with Denny Hamlin for the most wins this season. The result also confirmed van Gisbergen as the fastest driver to five Cup wins since Dan Gurney in 1968, underlining his rapid rise on NASCAR’s biggest stage.

Van Gisbergen sits second in the playoff standings with 22 playoff points, boosted by those four landmark victories. His Mexico City triumph made him the only non-American driver with at least four Cup Series wins, while his Watkins Glen performance extended his run as the first rookie to win three consecutive road course races from pole since Jeff Gordon.

While his road course success has been immediate, van Gisbergen has also shown progress on ovals. A 14th-place finish last weekend at Richmond marked one of his strongest oval runs to date, where he flirted with a top 10 before late cautions shuffled the order. “On ovals, it’s just general speed,” van Gisbergen said this week. “It’s taking time learning what I need from the car and understanding it. I can describe what it’s doing, but I don’t yet have that notebook of myself. Every week I’m trying to learn and help the crew point the car in the right direction.”

This weekend will be van Gisbergen’s third Cup start at Daytona. In last year’s summer race he was in position for a top-10 finish before a mechanical failure ended his night. With his playoff place secure, Saturday offers an opportunity to fine-tune before the postseason begins at Darlington on August 31.

The 2025 season has already rewritten records for the former Supercars champion, who signed a multi-year extension with Trackhouse Racing earlier this month. What began as a one-off Chicago Street Race win in 2023 and a full-time Xfinity campaign in 2024 has now developed into a historic Cup rookie season. Van Gisbergen also leads Riley Herbst 464–293 in the Sunoco Rookie of the Year standings.

“Every race weekend, even if it’s good or bad, I enjoy going into the shop on Monday and doing the meetings,” he said. “It’s going to work every day, but it doesn’t really feel like a job. I’m loving every minute of it.”

With four wins, a secured playoff berth, and a steady climb in oval form, van Gisbergen arrives at Daytona with momentum and the chance to enter the postseason among the top seeds.