Shane van Gisbergen is arguably the best road course driver NASCAR has ever seen. His recent win at Sonoma can act as proof. But is he better than Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Gordon, Dale Earnhardt, or Tony Stewart when it comes to this track type?

Yes, at least this is what Jordan Bianchi thinks. The renowned NASCAR insider recently shed light on SVG's road course performances and shared that he would bet on the Trackhouse Racing driver over the names mentioned above.

"I saw Dale Earnhardt and Jimmie Johnson win seven championships. I saw Jimmie Johnson win five straight championships, which to me is one of the most, maybe the most remarkable accomplishments in NASCAR history," Bianchi began. "I saw Tony Stewart win five of ten Chase races, which is probably the greatest run in NASCAR history considering circumstances and everything behind it."

Following this, he compared SVG with Jeff Gordon and Richard Petty as well, and ranked the former's road course prowess over them.

"I saw Jeff Gordon over five years win 29% of races, 29% of races over five years, Jeff Gordon won. I saw underdog Alan Kulwicki win a championship. But watching SVG on a road course, that tops it all. That is the cherry on top of the greatness. You can have your Richard Petty, you can have your David Pearson, but I'll take my SVG on the road courses. This is good as it gets," Bianchi further added on "The Teardown" podcast.

For the unversed, all the drivers Bianchi compared Shane van Gisbergen to have at least one Cup Series title, and some have multiple.

Notably, SVG has 14 wins on road courses: eight in the Cup Series and six in the O'Reilly Auto Parts Series, showing his extraordinary brilliance.

Thanks to his 16-year-long career in the Australian Supercars series, which only raced on road courses, Gisbergen has superior grip, cornering, entry, and exit around the chicane. This puts him at an advantage over traditional NASCAR drivers.

Trackhouse Racing "lucky" to have Shane van Gisbergen

Stephen Doran, the crew chief of Trackhouse Racing's No. 97 car, was over the moon after SVG's win at Sonoma, which was his second of the season.

Thanks to his victory, the team tasted victory for the third time this season - two wins from SVG and one from Daniel Suarez. After the Sonoma race, in a post-race press conference, Doran said (as quoted by Motorsport.com):

"Thank God we have him, or we wouldn't be here right now (winning at Sonoma). We did a lot of work overnight trying to get it better. I am still really not sure what it was that he didn't like about it, but he, honestly, hated the car all weekend."

Thanks to the win, SVG is inching closer to a Chase berth and now stands in 14th place with 425 points. Now, the Trackhouse Racing driver needs to maintain consistency to qualify for the playoffs.

But it won't be straightforward, because there are no road course races remaining; only ovals.

Read more at the RFK Racing Digest!

Written by

Sabyasachi Biswas

Edited by

Yash Kotak