Kevin Harvick recently brought the O’Reilly Series’ relevance to the limelight when he questioned its developmental role for drivers. Just a day later, Shane van Gisbergen, who has followed that path, resonates the same sentiment.

Harvick said the series is good in itself, especially with entertainment, but it hasn't been great when it comes to preparing the drivers to face the wrath of the Cup Series.

Now, on the Dale Jr Download’s latest episode, Trackhouse Racing driver Shane van Gisbergen said that he should’ve skipped his entire O’Reilly Series year and directly jumped into Cup.

“I hate to say I wasted a year, there’s a better way to word it, but doing that learning year in Xfinity [O’Reilly] was not really… It was good to see the lay of the land, learn the tracks and the country, the way it worked, but I almost should have been thrown in the deep end in Cup and learn that car,” he said.

SVG entered NASCAR with a blast in 2023 when he won his inaugural street race at Chicago. Next year, in 2024, he was hired as a full-time O’Reilly Series driver for Kaulig Racing in the No. 97 Chevrolet, while doing part-time Cup runs with Trackhouse.

In that year, SVG was on the better side of debutants, securing three wins, making the playoffs, and showing some decent results on ovals too, whether it was a third-place finish at Atlanta or a fourth-place finish at Indianapolis. But the Cup life was very different the next year.

SVG started full-time in the No. 88 for Trackhouse Racing in the Cup Series in 2025, but the lessons from the O'Reilly Series didn’t exactly work. The Cup was a different ballgame altogether.

Keeping the road and street courses aside, the Kiwi struggled badly in the first half of the season, finishing mostly in the 20s and 30s. It’s only by the end of the season that he produced some decent results.

In fact, when Harvick addressed this issue, he mentioned Connor Zilisch’s name, the best example in the garage right now to talk about why a driver excelling in the O’Reilly Series doesn’t mean the same will happen in the Cup.

Harvick had said, “That series is supposed to be the series that is prepping the next generation for Cup racing. Connor Zilisch won nine or 10 races last year, and he's in a spot that nobody thought he would be in with all the struggles that he's having.”

And Zilisch, who was present with SVG in the same podcast, couldn’t agree more.

Connor Zilisch agrees

If you hear any conversation about Zilisch in NASCAR circles, the primary narrative is that it was too soon to transfer Zilisch from O’Reilly to Cup. And Zilisch has an answer for it.

“People always tag me in social media posts, and they’re like, ‘Oh, he needs to go back and do another year of O’Reilly,'” Zilisch said. “And I’m like…You learn nothing. It’s so different.”

Since his Cup debut this year, Zilisch, the driver who had double-digit wins in the O’Reilly, has secured no wins, top-10s, top-5s, or poles. But five DNFs.

“In Xfinity (O’Reilly), you drive it into the corner with the guy in front of you and try and get as close to their left rear as you can,” he added. “And in Cup, you’re lifting at the flag stand to give yourself air on entry, so that way you can get a run off the corner and get a run and go three wide bottom, whatever it is.”

He even revealed that he drives on Saturdays just to enjoy and have fun and to clear his mind for Sundays. Cause everything he learns on the Cup day is the opposite.

Read more at the RFK Racing Digest!

Written by

Suyashdeep Sason

Edited by

Suyashdeep Sason