Shane van Gisbergen’s latest step in his American oval education will take him to Florence Motor Speedway for his CARS Tour debut.
Shane van Gisbergen has made a career out of adapting to different race cars. Friday night at Florence Motor Speedway, he’ll add another one to the list.
The three-time Supercars champion and NASCAR Cup Series winner will make his CARS Tour debut in the No. 51 Red Bull-backed Late Model Stock for Hettinger Racing.
For van Gisbergen, it’s another unfamiliar car in a career increasingly defined by his willingness to learn them.
Before NASCAR, SVG built his resume in Australia’s Supercars championship, winning three titles and three Bathurst 1000s. Then he arrived in NASCAR in 2023 and won his Cup Series debut on the streets of Chicago, becoming the first driver in 60 years to accomplish the feat.
Road courses came naturally. American ovals did not.
Van Gisbergen has been candid about that learning curve, describing his early oval experience as feeling like a “deer in headlights.” But the progress has become increasingly visible. In 2026, he earned his first Cup Series top-five finish on an oval at Nashville before finishing fifth and leading 49 laps at North Wilkesboro.
Now he’s adding Late Model Stock racing to his education.
Even Connor Zilisch, who has previous CARS Tour experience, told his Trackhouse teammate to expect “something you’ve never felt before,” describing the cars as “the furthest thing from what he’s used to.”
Florence itself won’t be entirely unfamiliar.
Van Gisbergen attended a CARS Tour race at the 0.4-mile South Carolina short track two years ago and left intrigued.
“I walked across Turn 1 and there were no walls,” van Gisbergen recalled. “It was pretty eye-opening.”
He stayed to watch the racing and continued following the series afterward. When the opportunity eventually came to race there himself, van Gisbergen said it didn’t take much convincing.
Florence isn’t about proving a NASCAR Cup winner can immediately beat Late Model regulars at their own game. It’s another opportunity for SVG to learn a type of racing he hasn’t experienced yet.
And considering how his NASCAR career has unfolded so far, willingly stepping into the unfamiliar might be one of the most familiar things about him.