“It Drives Like a Forklift” – Shane van Gisbergen Controversially Splits the Difference Between NASCAR’s Proud Next Gen and Xfinity Cars

From clinching three Supercar championships to winning three NASCAR Xfinity races this year, Shane van Gisbergen has come a long way. The Kiwi speedster sent off ripples of excitement in the racing community when he landed a debut NASCAR victory in 2023. Two things fell his way—the road course layout of the Chicago racetrack and the rainy conditions. However, some aspects of NASCAR still baffle SVG, including the disparity in cars.

Last year, Shane van Gisbergen drove a part-time star car with Trackhouse Racing’s “Project91” team. According to his report, he could wield the Cup Series’ Next-Gen car, which debuted in 2022 and resembles race cars from the rest of the world. However, the Xfinity car is leagues different, and SVG had a funny description of it.

Shane van Gisbergen felt wobbly in Xfinity

Well, you do require time to assimilate another sport’s racing techniques, especially if the cars are different. For a seasoned veteran like Shane van Gisbergen holding Bathurst wins and a 24 Hours of Daytona podium, this should be a cakewalk. And it was during his earth-shattering victory at the 2023 Chicago Street Race. However, even a legend stumbles with a wholly different setup. The Next-Gen car is universal with 18-inch wheels with large single-lug nuts, an independent rear suspension, and a five-speed sequential transmission. On the other hand, Xfinity cars are old-school NASCAR: 15-inch wheels with five lug nuts each, a solid rear axle, and a four-speed manual transmission.

So SVG’s transition to a full-time Xfinity car was not smooth this year. Earlier this year, in an interview at Talladega Superspeedway, Shane van Gisbergen confessed his wobbly feeling. Journalist Matt Weaver posted SVG’s thoughts recently: “I like the Cup car because it feels like every other car in the world I’ve driven, and then I got in the Xfinity car and had no idea what was happening. It drives like a forklift, the way the rear end moves, how it drives but if you speak to drivers here, they like it better.” SVG did not shy away from expressing wonder at Xfinity’s marvel. “The rear end is really, really interesting, how it moves around. I’ve never driven a car like that.”

Despite this difficulty in maneuvering the Xfinity car, we are all aware of Shane van Gisbergen’s thumping success. He won three races this year, all of them road courses—Portland, Sonoma, and Chicago. Although he could not make it to the championship round, the New Zealand racer topped off the season with an amazing 16.49-average finish in Xfinity. His excellence has drawn praise from top NASCAR drivers like Kyle Larson, who felt lucky to race against him in Chicago. “I wanted to learn more than anything, and I wanted to get to battle with him because he’s just really good at creating shapes and angles and passing.”

Shane van Gisbergen’s success was beset with the ‘forklift’ challenge. And a Cup Series driver agrees with his view.

Similarity with another road course ace

This year was 23XI Racing’s breakthrough year. Tyler Reddick clinched the regular season championship and narrowly scraped the Cup Series title after collecting three wins. And his milestone was conquering superspeedways and ovals this year, as Reddick is usually strong on road courses. Holding three wins (COTA, Indy Road Course, and Road America) and also 7 top-fives, Reddick is quite like Shane van Gisbergen. So the 23XI driver concurred with the Kiwi speedster about how the Next-Gen car handles better, especially on road courses. It is more durable as compared to the previous Cup car.

Reddick detailed his opinion about the Gen 6 car in June this year. “Where a lot of drivers would have issues under braking with the [last] car was with the old-school truck arms, and just how much those flex and wheel hop. Once you had axle hop — wheel hop — you were more than likely crashing. The more you had that axle hop if you didn’t crash the car, you would just shake all the parts loose.” Then he harped on the Next-Gen’s versatile nature. “With the Next Gen car, that’s totally different. With independent rear suspension, all the beefy suspension parts it has, you don’t really have situations where the car falls apart like the other car did. You can launch it across curbs as hard as you want.”

Evidently, road course winners harbor the same view about NASCAR’s differing vehicles. With Shane van Gisbergen’s comfort with the Next-Gen, Cup Series drivers have another reason to worry for 2025!