Three-time Australian Supercars champion Shane van Gisbergen has added a third NASCAR race to his schedule.
This time it’s in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series.
Van Gisbergen—who won the inaugural Grant Park 220 street race in Chicago on July 2 and who is slated to drive in the NASCAR Cup Series race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course for Trackhouse Racing on August 13—will race in the Truck Series at Indianapolis Raceway Park on Aug. 11.
Van Gisbergen’s maiden race in the Truck Series will be for Niece Motorsports, and he will be driving the No. 41 Worldwide Express Chevrolet in that 200-lap race on the .686-mile track.
“The weekend will certainly be a challenge,” said van Gisbergen. “I’ve seen the trucks race on television and know it’s very competitive and that I’ll have a lot to learn on a short track at IRP. I’m used to doing doubleheaders in Supercars, but this will be a little bit different. I’m honored to join Niece Motorsports and thrilled at getting a chance to climb in a truck.”
With Niece Racing, van Gisbergen joins a proven winner. The team’s 20-year-old driver Carson Hocevar became the first truck series driver to win three races this season when he won the Worldwide Express 250 at Richmond (Va.) Raceway on July 29. The team has seven wins this season.
“We are so excited and so honored to have Shane drive for us at IRP,” said Niece Motorsports general manager Cody Efaw. “He’s a legend in Australia and New Zealand, but what he did at Chicago has everyone in America talking about his talent. We will help him experience oval racing and I am guessing we will learn a lot from him as well.”
Van Gisbergen is currently third in the Repco Supercars Championship (formerly Australian Supercars) points standings.
Mike Pryson covered auto racing for the Jackson (Mich.) Citizen Patriot and MLive Media Group from 1991 until joining Autoweek in 2011. He won several Michigan Associated Press and national Associated Press Sports Editors awards for auto racing coverage and was named the 2000 Michigan Auto Racing Fan Club’s Michigan Motorsports Writer of the Year. A Michigan native, Mike spent three years after college working in southwest Florida before realizing that the land of Disney and endless summer was no match for the challenge of freezing rain, potholes and long, cold winters in the Motor City.
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