DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Three-time Supercars champion Shane van Gisbergen will drive full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series for Trackhouse Racing in 2025.

Team owner Justin Marks made the announcement on Saturday at the Daytona International Speedway with van Gisbergen at his side. The 35-year-old New Zealander will drive the No. 88 Chevrolet for Trackhouse, taking over a number that was last used in the series by Dale Earnhardt Jr. at Hendrick Motorsports.

Van Gisbergen will join Ross Chastain and Daniel Suarez to give Trackhouse an expanded three-car team. Trackhouse bought a third charter – the contract that guarantees cars participation in every Cup race – from Stewart-Haas Racing, which is closing its doors at the end of this season.

“I never thought it would happen so quickly,” said van Gisbergen.

Marks had previously announced that Trackhouse and Zane Smith will go their separate ways after this season. Trackhouse has loaned Smith to Spire Motorsports for this season as Trackhouse only had two charters.

Van Gisbergen’s rise made the decision “easy,” Marks said. Van Gisbergen shocked NASCAR when he won his debut race at the Chicago street circuit in 2023, becoming the first in the ultra-competitive Cup Series to do so since Johnny Rutherford in the second qualifying race at Daytona in 1963.

“Shane checks a lot of boxes for a really, really compelling story about building a great company in this sport,” Marks said. “He’s incredibly talented, he’s incredibly dedicated. …

“The Chicago street race is obviously his thing. But the ability to adapt to everything else, just the competition, the restarts, the pit stops, the way you prepare for the race, man, that’s a superstar.”

Buoyed by his success in Chicago, van Gisbergen packed up his bags and signed a development program with Trackhouse. Van Gisbergen has three wins and six top-10 finishes in 22 Xfinity Series starts this season and has led 14 laps in four Cup starts.

Van Gisbergen said his career in the Supercar scene had become rusty and he was looking forward to a new challenge as a stock car driver.

Van Gisbergen’s interest in NASCAR was sparked in 2022 when he saw Formula 1 champion Kimi Raikkonen drive for Trackhouse’s Project 91 program. The goal of the Project 91 program was to give international drivers a chance in NASCAR. Van Gisbergen approached Marks through friends about pursuing a NASCAR career. With van Gisbergen’s past – he has 80 wins in Supercars – he seemed like the perfect driver for the fledgling program.

NASCAR is rife with drivers who failed in their attempt to move up to the stock car class after successful careers in other series. Dario Franchitti won the Indianapolis 500 three times, but his Cup career ended after two unfortunate seasons. Juan Pablo Montoya and Sam Hornish Jr. never reached the heights in NASCAR that they did in open-wheel racing. Australian Marcos Ambrose won two Supercar championships before taking just two wins in 227 career Cup races.

But Marks believes van Gisbergen will be different, and the early results agree with that.

“We were really excited to sign this guy, knowing it’s a relatively unconventional path to a Cup car,” Marks said. “But we wouldn’t do it if we didn’t believe this guy could win many, many Cup races and be a playoff contender. It was a pretty easy decision, honestly.”

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