Shane van Gisbergen Expose Who is Really to Blame for His 2026 Chase Elimination

The 2026 NASCAR Cup Series regular season finale race at Daytona International Speedway ended in a heartbreak for Shane van Gisbergen and the No:97 Chevy team. He came into the race as the 16^th driver in the points table and had to hold off the charge from RFK Racing’s Ryan Preece to make it to the chase field.

Unfortunately, the Kiwi failed to collect enough points and a strong run from Preece got him eliminated. The race was sent to overtime after Carson Hocevar spun out with six laps left in the event, and the Trackhouse crew asked him to pit. He came out P28 after changing all four tires and couldn’t better the position.

I don’t know, they obviously have more information on how much fuel we had left, and maybe I didn’t do a good enough job early. I was trying, but I guess conservative at that point, but yeah, it is what it is. I don’t know, I don’t get emotional about that stuff, just trust what they say and pit it because they told me to.

Shane van Gisbergen told Peter Stratta post-race.

.@shanevg97 walks through the highs and lows of tonight after winning Stage 1 but ultimately falling out of The Chase with Preece winning.

“We didn’t lose it all tonight”#NASCAR pic.twitter.com/vqsS6zoWIa

— Peter Stratta (@peterstratta) August 30, 2026

The Chevy driver didn’t conserve enough fuel towards the end of the race and that’s forced the pit-stop. At the end of the day, if Shane van Gisbergen and his crew had delivered more good results on ovals throughout the year, he wouldn’t have been in the situation in the first place.

I never hope for the misfortune of others, but yeah, I don’t put down him winning tonight; it’s not a one-night loss. It’s, you know, I haven’t done a good enough job throughout the year; we’ve lost points in various places, we didn’t just lose it tonight, yeah, it is what it is.

Shane van Gisbergen added.

Shane van Gisbergen is closer to teammates on oval than ever

In the same conversation, SVG talked about some positives from the disappointing day. He won stage one, his maiden oval stage win in the sport since debut. He is proud to be able to perform on the same level on ovals as his teammates, making him more than just a “road course merchant.”

I was pretty stoked; I have never won, I don’t think I’ve ever won a stage run on ovals, so we got within one corner at North Wilkesboro, so that was pretty awesome. The season’s not over yet, but for sure, I’m proud that I’m closer to my teammates on ovals, and you know, managed to have a pretty good year..

Shane van Gisbergen said

The three times Supercars champion has been the best driver for Trackhouse in the challenging 2026 season. He was the only driver in the team to win a race this season and showed the most improvement on ovals among the three.

Obviously I want to do better as a team; as a team we’re not quite there, but I think we’ve made good improvement on the ovals compared to my teammates. I guess we can try things now; we can take a bit more risk, and just have some fun, low stress, and have a crack.

Shane van Gisbergen added.

SVG will be hoping to perform better and maybe secure another win in the remaining 10 races of the 2026 season, despite the disappointment. It would be interesting to see how everything is going to playout for the star driver in the coming races weeks.

Also Read: Chase Elliott Insists “Seeding is Irrelevant” After Points Rest Post-Daytona