“I Like People Not Knowing!” Shane van Gisbergen Reveals His Unique Personal Trait

The 2026 NASCAR Cup Series season so far has been a mixed bag of results for Trackhouse Racing’s Shane van Gisbergen. Owing to the underwhelming performance of Justin Marks’ team, the Kiwi racer hasn’t been able to showcase the improvement he made on ovals and missing out a win against Tyler Reddick at COTA was also challenging.

But the three times Supercars champion has kept his head high and is hopeful about getting back to victory lane this week at Watkins Glen.  Ahead of the race he sat down for an interview with The Athletic and talked about his charter trait that would surprise the people who things they know him well. He is someone that makes sure people doesn’t know everything about him.

I like being someone where people know enough, but not everything. In this world, people have too much access to you or expect too much access. I like having that unknown and being able to get away. I like people not knowing.

Shane van Gisbergen told The Athletic.

Further talking about the point, Shane Van Gisbergen pointed out that he is not the person people think he is after seeing him on the racetrack. He has a completely different life away from the track. The champion driver loves that separation between racing and life.

Away from the track, I’m a pretty different person, but I feel like people know me enough at race weekends — and that’s part of my job. But I like being able to switch that part of my life off during the week.

Shane van Gisbergen added.

Later talking about bad race weekends, he admitted that he wants people to leave him alone during such challenging moments. After the post-race debrief on Monday, Shane van Gisbergen switches of and invest time to his family. That balance has been key to his success in the USA in the last three years.

Leave me alone. Especially after a bad week — we have our meetings Monday, but after that I just stay away from the world, hang out with the dogs or my wife, and chill out. Normally, I’m good by Tuesday — or Wednesday if it was a really bad week.

Shane van Gisbergen asserted.

Shane van Gisbergen is missing heart to heart talks with his friends

In the same interview, SVG was asked about friend’s or foes that he wants to have a heart-to-heart conversation with. He admitted that he misses having close talks with his friends back home at New Zeeland. Him living in USA has made it challenging for everyone be in contact.  

Probably my main friends back home. I don’t get to do it enough anymore. When I go home, it’s a whirlwind trip, and you’re catching up with people, but you don’t get time for those (deeper) conversations like you used to. Being on the other side of the world, it’s just harder to talk with those guys as much as I used to.

Shane van Gisbergen said.

The comments show the personal sacrifices the veteran racer made to build a stock car racing career for him in the states. So, far the sacrifices have paid off with dominant road course wins and it would be interesting to see how long he can remain competitive in the States.

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