Shane van Gisbergen and Scott McLaughlin have a lot in common: New Zealanders who parlayed multiple Supercars championships in Australia (often battling each other) into U.S racing careers — SVG in NASCAR, and McLaughlin in IndyCar. But this weekend, their careers paths briefly overlap, as the duo become teammates in this year's Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona with Trackhouse Racing.
This weekend sees the duo — along with NASCAR driver Connor Zilisch and sports car driver Ben Keating — pushing No.91 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R in the GTD Pro class, in a joint venture between Trackhouse Racing and TF Sport. And for the first time, it's got those fellow Kiwis working together. Which wasn't always
"It's completely different from what we grew up doing — and been doing — the last ten years or something," Van Gisbergen told Motorsport.com. "Since Scott and I left Supercars, it's been an awesome relationship. When you're racing for a championship, you're focused on your own world. Even though we had tough moments, we were still friends and had a beer afterwards. But now it's completely different -- we're working together, and it's so much fun to be driving together."
Both New Zealanders boast three Supercars championships: Van Gisbergen won it all in 2016, 2021, and 2022, while McLaughlin took three consecutive titles between 2018 and 2020. (In two of those, SVG was the season runner-up.) As an IndyCar driver, McLaughlin won the opening round at St. Pete in his second full-time season. Last year he finally found Victory Lane on the ovals, and enters 2025 with seven career wins.
"It's amazing story, what he's done with the Supercar championships and now running so well in IndyCar," said Van Gisbergen. "He just kept saying 'I gotta come over here, gotta come and have a crack.' I'm definitely glad I did. It's been an awesome career change for me."
While McLaughlin's IndyCar adventure was carefully planned, SVG's foray into NASCAR has been sudden and spectacular. He won a NASCAR Cup race in his debut in 2023 at the inaugural running of the Chicago Street Course while driving Trackhouse's experimental Project 91 entry — the first time in over 60 years that a driver won in their first Cup start. After that, a plan rapidly came together to bring van Gisbergen stateside full-time. After his 2024 rookie season in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, where he won three races and made the playoffs, van Gisbergen's moving up to the Cup full-time with Trackhouse.
And it's Trackhouse that brought SVG and McLaughlin back together again, entering a Chevrolet Corvette Z06 into the GTD Pro class this weekend. Van Gisbergen has looked forward to this moment: "We always wanted to drive together." And not for lack of trying. Van Gisbergen tried to get McLaughlin as his co-driver at Bathurst, and still wants to enter the Bathurst 12-hour or Bathurst 1000 with him one day.
Neither of them are rookies in the Rolex 24, but unlike Bathurst, they are still searching for their first victory in the prestigious enduro. After so many years of taking wins from one another, it's a chance for the two New Zealanders to celebrate together.
