Van Gisbergen “comfortable” with Supercars replacement talks
The Kiwi has made his intentions to shift Stateside full-time next year clear despite having a year left on his Supercars contract with Triple Eight.
As part of that declaration he made it clear that he wanted to see T8 land a suitable replacement before he jumped ship.
By that point speculation was already rife that Will Brown was the preferred option as a replacement, if he could be pried out of his Erebus contract, which runs until the end of 2024.
Motorsport.com posed the question of a replacement to van Gisbergen ahead of his second NASCAR Cup Series start in Indianapolis this weekend.
Van Gisbergen’s response was that he had been privy to T8’s shortlist for replacements – and is comfortable with what he’s seen.
“I’ve had people ringing me about it, asking me what the team’s like,” he said.
“I know there’s there a short list of people, I think it’s three or four guys. All of them I would be comfortable to replace me.
“Hopefully, one of them comes up sooner or rather than later and we can work on with it.
“I’m still loving being part of that team. Last round we had a good run and we’re still fighting pretty hard for this year’s championship.”
Van Gisbergen already has three Supercars titles to his name, a maiden triumph in 2016 followed by dominant displays in 2021 and 2022.
The integration into the Gen3 era has proven tougher than expected, van Gisbergen currently third in the standings behind Erebus pair Brodie Kostecki and Brown.
Van Gisbergen has made inroads recently, though, and is just 54 points behind Kostecki heading to next week’s SuperSprint at The Bend, where a total of 315 points will be on offer between race wins and fastest point bonuses.
As for his latest US outing, van Gisbergen will line up for Niece Motorsports at the Indianapolis Raceway Park in the Truck Series, before joining Trackhouse Racing on the Indianapolis road course.
