Van Gisbergen free to make NASCAR move in 2024

The future of the three-time Supercars has been a hot topic for some time, based largely on his dissatisfaction with the new Gen3 cars.

Speculation of a move to the US has now been turbocharged by van Gisbergen’s miracle victory on debut in NASCAR in Chicago last weekend as part of the Project91 programme.

As it stands van Gisbergen is under contract with Triple Eight until the end of the 2024 Supercars season, after which he is free to pursue a deal outside of the Aussie series.

However T8 managing director Jamie Whincup today admitted that should a NASCAR offer come along for next season, the team won’t stand in van Gisbergen’s way.

Speaking to Fox Sports, Whincup said: “He’s only contractually bound to us for next year. But me sitting here right now, of course I’m trying to run the business as well as I possibly can, and I need the best drivers – but if any driver, engineer, employee came to me and said, ‘hey, my dream is to go to the other side of the world and do something else’ then I’m not going to stand in their way, am I?

“I want to open up opportunities for all my staff, so we’ll see. I’m sure SVG is just on a wave right now. I need him to dial in to this weekend because we’re racing at Townsville for round 6 of our [Supercars] championship so let’s focus on that first.

“But no doubt we’re going to have some discussions the next month or so and work out what he wants to do. He has certainly got my praise, whatever he wants to do, and we’re going to support him all the way.”

When asked if that meant van Gisbergen could get out his contract early Whincup added: “I certainly wouldn’t stand in his way, no. Of course there’s contractual things we need to work through but if someone really wants to go do something else, then I’m certainly not going to stand in his way, that’s for sure.”