Shane van Gisbergen Going Cup Series Racing in No. 88 - Full Announcement

we have with us the founder and uh owner Justin marks and we have Shane Van van gisbergen who after 12 months we've all learned how to say his name correctly which is fantastic but I want to thank some of the folks from uh Chevrolet who were here who've been really the Cornerstone of this whole company um when we started this um one of the one of the goals was to have a key partner and find the right key partner we have found that with Chevrolet and um it's their uh their Foundation of our company that helps us move into the direction that that Justin's getting ready to tell you about so Justin won't you go ahead and make the announcement yes a great day for the company obviously um being able to announce that we're expanding to a third full-time Cup Series entry in 2025 um and most exciting thing for me about it is that we're able to announce that Shane Van gisbergen is going to be the full-time driver in the cup series for us next year at track house as we expand from two cars to three and and you know these are these moments are are always uh special especially since you know 48 months ago um this was a Tennessee limited liability company with $500 in the bank and sort of an idea and me and Tai trying to figure out how to do it so um you know for us to uh come in as a onec car team in 2021 um you know make the acquisition of gassie expand to two teams uh win you know seven races in the next you know two and a half years after that um and then you know have some great great Partners come on and just sort of continue this amazing amazing journey of building a great company here this is obviously a huge moment so I'm really really thrilled and excited that that Shane you know put the Trust In us and and you know made a huge commitment in in leaving a very successful career in Australia New Zealand and mve to a new country and sort of start over and uh put his his faith and his trust in us uh means means a lot to us and he's put in a tremendous amount of work um great uh great human being very very talented race car driver and somebody with an incredibly incredibly bright future so we're we're excited to have them here it's also kind of unique about this is that this is a this is a neat moment for for project 91 I mean you know project 91 was you know was a program to bring incredible Talent from around the world to the Nascar Cup Series and see if we could do something special with it and obviously you know a Shane going to Chicago and and you know being the first uh first winner in 60 years on on debut in Project 91 and then you know make the move over make the commitment to Xfinity Series this year and a bunch of Cup races and then be able to turn that into a full-time Cup Series right and in 2025 is just a really cool moment in the story of of project 91 so we're we're very excited uh we're thrilled that he's U he's accepted the offer and made the commitment and uh looking for big things in uh 2025 so over to you my friend yeah thank you yeah afternoon everyone it's um it's been pretty pretty awesome um 18 months I guess now and yeah it's been a huge life change as as Justin said and um yeah everything he said was going to happen as has happened so yeah I'd never never thought it would happen this quick and I'm I'm very glad we've done done the learning learning year this year in Xfinity call racing been great to work with and and then also a lot more races to finish the year now but it's been a huge learning experience but just excited to get fulltime in the cup series next year and working with track house and how fun that's been this year the way everyone goes racing the attitude in the place and it just resonates from the top with with Justin and and Ty the leadership there it's um yeah you just feel it through the place it's a really cool team to be a part of and um yeah hugely excited about it got a lot of work to do and you know it's it's not going to be easy that that's for sure but I'll um I'll keep pushing and yeah hopefully uh fit in pretty good next year can't wait yeah Justin just a couple of things that have um come over come across in the last maybe even 30 days is talk a little bit about as you look at track House Entertainment Group now and you look at all the different regions of the world that are now represented under that Banner yeah I mean that's that's definitely a um you know an element to the story here that's that's uh we take a lot of pride in I mean you know we have we're going to be full-time Cup racing next year with three cars with drivers are born in three different countries which I think is a pretty amazing thing for this sport it's amazing thing for for where Motorsports is today and and you know we're we're thrilled and honored to be stewards of um of you know inter International diversity the top top level of of Motorsports I mean I've said this a couple times now you know with MotoG GP um and our MotoG GP lineup next year and our Cup Series lineup next year track house has a roster of athletes that represent Mexico New Zealand the USA Spain and Japan which is which is a pretty incredible thing for for a Motorsports company and we take uh take a lot of pride in that so um you know we just continue to tell tell a great story um you know try to get really great people in the house with with diverse backgrounds great stories to tell uh compelling personalities and at the end of the day just really really dedicated hard workers yeah Shane for you just coming over here and then and you you're racing against people you've never met before and I remember when we were in Chicago um you were trying to read the names on the back of the windows just to remember just who you're trying to race in that that corner um you talk about a year later now that you've been around these guys and how much you've learned and also some of the respect that you see between you yourself and some of these other drivers it goes both ways didn't you have to Google me when Justin brought my name up yeah it's fanatically yeah it's you know it's a it's a different world and it's uh you know you're still car racing but it's a completely different sport and um yeah as I said learning so much this year and got two recent examples of people I guess come through Marcus Ambrose and and Juan Pablo similar backgrounds and Juan did you know three or four races in Xfinity and then fulltime into C and Marcus took it the slow route so we're kind of in between and I think the way we've done this is the right way with all the processes and even though the Xfinity car is very very different to a cup car I think it was 100% worth it learning all the tracks all the places the terminology metric versus uh Imperial that's been tough but it is you know it's it's a massive learning year and um yeah but just I just got to keep building on it and and keep improving every week and had a little kind of setback I guess in in exfinity losing our crew chief but you know we got to get that momentum built up and I'm still fully focused on getting a great result in the playoffs and and keeping that momentum into next year so yeah it's pretty exciting times so one other element to this is as you expand the team um you have to dig deep and start thinking about well what what's going to be the number and how do you take this into the next level and and something of some relevance and so I want Shane and Justin to go over here and we're going to unveil the number so any photographers around kind let me yeah let me just say one thing about that before we before we unveil the number one of the things that important for TR mean the numbers are important numbers are important they're a big part of The Branding in the sport numbers represent history um and and they represent you know Legions of fans and and historic drivers and historic moments in the sport and I think you know we we don't take our number choices lightly and you know when we chose the 99 car to begin with there was a responsibility that came with that and and that's you know wins with Carl Edwards and with Jeff Burton and a lot of a lot of great drivers same thing with the one with Kurt Bush and J MC Murray and a bunch of drivers and and when we think about when we think about the numbers and we think about our history and the number it's important for us to honor that history and it's important for us to add to the winning Legacy of of that number which we've done with the one and we've done with the 99 we intend to do with the new one so here we go for those who can't see it it's the 88 that's for for those of you in the Press Box so um you know Justin do you want to tell a little bit about the process of this you know having you know wanting wanting to do the right thing talking to the hendrik group talking to Jeff Gordon talking to uh to the Aon hars yeah I mean when we you know I called Carl Edwards when you know in the end of 2020 and I said we're starting this Cup team we run want to run the 99 number and I want to you know tell you that we're doing this and and obviously get your ment of it and get your support for it and we did the same with the one and and we've done it with with the uh with the 88 talking to uh to the folks at hendrik and and to Dale Jr who I was just texting an hour and a half ago and and you know it's important for us to to have the endorsement a great great exchange with Dale Jr saying like look it's it's not my number I mean it's I added to the legacy of it I it was it's important to me personally but but you know he was he was proud to see it in good hands and that's just something that's that's super super important to me and to this company I got a phone call from Jeff Gordon one day and he says you talked to me about it Marshall about it I know you talked to D Jr have you talked to Kelly yet Kelly Earnhart I went no and he goes she's the boss call her now and so I want to thank Dale Jr and Kelly for uh for letting us and and there's you know some amazing drivers attached to that number and so it is a lot of responsibility and we we certainly accept that so we're going to open it up uh to some questions here for the next five or 10 minutes so we can start right here Greg Engel Forbes um too quick what was the trigger that all of a sudden said we need to do this did you have a goal you know like last year and say if we get to this certain point we'll go to a third team or was there just a trigger that says yeah now this time's right well I've always thought uh that you know three teams is a really strong number of teams to have in this spard I think that you know it you know just gives you 33% more of an opportunity on the RAC trck every weekend um and you know L it's it's you know four car teams are reserved for really really really big companies in this Sport and it's it's tough to make four cars work and and so I think three was kind of you know always always sort of the number for us from day one if things kind of went our way and we could grow from one car to two that that three was three was kind of the goal and then you know an opportunity came up to be able to expand to a third car for this year and so we took it thank you and Shane for you good on you now the pressure is because now you're there right this is what you when you won back in Chicago you said that this was your ultimate goal next year it's going to be you're you're a full-time Cup driver pressure do you feel pressure are you motivated excited happy kind of anxious what all of the above yeah but that's why we do it you know I've learned those feelings are are good things because it means you care so much about it right so all this year I've been nervous getting in the car anxious how's it going to go how am I going to be and that's a awesome feeling and something I haven't had for a few years so it's been really cool to be energized like that and of course there's going to be pressure you know the cup series is pretty Cutthroat as we've seen you know a lot of guys it's it's pretty hard to make it so yeah I just got to keep learning doing the best I can and and I'll be fine one more element that uh is always important to a team is who's going to who's going to lead it and um uh we're very very fortunate to announce and it's in the release as well Stephen Doran who's here today is going to be the crew chief on the number 88 Track House entry next year uh um so uh great history champion of in his own right and uh you know we walk into Daytona 500 when we come back here next year we'll have three drivers starting that race who have won Nascar Cup Series races and so you know you feel pretty good about your chances coming in so we're going to go to Bob who is raising his hand then Jordan in the mect Le Bob pakis for sport Fox Sports first Justin can you confirm where you're getting the charter from what would you guess I would guess Stuart hus racing probably probably not a bad answer okay and can you talk about the decision or what was an easy decision you know you had more drivers than you had spots so you had a announced yesterday that you released Zay so take me through maybe decision to keep Shane and well I mean I think when we decide the drivers it's a it's a big picture and we cast a wide net of of sort of qualifications and and it's you know it's like you know we just uh it's commercial support it's fit in the company it's personality all of that and and um you know it's uh we can't we have four cars we have three so we we have to make a decision we're we're excited about the decision that we made with uh with SVG so actually Chris Knight has a question from the Press Box they asked me to read so with all your endeavors and connections and other Motorsports arena is there a concentration on where you'll find the next driver to potentially bring to NASCAR concentrate like from a I don't know masking you like you asked the question um let me rephrase it with all of your experiences and all the things that you've created out across the world now now the W the net is extremely wide is there like a is there a Target I guess is I think is the question that Chris is asking about where you look at look for drivers these days not just in the expin yeah I don't I don't think uh we're in the driver looking business really um right now for a while I mean we're we're excited with Ross we're excited with Daniel we're excited with SVG really excited about resigning Rob Fernandez and and bringing the Young iioo from Tokyo Japan into the Moto GP thing and then we've got an amazing talent who's going to be racing next year full-time the xinity series and uh in Conor zillich so we've we've got um I think we're in we're in a pretty good spot right now I mean I think we you know as the as the business expands and you know we were able to expand to the third team and and you know have these opportunities obviously it was important to make sure we we put an emphasis on putting ourselves in the best pos position to get the you know the best talent in the house so um I think that we've uh you know we've done that and now we can focus on what we've got and to try to go win races right Jordan Jordan bian the athletic uh kind of following up on Bob's question can you give a a a number an exact number or at least a ballpark number and what you paid for the charter no and in curring negotiations with the charter agreement and everything um there there's been some de debate on whether to continue invest in teams why and acquire third Charter until why not wait to acquire until third Charter until the negotiations are finalized well because I don't I don't really have any stress at all about the fact that the Charter system is going to continue I mean I don't I don't really think that that's a risk and when there's an opportunity um you know to uh to make a move and to and to um and to expand and you know there we had a lot of great commercial support around this program that we'll announce um later on this season I mean there's just a lot of things falling in line we had to take advantage of of that that opportunity when it was here uh before we lost it so um it wasn't really that difficult of a decision I mean you know the charter negotiations will continue those conversations will continue to happen um I think the charter systems been good for the sport I think NASCAR will tell you the same thing um we don't really have any stress about about that system continuing here hey Justin uh Chris gin with new St tonan Beach um so I have a little bit of a two-park question number one the news came out yesterday that um Zay Smith and track house are parting ways um so I'd want to ask uh for one would did this come down to a zaye or Shane decision no pun intended and um number two if you know if it didn't um what I I was wondering if you could describe what made you pick Shane for the seat over some other you know drivers who I'm sure we're in consideration that you know maybe had a little bit more experience in NASCAR specifically yeah the the way I'll answer this is that um this moment right now is about Shane Van gburg this is an SVG moment I'm going to keep it an SVG moment I will tell you that the the re the reason that we chose to go with with Shane um for this third car is is that you know he yeah there's there's not a lot of experience in the cup series um there's some unknowns can be a lot of lot of hard work but you know Shane checks a lot of boxes I think for a really really compelling story in building great business in this sport it's the fact that you know he's incredibly talented he's incredibly dedicated um you know there's a reason why he was the first one to win on debut since Johnny Rutherford in 1963 that's not that that's a big thing and you know for him to be able to you know obviously the Chicago street race is kind of in his wheelhouse but I mean the the rate of adaptability of everything else just the competition the restarts the pit stops the way he prepared for that race it's like man this is this is a superstar and this is this is somebody that we you know we were really excited about committing to knowing that it's you know it's relatively unconventional path to a cup car um but we wouldn't be doing it if we didn't think this guy could win lots and lots of Cup races and be a playoff Contender so um you know it was honestly a pretty pretty easy decision because um he just checked a lot of boxes for us and everybody in the company's really excited about it good Lee do you still need anything Shane what has been the hardest part about your learning curve just trying to get up to speed I mean you come out and you know in your debut win and you know you think it's all going to be Pie in the Sky after that but what has really you know challenged you along the way turning left um yeah it's just it's just there's so many variables in this racing you know you see even KL lson who's the best driver he's first one week 20th the next you know there's so many variables that make the sport a thing you know like I'm used to being on one line the repetition the whole time and just hitting my marks where the race can change so much over the course of the day when the weather changes the rubber goes down or even the Super Speedway racing is completely different so probably just the amount of variables in this racing and you know you can prep all you want but it's having those instincts to adapt and learning how best to do it so every race I'm learning something and you know I seem to always start the races quite slow and you know by stage three I'm I'm on the pace kind of thing so yeah just every week and this time of year going back to tracks I've been to before hopefully I can show that Improvement and and you know keep getting better but yeah as I said every week it's I'm like a sponge trying to learn stuff and get better and better and and do you expect to run any exfinity races next year yeah I'd hope so like um obviously there'll be you know speaking with Chris and and the col team you know there's opportunities to do the road courses but you know for me that's that's easy stuff I want to do more ovals with them and and learn in both ways so yeah hopefully we'll race with them next year and win some road courses but hopefully they'll let me do some ovals too and I can keep um getting more experience we have time for one more and um go ahead and answer this question was right here sorry Dustin we were down to one so and he's been right here Mike's right Zach St nascar.com um Justin for you project 91 you mentioned the importance of that kind of right off the top do you anticipate that continuing um moving forward with a full three car roster or does that do you feel like that stretches the the team too thin well we're having those discussions right now I mean I think that project 91 is something that that 100% in my mind I'd love to love to continue I mean it was just it's difficult to do it this year because we have so much on our plate with you know sort of supporting other drivers and other programs and um you know just just a lot of sort of Business Development stuff that we're working on but um but we we you know I would expect project 91 to be back sooner rather than later I think that obviously it has to fit in the workflow of the company I mean like we're expanding our focuses on running three competitive cup cars next year um but there's a lot of interest in Project 991 both from drivers and and from commercial Partners so um so yeah I would I would 100% anticipate that to continue in some capacity