Coronado NASCAR race is 9 months away, but it already has a favorite

It won’t be until later this month that NASCAR announces an official course map and seating alignment for next June’s historic three-series program on Naval Base Coronado.

But the featured Cup race on the base’s streets and tarmacs already has a favorite.

Shane van Gisbergen is the driver to beat in any NASCAR road race. In fact, he won each of NASCAR’s four Cup road/street races thus far in the 2025 season — Chicago, Mexico City, Sonoma and Watkins Glen.

“SVG is the driver to beat in any race with more than four left turns in an oval,” said former NASCAR champion Kyle Larson on the day NASCAR announced the Coronado race.

“SVG has a whole different set of tools,” said seven-time NASCAR champion Jimmie Johnson. “It’s a hell of a talent.”

Known to his stock car racing peers simply by his initials, van Gisbergen is a 36-year-old native of New Zealand who dominated Australia’s Supercars Championship before coming to the United States in 2023.

Supercars is the Australian version of NASCAR, but the entire series is contested on road courses. Across his 17 years in the series, van Gisbergen won the series title three times and won a total of 80 races and 46 poles.

He decided to try his hand at NASCAR after winning the Supercars title in 2022 and earned a slice of history when he won his first American race in 2023 on the street course laid out in Chicago’s Grant Park. The last driver to win his NASCAR debut was IndyCar’s Johnny Rutherford in 1963.

In 41 NASCAR career Cup Series starts, van Gisbergen has five wins, four poles and nine top-10 finishes. In 36 starts in the second-echelon NASCAR Xfinity Series, he has four wins, five poles and 12 top-10 finishes. All his wins and poles have come on road or street courses.

What makes van Gisbergen far more dominant on road/street courses than his NASCAR peers? There are a number of theories, starting with his vast experience in heavier, bulkier stock cars in Australia. Some rivals believe it’s the foot-and-toe system that SVG uses on the pedals.

NASCAR veteran Mike McDowell, who began his career in open-wheel cars on road courses in the U.S., has his own theory.

“I have a different perspective of this,” McDowell said of SVG’s dominance in road races. “What he’s doing right now is incredible. But he’s not Superman. He’s doing everything just a little bit better because of his background. He brakes a little later and different going into a turn. His line through turns is a little different. He accelerates a little earlier exiting turns. It’s a matter of feet. But it’s turn after turn, lap after lap.

“He’s pushing all of us to be better. He’s pushing everyone to make some adjustments. And it will happen. It’s just a matter of time.”

McDowell believes SVG is also in the right car at the right time.

“This generation of our NASCAR car is a much better all-around car and better suited to road racing than any previous model,” said McDowell. “SVG came along right with the introduction of that car and was perfectly matched to it while other drivers were transitioning.”

Which is why Johnson stops far short of calling van Gisbergen the greatest road racer in NASCAR history.

“It’s tough to put the GOAT tag on a guy after two seasons,” said Johnson. “Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart were great on road courses. But having the argument that SVG is the best ever is valid. He’s in his own stratosphere.

“We’ve had guys go on streaks on road courses. If he’s there for five or 10 years, that’s a different story.”

Both Johnson and McDowell believe street races like Coronado could play a much bigger role in NASCAR’s future.

“No new ovals are being built,” said McDowell. “And temporary road courses make a lot of sense for NASCAR as it looks to explore and expand into new markets. I’m biased. We’d be all right with 10 road races.

“Although we have a good balance right now, I’d argue we have too many of the same type of oval. If we have great opportunities like San Diego, we should take advantage of that, although we also need to stay true to our historic roots.”

Johnson says the inclusion of road courses and street racers will allow NASCAR to “diversify its schedule and introduce new fans to the sport.”

“Coronado, he added, “is a breakthrough concept.”

And van Gisbergen “is on the razor-sharp edge of finding performance and not making a mistake.”