Over the weekend the three time Australian SuperCars champion New Zealand born driver Shane van Gisbergen won his fourth road course race in a row…in his rookie year in the Cup Series.
A historic feat to say the least, but social media is filled with the but, but, but crew who can do nothing but deride the rugby ball kicking racer for his lack of winning a race on an oval track.
Currently there are just nine drivers in the field who have managed to win at least one race on a road course and half of those did it just once…
Joey Logano won at Watkins Glen in 2015
Denny Hamlin won the Watkins Glen race in 2016
Ryan Blaney won on the Roval in 2018
Ross Chastain won at COTA – Circuit of the Americas – in 2022
Daniel Suarez won at Sonoma in 2022
Michael McDowell won on the road course at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 2023
Alex Bowman won the Chicago Street Race in 2024
Chris Buescher won at Watkins Glen in 2024
William Byron at two road course wins – Watkins Glen and COTA
AJ Allmendinger has three road course wins – Watkins Glen, the road course at IMS, and the Roval
Christopher Bell has three road course wins – Daytona road course, Roval, and COTA
Tyler Reddick has three road course wins – Road America, road course at IMS, and COTA
Kyle Busch has four road course wins – Sonoma (twice) and Watkins Glen (twice) – at the time they were the only road course races on the schedule
Shane van Gisbergen has five road course wins – four in a row – the Chicago Street Race (twice), Mexico City, Sonoma, and Watkins Glen
Kyle Larson has six road course wins – Roval (twice), Sonoma (twice), and Watkins Glen (twice)
Chase Elliott leads the field with seven road course wins – Road America, COTA, Roval (twice), Daytona road course, and Watkins Glen (twice).
But the list of drivers to win road course races consecutively is much shorter; only eight drivers have managed to win at least three in a row and no one has ever won four during their rookie year except the man they SVG – Shane van Gisbergen.
Most consecutive road course race wins…
David Pearson has three
Time Richmond has three
Rusty Wallace has three
Tony Stewart has three
Shane van Gisbergen has just earned his fourth road course race in a row in his rookie year in the Cup Series
Dan Gurney has four
Chase Elliott has four
and Jeff Gordon tops the list with six wins in a row at a time when only Sonoma and Watkins Glen were the only road course races on the schedule.