Yahoo Autos NASCAR Notes: Shane Van Gisbergen Gets Full-time Cup Ride for 2025
Trackhouse Racing made it official at Daytona about two hours before the Coke Zero Sugar 400 that Shane Van Gisbergen will be a full-time NASCAR Cup driver in 2025.
Trackhouse, which acquired one of the Stewart-Haas Racing charters, will now field three Cup teams next year with drivers born in three different countries – the United States, Mexico and New Zealand.
“I never thought it would happen this quick,” said Van Gisbergen, whose crew chief on the No. 88 Chevrolet will be Stephen Doran. “It’s been a huge learning experience. It’s a different world. You’re still car racing, but it’s a completely different sport.”
In addition to a full-time Cup schedule in 2025, Van Gisbergen hopes to compete in selected NASCAR Xfinity Series races with Kaulig Racing. This year, Kaulig had an arrangement with Trackhouse to field a Chevrolet fulltime for Van Gisbergen in the Xfinity Series. With four races remaining in the regular season, Van Gisbergen leads that series in victories with three.
Van Gisbergen shocked the motorsports world last year when he won his Cup Series debut in the inaugural Chicago Street Course race. He followed that with a 19th-place finish in his NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series debut at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park and a 10th-place finish in his second Cup race on the Indianapolis Grand Prix course.
SHR Notifies State of Layoffs
Up to 323 employees will be laid off at Stewart-Haas Racing when the team shuts down at the end of the 2024 season, team executives have told the North Carolina Department of Commerce.
In a document filed with the state commerce department, it stated the layoffs would be effective Dec. 31 and were slated to begin Nov. 11, the day after the NASCAR Cup Series championship race in Phoenix. The employees were notified of SHR’s closing on May 28. The document also noted the employees being laid off “are not part of a union.”
Since then, team co-owner Gene Haas has announced he would retain one of the team’s four charters and field Haas Factory Team in the 2025 season. SHR “made note of the transition” in its layoff notice and stated the number of employees for the newly named company would be 90 to 100.
Hendrick Sues Hooters
Hendrick Motorsports has filed a multi-million-dollar lawsuit against Hooters in an attempt to acquire the sponsorship money the NASCAR team says it’s owed for Chase Elliott’s No. 9 Chevrolet.
Court documents show Hooters made a partial first payment of $45,000 in March. The restaurant chain, which announced in June it was closing “underperforming” 44 locations nationwide, has reportedly refused to pay the rest of the contract that Hendrick claims was supposed to be made in four payments. Hendrick Motorsports is suing for the remainder of the contract, which exceeds $1.7 million.
Hooters was Elliott’s primary sponsor at Atlanta and Texas. It also was scheduled to be his primary sponsor at the August Richmond race, but when the team was at Nashville in late June the Hooters decal had been removed from the associate sponsor position on Elliott’s car. At that time, Hendrick issued a statement saying Hooters was “not able to meet its business obligations.”
Hendrick filed the lawsuit July 30. According to the lawsuit, Hendrick’s contract with Hooters said the team was supposed to receive four payments of $437,500 on March 10, June 10, Aug. 10 and Oct. 10.
Hooters was one of Elliott’s sponsors from 2017 until June. He won at Texas this year with Hooters as his primary sponsor. It was the company’s first victory as a primary sponsor since the late Alan Kulwicki won at Pocono in 1992.
Truex's 2025 Racing Plans Include Daytona 500
Martin Truex Jr. may be stepping aside from full-time competition in NASCAR’s Cup Series at the end of the season, but he’s already set his sights on the 2025 Daytona 500.
“I think it’s all but done,” Truex said at Daytona International Speedway.
Rumors have Truex driving a 23XI Racing entry, but he declined to identify the team, noting “Coach (Joe Gibbs) is trying to figure it out. I’ll leave it up to him.”
