Dale Earnhardt Jr. sends warning to Trackhouse after Shane van Gisbergen struggles at Dover

Shane van Gisbergen has made the rest of the NASCAR Cup Series look foolish during a couple of road course races this season. It’s given him a solid cushion for the playoffs, as he has three wins, but the Trackhouse Racing star is going to have to perform on ovals if he’s going to be a championship contender in 2025.

This past weekend’s race at Dover started off with a bang, as SVG started in the top ten. The high morale wouldn’t last, though, as the New Zealander had a puncture in his tire that forced him to pit early, putting him a couple of laps down and ruining any chance of progress in Delaware.

Evidently, Dale Earnhardt Jr. believes Trackhouse failed SVG at Dover, as even when he was running at full steam, his car was only 31st on speed, according to some metrics. On the latest episode of The Dale Jr. Download, the NASCAR Hall of Famer called for the team to deliver their driver a car more capable of competing, or SVG may face an unprecedented elimination in the Round of 16 later this year.

“We’re coming out of the road courses, where there was a ton of SVG talk. We’re now back to the ovals, where SVG told us last week he was looking forward to going to Dover. He goes out there, flat right-front tire right away. Ruined any opportunity for him to truly gauge himself against the competition at the ovals, and try to carry forward that learning curve,” Earnhardt Jr. stated. “Looking at his speed metrics in the NASCAR Insights, he was 31st overall on speed. … I feel like that he’s probably wishing or hoping that it might have been a little bit of a better weekend, in terms of just overall pace. I think that the Trackhouse stuff just wasn’t very good this weekend. 

“They’re going to have to improve their cars a lot to give SVG a chance. What I’m worried about is, how loud is the noise going to be if he goes in and misses and gets eliminated in the Round of 16 with 17 or more playoff points? That would be pretty unprecedented, I believe, to be eliminated in the first round with that bit of an advantage. I would be frantically trying to put myself in a position, at least trying to have a fighting chance of moving beyond the first round. I think, even by the end of this year, he’s still not going to be one of the best oval racers in the series If that’s the case, Trackhouse has to have very, very good race cars to help him. He can’t wheel a P15 car into a P10 finish. 

“I think Trackhouse has to work a little bit to try to help SVG over these next couple of weeks. Kind of dial it in a little bit. He’s got to improve, but the car’s got to get better too, man.”

As you can tell, Earnhardt Jr. isn’t putting all of the blame for the struggles of the No. 88 team on ovals on van Gisbergen’s shoulders. Perhaps Indianapolis Motor Speedway will be kinder to the team this weekend. SVG did finish fourth at the track during last season’s Xfinity Series race.

Moving forward, Shane van Gisbergen needs to improve on ovals, but Trackhouse needs to have his back, as well. Dale Earnhardt Jr. recognizes that, but will the team deliver? Only time will tell. We’ll find out a bit more over the rest of the summer.