‘Odds-on favorite’ label at Coronado doesn’t sit well with van Gisbergen

Shane van Gisbergen is expected to end Sunday’s race at Naval Base Coronado in the same place he usually does at road and street courses: victory lane. However, van Gisbergen doesn’t appreciate being given the trophy prematurely.

“It pisses me off a bit,” van Gisbergen said Friday in San Diego. “I feel like it disrespects my competition; I hold my competition at a really high level. So, I feel like I’ve spent the last little while talking myself down because I know there are probably 10 guys that can win on pure pace, and in NASCAR, so much stuff can happen in strategy and stages that there are even more guys that can win.

“So, I don’t think it’s going to be easy, that’s for sure.”

Van Gisbergen has won the last two debut road course events NASCAR has run at new locations. The first one, the Chicago street course (2023), was also his NASCAR debut. The second was the inaugural Cup Series event in Mexico City (2025).

The Coronado temporary circuit is a great unknown...but will that cancel out the SVG effect? James Gilbert/Getty Images

Sunday is the first time NASCAR has raced on an active-duty military base. The discussion for some entering the weekend is not whether van Gisbergen, a three-time Supercars champion and road/street course master, will win, but by how much.

Of the last eight road and street course races, van Gisbergen has won six of them.

“The trouble spots are you start at (Turn) 1 and count to 16,” van Gisbergen said of this weekend’s venue. “Every corner looks like someone has had an issue. Every single section is its own problem. Yeah, I think I’ve seen someone make an error or do something wrong in each one.

“Every corner looks difficult, and I don’t think there is a possibility of doing a perfect lap here. Qualifying tomorrow is amazing – the first lap, the first three corners ... we’re not going to have seen them that day. I find that always fascinating and difficult in NASCAR, and I think tomorrow’s qualifying is going to be crazy. … It’s going to be really hard to execute.”