Van Gisbergen, Bowman set for new crew chiefs in '27

Shane van Gisbergen will be paired with Blake Harris as the crew chief for his Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet next season in the NASCAR Cup Series, multiple people familiar with the situation confirmed to RACER.

Harris will make the move from Hendrick Motorsports, where he has been paired with Alex Bowman on the No. 48 Chevrolet for four seasons. As their tenure winds down this weekend at Homestead-Miami Speedway, the duo is looking for a second and final win together. They earned their lone win in 2024 on the streets of Chicago.

Van Gisbergen, meanwhile, told reporters after Sunday’s race at Martinsville Speedway that “big team changes” were coming in 2027. Justin Marks, founder of Trackhouse Racing, confirmed to SiriusXM NASCAR Radio the next day that changes were coming to the organization on the competition side.

Connor Zilisch, van Gisbergen’s Trackhouse Racing teammate, said “the plan right now” is for him to continue working with crew chief Randall Burnett next year. Zilisch will go into his sophomore Cup Series season in 2027.

Stephan Doran has led van Gisbergen’s No. 97 team at Trackhouse Racing for two seasons, with the duo having seven race wins together. Van Gisbergen was the Cup Series rookie of the year for 2025. Before becoming Van Gisbergen's in-house crew chief at Trackhouse Racing, Doran worked with Zane Smith at Spire Motorsports in a collaboration between the teams.

Smith had signed an agreement with Trackhouse Racing at the time. However, the plans changed to bring van Gisbergen to the Cup Series in 2024 after he won the inaugural event at Chicago and chose to leave Australia and Supercars.

As for who will step in at Hendrick Motorsports to work with Bowman, and presumably Connor Zilisch in 2028, it remains unconfirmed, as multiple names have been heard around the garage. One of those is Adam Wall, who has been with the organization’s No. 17 O’Reilly Auto Parts Series effort with Corey Day. But it would mean splitting the duo, who have won four races and go into Saturday night’s finale with a shot at the series championship.