Is Shane van Gisbergen ready for a full-time Cup Series ride? | GRID Live Pre-Race

one of the longest odds Shane B gbur and at plus 10,000 but we have seen surprise winners like Justin Haley and Trevor Bane shock everybody with their wins at Daytona International Speedway before so Jackson is Shane b gburg and a reasonable pick to win and a bet worth placing given how long those odds are uh yeah you I you just can't place a bet on SVG to win this race I'm s I'm sorry to say that but it is just not in the cards okay I guess it's somewhere in the cards for tonight but I don't I don't think it's um a reason a good use of your money to bet on Shane bisb tonight he finished 28th at tal in the spring he ran every lap that's perfect learning experience I would hope for something similar tonight run every lap maybe lead the pack for a little bit just finish the day um I think he's out there you know to be a teammate he's there to learn more about drafting in the cup series car um I don't think the expectation is to win I think you know it's just another learning night that's perfectly fine um unfortunately that just me means you shouldn't put money on a on a learning night for SVG but I mean it would be impressive if you w I would be I would be very impressed but I think the priority is going to be being a Chevrolet teammate and learning those Dynamics in the Cup Series yeah I mean this is to be fair a completely different uh World from what SVG is uh used to and uh of course if we were going to a road course or a street course I think he'd be much higher up on this list but uh given uh the different Dynamic that super speedway racing is and that uh he did finish uh towards the back of the pack of Talla like you mentioned Jackson uh you know he's a talented driver and we've seen crazier things happen I'm not going to say it's impossible for him to win this race but I think there's a reason why he's as far back on the odds list as he is here so uh we'll wait and see where he ends up here tonight in the meantime while we're talking about SVG uh let's talk about the track house colleague driver silly season Dynamic a little bit as well we had some Silly Season news drop yesterday that might have an impact on where SVG is racing next year track house racing and Zay Smith have mutually agreed to part ways at the end of a 2024 season now Smith had a rough start to his rookie year in the cup series but he has shown a lot of improvement during the summer stretch and Smith pointed out in his own statement he scored six top 20 finishes in the last 10 races which includes a top 10 last week in Michigan and a second place finish in that crazy quintuple overtime race at Nashville now track house is expected to announce their 225 driver lineup tonight at 5: PM eastern time at Daytona SVG is expected drive for track house fulltime in the cup series next year those rumors have been heavily circulating for a while so Jackson when you look at the number of seats available at track house and how many drivers they had under contract you could maybe say Zayn Smith is kind of the odd man out but it did seem like they were firmly committed to him long term when they signed him last year so are they making a mistake potentially by letting him walk and for Zay as an individual on a driver level has he proven in recent weeks that he does belong here in the cup series yeah unfortunately Zayn Smith is a victim of track house doing its best McLaren impression uh with all these driver contracts you have Chastain on a long-term contract it seems like Chastain is going to be potentially a franchise driver uh for track house Daniel Suarez a few weeks ago just got an extension Shane vburg at the ready to come to the cup series and drive a track house car and you even have Conor coming up through the pipeline for track house if you throw Zayn Smith at the end of that list unfortunately I think most people are going to look at that list of five names and Zan Smith is the one that's going to have to get cut off that being said Zay Smith he's only at 33 career starts he talked about the r we talked about the rough start to this season two dnfs in the first five races but in the most recent five races four of those five races have topped 25 finishes uh he's run all but 39 laps in the cup series since Darlington those are textbook things you want from a developing driver only at 33 starts i' talk often about you need to let your drivers reach 100 starts before you understand their development ceiling so no track house is not making a mistake however yes Zane Smith still deserves and needs a cup series ride unfortunately just the way that the contracts and the timeline and the track house development has all worked out it's not going for Zane Smith it it's kind of crazy one of these things you can butterfly effect all the way back to Chicago like if the rain falls a different way or the race gets called at a different time and SVG doesn't win that race like zaye Smith might be going to track house proper it's just crazy to about how um that one day could now have it's it's Rippling out through the Cup Series yeah well really if you look back at Zayn Smith's truck series career you know everybody's been talking about Cory Heim this season over the last couple of seasons and how he seems to be ready for cup it really wasn't that long ago but that was Zayn Smith in the truck series second in points in 2020 and 2021 and then winning the championship in 22 kind of fell apart at the end of last year but looked like he might be on another championship run then and even in some starts with male hman this year he's got three top fives and four top 10 in his limited truck starts so uh he's certainly not lacking in Talent behind the wheel of a NASCAR vehicle we know that from his truck series starts uh but again like you mentioned Jackson I think and and like I talked about with Kimmy antelli earlier in the show you know we need to give Young Drivers uh a certain number of starts before we uh you know cast our opinions on them too strongly and what their long-term potential might be so I agree with you but I think track house simply had a matter of too many drivers and not enough open seats and zillich is obviously one of the top rated prospects as well so it's an understandable move that they've made here but at the same time I would hope that Zane Smith can land on his feet somewhere if not in the cup series maybe kind of go down the John Hunter n route go back to trucks for expend for a year two and only further establish his credibility down there so that there's really no excuse for a cup team not to call him up and uh give him a seed uh maybe in 2026 or Beyond then we'll see