Shane van Gisbergen has 'taken the plunge' switching over to miles per hour

Shane van Gisbergen is feeling the adulation from NASCAR fans around America, and he’s making the necessary adjustments to become acclimated with life in the United States.

As he follows his dream of racing in the Cup Series full-time, the wheelman affectionately known as SVG let the world know that he’s switched over to miles per hour from kilometers. That’s about as American as hot dogs and baseball.

“It’s okay. I’m starting to understand more,” van Gisbergen said, via Matt Weaver of Sportsnaut, regarding the switch. “It’s when you’re trying to convert and go back and forth, that’s tough. Bruce, my crew chief, he tries to convert stuff. We pulled out a shim that’s 1.192 millimeters and I’m like, ‘you can round up, man, it’s good.’ It’s been funny to try to convert stuff.

“I finally converted my phone to miles and my car to miles per hour. I’ve taken the plunge. It’s difficult to understand. Nothing lines up here and meters makes sense. It’s okay though.”

Alas, it’ll make it easier for SVG to communicate with his team as well, basically cutting out the conversion step. Now he’ll be free to make the race-winning moves that we’ve seen him pull-off over the last year.

Shane van Gisbergen isn’t looking to leave NASCAR anytime soon, as he’s only just begun his foray into America’s top motorsports competition. We’ll see what the future holds, but the sky is the limit for SVG, whether you measure it in miles or kilometers.

More on Shane van Gisbergen, 2024 NASCAR campaign

In other news, Shane van Gisbergen earned the first win of his Xfinity Series career at Portland International Raceway last Saturday. After a late restart and a battle with Justin Allgaier, the three-time Supercars champion took the Pacific Office Automation 147 checkered flag.

After Justin Allgaier won the first two stages, a multi-car crash with 8 laps to go led to the fourth caution of the day. That’s when SVG pounced, overtaking Allgaier on the final restart and holding on for the victory.

Of course, Shane van Gisbergen wasted no time celebrating the milestone. He took a legendary victory lap, seemingly drifting around the entire 1.97-mile Portland road course.

Fans will remember Shane van Gisbergen winning in his first NASCAR start ever. He took the checkered flag in rainy conditions at the Cup Series Chicago Street Race in 2023. There, he became the first driver in 60 years to win in his NASCAR debut. Now, he adds an Xfinity Series win to his racing accomplishments with a hard-earned playoff ticket to boot.

On3’s John Jamison contributed to this article.