“We Can’t Hide It Anymore” – NASCAR Breaks Silence with Official Findings on Shane van Gisbergen Cheating Allegations
In a bombshell that has rocked the NASCAR garage, the sanctioning body finally addressed swirling accusations of cheating leveled against rookie sensation Shane van Gisbergen, admitting, “We can’t hide it anymore,” in a terse official statement released Thursday (October 23, 2025). The three-time Supercars champion, whose meteoric rise with five road-course wins and a playoff berth has dazzled fans, faced explosive claims of “unfair advantages” in car setup and data manipulation—fueled by a viral X post calling him a “cheater” and whispers from rival teams after his dominant Charlotte Roval triumph. NASCAR’s probe, launched amid the Round of 8 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, cleared van Gisbergen of wrongdoing but exposed “gray-area” practices at Trackhouse Racing, igniting debates on the sport’s evolving tech rules and the Kiwi’s unbreakable oval learning curve.
The allegations erupted like a superspeedway pileup following van Gisbergen’s October 12 Roval masterclass, where he led 58 laps en route to his fifth road-course victory of 2025—eclipsing even veterans like Kyle Larson. A now-deleted X post from a verified fan account (@NASCARInsiderLeak) accused him of “manipulating telemetry data to predict rival lines,” amassing 50,000 views before NASCAR’s social team flagged it. Echoing that, a Reddit thread on r/NASCAR titled “SVG’s Road Magic: Cheating or Genius?” ballooned to 4,000 upvotes, citing “anomalous” lap times at Watkins Glen and Sonoma that “defied physics.” Critics, including anonymous Joe Gibbs Racing sources, pointed to Trackhouse’s “aggressive” simulator tweaks and post-qualifying adjustments, reminiscent of the 2024 flexi-wing scandals. “How does a rookie from Down Under lap us like that? Something’s off,” one crew chief griped to Speedcafe.
NASCAR’s response was swift but measured. Chief Competition Officer Elton Sawyer convened an emergency review, poring over telemetry from van Gisbergen’s No. 88 WeatherTech Chevrolet across his six road wins. The findings, detailed in a 12-page report emailed to teams and posted on NASCAR.com, exonerated the driver: “No evidence of rule violations; SVG’s performance stems from superior skill honed in Supercars.” However, the “can’t hide it anymore” line—attributed to Sawyer in the statement—targeted Trackhouse for “pushing boundaries” on data-sharing protocols between road and oval setups. A €25,000 fine (waived pending compliance) and a “tech audit” for the final three races were levied, with warnings of stricter 2026 sim regulations. “Innovation drives NASCAR, but integrity defines it,” Sawyer wrote. “We can’t hide it anymore: the gap between legal edge and foul play narrows with tech.”
