Trackhouse Racing driver Shane Van Gisbergen recently participated in the Coke Zero Sugar 400. During the race, he achieved a rare NASCAR milestone and became a foreign-born rookie of the year.During the race at Daytona held on August 23, the Kiwi driver started the race in 17th place, led six laps, and finished the race in P16. His sole competition, Riley Herbst, could not make it into the playoffs, as he was involved in the huge pile-up that took place at the end of stage one. This allowed van Gisbergen to claim the rookie of the year award, and he also became the first foreign-born driver to do so since Juan Pablo Montoya in 2007.The Motorsport account on X recently made a post about the achievement. They captioned it:"By being the only rookie to make the NASCAR Playoffs, the Supercars legend adds another trophy to his collection in 2025."Shane van Gisbergen secured a place in the playoffs after he won the race in Mexico by over 16 seconds, the largest margin since 2009. He went on to win three more races at Sonoma Raceway, the Chicago street course, and Watkins Glen International, respectively.Shane van Gisbergen talks about staying positive over the criticism for his dominanceThe #88 Trackhouse Racing driver recently spoke about his performance at the Watkins Glen race. He also highlighted the criticism he gets for his dominance and how he tries to live on the positive side of things.At Watkins Glen, Shane van Gisbergen won his fourth road course race. This has caused some fans to criticize the driver. While on the Happy Hour Podcast, one of the hosts, Mamba Smith, questioned the driver about the criticism he receives from the fans. He said:"Well obviously I've seen a bit of it but yeah, I try and live on the positive side, I guess. But yeah, it's hard, you know what it's like when someone dominates you know you want change and want a difference, but yeah, for us, we've had an amazing run, but you know, boring is good when you're the one who is winning." (0:58 onwards)"When you know you don't want it to be changed, so it's probably better that, but we've had an amazing run, and we've had some really good race cars, which, they make it look easy, which it never is. We've just been executing and getting everything right, and yeah, the speed certainly helps."With the victory at Watkins Glen, Shane van Gisbergen became the fourth driver in NASCAR to win four consecutive road courses. He currently stands in sixth place in the drivers' standings with 2022 points to his name, along with five top tens, four top fives, and three poles.