"We're on the verge of having a folk hero": Shane van Gisbergen tipped to be NASCAR's next big thing by veteran broadcaster 

After his second win in a row, Shane van Gisbergen became the talk of the town in NASCAR. So much so, that Doug Rice, the president of PRN, deemed him a hero in the making, someone that the sport needs.

Gisbergen won at Portland and followed it up with another win at Sonoma recently. On PRN's "Fast Talk", the host mentioned that SVG could also end up winning the three road courses left on the Xfinity schedule, taking his potential win tally to 5.

This led to Doug Rice being asked if he expected SVG to be performing on this level. Rice, who has been involved in NASCAR broadcasting since the early 1980s, claimed that while everyone thought he(Gisbergen) would be competitive and win a race, nobody could have predicted that the Kiwi would perform this well.

"We've got lightening in a bottle here and the other thing, I worked as a broadcaster for the Saturday Xfinity race. That was nice in itself. But the thing that I figured out pretty quickly is there was only one driver in that field that people were actively cheering for in that Xfinity race, and that was Shane van Gisbergen. Everytime he picked up a spot. Anytime he drove by that turn 7 location, people went crazy. So we're not only getting a guy that's really competitive in that series and a heck of a road racer. We're on the verge of having a folk hero and something that I think our sport desperately needs," Rice said [at 00:25].

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Shane van Gisbergen going to NASCAR Cup Series is "in the works"

In the same conversation about Shane van Gisbergen, Doug Rice was asked how Justin Marks would feel about SVG's two wins. Before the SHR announcement became official, reports emerged that Justin Marks, the owner of Trackhouse Racing, was interested in buying a charter.

Rice claimed that SVG's move up the ladder to the Cup Series is already in the making.

"That's in the works, that's going to be something that happens, that somehow, we're going to see SVG in a very good Cup car. That's the only way he gets to go up though. He cannot jump in something mediocre or something less than where he is. He has to be in a substantial car," Rice said [at 1:43]

Rice added that if SVG ends up finding a seat in a competitive car, he could "easily see him" being a driver who is talked about getting in the playoffs by winning a race. He recalled Shane van Gisbergen's historic race win in Chicago last year, which is something Rice believed the Kiwi could do in a full-time ride.

For Doug Rice, the idea of Shane van Gisbergen winning a NASCAR Cup race wasn't surprising at all.