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AVONDALE, Ariz. — When Shane van Gisbergen was offered the chance to move from Australian Supercars to NASCAR two years ago, he had one question: Can I bring my dog?
And when we say dog, we really mean horse because Ronald is much closer to a small pony than he is to a large dog.
“He’s a pretty cool dog,” van Gisbergen said of the Rhodesian Ridgeback who weighs 130 pounds, which makes him five pounds heavier than Tyler Reddick, the reigning regular-season NASCAR Cup Series champion. Van Gisbergen wasn’t going to leave Australia without him.
“You can’t get rid of a dog,” he said. “He is part of our family.”
He couldn’t put Ronald on a plane because there weren’t any dog carriers big enough. So van Gisbergen and his girlfriend, Jessica Dane, had a special crate custom built for the 21-hour flight from Australia to the U.S., where Ronald lives with 18 horses, five cats and a rescue dog named Steve.
That menagerie is a bit extreme for a race car driver, but van Gisbergen isn’t the only animal lover on the NASCAR circuit. About a dozen drivers travel with their dogs so regularly, at least two tracks have built dog parks for the race teams.
“It kind of brings a feeling of home on the road,” said Alex Bowman, who has three dogs, an 8-year-old charcoal Labrador named Finn, a year-old Golden Retriever mix rescue named Huck and a goldendoodle named Merle that belongs to girlfriend Chloe Henderson, a self-proclaimed “dog mom.”
“My dogs are my best friends. So it’s always cool to have them at the race track,” said Bowman, who finished fifth in Sunday’s 400-mile race in Kansas City, Kan., the 12th event on the Cup Series schedule .
Bowman found he could no longer travel without his dogs after Roscoe, a rescued beagle mix he once took to Victory Lane at Daytona, passed away two years ago while he was testing in Indianapolis.
“I couldn’t be there. So that was pretty tough,” he said.
So tough, in fact, Bowman said Roscoe’s death inspired his team at Hendricks Motorsports to change their rules and allow the driver to bring his dogs on the team plane. And the driver isn’t the only member of the race team who benefits from that change.
“It’s cool to have dogs around,” said Sara Beam, Bowman’s media representative. “It’s like a therapy dog kind of. They make everybody happy.”
While everyone knows dogs like to chase cars, Bowman said there’s no chance you’ll see any of them trying to run one down during a NASCAR race.
“They’re not really near the track. They’re never in the pit area or in the garage,” said Bowman, 10th in the Cup standings after Sunday. “Things would have to go pretty wrong for that to happen.”
Bowman has long been an outspoken advocate for animal rescue, donating more than $750,000 over the past four years to animal welfare efforts through partnerships with Ally Racing and Best Friends Animal Society, a charity that promotes pet adoption and no-kill rescue. The paint scheme of the No. 48 Chevrolet, that Bowman drove to a seventh-place finish in Phoenix last month, included more than a dozen rescue dogs.
Trackhouse Racing has also allowed van Gisbergen, who has one top 10 finish this season, to bring Ronald on the team’s corporate plane, giving him his own seat.
“I’ve grown up with dogs and animals. It always puts a smile on your face,” said van Gisbergen, who will take Ronald on his morning runs at some tracks. “He’s always excited to see you you. He’s a pretty happy dude.”
Yet even with a reserved aisle seat on the plane it’s difficult for animals to make NASCAR’s western swings since race teams and drivers often stay in hotels, many of which don’t allow pets. However some dogs are easier to travel with than others.
Mexican driver Daniel Suárez, who also races for Trackhouse, says he takes Emma, a four-pound black-and-white Pomeranian, and Pepper, an 11-pound Manx cat, to about half his races each season. Before the Phoenix race, Suárez posted photos on Instagram of both pets wishing him luck.
Suárez, who has three top 10 finishes this year, credits his love for animals to his parents, who would routinely collect abandoned dogs on the streets around Monterrey, Mexico, and try to find them a forever home. They currently have 10 dogs at home, Suárez said, “and every one if them is picked up from the street.”
“The beautiful part about animals is that it doesn’t matter how much money you have. It doesn’t matter how good or bad the day you just had. They’re always there to give you a lot,” said Suárez, who supports animal-rescue groups such a PETA and the Humane Society of Charlotte, N.C., where he lives. “We’re really lucky to have animals in our lives.”
Drivers who, unlike Suárez, can’t hide their pets in their pocket, limit their dog’s travel to races within easy reach of the motor homes most Charlotte-based teams drive to the track. Erik Jones has been taking his 8-year-old German Shepherd Oscar to races since shortly after moving to the Cup Series full time in 2017.
NASCAR says it doesn’t want to abandon Southern California, but it isn’t fully committing to building a short track on the former site of Auto Club Speedway in Fontana.
“The dog’s always happy to see you,” he said. “No matter how your day goes, good or bad, if you can just go back and see him [it] gives me a chance to not think about racing for a second.
“We think about racing plenty through the week. So anytime you can your mind off it is nice.”
Although his wife, Holly, once brought her pet rabbit to the Easter race in Richmond, Va., Jones said he’s strictly a dog person.
“Taking him on the road, it never felt like a hassle to me,” said Jones, who has one top 10 finish this season. “It was just always fun to have him there. Always gave me something to kind of look forward to and keep myself entertained. It got me out more, taking him on walks and doing different stuff.”
Especially at Pennsylvania’s Pocono Raceway, Oscar’s favorite track, which built a 7,000-foot dog park in the infield for use by fans and drivers.
“It’s just an evolution of logic and doing the right thing,” said Ben May, the raceway’s longtime president. “Dogs are family. And if you can do something special for someone’s dog, to some folks that’s the same as doing it for their kid, right? It’s a big deal.”
The Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth, has two dog parks, one outside the track for fans and another in the infield for race teams and drivers.
Yet despite the drivers’ professed devotion for their dogs, much of the care, feeding and cleaning up after the dogs falls to members of the race crew or a driver’s wife or girlfriend.
“Madyson takes care of our dogs 85% of the time,” said Ricky Stenhouse Jr., who shares Ruby and River, two goldendoodles, with his wife.
Stenhouse, who is 15th in the Cup series standings after Sunday’s race, said traveling with his dogs can add some extra tension to what already is a stressful job. In the end, however, it’s worth it.
The rollout of Mayor Karen Bass’ budget set off shock waves among animal rescue advocates, who feared it would lead to the closure of three animal shelters.
“It can be a little bit of a pain sometimes trying to travel with them. Making sure you’ve got all the things packed and we’ve got food on the bus,” he said. “But it’s pretty comforting having them.
“Ours sleep in our bed with us. We’re on the road a lot and when you can have your dogs with you, it just makes you feel more relaxed and more like at home.”
Van Gisbergen agrees. So would he really have stayed in Australia with Ronald had he not found a way to bring the dog to the U.S.?
“You can’t really leave them behind,” he said with a shrug. “In Australia and New Zealand you can’t take your dog anywhere. We’re in America. You can take your dog anywhere.”
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