Watkins Glen International (Watkins Glen, N.Y.) — Shane van Gisbergen appeared to not have the winning strategy Sunday at Watkins Glen International … until the winning strategy was to have Shane van Gisbergen behind the wheel.
Not pitting when most of the field did with 39 laps to go (SVG’s team figured he’d be three laps short on fuel) required him to pit under green and come out about 29 seconds behind leader Ty Gibbs with 25 laps remaining.
No problem for van Gisbergen, who took the lead with eight laps to go and won by seven seconds over Michael McDowell, who actually employed a similar strategy. In his final 25 laps, van Gisbergen was 45 seconds overall faster than Gibbs.
“We have a race car driver that … is at a level that I don’t think this sport has ever seen before on these road courses,” team owner Justin Marks said in his post-race news conference.
Here are my takeaways:
1. SVG’s Awesome Rally
At first, the rally appeared to be harder than it would end up being. But he started taking huge chunks out of the lead by Gibbs, who was on older tires and saving fuel.
“That’s the best feeling you can get when you have a tire advantage and an awesome car,” van Gisbergen said in his post-race news conference. “I was just carving everyone up. Some people were nice and laying over, which is cool. The people that didn’t, you had to put good moves on.
“That was the most fun.”
The win marked the seventh for SVG, the three-time Australian Supercars champion who won his first Cup race in 2023 on the Chicago street course.
2. Trackhouse Wins Amid Struggles
The victory for Trackhouse Racing was much needed, considering the team’s struggles this season.
The victory just lifted van Gisbergen above the Chase cutline, as he is 16th in the standings. His teammates are still well below; Ross Chastain is at 19th and Connor Zilisch sits at 32nd.
“Frankly, the way that we started this season, it’s unacceptable to us,” Marks said. “It’s not up to the standards that we set for ourselves. … [This is] like placing slightly air within the room for us whereas we type of work via engineering the resurgence of our group.”
3. Zilisch Dissatisfied
Zilisch was operating second to Gibbs on the technique of pitting with 39 laps to go after which needing to avoid wasting gasoline. It didn’t work. He ended up getting a flat tire, having to pit and completed twentieth.
He left pissed off and disillusioned. He felt he ought to have simply handed Gibbs as a substitute of attempting to avoid wasting fuel behind him. He felt that, in clear air, he might have run quicker, in addition to saved extra gasoline (after which the query would have been whether or not he would have gotten a flat).
“I do not assume I might beat Shane, nevertheless it’s simply irritating,” the Cup rookie advised me and different reporters after the race. “Whenever you’re so shut. It sucks.”
4. Who Can Beat SVG?
McDowell would elevate his hand, contemplating he completed in second utilizing an identical technique to van Gisbergen.
“[The gap] appears greater than it’s,” McDowell advised me and different reporters after the race. “It is in all probability a tenth of a second a lap. Not a lot. … Tires had been value rather a lot at this time.”
Ty Gibbs and Tyler Reddick additionally can be ones to consider they will problem. Reddick won the first road-course race of the season at Circuit of the Americas and completed fifth Sunday. And Chris Buescher, who out dueled van Gisbergen at Watkins Glen in 2024, settled for twelfth this yr.
4 ½. What’s Subsequent
The NASCAR All-Star Race heads to Dover Motor Speedway, which is taking part in host to the exhibition occasion for the primary time.
It is going to be slightly totally different than previous All-Star occasions, which had an open race for nonqualified drivers to make the principle occasion.
As an alternative, your complete area will compete in two 75-lap segments, with the typical end figuring out six spots for drivers who haven’t gained races in 2025-26 or haven’t gained Cup titles. There can even be a spot for a driver to get in via the fan vote for the ultimate 200-lap section, which is able to encompass 26 vehicles.
