Shane van Gisbergen delivered a stunning performance at Watkins Glen on Sunday, securing his seventh career victory and the first win of the 2026 NASCAR Cup season for Trackhouse Racing. After falling nearly 30 seconds behind the leader following final pit stops, he stormed back to the front and clinched the win.
Over the course of 18 laps, van Gisbergen erased a 29.2-second deficit, passing Ty Gibbs for the lead with seven laps remaining. He then pulled away to win the race by a margin of seven seconds.
“Unbelievable to win with 97,” van Gisbergen said. “This SuperFile Chevy was great. Thank you to Trackhouse. We weren’t very good in practice, and then qualifying was amazing. Good tweaks, and then today, what a race car. Stephen [Doran, crew chief] made great calls. I wasn’t sure how it was going to work. Then to run them down — very, very special to do two in a row.”
He added: “It’s not easy. Everyone is really good. There was a lot of pressure there, and I think McDowell was good, Connor [Zilisch] was good. Tyler Reddick. There were a lot of good guys and a lot of pressure. Just stoked for these guys, to execute every facet of our game. Speechless. This is so cool.”
Michael McDowell finished second, followed by Ty Gibbs in third. Chase Briscoe took fourth, and Tyler Reddick rounded out the top five. Austin Dillon, AJ Allmendinger, Kyle Busch, Austin Cindric, and John-Hunter Nemechek completed the top ten.
Stage 1
Van Gisbergen led from pole position with McDowell behind him. Cindric fell behind the Trackhouse cars as Zilisch moved up to third. No one could catch van Gisbergen, who built a lead of several seconds over the field. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. went off-road through the bus stop but avoided damage. Tensions rose between Spire teammates Daniel Suárez and Carson Hocevar after contact, with Hocevar reportedly telling his team, “Daniel can go f*** himself. I will never let him go again.” As expected, many drivers pitted early to maximize stage points, including van Gisbergen. Ross Chastain stayed out and won Stage 1, followed by Joey Logano, Ryan Blaney, Cindric, Allmendinger, Christopher Bell, Nemechek, van Gisbergen, Riley Herbst, and McDowell. The fight for the final stage point saw McDowell, Herbst, and Bubba Wallace go three-wide across the line, with Wallace losing out. Several other cars, including Chase Elliott, gave up track position for stage points but failed to earn any.
Stage 2
On the restart, van Gisbergen continued to control the race, with Zilisch staying close for much of the stage. Kyle Larson and Brad Keselowski lost several spots in the chaotic midfield but kept their cars clean. With 10 laps to go in the stage, a tent or canopy from the campground blew onto the track, bringing out a caution flag. Van Gisbergen pitted from the lead, and most of the field followed, while six drivers stayed out: McDowell, Suárez, Bell, Wallace, Herbst, and Nemechek. The restart was wild: Herbst spun in Turn 1, and at the bus stop chicane, William Byron spun and Ryan Blaney slammed into him, damaging both cars. Todd Gilliland also spun in the chaos, while Zilisch lost spots after taking an evasive route through the grass. Byron had to pit and lost several laps. Bell missed the bus stop and had to stop, costing him any stage points. Van Gisbergen easily reclaimed the lead and won Stage 2 over Reddick, Gibbs, Austin Dillon, Kyle Busch, Chris Buescher, Cindric, and Zilisch.
