Kyle Petty explains how Shane van Gisbergen reminds him of Dan Gurney following Watkins Glen domination

Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Watkins Glen was just the latest reminder of the high bar that continues to be set by Shane van Gisbergen on road courses.

The New Zealander put together a drive for the ages through the field, erasing a 29-second deficit to race leader Ty Gibbs before pulling away to win by 7.2 seconds over Michael McDowell for his seventh Cup Series win. It was a performance reminiscent of the types of moves you would see in a video game, only van Gisbergen brought them to real life at the scenic venue in Upstate New York. 

Former driver and current analyst Kyle Petty was on “Inside the Race” following van Gisbergen’s dominant win and explained how his driving style reminds him of the late Dan Gurney, who is highly regarded as one of the most influential figures in the history of motorsports.

Kyle Petty amazed by Shane van Gisbergen’s masterclass at Watkins Glen

“Watching him, it is truly amazing," Petty said, per NASCAR.com. "I was fortunate, I’ve said this before. I was eight, nine years old and saw Dan Gurney win at Riverside. And watching Dan Gurney, he would be incredibly fast, but you didn’t know he was fast. You couldn’t see that he was fast, and that’s the way Shane is. You watch Shane and he is deceptively fast. They talked about it on the broadcast. He runs just fast enough to stay in front and then when it’s time to go, he just catches another gear and goes somewhere else that no one else in the Cup Series can go right now. And that is the fascinating part.”

The sensational drive from 29 seconds back at Watkins Glen was another reminder of van Gisbergen's unbelievable talent on road courses. Even when the race win seemed in doubt following the green-flag stop with 25 to go, van Gisbergen made quick work of everyone in front of him on his way to the front.

Some may point to the fact that he had much fresher tires than most in front of him, who pitted under the race's final caution with 40 laps remaining following debris from Joey Logano's blown tire. While that was the case, he still won the race emphatically and left the rest of the field in his dust.

Keep in mind, van Gisbergen has a pair of wins by at least 11 seconds (2025 Mexico City, 2025 Watkins Glen) in his career, so the dominance is by no means anything new. However, he continues to put the field on notice each time the series visits a road course.

It all comes back to van Gisbergen's traits behind the wheel and how he is able to pace himself when he is out front and take care of his stuff. He knows when to push the limits, but he is also aware of when to hold back and maintain his tires for later in a run.

As the series takes a brief pause from the regular season with Sunday's All Star Race at Dover Motor Speedway (1 p.m. ET, FS1, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), van Gisbergen is quietly inside the provisional 16-driver Chase field (16th).

The ovals are still a work in progress, but you cannot deny how historically dominant he continues to be on road courses.