Shane van Gisbergen plays it cool after waxing NASCAR Cup field at Watkins Glen

Shane van Gisbergen was 29 seconds back of the lead in Sunday's NASCAR Cup Series race at Watkins Glen when he came off of pit road with 24 laps to go. 

Was the 37-year-old driver nervous that his dominant day may be all for naught, given the mountain in front of him?

"I was a bit worried," van Gisbergen said. "It was a bit of uncertainty."

As if there were any doubt about his standing as the best road course racer in NASCAR history, van Gisbergen carved his way through the field, took the lead and beat Michael McDowell, who was on a similar strategy, to the checkered flag by 7.288 seconds in what can only be defined as an old-fashioned rout. 

"I just drove what I did, didn’t question, and just believed in everything they did," van Gisbergen said. "That’s the most fun. Then especially when the gap started getting less seconds than how many laps to go. I sort of knew it was going to happen at that point. That’s one of the best moments you can have as a driver."

Sunday was far from the first time van Gisbergen has laid down the law in a Cup Series road course race. He dominated at Watkins Glen in 2025, just as he did at Sonoma, Mexico City, Chicago and the Charlotte Roval. 

But it was the nature of Sunday's beatdown, in which van Gisbergen led 75 of 100 laps and made a seemingly impossible charge look easy, that saw the true scope of his road racing talent be put on display. 

"Once he got out of the pits and went for it and I saw that, you know, just did the calculation of how much faster he was every lap and how many laps were left, it started to get pretty exciting," said Trackhouse Racing team owner Justin Marks. 

Van Gisbergen's crew chief, Stephen Doran, wanted his driver to be on offense during the race's final stint. That led to him making the call to bring van Gisbergen down pit road while the leaders saved fuel to try and make it to the checkered flag. 

No worries for SVG at Watkins Glen

"In the first ten laps it looked like we might not [catch the leaders]," Doran said. "Then ten laps into that run, it looked like we were going to be last couple of laps, and then it kept getting better as we ran, and we caught him with eight or nine to go.

"If you would have asked me with 25 to go, yeah, that would have surprised me. When we got to 15 seconds back with 15 to go, I knew we were good."

Being able to have confidence in a driver to pull off such a feat is rare and only further goes to show how talented of a road racer van Gisbergen is. 

But he's also made marked improvements on ovals. Van Gisbergen's relative consistency in 2026 meant his win on Sunday bumped him into the 16th and final provisional Chase slot going into the May 24 Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte. 

"I really want to earn my way in this year, and that’s what you have to do," van Gisbergen said. "I felt like we’ve been hovering around that cut line even though the last few races haven’t been good. We didn’t have an amazing COTA. It’s been cool to be majority ovals and still fighting to get into the Chase."

Quotes provided by NASCAR Media.