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Shane van Gisbergen wins Mexico City pole in rain-shortened qualifying session, full Cup Series results

Originally posted on 5 GOATs | By Jonathan Howard | Last updated Jun 14, 2025 5:32 PM ET

The ultimate road course ringer, Shane van Gisbergen, is on the pole for tomorrow’s NASCAR Cup Series race in Mexico City. The rain showed up with 17 minutes left in the qualifying session and cut it short, but most everyone had a chance to make a lap.

Since the qualifying session started on slick tires, NASCAR wasn’t going to have cars put on wet-weather tires to run more laps. They just wouldn’t hold up, and the speed wouldn’t be the same.

Surprisingly, Ryan Preece threw down a heck of a lap. He will start P2 on Sunday. A few drivers didn’t get to go back out for another lap because of the rain, but that’s the risk you take with waiting.

Shane van Gisbergen is likely the favorite. Let’s see if he can win another inaugural Cup Series race to go with his Chicago Street win in 2023.

The full starting lineup, below. For drivers who made only one or two laps, Sunday will be a little more difficult.

SVG on pole in Mexico City. Rain made qualifying much shorter than it should have been. Field is a little jumbled up as a result. pic.twitter.com/Z1bXsS6Ozd
— Jonathan Howard (@Jondean25) June 14, 2025

One of the most shocking results, Riley Herbst outqualified both of his 23XI Racing teammates. He will start P15 with Tyler Reddick P22 and Bubba Wallace P25. Looking further down the line, William Byron and Alex Bowman are starting P27 and P29, respectively. Christopher Bell is P31.

Filling in for Denny Hamlin, Ryan Truex qualified P36. Katherine Legge is hoping to make a splash, but will start by herself on Row 19 in P37.

Shane van Gisbergen, Connor Zilisch earn Mexico City poles

Red Bull and Trackhouse Racing have to be very happy today. Not only did Shane van Gisbergen earn the Cup Series pole today, but Connor Zilisch earned the Xfinity Series pole right beforehand.

SVG and Zilisch are probably the two best road course racers in NASCAR. From a pure talent and skill standpoint, they stand out among the rest. It wouldn’t be shocking, and in fact, is likely expected, that they win their respective races this weekend.

Trackhouse Racing had its best qualifying session of the season. All three Cup Series drivers qualified in the top-10. Ross Chastain will start P3 with Daniel Suárez P10 in front of his home crowd in Mexico. That is after the teams had only a few crew members per car for practice on Friday.

Sunday’s race is Shane van Gisbergen’s to lose. He will have to take care of his brakes and watch the heat on his car. The altitude has given the cars problems, and the grip level on the track has made drivers spin out and miss braking zones. SVG in control to start tomorrow’s Cup Series race in Mexico City.

This article first appeared on 5 GOATs and was syndicated with permission.

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