SHANE VAN GISBERGEN WINS THE GO BOWLING AT THE GLEN AT WATKINS GLEN INTERNATIONAL – PHOTO BY FRED HANYON OF MOTORSPORT AMERICA
By Reid Spencer – NASCAR Wire Service
WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. — Like a world-class hunter stalking defenseless
prey, Shane van Gisbergen reasserted his claim to the status as the best
road course racer NASCAR has ever seen.
It’s not just that the New Zealander beat runner-up Michael McDowell to
the finish line to win Sunday’s Go Bowling at the Glen by 7.288 seconds.
It was the way SVG ran down late-race leader Ty Gibbs to the tune of
29.2 seconds in 18 laps at the 2.45-mile Watkins Glen International Road
Course.
The mythical shark “Jaws” couldn’t have been a more relentless or
terrifying pursuer.
In defending last year’s win at The Glen, Trackhouse Racing’s van
Gisbergen scored his seventh NASCAR Cup Series victory–all on road or
street courses–and his first this season.
“Unbelievable to win with the No. 97,” van Gisbergen said. “Thank you
to Trackhouse. We weren’t very good in practice, and then qualifying was
amazing. Good tweaks, and then today, so what a race car.
“Then crew chief Stephen Doran 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. Just stoked for these guys, you know, to execute every
facet of our game. Speechless. This is so cool.”
Starting from the pole, van Gisbergen led the first 18 laps before
short-pitting the first 20-lap stage. He pitted once again on Lap 41
under a bizarre caution caused by a tent blowing through the air from
the camping area onto the racetrack.
After passing McDowell for the lead on Lap 47, van Gisbergen stayed on
the track to win the second stage at Lap 50 and declined to pit on Lap
61 under caution for debris from Joey Logano’s left-front tire. That
strategy was contrary to most of the rest of the field.
Van Gisbergen built a lead of more than six seconds before making a
green flag stop on Lap 76. That’s when the heroics began in earnest.
Leaving pit road more than 29 seconds behind Gibbs and Trackhouse Racing
teammate Connor Zilisch, van Gisbergen charged through the field in
pursuit of the first- and second-place cars. Both Gibbs and Zilisch were
saving fuel after pitting on Lap 61 and were racing on tires that were
degrading rapidly.
Zilisch dropped from contention on Lap 92 with a flat right front tire.
One lap later, van Gisbergen muscled past a helpless Gibbs into the lead
and stretched his advantage until the finish.
McDowell, on a similar pit strategy to SVG’s, passed Gibbs for second on
Lap 95. Gibbs held third, followed by Chase Briscoe and series leader
Tyler Reddick, who leaves Watkins Glen with a 129-point lead over second
place Denny Hamlin (16th on Sunday).
“Yeah, it’s great. It’s great to get this Chevrolet in the top five,”
said McDowell, who had to settle for best-in-class in his No. 71 Spire
Motorsports Chevrolet. “There were moments where I thought, ‘Oh, maybe
we can hang with SVG,’ and it felt like he was just pacing himself back
off me, and he would take back off.
“In that second stage there, we got a little off strategy and then
recovered well, which crew chief Travis Peterson did a great job of
getting the track position when we needed it. Just not quite enough to
run him down.
“Like I said, it’s just tough, man. Second is awesome. It’s great to get
momentum back on our side. We needed it after a rough few weeks, but we
wanted to get to Victory Lane.”
In fuel-saving mode over the last 39 laps, Gibbs couldn’t run the pace
he needed to stay ahead of the race winner.
“Honestly, just a little frustrating,” said Gibbs, who picked up his
first career Cup Series victory at Bristol in April. “I wish we could
keep racing, but unfortunately, just had to save some fuel there.
“Yeah, good to come home with a third-place finish. Obviously, wish it
was another win, but you know, had a lot of fun today. Always fun to
come to Watkins Glen.”
Richard Childress Racing’s Austin Dillon finished sixth–his first top
10 of the season-followed by AJ Allmendinger, RCR teammate Kyle Busch,
Austin Cindric and John Hunter Nemechek.
In a race that featured six lead changes among four drivers, Van
Gisbergen led 74 of 100 laps, followed by Gibbs with 17. There were four
cautions for 12 total laps.
The Cup Series travels to Dover Motor Speedway for next Sunday’s NASCAR
All-Star Race (1 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
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