Shane van Gisbergen conquered Circuit of the Americas (COTA) for the first time in his illustrious racing career on Saturday, February 28. He scored a dominant NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series victory in the Focused Health 250.
The three-time Supercars champion from Auckland, New Zealand, led five times for a race-high 31 of 65 scheduled laps. He started alongside teammate and pole-sitter Connor Zilisch on the front row. But he quickly assumed the lead through the circuit’s first turn. From having his pit strategies executed to his advantage and spending most of the race at the front, van Gisbergen capitalized on a bold move by Sam Mayer. The move ended up taking a majority of the front-runners off the course in the first turn to go from sixth to first. From there, van Gisbergen fended off Austin Hill to claim his first checkered flag in the 2026 NASCAR campaign at COTA.
On-track qualifying to determine the starting lineup occurred on Friday, February 27. Connor Zilisch secured the pole position with a pole-winning lap of 88.398 mph in 97.740 seconds. Joining Zilisch on the front row was teammate van Gisbergen, after a qualifying lap at 88.209 mph in 97.949 seconds.
Before the event, Austin J. Hill and Parker Retzlaff dropped to the rear of the field due to engine changes to their respective entries.
When the green flag waved and the event at COTA commenced, the field fanned out. They navigated through a brief uphill climb followed by a steep left-hand turn in Turn 1. Among those who fanned out were van Gisbergen and Austin Hill. They both pinned pole-sitter Connor Zilisch through a three-wide battle through the first turn. Van Gisbergen then managed to muscle ahead of both Zilisch and Hill to lead through the Esses, a series of right- and left-hand turns from Turns 2 to 6A.
Van Gisbergen continued to lead the packed field for the remaining turns. Starting from a left-hand turn of Turn 6B to the final right-hand turn of Turn 20, he led the first lap over Zilisch while Hill, Justin Allgaier, Carson Kvapil, and Brandon Jones trailed in the top six, respectively.
Over the next five laps, van Gisbergen retained a steady advantage over teammate Zilisch and led by 0.090 seconds at the fifth lap mark. Not long after, Zilisch navigated his way atop the leaderboard for the first time after overtaking van Gisbergen entering the first turn. He then proceeded to lead the next lap at COTA. Behind, Austin Hill trailed by three seconds in third place while Allgaier and Sam Mayer occupied the remaining top-five spots. Jones, Kvapil, newcomer Brent Crews, Jesse Love, and Corey Day followed, completing the top-10.
Amid the battles at the front, Jeremy Clements plummeted to the tail end of the 38-car field after spinning through the Esses and the gravel trap within Turn 5.
Through the first 10-scheduled laps, Zilisch, who has led since the sixth lap, continued to lead by seven-tenths of a second over teammate van Gisbergen. Third-place Austin Hill retained third place by nearly five seconds. Allgaier retained fourth place as he trailed the leader by more than six seconds. Mayer continued to race in fifth place while trailing by seven seconds. Jones, Crews, Love, Kvapil, and Day all remained in the top 10. Sheldon Creed, Sammy Smith, Austin Green, Anthony Alfredo, Rajah Caruth, Taylor Gray, Ross Chastain, William Sawalich, Josh Bilicki, and Alex Labbe were mired in the top 20, respectively.
On Lap 16, Sammy Smith surrendered 13th place to pit under green. Crews, Creed, Taylor Gray, Chastain, Harrison Burton, Dean Thompson, Nick Sanchez, Blaine Perkins, and Preston Pardus all pitted during the next lap. Leaders Zilisch and van Gisbergen, both pitted on Lap 18 just before pit road became inaccessible as the first stage period concluded. Amid the pit stops, Austin Hill cycled into the lead.
When the first stage period concluded on Lap 20, Austin Hill cruised to his third stage victory of the 2026 season. Mayer settled in second ahead of Allgaier, Jones, Love, Kvapil, Day, Austin Green, and Caruth, while van Gisbergen fended off Zilisch to settle in 10th place. By then, all but one of the 38 starters were scored on the lead lap.
Under the event’s first stage break period, a majority of the field led by Austin Hill, who was among many who did not pit prior to the first stage’s conclusion, pitted while the rest led by van Gisbergen and Zilisch, who were among those who pitted prior to the first stage’s conclusion, remained on the track.
The second stage period started on Lap 24 as Zilisch and van Gisbergen occupied the front row. At the start, the field fanned out while racing uphill entering the first turn. At the front, Brent Crews went beneath both van Gisbergen and Zilisch, challenging for the lead through the first turn. Sammy Smith tried to make his way beneath the trio that briefly went off the course amid a four-wide move. However, Crews muscled ahead with the lead and proceeded to lead through the Esses.
While Crews continued to lead from Turns 6A and 6B before he navigated his way from Turns 12 to 19, the field behind fanned out as multiple competitors bumped and raced competitively against one another, even forcing others off course, to gain spots. Meanwhile, Crews proceeded to lead the next lap over Smith, Zilisch, and van Gisbergen. With Crews leading the lap after, Zilisch and van Gisbergen moved up to second and third, respectively, while Smith dropped to fourth in front of Sheldon Creed.
At the Lap 30 mark, van Gisbergen, who assumed the lead from Crews two laps earlier, was leading by half a second over Sammy Smith, with Mayer, Austin Hill, and Crews trailing in the top five. By then, Love, Zilisch, Chastain, Harrison Burton, and Sanchez were racing in the top 10 ahead of Kvapil, Taylor Gray, and Dean Thompson, while Creed, who was sent for a spin by Crews through Turns 16 and 17, was mired in 14th place.
Four laps later, the caution flew due to Baltazar Leguizamon sliding as he entered the first turn and plowing against the tire barriers hard on the right side. During the caution period, nearly the entire field, led by van Gisbergen, opted to pit. The rest, which included Kvapil, Jones, Ryan Sieg, Jeb Burton, Ryan Ellis, and Preston Pardus, remained on the track.
As the field restarted with only two laps remaining in the second stage period, Kvapil fended off the field through the uphill climb to the first turn while Mayer, Jones, Allgaier, Ryan Sieg, Jeb Burton and van Gisbergen pursued. Kvapil continued to lead from the Esses to Turn 13 until Mayer used the outside lane to duel and overtake Kvapil before entering Turn 14. With Allgaier joining the battle for the top spot, Mayer retained it as the field cycled back to the frontstretch to complete the next lap.
When the second stage period concluded on Lap 40, Mayer fended off Allgaier to capture his first stage victory of the 2026 season. Kvapil, Love, van Gisbergen, Austin Hill, Sammy Smith, Brandon Jones, Chastain, and Ryan Sieg settled in the top 10, respectively, while Crews and Zilisch were mired in 11th and 29th, respectively.
During the event’s second stage break period, select names like Allgaier, Kvapil, Jones, Ryan Sieg, Jeb Burton, Clements, Dean Thompson, Ryan Ellis, Lavar Scott, Nick Sanchez and Zilisch pitted while the rest led by Mayer remained on the track.
With 21 laps remaining, the final stage period commenced as Mayer and Love occupied the front row. At the start, the duo dueled for the lead in front of the field leading up to the first turn until Mayer muscled ahead before navigating through the Esses. With the lead still in his grasp, Mayer proceeded to lead from Turn 6B to Turn 18. It was during the latest turn that van Gisbergen capitalized on Love’s challenge to Mayer for the lead to overtake both with a bold three-wide move before entering Turn 19. With the lead back in his possession, van Gisbergen led the next lap. Meanwhile, Mayer was being pressured by Love, Sammy Smith, and Austin Hill for the runner-up spot.
Down to the final 15 laps of the event, van Gisbergen, who led since reassuming the lead five laps earlier, was leading by nine-tenths of a second over Love while Sammy Smith, Austin Hill, Crews, Mayer, Day, Gray, Sawalich and Kvapil were racing in the top 10 ahead of Chastain, Austin Green, Allgaier, Caruth, Zilisch, Harrison Burton, Creed, Poole, Sanchez and Perkins, respectively.
Five laps later, van Gisbergen stretched his lead to nearly two seconds over Love as Smith, Austin Hill, and Crews continued to trail in the top five, respectively. Meanwhile, Allgaier, who pitted under green with 14 laps remaining due to a flat right-front tire, was mired in 32nd place.
Then a lap later, the caution flew when Sage Karam, who was dealing with a broken left-front suspension, stalled in the grass. During the caution period, nearly the entire field led by van Gisbergen pitted while the rest led by Sanchez, JJ Yeley, Preston Pardus, and Allgaier remained on the track. Following the pit stops, Smith exited pit road first ahead of Mayer, Love, van Gisbergen, and Austin Hill.
The start of the next restart, with five laps remaining, featured an early three-wide formation between Allgaier, Sanchez, and Sammy Smith, with the trio battling for the lead in front of Mayer, Love, and van Gisbergen through the uphill climb to Turn 1. As the field fanned out to four lanes, Mayer gained a brief advantage before he over-drove the first turn along with a multitude of front-runners. This allowed van Gisbergen to sneak his way through with the lead, and Hill also overtook Mayer for the runner-up spot through the Esses. As the field jostled for late spots, van Gisbergen proceeded to lead from Turn 6B to 20, where he led the next lap while Hill, Mayer, Smith, and Day tried to keep pace with van Gisbergen.
A lap later, Mayer crashed into the tire barriers in Turn 6A, and he collected Kvapil and Rajah Caruth. Behind Mayer’s incident, a handful of competitors, including Harrison Burton, Ryan Ellis, and Clements, wrecked through the Esses. Then, with three laps remaining, Day turned Zilisch, who rallied to move into the top five, spinning through the Esses as he hit the wall and emerged with front-end damage. Amid all of the incidents, the race continued to remain under green. Van Gisbergen was leading by more than a second over Hill, with Smith, Day, and Love in the top five.
When the white flag waved, and the final lap started, van Gisbergen remained in the lead by more than a second over Hill. Despite Hill’s last-lap attempt to reel in van Gisbergen, the latter did not miss his mark and smoothly navigated his way through the circuit’s turns and small straightaways before cycling through the frontstretch and claiming the checkered flag by seven-tenths of a second.
With the victory, van Gisbergen achieved his fifth career win in the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series division, all of which have occurred on road course/street course events, and his second driving the No. 9 Chevrolet Camaro entry for JR Motorsports. In addition to recording the first victory of the year for JR Motorsports, van Gisbergen became the fifth competitor to win at COTA in the O’Reilly division.
Van Gisbergen’s O’Reilly COTA victory was a momentous boost for the New Zealander as he sets his sights on winning Sunday’s Cup Series event in Austin from 13th place.
“Yeah, [it was] good to finally execute,” van Gisbergen said on the frontstretch on the CW Network. “We had an awesome day. Thank you to Safety Culture, JR Motorsports. Pit crew was awesome. The strategy worked out well. I wonder what was going to happen on that last restart, and I kind of sucked [Mayer] in, and he took everyone out for me. That was cool. What an awesome day. Good to finally win here and hopefully, we can have a good day tomorrow.”
Austin Hill settled in the runner-up spot at COTA for a third time while Sammy Smith settled in third place for his second top-five result of the 2026 season. Jesse Love and Corey Day finished fourth and fifth, respectively, as both achieved their second top-five results of this season.
Brent Crews achieved a strong sixth-place result in his O’Reilly debut, while William Sawalich, Justin Allgaier, Ross Chastain, and Brennan Poole completed the top 10. Notably, Sam Mayer ended up in 14th place following his late incident with the tire barriers in Turn 6A, while Connor Zilisch, who was displeased with Corey Day over the contact that sent Zilisch spinning, fell back to 21st place.
There were 16 lead changes for eight different leaders. The event featured four cautions for 12 laps. In addition, 33 of 38 starters finished on the lead lap.
Following the third event of the 2026 NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series season, Austin Hill continues to lead the standings by 28 points over teammate Jesse Love, 39 over Justin Allgaier, 48 over Sheldon Creed, and 59 over Carson Kvapil.
Results:
1. Shane van Gisbergen, 31 laps led
2. Austin Hill, four laps led, Stage 1 winner
3. Sammy Smith
4. Jesse Love
5. Corey Day
6. Brent Crews, five laps led
7. William Sawalich
8. Justin Allgaier, one lap led
9. Ross Chastain
10. Brennan Poole
11. Sheldon Creed
12. Taylor Gray
13. Alex Labbe
14. Sam Mayer, eight laps led, Stage 2 winner
15. Brandon Jones
16. Ryan Sieg
17. Blaine Perkins
18. Jeb Burton
19. Carson Kvapil, two laps led
20. Patrick Staropoli
21. Connor Zilisch, 13 laps led
22. Lavar Scott
23. Anthony Alfredo
24. Kyle Sieg
25. Nick Sanchez, one lap led
26. Dean Thompson
27. Preston Pardus
28. JJ Yele
29. Harrison Burton
30. Parker Retzlaff
31. Rajah Caruth
32. Jeremy Clements
33. Austin Green
34. Ryan Ellis, one lap down
35. Sage Karam – OUT, Suspension
36. Josh Bilicki – OUT, Suspension
37. Baltazar Leguizamon – OUT, Accident
38. Austin J. Hill – OUT, Suspension
Next on the 2026 NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series schedule is the GOVX 200 at Phoenix Raceway in Avondale, Arizona. The event is scheduled to occur next Saturday, March 7, and air at 7:30 p.m. ET on the CW Network, MRN Radio and SiriusXM.
