Shane van Gisbergen shined during the NASCAR Cup Series’ return to North Wilkesboro Speedway in three decades. He capped off the 2026 Window World 450 event on Sunday, July 19, where he primarily raced upfront, accumulated a bevy of stage points and even led a good portion by finishing in the top-five mark.
The three-time Supercars champion from Auckland, New Zealand, took the green flag from eighth place, a position in which he started in based on a qualifying metric formula due to the event’s on-track qualifying session being canceled due to inclement weather. After spending the event’s first 40 laps racing towards the bottom half of the top-10 mark, van Gisbergen utilized a two-tire pit stop during the event’s first caution period that flew not long after to move up the leaderboard and muscle his No. 97 Wendy’s Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 entry up to second place during the next restart on Lap 47. He then earned his spotlight by overtaking Denny Hamlin to lead for the first time on Lap 52. Van Gisbergen was then in striking position of achieving his first-ever stage victory in a Cup oval event before he was edged by Ty Gibbs on the final lap of the stage period. Nevertheless, he the former accumulated nine stage points.
As van Gisbergen restarted on the front row alongside Joey Logano when the second stage period started on Lap 91, he cycled back as the leader on Lap 94. The former remained atop the leaderboard for the next 19 laps before Logano reassumed the lead. As van Gisbergen continued to race and remain upfront, he was scored in fourth place when a Lap 128 caution for a two-car wreck shuffled up the leaderboard as a handful of front-runners who had just made green flag pit stops dropped out of the lead lap category. For van Gisbergen, he was one of 12 competitors who were scored on the lead lap and he pitted within the group to restart in the top-five category. When the second stage period concluded on Lap 265, he accumulated another six stage points by settling in fifth place.
Restarting in fifth place for the third and final stage period, van Gisbergen, who, like many competitors, battled hot conditions inside the cockpit, primarily raced within the top-five category. Despite not leading throughout this stage period, he was racing as high as third place before he was overtaken by Chase Briscoe and Ty Gibbs in the closing stretches. When the checkered flag flew, van Gisbergen maintained fifth place in the final running order.
With the result, van Gisbergen notched his fifth top-five result and his seventh top-10 finish of the 2026 Cup Series season. He also recorded the 12th overall top-10 result thus far for Trackhouse Racing as he remains the organization’s highest-ranked competitor in the standings, with teammates Ross Chastain and Connor Zilisch mired in 21st and 34th, respectively.
The New Zealander’s fifth-place result at North Wilkesboro matches his career-best result on any oval circuit in the Cup division with his fifth-place result at Nashville Superspeedway that occurred recently in mid-May. His 49 laps led are the most he has ever led on a Cup oval event. While van Gisbergen made his first Cup points-paying start at North Wilkesboro, he competed at the track for the series’ All-Star Race a year ago, where he finished in 19th place.
Prior to North Wilkesboro, van Gisbergen, who has a pair of road course victories at Watkins Glen International and Sonoma Raceway between May and June, was ranked in 15th place in the 2026 standings and scored 31 points above the top-16 cutline to be in Chase contention. After finishing in the top five at North Wilkesboro, he jumped up a spot to 14th place and is 54 points above the cutline with five regular-season events remaining as he continues his strive to make the Cup Series’ Chase for a second consecutive year.
“When I took the lead, I got pretty excited,” van Gisbergen said on TNT. “I don’t know what to do. Thank you to Wendy’s, Trackhouse [Racing], Chevy. Awesome day. Just amazing to get stage points both stages. A bit pissed I threw it away in the last corner on that first stage, but just awesome racing up front all night.”
The 2026 NASCAR Cup Series season for Shane van Gisbergen and his No. 97 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet team continue with the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis motor Speedway next Sunday, July 26, at 2 p.m. ET on TNT Sports, Indianapolis Motor Speedway Radio Network, SiriusXM and HBO MAX.
