Shane van Gisbergen mounted a dynamic comeback from making a late green-flag pit stop to navigate his way back to the front and strike gold with a dominant NASCAR Cup Series victory in the Go Bowling at The Glen on Sunday, May 10.
The three-time Supercars champion from Auckland, New Zealand, led four times for a race-high 74 of 100-scheduled laps in an event where he started on pole position and dominated nearly the entire first stage period before he strategically pitted prior to the stage’s conclusion for track position and to cycle back as the leader to commence the second stage period. After opting to pit during a debris caution just past the Lap 40 mark, van Gisbergen cycled back as the leader by Lap 47, and he proceeded to win the second stage.
Despite dominating the early portions of the final stage period, van Gisbergen was one of a handful of competitors who elected not to pit with a majority of the field during a late-race caution with less than 40 laps remaining. The decision not to pit kept van Gisbergen in the lead before he was forced to pit under green with 24 laps remaining. After blending back onto the track mired outside the top-20 mark, he utilized his fresh tires and a full tank of fuel to bolt his way up through the leaderboard. As the event remained under green flag conditions while the laps dwindled, van Gisbergen managed to track down and overtake both teammate Connor Zilisch and Ty Gibbs to reassume the lead with eight laps remaining. From there, van Gisbergen cruised to his second consecutive Cup victory at The Glen.
With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Saturday, May 9, Shane van Gisbergen started on pole position for the first time this season after he posted a pole-winning lap at 123.937 mph in 71.165 seconds. Michael McDowell started alongside van Gisbergen on the front row after the latter posted the second-fastest lap at 123.488 mph in 71.424 seconds.
When the green flag waved, and the event commenced, pole-sitter Shane van Gisbergen jumped his No. 97 Superfile Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 entry ahead as he led the field through the frontstretch. He then navigated through the first turn, the Esses, the Back Straight and the Inner Loop “Bus Stop” chicane with the lead. From the carousel and the final set of turns that led back to the frontstretch, van Gisbergen retained the top spot as he led the first lap over Michael McDowell, Austin Cindric, Ross Chastain and rookie Connor Zilisch while Joey Logano, Ryan Blaney and Christopher Bell followed suit, respectively.
Over the next four laps, van Gisbergen, who was the fastest competitor on the track, maintained an early lead. The only competitor who remained within striking distance of the leader in the opening five laps was McDowell, as he trailed by eight-tenths of a second, but by half a second a lap prior. Meanwhile, Chastain and Zilisch trailed in third and fourth, respectively, by four seconds while Logano, Cindric, Bell, Blaney, Ty Gibbs, and Chase Briscoe raced in the top 10 ahead of AJ Allmendinger, Carson Hocevar, William Byron, Chris Buescher, Daniel Suarez, Tyler Reddick, Bubba Wallace, John Hunter Nemechek, Kyle Busch, and Cole Custer, respectively. Meanwhile, Todd Gilliland occupied 21st place ahead of Denny Hamlin, Brad Keselowski, Kyle Larson, and Erik Jones, while Alex Bowman, Austin Dillon, Ty Dillon, Ryan Preece, and Chase Elliott were mired in the top 30, respectively.
Through the first 10 scheduled laps, van Gisbergen extended his early advantage to more than two seconds over McDowell while third-place Zilisch trailed by six seconds. By then, Chastain, Logano, and Cindric, all of whom were racing from fourth to sixth on the leaderboard, trailed van Gisbergen by eight seconds while Bell, Blaney, Ty Gibbs, Allmendinger, and Briscoe trailed by as far back as 12 seconds within the top-11 mark. As the field of 38 remained fanned out as Katherine Legge, who trailed by 57 seconds at the tail end of the field in 38th place, van Gisbergen stretched his lead to six seconds over McDowell by Lap 15.
Then, on lap 16, select names that included Tyler Reddick, Kyle Larson, Alex Bowman, Zane Smith, and Noah Gragson strategically made the right-hand turn to pit road to pit their entries under green flag conditions. Runner-up McDowell and third-place Zilisch, along with Ty Gibbs, Chris Buescher, Chase Briscoe, Daniel Suarez, William Byron, Kyle Busch, Todd Gilliland, Carson Hocevar, Cole Custer, Denny Hamlin, Brad Keselowski, Erik Jones, and Ryan Preece, all pitted during the next lap before the leader, Shane van Gisbergen, pitted on Lap 18. By then, pit road had become inaccessible to the field as the first stage period neared its conclusion. As van Gisbergen pitted, Ross Chastain cycled to the lead over Joey Logano and Ryan Blaney.
When the first stage period concluded on Lap 20, Chastain held off Team Penske’s trio of competitors (Logano, Blaney, and Cindric) to claim his third Cup stage victory of the 2026 season. Logano, Blaney, and Cindric followed suit, respectively, while Allmendinger, John Hunter Nemechek, Bell, van Gisbergen, Riley Herbst, and McDowell were scored in the top 10, respectively. By then, all 38 starters were scored on the lead lap.
Under the event’s first stage break period, some led by Chastain and including Logano, Blaney, Cindric, Allmendinger, Nemechek, Bell, Herbst, Wallace, Elliott, Ty Dillon, Josh Bilicki, Cody Ware, Stenhoouse, and Katherine Legge pitted their entries while the rest led by van Gisbergen remained on the track.
The second stage period started on Lap 24 as van Gisbergen and McDowell occupied the front row. At the start, van Gisbergen fended off McDowell through the frontstretch to retain the lead. He continued to lead McDowell, Zilisch, Ty Gibbs, Austin Dillon, and the field through the first turn, the Esses, the Back Straight, and the Bus Stop chicane while multiple competitors within the middle of the pack, most notably Kyle Larson, bumped and jostled for spots. Amid the on-track chaos within the middle of the pack, most of the field filed in single-line formation through the frontstretch as van Gisbergen led the next lap.
On Lap 26, Zilisch overtook McDowell entering the first turn to assume the runner-up spot. Zilisch then proceeded to track and reel in teammate van Gisbergen for the lead while McDowell retained third place in front of Ty Gibbs and Reddick. Behind Larson, who was bumped multiple times since the second stage’s restart by competitors like Zane Smith and Logano, was mired in 26th place, while Keselowski, who made contact with Larson on Lap 25, plummeted to 36th place. Meanwhile, Zilisch continued to reel in van Gisbergen for the lead, where he reduced the deficit by as little as two-tenths of a second on Lap 28, but van Gisbergen remained atop the leaderboard by three-tenths of a second at the Lap 30 mark.
At the Lap 35 mark, van Gisbergen, who was methodically navigating his entry through every turn and straightaway, continued to lead by four-tenths of a second over teammate Zilisch while third-place McDowell trailed by three-and-a-half seconds. Behind, Ty Gibbs and Reddick occupied the remaining top five spots over Austin Dillon, Suarez, Briscoe, Byron, and Buescher, while Kyle Busch, Hamlin, Gilliland, Preece, Erik Jones, Custer, Chastain, Blaney, Cindric, Bowman, and Hocevar were mired in the top 20, respectively.
On Lap 39, the caution flew when a small tent was blown from the infield campground and floated in the air amid the wind before it landed on the track towards the Back Straight area. During this caution period, a majority of the field, led by van Gisbergen and Zilisch, pitted, while the rest, led by McDowell and including teammate Suarez, Bell, Wallace, Herbst, and Nemechek, remained on the track. Following the pit stops, van Gisbergen exited pit road first ahead of Zilisch, Gibbs, Reddick, and Austin Dillon.
The next restart on Lap 43 featured McDowell fending off Suarez and the field through the frontstretch to lead while Herbst got bumped by Nemechek and spun entering the first turn. As Herbst continued while the event remained under green, the field stacked up through the Esses and the Back Straight. Then, towards the Bus Stop chicane, and as a series of stack-ups and tire lockups occurred, Byron was hit by Buescher and spun in the middle of the field, where he then got hit by Blaney and emerged with a broken toe link. Gilliland also got bumped by Logano as he slid towards the tire barriers, but the rest of the field scattered to avoid the carnage, and the event remained under green. While Byron limped his damaged No. 24 Liberty University Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 entry back to pit road, Bell was penalized for missing the Bus Stop chicane despite taking evasive action to avoid the carnage.
Meanwhile, McDowell retained the lead by one-and-a-half seconds over van Gisbergen at the Lap 45 mark while Suarez, Wallace and Reddick were in the top five. By then, Bell. Nemechek, Berry, and Ty Dillon pitted under green by Lap 47 as van Gisbergen reassumed the lead from McDowell. Van Gisbergen proceeded to stretch his lead to nearly one-and-a-half seconds by Lap 48 while McDowell, who had issues navigating through the first turn and whose tires were wearing out, plummeted to seventh place. Amid McDowell’s issues, Richard Childress Racing’s Austin Dillon and Kyle Busch were up to fourth and fifth, respectively. In addition, Reddick and Gibbs were racing in second and third while Zilisch was mired in ninth.
When the second stage period concluded on Lap 50, van Gisbergen captured his first Cup stage victory of the 2026 season by half a second over Reddick. Gibbs, Austin Dillon, Kyle Busch, Buescher, Cindric, Zilisch, Briscoe, and Wallace were scored in the top 10, respectively, while 37 of 38 starters were scored on the lead lap.
During the event’s second stage break period, some, including Wallace, McDowell, Custer, Allmendinger, Stenhouse, Cody Ware, Bell, Suarez, Katherine Legge, Herbst, Keselowski, and Josh Bilicki, pitted while the rest, led by the leader van Gisbergen, remained on the track.
With 46 laps remaining, the final stage period commenced as van Gisbergen and Reddick occupied the front row. At the start, van Gisbergen launched ahead, entering the frontstretch, and he fended off Reddick through the first turn to lead up through the Esses and the Back Straight. With the field cleanly navigating through the Bus Stop chicane and the Carousel, van Gisbergen remained upfront through the first set of turns as he led the next lap.
Then, with 41 laps remaining, the caution returned when a left-front tire carcass rolled off of Logano’s No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Mustang Dark Horse entry, nearing the Bus Stop chicane. The caution occurred after Logano, who managed to limp back to his pit stall, locked up and flat-spotted his left-front tire, where he went off the course in the first turn. During this caution period, the leader van Gisbergen, along with Reddick, Allmendinger, Wallace, McDowell, Nemechek, Custer, Berry, and Suarez, remained on the track while the rest, led by Gibbs, pitted.
The next restart with 37 laps remaining featured van Gisbergen fending off Reddick entering the frontstretch and the first turn to retain the lead. As van Gisbergen led through the Esses and Back Straight, Allmendinger navigated his way into third place over McDowell and Wallace as the field navigated cleanly through the Back Straight, the Bus Stop chicane, and the Carousel. Meanwhile, van Gisbergen led the next lap and stretched his lead to more than a second over Reddick and Allmendinger while McDowell, Wallace, and Nemechek all trailed by two seconds within the top-six mark. Behind, Gibbs was the highest-running competitor who recently pitted in seventh place, while Berry, Zilisch, and Austin Dillon trailed in the top 10, respectively.
Down to the final 30 laps of the event, van Gisbergen continued to lead by four seconds over Allmendinger, the latter of whom overtook Reddick for the runner-up spot three laps earlier. Behind, McDowell retained third place while Gibbs and Zilisch, the top two competitors who recently pitted, were up to fourth and fifth, respectively. Meanwhile, Reddick dropped to sixth place in front of teammate Wallace, Nemechek, Austin Dillon, and Briscoe, while Berry and Cindric. Custer, Kyle Busch, Suarez, Chastain, Buescher, Preece, Hocevar, and Erik Jones trailed in the top 20, respectively.
Two laps later, Wallace pitted under green. Wallace’s pit service occurred a lap after teammate Reddick pitted when the latter initially believed that Katherine Legge spinning on course would generate a caution, but no caution flew as van Gisbergen maintained the lead by nearly five seconds over Allmendinger, McDowell, Gibbs, and Zilisch. Another lap later, and with fuel talks starting to linger amongst those who recently pitted during the previous caution period and those who did not, McDowell and Gibbs overtook Allmendinger for second and third, respectively, while Zilisch started to reel in Allmendinger for fourth place.
McDowell then pitted from the runner-up spot along with Berry and Larson with 25 laps remaining before the leader van Gisbergen, Nemechek, Elliott, and Bowman pitted during the next lap. Van Gisbergen’s move to pit road moved Gibbs to the lead as the latter led by more than one-and-a-half seconds over Zilisch. Despite Gibbs being told that he was half a lap short of reaching the event’s scheduled distance on fuel, Gibbs continued to lead in his No. 54 Monster Energy Toyota Camry XSE entry by more than a second over Zilisch with 20 laps remaining, while Allmendinger surrendered third place to pit under green. Meanwhile, van Gisbergen was mired in 14th place, and he trailed the lead by 25 seconds while Reddick and Wallace were mired in 18th and 19th, respectively. Meanwhile, multiple names like Blaney, Larson, Suarez, Erik Jones, Zane Smith, Bell, and Custer had pitted under green.
With 18 laps remaining, Zilisch started to reel in Ty Gibbs for the lead as both were racing on identical fuel-strategy modes of trying to reach the scheduled distance on their current tank of fuel while also battling for the lead and potential victory. Another lap later, Gibbs, who led as high as more than a second, only led by three-tenths of a second while third-place Briscoe and fourth-place Austin Dillon trailed by more than five seconds. Meanwhile, van Gisbergen was still mired in 20th place, and he trailed the lead by 20 seconds while Kyle Busch, Cindric, Buescher, Chastain, Hamlin, Hocevar, and Gilliland were all racing in front of him.
As the event reached its final 15-lap distance, Zilisch, who nearly got to Gibbs’ rear bumper entering the Bus Stop chicane, trailed Gibbs by half a second. Zilisch, who repeatedly slid and flat-spotted his right-front tire while also trying to conserve fuel, continued to trail Gibbs closely through every turn and straightaway as Wallace, who spun in the first turn, continued without drawing a caution. Meanwhile, van Gisbergen, who clocked in the fastest lap of the event on Lap 66, continued to bolt his way to the front as he was up to seventh place.
Down to the final 10 laps of the event, Gibbs continued to lead by four-tenths of a second over Zilisch, with the latter being told to continue to save fuel and not yet pounce on Gibbs for the lead, while van Gisbergen, who has enough fuel to reach the event’s distance, trailed the lead by less than five seconds as he overtook Kyle Busch for fifth place in the leaderboard. Van Gisbergen then overtook both Austin Dillon and Briscoe from the Bus Stop chicane and past the Carousel. During the next lap, he had both Gibbs and Zilisch in his sights entering the frontstretch.
Then, with nine laps remaining, van Gisbergen quickly overtook teammate Zilisch past the Bus Stop chicane as Zilisch, who dropped off the pace and cut a tire to his No. 88 Red Bull Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 entry, pitted under green. During the next lap, van Gisbergen reeled in and overtook Gibbs entering the Bus Stop chicane to reassume the lead. Van Gisbergen’s lead stood to more than a second over Gibbs during the next lap while McDowell, Briscoe, and Austin Dillon trailed in the top five, respectively.
With five laps remaining, van Gisbergen extended his late lead to more than five seconds over McDowell as McDowell overtook Gibbs prior to reaching the frontstretch. As Zilisch was mired in 28th place following his late pit stop, Briscoe, Austin Dillon, and Kyle Busch were racing within reach of one another from fourth to sixth on the track while van Gisbergen retained the lead over the next three laps.
When the white flag waved, and the final lap started, van Gisbergen remained in the lead by more than seven seconds over McDowell. With no competition lurking nor reeling in from behind, van Gisbergen easily navigated through the turns and straightaways of Watkins Glen International for a final time before he cycled back to the frontstretch and claimed the checkered flag by seven seconds over McDowell.
With the victory, van Gisbergen, who celebrated his 37th birthday a day prior, notched his seventh NASCAR Cup Series career victory and he became the seventh different winner through the first 12 events of the 2026 season. He joins Mark Martin, Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart, Marcos Ambrose, Chase Elliott and Kyle Larson as the only competitors to win a Cup event at The Glen in consecutive seasons, and he also recorded the first Cup victory for the No. 97 since Kurt Busch won at Richmond Raceway in September 2005.
Van Gisbergen’s victory at Watkins Glen was the fourth of the 2026 season for the Chevrolet manufacturer and the first for Trackhouse Racing, with the New Zealander jumping up three spots in the driver’s standings from 19th to 16th.
“[It’s] Unbelievable to win with [the number] 97,” van Gisbergen, who kicked a rugby ball to the frontstretch’s fans, said on FS1. “The Superfile Chevy was great. Thank you to Trackhouse. We weren’t very good in practice, and then qualifying was amazing. Good tweaks and then today. What a race car. [Crew chief] Stephen [Doran] made great calls. I wasn’t sure how it was gonna work, and then to run [the leaders] down like that. Very, very special to [win at The Glen] two in a row. It’s not easy. Everyone’s really good. There was a lot of pressure there. I think McDowell was good, Connor [Zilisch] was good, Tyler Reddick. There was some really good guys and a lot of pressure, so just stoke for these [No. 97] guys. To execute every facet of our game, [I’m] speechless. This is so cool.”
McDowell, who started alongside van Gisbergen at the event’s start and led five laps, settled in second place for his second top-five result of the 2026 season and first since Circuit of the Americas in early March. Despite gaining two spots in the standings, from 23rd to 21st, McDowell was disappointed in not having the pace to reel in and challenge van Gisbergen for the victory.
“It’s great to get this Go Bowling Chevrolet in the top five.” McDowell said. “There was moments where I thought maybe we could hang with [van Gisbergen]. It felt like he was just pacing himself off me he’d take back off. In that second stage, we got a little off strategy, and then we 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 [van Gisbergen] down. Like I said, it’s just tough. 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, but proud of Spire [Motorsports]. Proud of my guys. They worked really hard. Great day. We’ll build on it and hopefully, get ready for [the] Charlotte [Coca-Cola] 600.”
Ty Gibbs had enough fuel to finish in third place for his sixth top-five result of the 2026 season, while teammate Chase Briscoe and Tyler Reddick finished in the top five. Austin Dillon achieved his first top-10 result in sixth place, ahead of AJ Allmendinger, and Kyle Busch notched a strong eighth-place result, while Austin Cindric and John Hunter Nemechek completed the top 10, respectively.
Meanwhile, Connor Zilisch, who was in a prime position to contend for his first Cup victory, ended up in 20th place after pitting with eight laps remaining. Zilisch’s fourth top-20 result in his rookie Cup season capped off a long triple-header weekend for the North Carolina native as he finished in the runner-up spot during Friday’s Craftsman Truck Series event and won Saturday’s O’Reilly Auto Parts Series event, both occurring at The Glen. Amid the disappointment of not contending for Sunday’s Cup victory in the closing laps, he was also pleased with the speed exhibited by his team, Trackhouse Racing, on road course venues.
“I’m not sure, honestly, what actually cut the tire there at the end,” Zilisch said. “We were running on those tires for a long time, so not surprised to see it happen necessarily. Just frustrating. We had a really good day going. At worse, we were gonna get ourselves our first top five and walk out of here with something. [The race] Didn’t quite end the way we wanted it to. I needed last year’s race length of about 92 laps, and I probably would’ve been a little better [with the result], but it is what it is.”
Notably, Ryan Blaney, Denny Hamlin, Christopher Bell, Kyle Larson, Chase Elliott, Alex Bowman, Ross Chastain, and Brad Keselowski finished 11th, 16th, 21st, 23rd, 24th, 25th, 27th, and 30th, respectively. Bubba Wallace finished 29th following his late spin in Turn 1, William Byron ended up three laps down in 36th following his second stage’s incident in the Bus Stop chicane, Joey Logano settled at the tail end of the field in 38th following his late left-front tire issue and Katherine Legge, who is competing in this year’s Indianapolis 500 with HMD Motorsports and A.J. Foyt Racing, finished 35th.
There were six lead changes for four different leaders. The event featured four cautions for 12 laps. In addition, 32 of 38 starters finished on the lead lap.
Following the 12th event of the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series season, Tyler Reddick continues to lead the standings by 129 points over Denny Hamlin, 145 over Chase Elliott, 162 over Ryan Blaney, and 192 over Chris Buescher.
Results:
- Shane van Gisbergen, 74 laps led, Stage 2 winner
- Michael McDowell led five laps
- Ty Gibbs, 17 laps led
- Chase Briscoe
- Tyler Reddick
- Austin Dillon
- AJ Allmendinger
- Kyle Busch
- Austin Cindric
- John Hunter Nemechek
- Ryan Blaney
- Chris Buescher
- Daniel Suarez
- Ryan Preece
- Cole Custer
- Denny Hamlin
- Todd Gilliland
- Zane Smith
- Erik Jones
- Connor Zilisch
- Christopher Bell
- Noah Gragson
- Kyle Larson
- Chase Elliott
- Alex Bowman
- Riley Herbst
- Ross Chastain, four laps led, Stage 1 winner
- Carson Hocevar
- Bubba Wallace
- Brad Keselowski
- Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
- Josh Berry
- Ty Dillon, one lap down
- Josh Bilicki, one lap down
- Katherine Legge, one lap down
- William Byron, three laps down
- Cody Ware – OUT, Accident
- Joey Logano, 15 laps down
Next on the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the series’ annual NASCAR All-Star Race at Dover Motor Speedway in Dover, Delaware. The event is scheduled to occur next Sunday, May 17, and air at 1 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN, SiriusXM, and HBO MAX.
