Shane Van Gisbergen displayed he’s in a league of his own at Watkins Glen International, and road courses in general, with a furious comeback victory in the Go Bowling at The Glen on Sunday, May 10.
The New Zealand native roared past more than 20 cars after making his final pit stop with 24 laps remaining to repeat as winner of Watkins Glen International’s NASCAR Cup Series race while giving team owner Trackhouse Racing its 15th victory.
Van Gisbergen made up 29 seconds over an 18-lap stretch before grabbing the lead with a pass of Ty Gibbs in the Bus Stop on lap 93 of 100, securing the seventh Cup victory of his career and first of 2026. It was Van Gisbergen’s first Cup win driving car No. 97, a number used by his dad, Robert Van Gisbergen, in New Zealand.
Van Gisbergen, who celebrated his 37th birthday Saturday by winning the pole position, finished 7.29 seconds ahead of runner-up Michael McDowell.
“That’s the best feeling you can get when you have a tire advantage and an awesome car,” Van Gisbergen said. “I was just carving everyone up. Some people were nice and laying over, which was cool. Then the people that didn’t, you had to put good moves on. That’s the most fun.”
His dominance in the first May race in the track’s Cup Series history gave Van Gisbergen his second win in the last ninth months at the road course. He claimed his first Watkins Glen triumph last August, the longtime traditional spot on the calendar for the event. Next year Watkins Glen’s race will be held in September, putting it in the Chase playoffs.
Following the victory, Trackhouse Racing team owner Justin Marks called Van Gisbergen “the best to ever do it” when it comes to road-course racing. Van Gisbergen has won six of the series’ last seven races on road or street courses.
“We have a race-car driver, he’s at a level I don’t think this sport has ever seen before on these road courses,” Marks said.
Gibbs joined Connor Zilisch, Van Gisbergen’s Trackhouse teammate, and other drivers in hoping fuel strategy would persevere against SVG’s speed. Gibbs was rewarded with a third-place finish.
“I just wish we could keep racing, but unfortunately we had to save some fuel there,” Gibbs said. “Had a lot of fun today. Always fun to come to Watkins Glen.”
McDowell also rallied late after pitting for the final time around the same time as Van Gisbergen.
“It’s great to get this Go Bowling Chevrolet in the top-five,” McDowell said. “There were moments where I thought, ‘Ah, maybe we can hang with SVG.’ It felt like he was just pacing himself off me. He’d take off.”
Chase Briscoe finished fourth and Tyler Reddick, a five-time winner this season, took fifth.
Van Gisbergen’s crew chief, Stephen Doran, elected to keep his driver out after a caution on lap 61 while Gibbs and others came into the pits. The team’s engineers told Doran that Van Gisbergen would be three laps short on fuel, so the team had Van Gisbergen build his lead as much as possible before coming in for fuel and tires.
“It was a bit of uncertainty, but Stephen was always confident in his calls,” Van Gisbergen said. “It was really cool. I just drove what I did, didn’t question, just believed in everything they did. It was a good team strategy day. It was awesome.”
Doran acknowledged he initially was a little nervous, asking himself, “Are we going to get there?”
Van Gisbergen asked for the gap and number of remaining laps out of Turn 1 each time around as he pursued the lead, adding it was “awesome” once Doran started giving him that information.
“He’s made it pretty clear, especially at these tracks, that he likes to be on offense. So we put him there,” Doran said.
Unlike years past, a victory doesn’t secure a spot in the 16-driver Chase playoffs. Van Gisbergen moved from 19th to 16th in points with Sunday’s triumph.
“We weren’t very good in practice, then qualifying was amazing, good tweaks,” Van Gisbergen said. “Then today, what a race car. Then Stephen made great calls. I wasn’t sure how it was going to work, then to run them down like that … Very, very special to win two in a row.”
Go Bowling at The Glen Results
1. (1) Shane Van Gisbergen, Chevrolet, 100.
2. (2) Michael McDowell, Chevrolet, 100.
3. (10) Ty Gibbs, Toyota, 100.
4. (9) Chase Briscoe, Toyota, 100.
5. (15) Tyler Reddick, Toyota, 100.
6. (25) Austin Dillon, Chevrolet, 100.
7. (12) AJ Allmendinger, Chevrolet, 100.
8. (21) Kyle Busch, Chevrolet, 100.
9. (3) Austin Cindric, Ford, 100.
10. (17) John Hunter Nemechek, Toyota, 100.
11. (7) Ryan Blaney, Ford, 100.
12. (14) Chris Buescher, Ford, 100.
13. (16) Daniel Suarez, Chevrolet, 100.
14. (30) Ryan Preece, Ford, 100.
15. (19) Cole Custer, Chevrolet, 100.
16. (20) Denny Hamlin, Toyota, 100.
17. (22) Todd Gilliland, Ford, 100.
18. (33) Zane Smith, Ford, 100.
19. (24) Erik Jones, Toyota, 100.
20. (5) Connor Zilisch #, Chevrolet, 100.
21. (8) Christopher Bell, Toyota, 100.
22. (35) Noah Gragson, Ford, 100.
23. (23) Kyle Larson, Chevrolet, 100.
24. (27) Chase Elliott, Chevrolet, 100.
25. (28) Alex Bowman, Chevrolet, 100.
26. (32) Riley Herbst, Toyota, 100.
27. (4) Ross Chastain, Chevrolet, 100.
28. (11) Carson Hocevar, Chevrolet, 100.
29. (18) Bubba Wallace, Toyota, 100.
30. (26) Brad Keselowski, Ford, 100.
31. (29) Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Chevrolet, 100.
32. (34) Josh Berry, Ford, 100.
33. (31) Ty Dillon, Chevrolet, 99.
34. (37) Josh Bilicki(i), Ford, 99.
35. (38) Katherine Legge, Chevrolet, 99.
36. (13) William Byron, Chevrolet, 97.
37. (36) Cody Ware, Chevrolet, Accident, 90.
38. (6) Joey Logano, Ford, 85.
Average Speed of Race Winner: 98.536 mph.
Time of Race: 2 Hrs, 29 Mins, 11 Secs.
Margin of Victory: 7.288 Seconds.
Caution Flags: 4 for 12 laps.
Lead Changes: 6 among 4 drivers.
Lap Leaders: S. Van Gisbergen 1-18; R. Chastain 19-22; S. Van Gisbergen 23-41; M. McDowell 42-46; S. Van Gisbergen 47-75; . Gibbs 76-92; S. Van Gisbergen 93-100.
Leaders Summary (Driver, Times Lead, Laps Led): Shane Van Gisbergen 4 times for 74 laps; Ty Gibbs 1 time for 17 laps; Michael McDowell 1 time for 5 laps; Ross Chastain 1 time for 4 laps.
Stage #1 Top 10: 1,22,12,2,16,42,20,97,35,71
Stage #2 Top 10: 97,45,54,3,8,17,2,88,19,23
This article originally appeared on Elmira Star-Gazette: Recap of the 2026 Go Bowling at The Glen NASCAR Cup Series race