Go Bowling at The Glen: Shane van Gisbergen dominates at Watkins Glen

WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. — Trackhouse Racing driver Shane van Gisbergen put belt-to-butt on the entire NASCAR Cup Series field as the recently turned 37-year-old cruised to Victory Lane in the Go Bowling at The Glen at Watkins Glen International.

After a strategy call put the No. 97 Superfile Chevrolet 29.2 seconds behind the leader, it only took the Kiwi 17 laps to make up the ground on the leaders and make the pass that would lead to van Gisbergen’s seventh NASCAR Cup Series victory.

“Yeah, pretty unreal and just thankful for my No. 97 Superfile Chevrolet team,” van Gisbergen said. “Just an unbelievable day. It was amazing in the strategies and how they worked out, but the car was just magic to be able to do that and push when I needed to. To back it up from last year is pretty unreal.”

SVG was one of the three drivers who did triple duty during the NASCAR race weekend at The Glen, as his Trackhouse teammates Connor Zilisch and Ross Chastain also raced in the Cup, O’Reilly and Truck Series. Van Gisbergen finished his race weekend with a third-place finish in the Truck Series on Friday, an eighth-place finish in the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series on Saturday and a victory in the Cup Series on Sunday after leading 74 of 100 laps.

“I love being able to do that at the end and chase everyone down on a tire difference,” van Gisbergen added. “Josh (Williams), my spotter, was excellent in giving me the lap times and what the gap was. I was trying to calculate it as I went and manage the tires so that I would still have some when I got there. It’s just so special and really cool.”

Spire Motorsports’ Michael McDowell had his best race of the 2026 Cup Series season. The 41-year-old driver led five laps and finished in second, earning his second top-five finish of the year (fifth at COTA).

“Yeah, for sure,” McDowell said when asked if the race was the spark the team needed. “It’s been a rough few weeks. But that’s what is great about NASCAR — you’re only one week away from grabbing a top-five finish and having some momentum on our side. We knew this was a track we could come to and, if we executed like we did today, we could contend for the win. We still needed a little bit more to hang with Shane van Gisbergen there. But all-in-all, the No. 71 Go Bowling Chevrolet team had a good day. It wasn’t a perfect day, but it was a good day. That’s what we needed. We just needed some momentum on our side.”

Joe Gibbs Racing’s Ty Gibbs spent 17 laps out front, leading the field, before SVG caught him with eight laps to go. Gibbs went on to finish third, a much-needed performance after back-to-back finishes of 34th or worse after having a stretch of seven straight top-10 finishes.

“Honestly, it wasn’t too hard, just frustrating,” Gibbs said about having to save fuel at the end. “I felt like it would have been fun to race with him for the win. Unfortunately, we had to finish third today, but that was a good points day for us — just having to stretch that fuel out a little bit. It was fun, though. I had a great day. Just keep going. Huge thank you to my team, Monster Energy, Oakley, Toyota — everyone that helps me out.”

Results from the 2026 Go Bowling at The Glen at Watkins Glen International are listed below:

Other Race Facts

NASCAR Cup Series rookie Connor Zilisch had the best performance of his career so far at the premier level before having a tire issue while battling for the lead. Zilisch, who finished second in the Craftsman Truck Series race on Friday and won the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series race on Saturday, ended his Sunday in 20th.

“It’s just a bummer,” Zilisch said. “I feel like I did almost everything right today that I could, but it just goes like that sometimes. We’ve got a couple more good road courses to go to this season for Trackhouse Racing, so we’ll keep our heads down and keep digging. At the worst, I was going to finish outside the top five, probably and have my best day in this series, by far. I don’t think I could have beat Shane (van Gisbergen).

“When you’re so close, it’s just frustrating. I should have passed Ty (Gibbs). I don’t think it would have been any better to stay behind him. I could have saved more fuel in front of him and ran faster, but I’ll learn from it and be better moving forward.”

Both Richard Childress Racing drivers had their best combined performance in quite some time. Austin Dillon earned a hard-fought sixth-place finish, while Kyle Busch, who battled illness throughout the entire weekend, wound up in eighth.

NASCAR officials only needed to throw the caution twice (not including stages), and both were for debris. Multiple incidents on track did not warrant a caution, including Josh Berry and Cody Ware wrecking, Berry and Carson Hocevar getting into it, Josh Bilicki and Katherine Legge getting into each other and Bubba Wallace getting spun by John Hunter Nemechek.

Cole Custer’s 15th-place finish was his best result in the Cup Series since last year’s Talladega fall race. AJ Allmendinger’s seventh-place finish was also his best finish of the 2026 season.

SVG’s seventh career Cup Series win was his first with the No. 97, a number that holds special meaning for him, as his father, Robert van Gisbergen, used it during his racing career.

For the first time since Sonoma in 2005, Hendrick Motorsports failed to have any drivers finish inside the top 20 during a Cup Series race on a road course, according to Joseph Srigley.

William Byron and Joey Logano were involved in separate incidents that took them both out of contention. Byron finished 36th, and Logano, who was runner-up in Stage 1, finished 38th.

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