Viva Mexico 250: Shane van Gisbergen dominates inaugural Cup Series race in Mexico City

Shane van Gisbergen turned around a dreadful rookie season by clinching a playoff berth in Mexico City. (Photo: Chris Graythen | Getty Images)

MEXICO CITY — Once again, Trackhouse Racing’s Shane van Gisbergen demonstrated why he is one of the world’s best road-course racers, putting on a dominant performance that resulted in winning the inaugural NASCAR Cup Series race in Mexico City at Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez.

The driver of the No. 88 Safety Culture Chevrolet started on pole, led the most laps (60) and won Stage 2 en route to his second career Cup Series victory in the Viva Mexico 250. Van Gisbergen also became the second driver in NASCAR history to earn his first two career victories in inaugural races, joining Marvin Porter, who won in San Jose in 1957 and Marchbanks in 1960. Before winning in Mexico City, “SVG” won the 2023 Chicago Street Race.

“What a week,” van Gisbergen said. “I have really enjoyed myself here. I felt pretty rubbish today. Thank you to Safety Culture, Trackhouse, Chevy and these guys right here.  I think the 54 (Ty Gibbs) was close, but that last stint, what a pleasure to just be ripping lap after lap and to watch them all get smaller in the mirror. Unreal.

“I have been privileged to have some great ones [race cars] in my time, but when I go slower, I just lose my concentration, so I was just trying to stay in a rhythm and a routine,” he added. “Josh (Williams, spotter) and Stephen (Doran, crew chief) were doing a great job of keeping me calm and focused.”

“SVG” gave the crowd something to enjoy in the stadium section. (Photo: Chris Graythen | Getty Images)

Van Gisbergen’s margin of victory was 16.567 seconds, the largest margin of victory in the Next Gen era and the largest since Kurt Busch’s Texas win in 2009 (25.686 seconds).

Christopher Bell had a great day as the Joe Gibbs Racing driver claimed the second spot on the podium. Bell started 31st and quickly made his way up to the front and remained there for the majority of the race. This was Bell’s second straight top-two finish on a road course, as he won at COTA in early March.

“I don’t know, he (van Gisbergen) was really good,” Bell said. “Ultimately, it was just a third-place day. I felt like Ty (Gibbs) was really good, so the yellow flag bit him and we walked away with second. Both days — in the Xfinity car, I was the third-place car, and today, I felt like I was the third-place car. I think more than anything, it was just me. I need to do a little more homework and figure out where I can be better to keep up with these guys. The Joe Gibbs Racing Group brought an amazing Mobil 1 Camry, and I can’t really say that it was my car that was lacking. It was on me this weekend.”

Besides van Gisbergen, Ty Gibbs was the next best, as the driver of the No. 54 Monster Energy Toyota led 27 laps and was leading when a late-race caution came out that ultimately ruined his day. Gibbs went on to finish 11th.

“Yeah, and then I don’t know what they do on restarts where they check everybody up and then everyone just rails each other,” Gibbs said when asked if the caution ruined his day. “That is where I got a little nose damage, unfortunately. Sometimes life just doesn’t work out for you. You just have to keep digging.”

Results from the Viva Mexico 250 at Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez are listed below:

Other Race Facts

The dream of winning a NASCAR national series race in his home country of Mexico came true for Daniel Suárez on Saturday. (Photo: James Gilbert | Getty Images)

After scoring a huge win at home in the NASCAR Xfinity Series race on Saturday at Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez, Daniel Suárez finished 19th in the Cup Series race.

“That was the highlight of my weekend,” Suárez said. “NASCAR coming here to Mexico, I think we all had an amazing time, not just on-track, but also off-track. I think we were in the fight… we were in the hunt. We had a top five, top 10 No. 99 Telcel Chevrolet. There were a lot of different strategies out there and, unfortunately, ours just didn’t work out. It’s nobody’s fault, it just wasn’t meant to be today.”

Spire Motorsports driver Michael McDowell had one of his best performances of the 2025 season, as he scored 45 points (second most of any driver) and finished fifth. This was his first top-five finish since the 2024 Chicago Street Race, where he also finished fifth.

“Overall, it was a great day for the No. 71 B’laster Chevrolet team,” McDowell said. “We’re bummed out. Our Chevrolet was fast. I felt like our strategy was going to work out there. We were just a few laps away from it working out, but unfortunately, the caution came out. It happens… you can’t plan for everything. But I feel like we did a great job of coming back up through the field from restarting 15th there in the last stage. Proud of the effort and proud of the speed. We needed a little bit more, but it’s something to build on.”

Hendrick Motorsports drivers Chase Elliott and Alex Bowman finished third and fourth, respectively. This was Elliott’s best race of the year, as Bowman had to power through the race after saying he could not even walk on Wednesday after his hard crash at Michigan.

For the second time in the last three races, Carson Hocevar and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. were involved in some controversy. Late in the race, Hocevar spun out Stenhouse Jr. which prompted the Hyak Motorsports driver to visit the No. 77 Totalplay Chevrolet driver after the race and told Hocevar, “I’m gonna beat your ass.”

Ryan Preece started second and won Stage 1 en route to earning 32 points. This was also the first points-paying race in NASCAR history that included a podium.

Kyle Larson earned the Xfinity Fastest Lap although he was in 36th place for the majority of the race.

With his victory, Shane van Gisbergen is tentatively locked into the 2025 Cup Series Playoffs after entering Mexico City 33rd in points. According to Daniel Céspedes, “SVG” is just the third driver in the history of the NASCAR playoff era to earn a tentative playoff spot after scoring less than 200 points in the first 15 races of the season.

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