Shane van Gisbergen led Trackhouse Racing with a first-place finish in the Go Bowling at the Glen NASCAR Cup Series race at Watkins (N.Y.) Glen International on Sunday afternoon after leading 74 of 100 laps.
Van Gisbergen scored the 15th victory for Trackhouse since the company was formed in 2021. Teammate Connor Zilisch placed 20th, ahead of Ross Chastain who was credited with 27th-place in the final rundown.
“My team was giving me lap times, which didn’t mean much, so I asked for the gap and then how many laps to go out of Turn 1 every lap,” commented van Gisbergen. “Once Josh (Williams, spotter) started giving me that info, it was awesome. Every lap I knew sort of how much I was gaining and how to manage my tires versus how many laps I had.”
Van Gisbergen started the 100 lap race from the front row after securing his fifth career pole position Saturday afternoon. From the jump he held a six second lead over the field before the No. 97 team opted to come to pit road with four laps remaining in the stage. Van Gisbergen finished Stage 1, eighth.
“I felt like I didn’t really know how the race was going to play out, thinking they might make it to the end and how much they were going to fall off, and my tires were starting to go off.”
His SuperFile Chevrolet led the field to green in Stage 2 and maintained the lead before the caution flew and he visited pit road, re-entering the field seventh with eighth laps remaining in the second stage.
He chased down the leaders and regained the lead with four laps remaining and went on to snag his first stage win of the season. Van Gisbergen started the final stage from the lead and maintained it until a caution came out. The No. 97 team made a strategy call to stay out and van Gisbergen led 13 laps before coming to pit road for a scheduled pit stop on lap 77.
He reentered the field 24th with 22 laps remaining. He drove his way through the field, running two second faster lap times than the leaders. Van Gisbergen made an impressive charge through the field to secure the lead with eight laps remaining and took home the checkered flag seven seconds ahead of the field.
“It was a bit of uncertainty, but Stephen (Doran, Crew Chief) is always confident in his calls. I just believed in everything our SuperFile team did. It was a good team strategy day. It was awesome.”
The NASCAR Cup Series will return to action Sunday, May 17 at Dover (Del.) Motor Speedway in Delaware.
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