Shane van Gisbergen has work to do in the Finger Lakes region of New York this weekend when the NASCAR Cup Series holds its second race on a road course in 2026, venturing to Watkins Glen International in Watkins Glen, N.Y.
On his 37th birthday Saturday, he led a strong, three-car showing by Trackhouse Racing in qualifying.
He put his No. 97 Chevrolet up front -- his fifth career pole -- by turning a lap of 1:11.165 seconds (123.937 mph) to knock off Michael McDowell's No. 71 Spire Motorsports Chevy (1:11.424/123.488). Austin Cindric No. 2 Ford was third.
Trackhouse teammates Ross Chastain and rookie Connor Zilisch rounded out the top five.
Nicknamed SVG for the sake of all the NASCAR announcers and fans who discuss his incredible work with the pedals on the snaking layouts, van Gisbergen finds himself riding 19th in the standings, winless as he turns left and right for Trackhouse Racing.
It's the preponderance of right turns that have led to his success since he exploded onto the Cup scene with his stunning win at the Chicago Street Course on July 2, 2023.
The race ended with the lamp posts glowing alongside Michigan Avenue, nearly in darkness, and while van Gisbergen has not really been in the dark this season, the results have not been illuminating.
A native of Auckland, New Zealand, SVG would love nothing more than to repeat at the Glen and leap over a number of fellow winless drivers in the standings.
But it won't be gifted to him.
In 2025, driving the No. 88, used this season by his teammate and rookie road-course ace Zilisch, van Gisbergen beat Chris Buescher to win the Cup race in August. The day before, Zilisch wrecked SVG and earned the checkers in the then-Xfinity Series race.
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However, the 19-year-old Zilisch caught his foot in the window netting as he climbed from his car in Victory Lane and crashed hard to the ground, breaking his collarbone and requiring surgery but returned 13 days later at Daytona.
van Gisbergen, whose six Cup victories have all come on road courses, warned this week that more danger awaits in upstate New York, referring to a new barrier installed in Turn 5 at the famous Carousel.
"The way that wall is angled, it's going to grab cars and spit them out back into the middle of the track," said van Gisbergen, who is entered in all three series' races this weekend. "This setup, especially how close it gets to the racing line, feels like a trap."
In the season's only road-course race so far at Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas, he tried to chase down and pass leader Tyler Reddick but could not do it, only leading two laps while Reddick paced the way on 58 circuits en route to his third straight win to start 2026.
van Gisbergen has posted only one other finish inside the top 10: a sixth at Atlanta the week before.
Not much has gone well in the last four races for him since running 11th at Martinsville last month: He has not finished better than his 17th-place effort last weekend at Texas Motor Speedway, where Chase Elliott took the checkers.
SVG (+125) and his teenaged teammate Zilisch (+285) come in as heavy favorites, according to DraftKings. Combined, they create a gap between third-favorite Reddick (+750) that's as large as the distance from Watkins Glen to the Big Apple.
"I thought I was being pretty normal when I fell off my car, but clearly my normal is a little bit different," said Zilisch, who also won the Xfinity race in 2024 at the 2.45-mile course. "I don't think I'll be too flashy, unless I win on Sunday."
There's a pretty decent chance that Trackhouse will be represented in the Glen's Victory Lane.
--Field Level Media
