May 10, 2026 | By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service

Shane van Gisbergen rules Watkins Glen

WATKINS GLEN, N.Y.—Like a world-class hunter stalking defenseless prey, Shane van Gisbergen reasserted his claim to the status as the best road course racer NASCAR has ever seen.

It’s not just that the New Zealander beat runner-up Michael McDowell to the finish line to win Sunday’s Go Bowling at the Glen by 7.288 seconds. It was the way SVG ran down late-race leader Ty Gibbs to the tune of 29.2 seconds in 18 laps at the 2.45-mile Watkins Glen International Road Course.

The mythical shark “Jaws” couldn’t have been a more relentless or terrifying pursuer.

In defending last year’s win at The Glen, Trackhouse Racing’s van Gisbergen scored his seventh NASCAR Cup Series victory—all on road or street courses—and his first this season.

“Unbelievable to win with (the No.) 97,” van Gisbergen said. “Thank you to Trackhouse. We weren’t very good in practice, and then qualifying was amazing. Good tweaks, and then today, so what a race car.

“Then (crew chief) Stephen (Doran) made great calls. I wasn’t sure how it was going to work. Then to run them down, very, very special to do two in a row. Just stoked for these guys, you know, to execute every facet of our game. Speechless. This is so cool.”

Starting from the pole, van Gisbergen led the first 18 laps before short-pitting the first 20-lap stage. He pitted once again on Lap 41 under a bizarre caution caused by a tent blowing through the air from the camping area onto the race track.

After passing McDowell for the lead on Lap 47, van Gisbergen stayed on the track to win the second stage at Lap 50 and declined to pit on Lap 61 under caution for debris from Joey Logano’s left-front tire. That strategy was contrary to most of the rest of the field.

Van Gisbergen built a lead of more than six seconds before making a green-flag stop on Lap 76. That’s when the heroics began in earnest.

Leaving pit road more than 29 seconds behind Gibbs and Trackhouse Racing teammate Connor Zilisch, van Gisbergen charged through the field in pursuit of the first- and second-place cars. Both Gibbs and Zilisch were saving fuel after pitting on Lap 61 and were racing on tires that were degrading rapidly.

Zilisch dropped from contention on Lap 92 with a flat right front tire. One lap later, van Gisbergen muscled past a helpless Gibbs into the lead and stretched his advantage until the finish.

McDowell, on a similar pit strategy to SVG’s, passed Gibbs for second on Lap 95. Gibbs held third, followed by Chase Briscoe and series leader Tyler Reddick, who leaves Watkins Glen with a 129-point lead over second place Denny Hamlin (16th on Sunday).

“Yeah, it’s great. It’s great to get this Chevrolet in the top five,” said McDowell, who had to settle for best-in-class in his No. 71 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet. “There were moments where I thought, ‘Oh, maybe we can hang with SVG,’ and it felt like he was just pacing himself back off me, and he would take back off.

“In that second stage there, we got a little off strategy and then recovered well, which (crew chief) Travis (Peterson) did a great job of getting the track position when we needed it. Just not quite enough to run him down.

“Like I said, it’s just tough, man. Second is awesome. It’s great to get momentum back on our side. We needed it after a rough few weeks, but we wanted to get to Victory Lane.”

In fuel-saving mode over the last 39 laps, Gibbs couldn’t run the pace he needed to stay ahead of the race winner.

“Honestly, just a little frustrating,” said Gibbs, who picked up his first career Cup Series victory at Bristol in April. “I wish we could keep racing, but unfortunately, just had to save some fuel there.

“Yeah, good to come home with a third-place finish. Obviously, wish it was another win, but you know, had a lot of fun today. Always fun to come to Watkins Glen.”

Richard Childress Racing’s Austin Dillon finished sixth—his first top 10 of the season—followed by AJ Allmendinger, RCR teammate Kyle Busch, Austin Cindric and John Hunter Nemechek.

In a race that featured six lead changes among four drivers, Van Gisbergen led 74 of 100 laps, followed by Gibbs with 17. There were four cautions for 12 total laps.

The Cup Series travels to Dover Motor Speedway for next Sunday’s NASCAR All-Star Race (1 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).


NASCAR Cup Series Race Number 12
Race Results for the Go Bowling at The Glen - Sunday, May 10, 2026
Watkins Glen International - Watkins Glen, NY - 2.45 - Mile Road

Total Race Length - 100 Laps - 245. Miles

                                                    Stage 1   Stage 2
Fin Str Car Driver Team Laps Pts  Pos         Pos Status Tms Laps

1 1 97 Shane Van Gisbergen Superfile Chevrolet 100 8 1 68 Running 4 74
2 2 71 Michael McDowell Go Bowling Chevrolet 100 10 36 Running 1 5
3 10 54 Ty Gibbs Monster Energy Toyota 100 3 42 Running 1 17
4 9 19 Chase Briscoe Mobil 1 Toyota 100 9 35 Running
5 15 45 Tyler Reddick Jordan Brand Toyota 100 2 41 Running
6 25 3 Austin Dillon 38 Bass Pro Shops/Winchester AA White Flyer 100 4 Running
7 12 16 AJ Allmendinger Grizzly Nicotine Pouches Chevrolet 100 5 36 Running
8 21 8 Kyle Busch zone Jalapeno Lime Chevrolet 100 5 35 Running
9 3 2 Austin Cindric Snap on Ford 100 4 7 39 Running
10 17 42 John Hunter Nemechek Pye-Barker Fire & Safety Toyota 100 6 32 Running
11 7 12 Ryan Blaney Menards/Libman Ford 100 3 34 Running
12 14 17 Chris Buescher BuildSubmarines.com Ford 100 6 30 Running
13 16 7 Daniel Suarez Cal Ripken Sr. Foundation Chevrolet 100 24 Running
14 30 60 Ryan Preece Mohawk Northeast Inc. Ford 100 23 Running
15 19 41 Cole Custer HaasTooling.com Chevrolet 100 22 Running
16 20 11 Denny Hamlin Progressive Insurance Toyota 100 21 Running
17 22 34 Todd Gilliland Farm Rich Ford 100 20 Running
18 33 38 Zane Smith Aaron's Rent To Own Ford 100 19 Running
19 24 43 Erik Jones Dollar Tree Toyota 100 18 Running
20 5 88 Connor Zilisch # Red Bull Chevrolet 100 8 21 Running
21 8 20 Christopher Bell Coofandy Menswear Toyota 100 7 20 Running
22 35 4 Noah Gragson Long John Silver's/Franks's Red Hot Ford 100 15 Running
23 23 5 Kyle Larson HendrickCars.com Chevrolet 100 14 Running
24 27 9 Chase Elliott NAPA Auto Parts Chevrolet 100 13 Running
25 28 48 Alex Bowman Ally Chevrolet 100 12 Running
26 32 35 Riley Herbst Monster Energy Zero Sugar Toyota 100 9 13 Running
27 4 1 Ross Chastain Busch Light Apple Chevrolet 100 1 20 Running 1 4
28 11 77 Carson Hocevar Spectrum Chevrolet 100 9 Running
29 18 23 Bubba Wallace Hardee's/Coca-Cola Toyota 100 10 9 Running
30 26 6 Brad Keselowski Modelo Ford 100 7 Running
31 29 47 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Ram Self Storage Chevrolet 100 6 Running
32 34 21 Josh Berry DEX Ford 100 5 Running
33 31 10 Ty Dillon Campers Inn RV Chevrolet 99 4 Running
34 37 66 * Josh Bilicki(i) Southern Tier Security Ford 99 0 Running
35 38 78 * Katherine Legge e.l.f. Chevrolet 99 2 Running
36 13 24 William Byron Liberty University Chevrolet 97 1 Running
37 36 51 Cody Ware Jacob Construction Chevrolet 90 1 Accident
38 6 22 Joey Logano Shell Pennzoil Ford 85 2 10 Running

Time of Race: 2 Hrs, 29 Mins, 11 Secs. Average Speed: 98.536 MPH Margin of Victory: 7.288 Seconds

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

Race Comments: Shane van Gisbergen has won the Go Bowling at The Glen, his seventh career victory in the NASCAR Cup Series. Prior to the start of the race, no vehicles dropped to the rear of the field.

Failed to Qualify: None.

Caution Flags: 4 for 12 laps; Laps: 22-24 (Stage 1 Conclusion  [None]); 41-43 (Debris Turn 2 [None]); 52-54 (Stage 2 Conclusion [24]); 61-63 (Debris top of the esses [24]).

Lead Changes: 6 among 4 drivers; S. Van Gisbergen 1-18; R. Chastain 19-22; S. Van Gisbergen 23-41; M. McDowell 42-46; S. Van Gisbergen 47-75; T. Gibbs 76-92; S. Van Gisbergen 93-100.

(i) Ineligible for driver points in this series

Next Race: May 17, 2026 - Dover Motor Speedway

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CURRENT NASCAR CUP SERIES STANDINGS

Through May 10, 2026

UNOFFICIAL UNOFFICIAL

1. Tyler Reddick 45 12 0 567 0 0 5 0
2. Denny Hamlin 11 12 0 438 -129 129 1 3
3. Chase Elliott 9 12 0 422 -145 16 2 1
4. Ryan Blaney 12 12 0 405 -162 17 1 1
5. Chris Buescher 17 12 0 375 -192 30 0 0
6. Ty Gibbs 54 12 1 372 -195 3 1 1
7. Carson Hocevar 77 12 -1 342 -225 30 1 0
8. Kyle Larson 5 12 0 332 -235 10 0 3
9. Brad Keselowski 6 12 0 318 -249 14 0 2
10. Bubba Wallace 23 12 1 313 -254 5 0 2
11. Christopher Bell 20 12 1 311 -256 2 0 2
12. William Byron 24 12 -2 309 -258 2 0 1
13. Ryan Preece 60 12 0 296 -271 13 0 1
14. Daniel Suarez 7 12 0 295 -272 1 0 0
15. Austin Cindric 2 12 0 287 -280 8 0 1
16. Shane Van Gisbergen 97 12 3 283 -284 4 1 1

17. Chase Briscoe 19 12 -1 277 -290 6 0 0
18. Joey Logano 22 12 -1 245 -322 32 0 0
19. Ross Chastain 1 12 -1 236 -331 9 0 3
20. AJ Allmendinger 16 12 0 235 -332 1 0 0