{"id":58022,"date":"2026-05-09T15:30:34","date_gmt":"2026-05-09T20:30:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/?p=58022"},"modified":"2026-05-10T14:37:37","modified_gmt":"2026-05-10T19:37:37","slug":"shane-van-gisbergen-starts-watkins-glen-defense-with-pole-winning-run","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/09\/shane-van-gisbergen-starts-watkins-glen-defense-with-pole-winning-run\/","title":{"rendered":"Shane van Gisbergen starts Watkins Glen defense with pole-winning run"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service<\/em><\/p>\n

WATKINS GLEN, N.Y.\u2014The Bus Stop chicane at Watkins Glen International is designed to slow drivers down.<\/p>\n

\"\"

WATKINS GLEN, NEW YORK – MAY 09: Shane Van Gisbergen, driver of the #97 Superfile Chevrolet, poses for photos after winning the pole award during qualifying for the NASCAR Cup Series Go Bowling at The Glen at Watkins Glen International on May 09, 2026 in Watkins Glen, New York. (Photo by Sean Gardner\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

In Saturday\u2019s NASCAR Cup Series qualifying session, however, it was the section of the 2.45-mile road course where defending race winner Shane van Gisbergen gained light years over the competition, relatively speaking, in securing the pole for Sunday\u2019s Go Bowling at the Glen (3 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).<\/p>\n

The New Zealander, celebrating his 37th birthday, navigated the seven-turn circuit in 71.165 seconds (123.937 mph) on the first of two qualifying laps to beat Spire Motorsports\u2019 Michael McDowell (123.488 mph) for the top starting spot by 0.259 seconds.<\/p>\n

\u201cI did nail it on my first lap,\u201d van Gisbergen said of the Bus Stop at the end of the long backstretch, where he gained more than two tenths of a second on the field. \u201cThe first half of the lap was pretty average, I thought.<\/p>\n

\"\"

WATKINS GLEN, NEW YORK – MAY 09: Shane Van Gisbergen, driver of the #97 Superfile Chevrolet, (L) and Connor Zilisch, driver of the #88 Red Bull Chevrolet, talk on the grid during practice for the NASCAR Cup Series Go Bowling at The Glen at Watkins Glen International on May 09, 2026 in Watkins Glen, New York. (Photo by Chris Graythen\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cMy second lap, I had less tire grip, but it was a better lap, so I think I was ahead until the Bus Stop, and then I mucked it up. My first lap was really good there\u2014probably got it right, and maybe the others got it wrong. But generally, that is a really strong point for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Team Penske\u2019s Austin Cindric (123.452 mph) claimed the third starting spot, followed by van Gisbergen\u2019s teammates at Trackhouse Racing, Ross Chastain (123.445 mph) and Connor Zilisch (123.386 mph).<\/p>\n

Joey Logano and Ryan Blaney, last year\u2019s pole winner, were sixth and seventh, giving Team Penske three of the top seven starters. The Joe Gibbs Racing trio of Christopher Bell, Chase Briscoe and Ty Gibbs completed the top 10.<\/p>\n

van Gisbergen expects tire wear to play a major role in Sunday\u2019s race, which has been lengthened from 90 to 100 laps, featuring stage lengths of 20, 30 and 50 laps.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fall-off was insane,\u201d van Gisbergen said. \u201cI didn\u2019t expect that. The marbles and the fall-off was extreme today. It\u2019s kind of like Bristol when it\u2019s cold. The tires would fall apart. It was very interesting. We fell off four seconds or so.<\/p>\n

\u201cCrazy. It\u2019ll be a good race to watch but probably a hard one to manage.\u201d<\/p>\n

Series leader Tyler Reddick, a five-time winner this season and the most recent road course winner at Circuit of the Americas, qualified 15th. Chase Elliott, last Sunday\u2019s winner at Texas Motor Speedway, will start 27th on Sunday.<\/p>\n

Interview: Busch Light Pole Award Winner Shane van Gisbergen (No. 97 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet) –<\/strong><\/p>\n

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service WATKINS GLEN, N.Y.\u2014The Bus Stop chicane at Watkins Glen International is designed to slow drivers down. In Saturday\u2019s NASCAR Cup Series qualifying session, however, it was the section of the 2.45-mile road course where defending race winner Shane van Gisbergen gained light years over the competition, relatively speaking, in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":676,"featured_media":58003,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[11],"tags":[16,941,472],"class_list":["post-58022","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nascar","tag-nascar","tag-shane-van-gisbergen","tag-watkins-glen-international"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/GettyImages-2275343007-scaled.jpg?fit=2560%2C1667&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7hzTZ-f5Q","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58022","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/676"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58022"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58022\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":58033,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58022\/revisions\/58033"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58003"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58022"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58022"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58022"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}