Shane Van Gisbergen ‘devastated’ after rare mistake leads to second place

After spending much of the race at the front of the field, Shane Van Gisbergen was able to sit back and study leaders Chris Buescher and Carson Hocevar as they mastered restart after restart in the closing stages of Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series event at Watkins Glen International.

It was only at the last restart in the NASCAR overtime that the Auckland-born New Zealander managed a perfect three-man maneuver into the first corner, took the lead and tried to escape the No. 17 Ford Mustang of BuildSubmarines.com.

Despite the high pace shown by the No. 16 WeatherTech Chevrolet Camaro throughout the afternoon, the incredibly talented road course driver couldn’t quite pull away from Buescher when the field saw the white flag again, and the RFK Racing driver was within striking distance.

As the leaders drove through the intermediate loop on the final lap, everything seemed to remain status quo until Van Gisbergen suddenly lost momentum at the exit and Buescher was able to force his way to the right side of the No. 16 in the carousel, squeeze past and take the win.

It was only after the race that it had to be repeated several times before someone noticed the slightest mistake entering the Bus Stop chicane, when the three-time Supercars champion clipped the Armco barriers, messed up his entire sequence of corners and took the wind out of his sails.

“Yeah, don’t hit the wall,” Van Gisbergen said when asked what he needed to do to bring home the win. “I don’t know, it was hard. I gave him a little push to get the spot and I knew he was going to come back. So I just pushed the competitors and tried to get away and just made a mistake. I’m mad because these races are hard to win and we haven’t had an easy time in the Cup Series this year. The WeatherTech Camaro was really good, the fastest car all day, and it just didn’t work out.”

Van Gisbergen still managed to bring home a second-place finish for Kaulig Racing and the No. 16 team on Sunday, but with his second NASCAR Cup Series victory in sight, that’s probably not much consolation for the Xfinity Series championship contender.

Although the Cup Series victory slipped away in the final moments of the race, Van Gisbergen was overall positive about the performance, saying: “The race was great with Ross [Chastain] and Chris [Buescher] and the others at the end. I’m disappointed we didn’t make it, but I had a lot of fun, I’m pretty mad at myself.”

The result also gives Matt Kaulig’s company its best finish of the NASCAR Cup Series season and its first top-five finish at NASCAR’s highest level since Homestead-Miami Speedway in the fall of 2023, almost a full year ago.

Van Gisbergen will return to the driver’s seat of the No. 16 Chevrolet in three more races at Talladega Superspeedway, Las Vegas Motor Speedway and Martinsville Speedway before the end of the current season.

This extensive part-time schedule is designed to help Van Gisbergen prepare for his full-time stint in the NASCAR Cup Series in 2025, where he will drive the No. 88 for Trackhouse Racing and be one of the preseason favorites to score at least one road course win.