Shane Van Gisbergen just showed off what a perfect road course race looked like. Picking up his 7th road course win, SVG started and finished first in a strong showing for the Kiwi. 

SVG made up a remarkable 29.2 seconds in 18 laps, after pitting on lap 76. He came back out in 26th with Ty Gibbs leading the race till lap 84 when SVG chased him down, making it a comfortable win in the end by 7 seconds. 

The #97 Trackhouse driver won his 2nd in 3 starts at Watkins Glen. It was back-to-back poles and wins for the driver from New Zealand, who took his 7th win, becoming the highest race win amongst drivers not born in America. 

Speaking to Jamie Little from Fox, SVG said, “Unbelievable to win with the #97. The Chevy was great. Thank you to Trackhouse. We weren’t really good in practice, and then qualifying was amazing. Good tweaks, and today so what a racecar. Stephen made calls. I wasn’t sure how it was gonna work and to run him down like that. Very, very special to do two in a row.”

SVG made the race look easy, but he said, “It’s not easy. Everyone’s really good. There was a lot of pressure there, and McDowell was good. Connor was good, Tyler Reddick. There were some really good guys and a lot of pressure. Just stoked for these guys to execute every facet of their game. Speechless. It’s so cool.”

With that win, SVG climbed into 16th, the sweet spot for the Chase, as the 97 became the 7th driver this season to get a win. 

While SVG picked up the best points, winning not just the race but also Stage 2, Ross Chastain, who won the first stage, finished 27th.

Connor Zilisch, who started the race in 5th after winning the NOAPS race, competed strongly in the race. However, a flat tire made him pit with just eight laps remaining, and he finished 20th.

Ty Gibbs, who led 17 laps for JGR, finished 3rd while Chase Briscoe started in 9th and finished 4th for JGR.

Tyler Reddick, the championship leader, finished 5th after putting significant pressure on the race winner towards the end of stage 2. 

Pit gamble pays off for McDowell and Spire

While Spire Motorsports would have been disappointed with Carson Hocevar finishing all the way down in 28th and Daniel Suarez finishing in 13th, it would be mighty pleased by Michael McDowell’s drive and the crew chief’s strategy. 

With a caution halfway through stage 2, everyone pitted, barring Michael McDowell, who stayed out and took the lead on older tires. The plan was to pick up stage points while being in a good position to pit and gain an advantage in the final stage. 

McDowell finished out of the stage points, and when he did pit, he ended up in 27th for the last restart. However, that pit cycle ultimately helped him come back to 2nd position. 

McDowell said, “That second stage there, we got a little bit off strategy, and then we recovered well, which Travis did a great job of getting the track position we needed. Just not quite enough to run him down.”

Speaking about building momentum, he said, “Second is awesome, it’s great to get momentum back on our side. We needed it after a rough few weeks. We wanted to get to victory lane. But proud of my guys. They worked really hard.”

Read more at the RFK Racing Digest!

Written by

Debrup Chaudhuri

Edited by

Suyashdeep Sason