Van Gisbergen Charges to Stunning Watkins Glen Victory

Van Gisbergen then wasted little time in snatching the No. 1 position from Gibbs with eight laps remaining and proceeded to stretch his advantage. He eventually finished 7.288 seconds ahead of Michael McDowell, who was on the same pit strategy as Van Gisbergen.

Van Gisbergen said the victory wasn’t as easy as it appeared.

“Everyone’s really good,” Van Gisbergen said. “There was a lot of pressure there. I think McDowell was good. Connor (Zilisch) was good. Tyler Reddick… there were some really good guys.”

McDowell’s runner-up finish was his second top five this season and his third top 10. His other top five came in the season’s third race at Circuit of The Americas.

Michael McDowell.’ expand='Sean Gardner - Getty Images

“There were moments I thought we could hang with SVG and it felt like he was just pacing himself and he’d take back off,” McDowell said. “In that second Stage we got a little bit off strategy and then we recovered well. Just not quite enough to run him (Van Gisbergen) down. That last stop we came out right with him, and he still had better pace on us.”

However, McDowell said it was “great to get momentum back on our side.”

“We needed it after a rough few weeks,” said McDowell, who hasn’t had a top 20 since Martinsville in March. “It’s a good building block. Our road course program has really come around. I feel like we’re building on it. We just need a little bit more.”

The victory was the first this year for Trackhouse Racing, which has struggled for most of the season. All three of its drivers competed in NASCAR’s national touring series events at The Glen.

Van Gisbergen recorded an eighth-place finish in Saturday’s O’Reilly Auto Parts Series race and took third in his second Craftsman Truck Series event.

Zilisch’s late-race pit stop left him 20th in Sunday’s Cup race.

“It’s just a bummer,” said Zilisch, who won Saturday’s Mission 200 driving for JR Motorsports and placed second in the Truck series Bully Hill Vineyards 176.

Connor Zilisch.Icon Sportswire - Getty Images

“I feel like I did almost everything right today (Sunday) that I could, but it just goes like that sometimes. At the worst, I was going to finish outside the top five, probably, and have my best day in this series, by far. I don’t think I could have beat Shane (van Gisbergen).

“When you’re so close, it’s just frustrating. I should have passed Ty (Gibbs). I don’t think it would have been any better to stay behind him. I could have saved more fuel in front of him and ran faster, but I’ll learn from it and be better moving forward.”

Ross Chastain finished 27thin the Cup event, fourth in Saturday’s Mission 200 and 28th in the Truck race.