Shane van Gisbergen pulls off stunning comeback at Watkins Glen
NASCAR's road-racing superstar put on a comeback for the ages on Sunday afternoon. After a pit stop with 24 laps to go at Watkins Glen International, Trackhouse Racing's Shane van Gisbergen amazingly erased a 29-second deficit as he chased down leader Ty Gibbs and roared away to win the NASCAR Cup Series' Go Bowling At The Glen in Watkins Glen, New York. The New Zealand-born driver fell to 22nd place after his last stop under green, but he set out to run down Gibbs and second-place teammate Connor Zilisch.
He chopped off seconds each lap and passed Gibbs' No. 54 Toyota with eight laps left. The No.
97 Chevrolet driver wound up beating runner-up Michael McDowell by a massive 7. 288 seconds. While leading 74 of the race's 100 laps, van Gisbergen notched his sixth victory in the past seven road races and secured his seventh career Cup win – all on road courses – in just 62 starts.
He joined Tyler Reddick as the only drivers to win from the pole this season. "We weren't very good in practice, and then qualifying was amazing, good tweaks, and then today," said van Gisbergen, who moved to 16th in the point standings. "I wasn't sure how it was going to work, and then to run them down like that.
Very special to do two (Glen wins) in a row. " The fourth-year road ace claimed he wasn't as dominant as it looked. "It's not easy," he said.