Shane van Gisbergen has plenty of work ahead in New York’s Finger Lakes region this weekend as the NASCAR Cup Series heads to Watkins Glen International for its second road-course event of the 2026 season.
Known as SVG to announcers and fans who marvel at his mastery of twisting tracks, the New Zealander currently sits 19th in the standings without a win this year in his No. 97 Chevrolet for Trackhouse Racing.
His success has largely come from the abundance of right turns. Since stunning the Cup field with a victory at the Chicago Street Course on July 2, 2023, van Gisbergen has made road courses his specialty.
That race ended under the glow of Michigan Avenue’s lampposts, nearly in darkness. While SVG hasn’t been completely in the dark this season, the results have failed to shine.
Turning 37 on Saturday, the Auckland native would love nothing more than to repeat his 2025 triumph at the Glen and jump past several fellow winless drivers in the standings.
But it won’t come easily.
In 2025, driving the No. 88—now piloted by rookie teammate Connor Zilisch—van Gisbergen beat Chris Buescher to win the Cup race at Watkins Glen. The previous day, Zilisch had wrecked SVG and taken the checkered flag in the Xfinity Series race. However, the 19-year-old caught his foot in the window net while climbing out of his car in Victory Lane, fell hard, broke his collarbone, and required surgery, yet returned just 13 days later at Daytona.
Van Gisbergen, whose six Cup wins have all come on road courses, warned this week of additional danger at the New York track, pointing to a new barrier installed in Turn 5 at the famous Carousel.
“The way that wall is angled, it’s going to grab cars and spit them back into the middle of the track,” said van Gisbergen, who is entered in all three series’ races this weekend. “This setup, especially how close it gets to the racing line, feels like a trap.”
In the season’s only other road-course race so far at Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas, he tried to chase down leader Tyler Reddick but couldn’t pass him, leading just two laps while Reddick led 58 laps en route to a third straight win to open 2026.
Van Gisbergen has only one other top-10 finish this season: sixth at Atlanta the week before.
His last four races have been rough since an 11th at Martinsville last month. His best result in that stretch was a 17th-place effort last weekend at Texas Motor Speedway, where Chase Elliott won.
According to DraftKings, SVG (+125) and his teenage teammate Zilisch (+285) enter as heavy favorites. Together, they create a gap between third-favorite Reddick (+750) that’s as wide as the distance from Watkins Glen to New York City.
“I thought I was being pretty normal when I fell off my car, but clearly my normal is a little bit different,” said Zilisch, who also won the Xfinity race at the 2.45-mile course in 2024. “I don’t think I’ll be too flashy, unless I win on Sunday.”
There’s a strong chance Trackhouse Racing will be celebrating in Victory Lane at the Glen.
