There’s been major improvement on the ovals for Shane Van Gisbergen in the last month or so, but the Trackhouse driver reminded everyone Saturday that the road courses are his bread and butter.
Piloting the No. 88 SafetyCulture Chevrolet, the Auckland, New Zealand-native captured the pole for Sunday’s Viva Mexico 250 at Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, the first NASCAR Cup Series event outside of the United States since 1958.
Van Gisbergen was able to put together a strong lap in Saturday’s 45-minute session from the 2.42-mile road course, posting a time of 92.776 seconds (93.904mph).
It’s the second pole in the NASCAR Cup Series for Shane Van Gisbergen, which makes him just the third driver to earn his first two poles on road courses (joining Tyler Reddick and Dan Gurney).
“That’s awesome,” said Van Gisbergen. “What a really cool achievement for us. Great starting spot for tomorrow. Yeah, I’m excited, that’s really cool.”
It’s the fourth NASCAR Cup Series pole for Trackhouse Racing, the last three of which have now come on three different road courses with three different drivers.
STARTING LINEUP: 2025 NCS Viva Mexico 250 at Mexico City
“My laps were average. Like, you’ll see, everybody is beating me in the first half of the lap, and then, my lap gets good at the end. I went for another lap, and was on a ripper and mucked it up. We had a lot of speed today, which is good. It’s been a great improvement.”
The session, originally scheduled for 45 minutes, was shortened due to inclement weather, endiong with 17 minutes left.
Ryan Preece, in a bit of a surprising run, qualified in second place at Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez. It’s the best road course start for the driver of the No. 60 Ford Mustang for RFK Racing — beating out a previous best 14th.
Ross Chastain, a teammate of Shane Van Gisbergen and winner of the pole position last September at Watkins Glen, clocked in third place, with Ty Gibbs and Michael McDowell rounding out the top five.
Kyle Larson will start Sunday’s event from sixth place, with Todd Gilliland seventh, AJ Allmendinger eighth, Joey Logano ninth, and Daniel Suarez rounding out the top-10.
Other notables include Kyle Busch (11th), Chase Elliott (12th), Josh Berry (13th), Chris Buescher (16th), Ryan Blaney (18th), Chase Brisoce (19th), Austin Cindric (20th), Tyler Reddick (22nd), William Byron (27th), Alex Bowman (29th), Brad Keselowski (30th), Christopher Bell (31st).
Ryan Truex, subbing for Denny Hamlin while he stays at home with his newborn son, qualified 36th.
The Viva Mexico 250 will take place on Sunday, June 15 at 3:00 PM ET on Prime Video, MRN, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.
