Shane van Gisbergen is really, really good at road courses. Like, we already knew that. On Saturday, van Gisbergen reminded us of just how good he is, as he demolished the field in Busch Light qualifying to score the pole position for Sunday’s Go Bowling at The Glen at Watkins Glen International Speedway.
Starting Lineup: Go Bowling at The Glen
Gang, it wasn’t even close.
The driver of the No. 97 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet cranked out a lap time of 1 minute, 11.165 seconds, which equates to an average speed of 123.937 mph, which was nearly three-tenths-of-a-second better than the rest of the competition.
While van Gisbergen wasn’t happy with his car in Saturday’s practice session, it came to life in qualifying.
“Yeah, the guys did a good job tuning it for what I needed for the one lap,” van Gisbergen explained after his pole-winning run. “And SuperFiles Chevy was really good, and all the Trackhouse cars in the top five as well. We’ve got some good cars here this weekend, hopefully we can capitalize on that tomorrow.”
This pole position marks the fifth of the New Zealander’s NASCAR Cup Series career, and it came in his 62nd attempt. Van Gisbergen will now look to score his seventh NASCAR Cup Series race win on Sunday.
“Just rear grip, tire life. We just needed front for the one lap, but for the long run, we need rear grip. I’m sure everyone is fighting the same things. But the guys will put their heads together tonight, and hopefully tune it up,” van Gisbergen said.
While he came short of his ninth career pole position, Michael McDowell was very happy to claim a runner-up starting spot with his No. 71 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet, especially with how rough his last few weeks have gone on track.
“I feel like SVG kicked my butt through that bus stop, but really proud of everybody at Spire Motorsports,” McDowell said. “It’s been a rough few weeks here. The Go Bowling Chevrolet was fast. Tire falloff was incredible in practice. We got a decent lap in, but man, when you watch the SMT [data], and you watch how fast SVG gets through the bus stop, you feel like, man, I should have done a better job. But proud of everybody. We’ll take it.”
Austin Cindric, who was the fastest driver in Saturday’s NASCAR Cup Series practice session, secured the third starting spot for Sunday’s race, and he’ll be joined in Row 2 by Ross Chastain, the Trackhouse Racing teammate of van Gisbergen.
Connor Zilisch, the third Trackhouse Racing driver, will start from the fifth position after he turned an excellent qualifying lap behind the wheel of the No. 88 Chevrolet in the session.
Joey Logano, Ryan Blaney, Christopher Bell, Chase Briscoe, and Ty Gibbs rounded out the top-10 qualifiers in the race.
Katherine Legge, who is making her first NASCAR Cup Series start of the season and is driving the No. 78 Live Fast Motorsports Chevrolet, was unable to turn a practice lap, as her car had issues getting through pre-race inspection.
The driver and her team treated qualifying as their practice session. Legge logged 14 laps in qualifying and claimed the 38th and final starting spot for Sunday’s race.
