Shane van Gisbergen: “It’s weird to be disappointed with second”

Shane van Gisbergen leaves Circuit of the Americas without the race win, but he is now ranked fifth in the championship point standings after a very strong points day.

In 2025, SVG won every road/street course race on the NASCAR Cup schedule with the exception of one — Circuit of the Americas.

While he won Saturday’s NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series race at COTA, Van Gisbergen came one position shy of completing the sweep in the 2026 edition of this race.

However, he did put up one impressive effort and gained a lot of valuable points. After qualifying 13th, he marched steadily through the field, reaching as high as third before the first cycle of pit stops. SVG stayed out until the end of the stage, collecting nine stage points by crossing the line in second. He later earned another stage point for tenth in Stage 2.

In the final stage, he remained just outside the lead battle as Tyler Reddick and Ryan Blaney dominated much of the race. It looked as if he was going to have a solid top five result, but the first natural caution of the race (for teammate Ross Chastain losing a wheel) gave him a real shot at the win.

Unable to stop Reddick’s three-peat

SVG overtook Blaney on the restart, and closely pursued Reddick for several laps. Unfortunately for the Trackhouse star, the #97 could not keep up with Reddick’s rapid pass, and he faded back to four seconds behind. Still, SVG finished second for his first top five of the 2026 season.

“It’s weird to be disappointed with second,” he said after climbing out of the car. “This series is just so high level and I felt okay. We got our Chevy a lot better than yesterday, but following Tyler – his driving was immaculate, and his car was very good too. I tried. Didn’t quite have enough, but still a great points day for the #97.”

As for what he needed, SVG said that the car “lacked a little bit of turn and a little bit of drive.” Tyler [Reddick] was just amazing. The way he was driving was really good and his car was good. We just didn’t quite have enough…”

Van Gisbergen entered this weekend’s race 16th in the championship standings after his best oval result so far in Cup, just one week ago. However, Sunday’s effort at COTA vaulted him all the way up to fifth, just 26 points behind second place while 96 points behind Reddick. 

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– The Motorsport.com Team

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