NASCAR Cup Series: Go Bowling at the Glen

0:03 Short shoot leading to the final corner.

0:05 There's the start of the restart zone.

0:08 Shane Vandesburgen is on it.

0:10 The green flag is waving.

0:12 They come off the final turn and address themselves to the start finish line.

0:16 We're racing in Watkins.

0:22 Oh, you see some tire smoke right there out of Rosschane's car.

0:25 gets that that car fit into that gap

0:28 right there down on the bottom of the corner.

0:30 And everybody pretty calm right here on this first start, Clint.

0:34 And then as you come up through the S is very narrow.

0:36 You want to get things sorted out pretty quick.

0:38 You're doortodoor like you see Blainy.

0:40 I don't know who that was on the inside,

0:41 but that's an opportunity for somebody coming behind you to pounce on you guys.

0:46 175 mph at the end of this back straight before you dive into the bus stop.

0:50 Chicane.

0:51 Yeah.

0:51 And it's so difficult to be side by side.

0:53 you have to get it worked out or give a a whole lot of room.

0:57 And what that does, you see a couple

0:58 cars dancing all over the place right there.

1:00 Like the seven car of Daniel Suarez.

1:03 You can you you can run on the outside of this carousel, but man,

1:06 it is it is tough to go through that bus stop side by side.

1:09 Now it's a game of chicken getting into the bus stop.

1:12 It really is.

1:13 Then you see Zillich keep that car up

1:15 on the outside and he's going to get aggressive.

1:21 and Joey Logano underneath his teammate.

1:23 Yeah, it really put Cynick in a bad spot when he

1:26 was on the outside going into the into the carousel right there.

1:29 Didn't really expect Zillich to probably keep that car in position

1:32 to to run side by side through the middle of the bus stop.

1:35 Well, it didn't just cost him one position, cost him another.

1:38 Mel got in the back of him struggling.

1:42 16 of the 38 starters did not come to pit.

1:46 Most of the field did.

1:48 And here we go with two to go.

1:51 When he crosses that start finish line,

1:54 the pits will close with two laps to go.

1:56 And the advantage that he had taking taking the being

1:59 a leader was he could wait an extra lap.

2:02 But he saw they saw how many cars pitted and they knew

2:04 that they would be in big trouble if they stayed on the racetrack.

2:07 Guys, speaking of change stage points,

2:09 Chase Elliot stayed out to score stage points.

2:12 He's not going to score.

2:13 He's sitting there running 11th.

2:14 And now he's going to be deep in the field

2:16 cuz he'll have to pit at the end of the stage.

2:20 Ross Chastain earns his third stage win

2:23 of the season ahead of Logan Blay and Cynric Fords.

2:27 Almondinger Chevy, the Toyotas of Neimichek and Bell.

2:32 Van Gettburg back on track in eighth.

2:35 And the Toyotas of Bubble Wallace and Riley

2:37 Herpst will get the final stage here.

2:44 I'm interested to see if Zillich can take off with these guys and and keep pace.

2:49 About to find out.

2:58 And we are back to green for stage two.

3:01 Yeah, you see how late that SVG takes off in that restart zone.

3:04 He did that on the start as well.

3:05 And the leader has that option anywhere in that whole box.

3:10 Think you might see a move to the inside for Zillich right here.

3:21 I wouldn't want to pounce on him as fast as I possibly can.

3:24 Try to make this pass.

3:25 Here he comes to the inside.

3:29 Then I want to go out there,

3:31 stretch my lead out on him a little bit and start managing my tires then.

3:34 But try to make the pass while you still had some goodie left in your Goodyears.

3:38 Textbook pass there.

3:39 And I like that McDow let him go.

3:41 If you're going to get past,

3:42 don't you want to do it where it's going

3:44 to take the least amount of add to your lap time?

3:49 I've been looking at the data on Van Gizburg

3:51 and in the 97 Zilich 88 as far as throttle,

3:54 brake, shift points, they pretty much are overlaying.

3:57 But when I look at differential around the racetrack, they're pretty equal.

4:01 But just like qualifying yesterday where Ben Gizburgen has the advantages,

4:05 especially from the middle of the bus stop off,

4:08 he gets through it and gets off a little better than Connor Zilich.

4:11 You know what though?

4:12 I am impressed with Connor Zillich.

4:14 I know they're in the same equipment,

4:16 same race cars, but he is keeping him honest.

4:18 That's a 99 to a 95.

4:20 It was a 63 to a 61.

4:22 They have been right there.

4:24 But Kevin, you know as well as I do,

4:25 the closer you run to that race car, the more you wear your stuff out.

4:30 Caution.

4:30 Caution is out.

4:32 Uh the first caution for cause today.

4:37 Uhoh.

4:35 And there is the debris.

4:38 What's that, Kevin?

4:39 Well, it looks something has obviously blown onto the racetrack.

4:43 Not Not sure where it came from.

4:47 Well, we can show you.

4:51 Oh, wow.

4:52 Somebody's canopy or part of their ground area went ary and away it went.

4:57 that we're not Kansas anymore, Toto.

5:01 Well, yeah, but you see a lot of things like this in Kansas.

5:05 That was like one of those wind tornadoes or something went through there.

5:09 Yeah.

5:09 And then it then it blows all the way out onto the racetrack.

5:12 Well, there's a soaring center not far from here

5:14 where you can go fly gliders, but yikes.

5:18 Chase Brisco had to jack up his car twice

5:20 and drop from 8th to 20th on the pit stop.

5:23 Here we go.

5:29 You can already see SVG down on the bottom trying to get work done quick.

5:34 Here he comes.

5:35 Yeah, and this is really when you'll start to see you see Riley Herps

5:39 get outside three wide and got tagged from that middle car.

5:43 Didn't know that they were three wide right there it looked like to me.

5:46 I think that was Neimichek was the meat

5:47 in the sandwich there with Ben Gizburgen on the bottom.

5:50 Yeah.

5:50 And watch what SVG will be able to do going into that bus stop.

5:53 Still double wide back there.

5:54 More contact.

5:57 Connor Zillich getting mired back in traffic.

5:59 Didn't get through him quite as good as his teammate.

6:04 See him just able to throw that car in there and make that pass.

6:08 Tyler Reick gets shoved wide.

6:09 But oh, one around that is William Byron.

6:13 He gets hit by Blay.

6:15 And look at them scramble out of the bus stop.

6:22 We stay green.

6:24 Byron gets it refired and drives away.

6:27 Gosh, that could have been way worse, guys,

6:28 with William Byron turned around in the middle of that pack like that.

6:32 Whole field right to leak spent, guys.

6:37 Yeah, we saw everybody get jammed up going through the infield.

6:42 See Reic wide right there.

6:43 He hit the inside wall and then you just see contact.

6:48 I think it was Chris Busher that got into Byron.

6:51 Busher was over onto the grass,

6:53 come back up into the track and got into Byron, spun him around.

6:57 But even before that, I even saw Reic side by side.

7:01 I don't know if he clipped that inside wall, but he was oh so close.

7:04 And those last few replays, I mean,

7:05 that's really just that's middle of the pack racing.

7:08 I mean, there is contact.

7:09 There are things happening, people sliding in the dirt.

7:12 Look at that, Clint.

7:14 I mean, just absolutely demolished the 71 car with the tire advantage as well.

7:19 But as we saw from yesterday in qualifying

7:22 and we've seen as he's going through traffic,

7:24 he's just able to manage the brakes and drive

7:26 in further than anybody to make those passes.

7:28 SVG got to pit road.

7:32 He's been in control of this race the whole time.

7:34 Mike, he's got a new one to hold off now though with Reic

7:38 off the final corner for the final lap of stage number two.

7:42 Shane Van Gizburgen gets his first stage

7:45 win since the Charlotte Roal last October.

7:52 All right, stage three, longest stage of the day at 50 laps.

7:56 It will require a pit stop.

7:59 The question will be when.

8:04 Here we go back to green for the final stage at Watkins Glenn.

8:21 Everybody's been pretty clean off of turn one today.

8:23 It's like they're all pretty nervous about those tire packs out there.

8:27 These guys have done a great job to be able to not tear anything else,

8:31 not tear anything up yet.

8:33 Welcome back to Watkins Glenn where Joey Logano has had trouble.

8:35 He's lost a tire

8:37 and it ends up on the track and the yellow flag waves.

8:41 See that left front tire right here?

8:43 I don't know if it was down before he got onto the brakes,

8:46 but it looked like it was.

8:48 Larry, this warms things up in the old pit box, doesn't it?

8:52 Well, we got 40 laps to go.

8:54 We're probably about a lap or two from opening pit road.

8:58 Going to go back racing probably with what about 36 to go.

9:02 I think you got to come here and try to save a little bit.

9:05 Yeah.

9:05 And I I think you're right.

9:06 The best pit crew is that 54 as we've seen most of the day right now.

9:12 The first two faint and the others inside

9:16 the commit box and headed for pit rowing.

9:19 The cars that just pitted, they can maybe make it to the end.

9:23 Without a caution, these guys in the front are in trouble.

9:26 Van Gizburg in the 97, he can probably go to about lap 75.

9:30 I would try to lay down about 12 to 13

9:33 qualifying laps just to build as much lead as I can.

9:37 And here we go with it'll be 37 laps to go at the line.

9:47 Almondinger is going to get a spot here and they're

9:49 side by side for the lead entering the corner.

9:53 Always amazes me that on these road courses AJ Almondinger just finds

9:58 a way to get himself towards the front at the end of these races.

10:03 We are all over SVG's playbook.

10:05 He's trying the qualifying laps getting out

10:07 there as fast as I could possibly go.

10:10 He's doing everything he can do.

10:12 And almond that green car getting closer and closer to Tyler Reic.

10:18 Clint, you may have said it.

10:19 That was the fastest lap he's run the race right there.

10:21 There you go.

10:22 and and that just tells you how much

10:24 he's been just pacing himself throughout the day.

10:27 29 laps to go.

10:28 Tyler Reick made a pit stop because he thought the contact

10:32 between Josh Bicki and Catherine Le would bring out a caution.

10:37 It has not.

10:38 We stay green.

10:40 Van Gizburgen with 5 seconds on AJ Almondinger.

10:44 McDall right behind and the 45 of Reic comes back on track in 34th.

10:52 Here he comes.

10:53 Here he comes.

10:53 The leader Shane Van Gizburgen is going to pit.

10:57 He's led 67 of 75 laps so far.

11:02 And and if it runs green right here, I mean, Larry, you tell me if I'm wrong,

11:06 even if even if even if Connor Zillich or some of these guys can't make it,

11:10 there's going to be several cars that try to make this.

11:13 Oh, absolutely.

11:14 There there there may be some not make it.

11:16 We saw it yesterday in the rally series race, but somebody's going to make it.

11:20 Somebody will.

11:21 And the problem for Van Gizburgen is that two

11:23 of those somebodyies are in the top two positions.

11:25 Gibbs and Zillich both stopped at lap 61.

11:29 Jane Van Gizburgen came back on track around 24th spot.

11:33 He is up to 21st and he needs to gain 1.3 seconds a lap

11:38 on the leader to have a chance of getting there before the checkered flag waves.

11:42 Here's his radio.

11:45 We just need our pace for 23 laps.

11:46 We'll get most of the ones and the ones that are backing down.

11:48 We'll probably get two.

11:49 Yeah, I think you're going to have to go get most of these guys.

11:51 They're saving.

11:52 Guys are older.

11:57 In other words, you're on your own.

12:00 Yeah, right.

12:00 Pretty much.

12:01 And where that'll really show up, Clint,

12:03 is when they have if they both start to race hard and you

12:06 have to try to drive that thing into the corner super hard,

12:09 it'll find that flat spot because right now they're not even running hard.

12:12 You could hear how early they lifted into one right there.

12:15 Now you saw Van Ginsburg pass Chris Pusher for seventh place.

12:21 And he's now 14 1/2 seconds back with 14 laps to go.

12:28 Bubble, he's coming.

12:32 Right now, the projection is he'll catch him three to four laps to go.

12:38 Wow.

12:37 There you have it.

12:40 13 laps to go.

12:41 He's now just 12 1/2 seconds back.

12:43 That's exactly what I was.

12:44 So, it's within range.

12:46 Oh, it was 2.3 seconds better that lap than our leaders.

12:52 He just told his crew, "This is badass.

12:55 This is fun." And look, he's not I mean, it's not that far.

13:01 Just saw them exit the bus stop and here he comes in the end.

13:04 And like I said, the cars that he's going to pass now going to be easy.

13:09 Easy.

13:09 They're they're running beside uh by themselves.

13:12 And those passes, he'll be able to time them, catch them in the right area,

13:15 and be able to pass them getting into a passing zone.

13:20 But he's going to have to make quick work of this 54 if he can do it.

13:24 Oh, this is not what those leaders want to see.

13:28 If a car's out caution's coming out and another car around.

13:35 Whoa.

13:35 Side by side and almost Zillich almost

13:38 caught the guardrail entering the inner loop.

13:41 Another right front lock up and this is going

13:43 to slow them both down big time this lap.

13:47 Now you see that 51 Ben Gberen inside of six seconds now.

13:53 didn't get it.

13:56 Still locking the right front up.

13:58 Now that's where he got alongside Gibbs one

14:00 lap ago was coming into the bus stop.

14:04 Exactly what SVG needs.

14:06 He's already by the three car.

14:08 He's going to clear he's going to clear this 19

14:10 car off this off the carousel right here, Larry.

14:14 Yeah.

14:14 So here's the trends of the race.

14:16 I looked at the first 11 races in 2026.

14:19 average of the last caution 10 to go which right now would be lap 90.

14:24 My experience when you tell a driver the road courses

14:26 10 to go the wires just start sparking inside the helmets

14:30 right it is sparking in the 88.

14:32 He's trying all he can do to get around

14:34 the 54 and now it's every corner right front lock up.

14:37 I thought that they were crazy on this 97 car

14:40 with the way that they pitted but man has it worked out.

14:43 He's got a right front down.

14:44 Told you he's done.

14:50 Slid it one too many times.

14:52 Not kidding.

14:53 Gibbs is a sitting duck.

14:54 This is a lot of racing left.

14:59 Wow, what a performance.

15:02 Kevin, he made up 22 seconds somewhere around in there on the racetrack.

15:09 That car pitted, Kevin, it went to pit road and took tires.

15:13 Yeah, well, he's going to be the leader here in a couple seconds.

15:16 See Tai Gibbs get loose right there off of turn

15:18 four and SVG is going to go right on by.

15:21 And if you're that 54 car right now,

15:23 you just let him go and really go into heavy save mode to just make

15:27 sure that you get everything that you can

15:30 out of this with a second place finish.

15:32 Guys, we ran some more math.

15:33 When Van Gizberger got back up to speed in 17 laps, he made up 29 seconds.

15:40 Wow.

15:40 Wow.

15:42 White flag.

15:43 Mercy flag for the rest of this field.

15:45 One lap to go.

15:46 Sponsored by Credit One Bank as Shane Van Gizburgen and his team

15:52 have put on a clinic in how to attack a road race course.

15:57 Well, he came in here 19th in points, 27 points below the cut line,

16:02 and it looks like he will leave here in 16th.

16:08 Six points above the 17th place car.

16:13 Down by almost 30 seconds.

16:14 He's going to win by easy.

16:17 Unbelievable.

16:18 Checkered flag.

16:20 Shane Van Gizberen is the master of NASCAR road racing.

16:27 Josh Barry off at turn one on his final lap.

16:30 He and Hosabar got together, seventh career win,

16:37 and he's the seventh driver to win this season.

16:42 Austin Crick and John Hunter round out the top 10.

16:57 He's captured the hearts of these American fans, the New Zealander.

17:01 Birthday boy this weekend.

17:04 Light the candles.

17:05 What a nice present this checkered flag will be for Shane Van Gizburgen.

17:11 Here it goes.

17:17 And the kids got it in the front.

17:19 Well, not everybody was so happy after this one.

17:22 Bubba Wallace and Christopher Bell had a few words after this was over.

17:28 Wallace finished 29th.

17:30 Bell finished 21st.

17:35 All right, we're good.

17:39 I don't think we're good right here.

17:40 Oh, not that good.

17:41 Okay, but they'll sort it out.

17:44 They've got two weeks to sort it out before the next point race.