Sunday's NASCAR Cup Series race at Watkins Glen was one for the ages, as Shane van Gisbergen demolished Ty Gibbs' 29-second lead in just 17 laps.

The New Zealander obviously leaves the Finger Lakes region as the weekend's biggest winner, jumping back into the top 16 of the points standings and extending his record as the winningest foreign-born driver in Cup Series history.

Some others – we're looking at you, Mr Logano – didn't have as productive a day. Here are the big winners (and losers) from Sunday's 100-lap epic.

NASCAR RESULTS: Shane van Gisbergen produces all-time great comeback at Watkins Glen

Winners

Shane van Gisbergen

What is there to say about the Kiwi's astonishing road course ability that hasn't already been said?

We'll just give you this stat: Van Gisbergen was 29.2 seconds down with 25 laps to go, took the lead on lap 93 of 100, and still went on to record the fourth-biggest margin of victory in any of the 43 Cup Series races held at Watkins Glen.

At this point, anybody who refuses to call him NASCAR's greatest road course racer is just being stubbornly contrarian.

Kyle Busch

Credit where it's due, Kyle Busch has run his best two races of the season in back to back weeks since replacing crew chief Jim Pohlman with Andy Street.

Texas didn't show up as such in the books after a late wreck left him down in 20th, but he bounced back from that controversial incident to record a season-best eighth place – which could have been fifth, but for running out of fuel at the very last.

To do all of that while audibly struggling with a sinus problem all afternoon, to the point that he asked for a doctor to be waiting for him after the race? Impressive stuff.

Michael McDowell

Lost in all the (entirely reasonable) clamor over Van Gisbergen's comeback drive, McDowell should at least be mentioned in dispatches for all-but emulating the race winner.

The No. 71 was a couple of seconds behind SVG when he began his historic charge through the field – and also ate up the half-minute gap to Ty Gibbs with laps to spare. The Kiwi's otherworldly talents meant that McDowell could only finish second, but he deserves a lot of credit for a performance which netted him his best finish since Sonoma in 2024.

Losers

Joey Logano

It feels mean to keep having the three-time champion in this spot, but he just keeps losing. This one wasn't on him – good qualifying, decent race, running alright – but then his front left tire disintegrated, and with it his hopes of a good finish.

Logano finished 15 laps down in 38th and last place, and is nearly 40 points below the Chase cut-line in the points standings. He's had as many DNFs (this wasn't one of them) as top-10 finishes in 2026. This is his longest streak of 30th-or-worse finishes (four in a row) since the first couple of months of his debut season, in 2009.

He's been the lucky man before. That luck may have turned.

NASCAR?? Cautions?? Cody Ware as a corporeal being??

We're all very aware that Cody Ware isn't relevant at road courses, but we're starting to wonder if he's actually visible at all sometimes.

For the second year in a row, the No. 51 got into a big wreck at a road course and NASCAR kept the caution flags in their pockets. In Chicago, it took more than 30 seconds to bring out the yellows for a brutal wreck into a tire-covered wall, and at Watkins Glen...they just never did?

Ware's big wreck in the final ten laps appeared to be missed by most, with an incidental overhead of his damaged car limping around the track the first time TV viewers became aware of it. The severity of the wreck – bouncing off the barriers at high speed and spinning to a stop on the track – appeared to be the sort of thing which would normally prompt an immediate yellow.

Perhaps more concerning, some pictures posted by fans at the track appear to show that Ware's car damaged the ARMCO barrier on impact, bending a section of it back at a severe angle. If that is in fact the case, it would be interesting to hear NASCAR's rationale for not pausing the race to repair a damaged barrier.

Hendrick Motorsports

An absolute, unmitigated stinker for the entire team. Their best-placed car was Kyle Larson in 23rd, and the fact that only William Byron (caught up in a Stage 2 wreck) lost points standing places is a minor miracle.

They just couldn't get a run going all day. Chase Elliott provided an early sign of how the day was going to go, staying out rather than flipping the first stage, in an effort to grab some stage points from what looked like being a tricky afternoon. He couldn't even do that, passing the green and white flag in 12th place for the worst of both worlds.

Per Joseph Srigley, Sunday was the first time in over 20 years (Sonoma in 2005) that Hendrick has failed to get a single car a top 20 finish at a road course race.

Did you know that today is the one-year anniversary of Larson's last Cup Series race win?

This team, as much as Elliott's pair of wins might paper over some cracks, is looking a little sickly.

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