Shane van Gisbergen continues to reach new insane levels of performance on NASCAR road courses, but none of it is in any way surprising to Ryan Blaney.
On Sunday at Watkins Glen the 37-year-old New Zealander produced what might be his finest piece of work yet, an astonishing come-from-behind victory to stun his rivals and fans alike.
The No. 97 team's strategy choices meant that van Gisbergen, who had dominated the first two stages, took an extra green flag pit stop and had to cut through the field from 26th position and 29.2 seconds behind leaders Ty Gibbs and Connor Zilisch, with just 24 laps to go.
Not only did he easily cut through the cars in front of him, but he ate up that 29-second gap in the space of just 18 laps, having been minding his car and tires in the first two stages.
Van Gisbergen would eventually beat Michael McDowell for the win by 7.288 seconds (the fourth largest margin of victory at the track in Cup history), while Gibbs was beaten into third place by 16 seconds. In those final 24 laps SVG outpaced the No. 54 - a good car, a car which finished the race in third place - by 45 seconds. Unreal.
To some people this is jaw-dropping stuff, but not to 2023 Cup Series champion Blaney. The Team Penske star feared exactly this would happen - he called it years ago, before SvG had even taken NASCAR by storm with that winning Chicago debut in 2023.
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Blaney gushes about 'unbelievable' SvG
Talking to media including Oval Insider this week, Blaney admitted: “Speaking from a driver’s standpoint, it’s incredibly impressive and unbelievable how good he is at road courses. I mean, I knew it. When he was coming over here and they announced it before we ran Chicago I’m like, ‘We’re in trouble because I’ve watched him in V8 Supercars.’
“I’m good buddies with Scottie Mac (Scott McLaughlin). He would talk about Shane. I’ve seen them battle and I’m like, ‘This guy is gonna be a big, big problem at these places,’ and he is. He’s proven me right.
“He’s the new benchmark and it’s a really high benchmark to try to reach. I feel like everyone is trying to work twice as hard to get there and we’re not making much progress, to be honest with you.
“He was able to get beat at COTA this year, which broke his streak, but he’s just incredibly impressive with what he does. People always say, ‘Well, you have data. You just look at what he’s doing and do it.’ I’m like, ‘It’s so hard to replicate that, especially at a road course.’ It’s hard enough on an oval. It’s hard to replicate what he’s doing because there are a million little things that he’s doing that all add up that makes him better than the rest of us.”
Blaney says SvG rivals are getting closer
Van Gisbergen dominated in five Cup Series road-course wins in 2025, and Sunday at The Glen provided more of the same. Blaney though says he and the rest of the opposition are not giving up on the chase, and he believes they are getting closer to the silver bullet.
“It’s tough, but we don’t accept defeat going into road courses. We work really hard to say, ‘OK, how do we run the best that we can?’ We know where the best guy is gonna be, that’s Shane, and how do we get close? How do we get there and just try to race with him to where we can be in contention.
“But I do think we’re making good progress. I thought COTA we were right there. The Glen, it was a funky race for us. We didn’t flip the first stage and kind of picking our way through the second one, and then I hit the 24 when he spun out and kind of damaged us, but we still fought back to finish fairly decent, so I’m looking forward to San Diego.
“Sonoma, I thought we had a good piece last year. It’s impressive what he’s doing. We’re working really hard to get there, it’s just a matter of are we gonna get there? It’s hard to deny how amazingly impressive that guy is.”
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