2024 Watkins Glen loss still “makes me angry”

After finishing sixth at COTA, Shane van Gisbergen has been unstoppable on road and street courses this year, winning the inaugural race in Mexico City, leading almost 90% of the laps at Sonoma Raceway, and sweeping the weekend at the Chicago Street Course. But last September, he had the chance to win at Watkins Glen in the Cup Series, only for it to slip away with just a few corners to go due to an unforced error.

The race ended in a dramatic two-lap dash to the checkered flag with SVG taking the lead from Chris Buescher on the restart. He appeared to be in full control of the race, but on the white flag lap, a bobble into the bus stop allowed Buescher to rapidly close. The RFK Racing driver did not hesitate to send it up the inside as they raced into the carousel, resulting in contact. Van Gisbergen fought hard to get back to him, but nearly spun out in his attempt to regain the race lead.

Buescher was victorious, and SVG was left with a bitter runner-up finish. As the series returns to Watkins Glen one year later, that loss remains a hard one for the three-time Supercars champion to swallow.

Still frustrated about it

“I still get frustrated thinking about that race,” said SVG in his weekly team advance. “When I make a personal mistake like that, it makes me angry to think that I threw that one away myself, especially after how good of a day it was, and we had the fastest car all day, then to do that. I really want to get there this weekend, make no mistakes, have a fast car and try an execute all day. Which we have been doing on the road courses, and it will be good to continue doing that.”

While van Gisbergen continues to steadily improve on ovals, he appears to be getting stronger on road courses as well, even though he won on debut at Chicago in 2023. The dominance of SVG and the No. 88 at road courses over the summer has proven that he is still getting faster, even at the types of tracks he has already mastered. His victory in Mexico was the biggest margin of victory seen in any NASCAR race in the last 16 years.

“I think it’s just been time on the road courses, learning what we want from the car, changing our philosophy,” said SVG when asked about the key to his recent dominance. “We’ve really clicked on the road course set up and made our cars a lot better. On the ovals too, we are getting better as a team.”

Should SVG make up for his 2024 error and win at The Glen on Sunday, he will match Denny Hamlin for the most Cup wins of any driver this year (4), earning five more valuable bonus points for the playoffs to come.