Shane van Gisbergen continues to be a force on the road courses in NASCAR. On Saturday at the Circuit of The Americas in Austin, Texas, the New Zealand native picked up his fifth career NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series win.
Wheeling the No. 9 JR Motorsports Chevrolet, van Gisbergen led a race-high 31 of 65 laps and rallied from sixth place on the final restart with five laps to go to secure the win in the Focused Health 250.
SVG has now won five O’Reilly Auto Parts Series races, which all have come on road courses, and his first victory at COTA.
SVG on earning first COTA win: ‘Good to finally execute’
With five laps to go, Nick Sanchez and Justin Allgaier elected to stay off of pit road under a caution period and assumed the first and second positions. As the field dove into turn one, van Gisbergen had his No. 9 machine lined up on the bottom.
The 36-year-old sailed down into the first turn on the lowest part of the track and, as the lead cars washed up in front of him, he regained the race lead by the exit of the corner.
From there, van Gisbergen held off Austin Hill in the waning laps to take the checkered flag. Hill finished runner-up, followed by Sammy Smith in third, Jesse Love in fourth, and Corey Day in fifth.
Brent Crews came home sixth, followed by William Sawalich in seventh, Justin Allgaier eighth, Ross Chastain ninth, and Brennan Poole rounding out the top 10.
SVG has won on a number of different road courses between the Cup Series and O’Reilly Auto Parts Series, but had yet to conquer COTA prior to Saturday.
Fortunes turned around for last year’s Cup Series Rookie of the Year as he managed to come away victorious, with he said an assistance from Sam Mayer on the final restart.
“Good to finally execute. We had an awesome day. Thank you to Safety Culture, JR Motorsports. Pit crew was awesome. The strategy worked out well. I was wondering what was going to happen on that last restart and I kinda sucked the 41 [Sam Mayer] in and took everyone out for me, so that was cool,” van Gisbergen said.
SVG aiming for another Cup road course win on Sunday
As thrilled as SVG was to pull into victory lane on Saturday, he’s hoping for a repeat performance on Sunday. The driver of the No. 97 is seeking a record sixth straight win on a road course in the Cup Series.
SVG will have some work to do on Sunday, however, as he qualified from the 13th position. When asked about the upcoming race, SVG said he’s hopeful running the O’Reilly race will translate into a positive result on the Cup side.
“I tried some things. I wasn’t driving very good earlier today. We’re lacking in the car, but also, I could be better, too. It’s worthwhile doing these races and hopefully it helps tomorrow,” van Gisbergen said.
Tyler Reddick will start Sunday’s race at COTA from the pole. The driver of the No. 45 seeks an unprecedented third straight win to start the 2026 season.
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