Shane Van Gisbergen finished second to Tyler Reddick in the first road course race of the NASCAR Cup Series season at Circuit of the Americas but also had to work way harder for it than any of his five wins in 2025.<\/p>\n
To wit, the three-time Supercars champion turned Cup Series contender isn\u2019t sure he is automatically this favorite for this weekend at Watkins Glen either. His road course prowess isn\u2019t enough to compensate for the reality that Trackhouse Racing is struggling everywhere right now.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s a hard one,\u201d said Van Gisbergen last weekend at Texas Motor Speedway. \u201cWe can\u2019t magically go have amazing cars next week, right? So, I definitely think we felt it a bit as early as COTA that I definitely felt like I didn\u2019t have a good car in comparison to last year compared to everyone else.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, we\u2019re not going to magically show up at Watkins Glen and have the best cars; we need to definitely get better. It\u2019s been a difficult season, especially the last few weeks for everyone, but I also enjoy the grind of trying to get better.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s frustrating not being fast and we do need to get better.\u201d<\/p>\n
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There are positives too, of course, that SVG is 19th in the standings, which is a far improvement from last year now that he\u2019s gotten fully acclimated to racing on ovals at the highest level. He is also only 16 points behind veteran teammate Ross Chastain.<\/p>\n
But that\u2019s the problem — Chastain is 18th in the standings with only two superspeedway top-10s on his 2026 resume. That\u2019s not the driver. It\u2019s the cars at Trackhouse year-over-year.<\/p>\n
Again, it\u2019s not like \u2018SVG\u2019 was bad at Circuit of the Americas but he said he just lacked everything in the car he had last year that did not allow him to flawlessly take or retain the lead.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was just everything,\u201d Van Gisbergen said. \u201cI didn\u2019t have turn, drive or power, and those are the three things you need. It made it difficult at COTA and we struggled in qualifying so that\u2019s frustrating.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Van Gisbergen to make the Chase for the Championship, he will need to take advantage of these road courses and win to the level he did last year. This playoff format no longer features and the win and you are in component, so there is extra pressure for \u2018SVG\u2019 to score max points this weekend and at the other tracks where he turns right.<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, of course, but I think it’s that expectation you have to manage,\u201d said Van Gisbergen. \u201cAs I said, we’re not going to turn up and have magically the fastest cars, you know, that comes through hard work, not just putting good road course drivers in it. So yeah, we aren\u2019t just showing up and expecting to win, but hopefully we\u2019re good.\u201d<\/p>\n
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