Shane van Gisbergen continued a record-setting march through his NASCAR Cup Series rookie season Sunday at Watkins Glen International.
The Trackhouse Racing driver joined Chase Elliott and Jeff Gordon as the only drivers in Cup history to win four consecutive races on road or street courses, and van Gisbergen also set a rookie record with his fourth win (breaking a mark he shared with Davey Allison, Tony Stewart and Jimmie Johnson).
The winningest foreign-born driver in NASCAR history, the Auckland, New Zealand, native won by 11.116 seconds over Chris Buescher, the second-largest margin of victory in Watkins Glen history.
Tied with Denny Hamlin for the series lead in victories, van Gisbergen is the second seed for the Cup playoffs with two races remaining in the regular season.
Here’s what Cup drivers were saying after Shane van Gisbergen’s fourth consecutive road or street course victory.
In the regular-season points standings, William Byron increased his lead to 42 points over Hendrick Motorsports teammate Chase Elliott with a fourth-place finish at Watkins Glen.
In the battle among winless drivers for the final playoff spots, Tyler Reddick has a 117-point lead on the cutline, followed by Alex Bowman (plus-60) and Chris Buescher (plus-34 over Roush Fenway Keselowski teammate Ryan Preece.
Here’s the finishing order at Watkins Glen International:
1. Shane Van Gisbergen, No. 88 Chevrolet
2. Christopher Bell, No. 20 Toyota
3. Chris Buescher, No. 17 Ford
4. William Byron, No. 24 Chevrolet
5. Chase Briscoe, No. 19 Toyota
6. Ryan Blaney, No. 12 Ford
7. Daniel Suarez, No. 99 Chevrolet
8. Bubba Wallace, No. 23 Toyota
9. Tyler Reddick, No. 45 Toyota
10. Ross Chastain, No. 1 Chevrolet
11. AJ Allmendinger, No. 16 Chevrolet
12. Erik Jones, No. 43 Toyota
13. Ryan Preece, No. 60 Ford
14. Joey Logano, No. 22 Ford
15. Austin Dillon, No. 3 Chevrolet
16. Austin Cindric, No. 2 Ford
17. Zane Smith, No. 38 Ford
18. Carson Hocevar, No. 77 Chevrolet
19. Michael McDowell, No. 71 Chevrolet
20. Alex Bowman, No. 48 Chevrolet
21. Noah Gragson, No. 4 Ford
22. Kyle Busch, No. 8 Chevrolet
23. Ricky Stenhouse Jr., No. 47 Chevrolet
24. Riley Herbst, No. 35 Toyota
25. Denny Hamlin, No. 11 Toyota
26. Chase Elliott, No. 9 Chevrolet
27. Justin Haley, No. 7 Chevrolet
28. Todd Gilliland, No. 34 Ford
29. Cody Ware, No. 51 Ford
30. Ty Dillon, No. 10 Chevrolet
31. Brad Keselowski, No. 6 Ford
32. John Hunter Nemechek, No. 42 Toyota
33. Ty Gibbs, No. 54 Toyota
34. Cole Custer, No. 41 Ford
35. Josh Berry, No. 21 Ford
36. Katherine Legge, No. 78 Chevrolet
37. Josh Bilicki, No. 66 Ford
38. JJ Yeley, No. 44 Chevrolet
39. Kyle Larson, No. 5 Chevrolet
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