The grid is set for Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Watkins Glen International. Defending winner Shane van Gisbergen earned pole position — his first at the Glen but fifth at the Cup level. The impressive qualifying effort also comes on the Kiwi’s 37th birthday!
Spire Motorsports’ Michael McDowell will start from the outside of the front row, a full 0.259s off of SVG’s fast lap of 1:11.165s.
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Austin Cindric qualified third for Team Penske, while SVG’s teammates Ross Chastain and Connor Zilisch were fourth and fifth, respectively.
“The guys did a good job tuning it for what I needed for the one lap,” said Van Gisbergen. “It was really good, but all Trackhouse cars in the top five as well. We got some good cars here this weekend.”
Joey Logano, Ryan Blaney, Christopher Bell, Chase Briscoe, and Ty Gibbs filled out the remainder of the top ten.
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Shane van Gisbergen, Trackhouse Racing, Connor Zilisch, Trackhouse Racing
Shane van Gisbergen, Trackhouse Racing, Connor Zilisch, Trackhouse Racing
The 35-minute qualifying session got off to a slow start as cars hesitated to go out on track. Halfway through the session, only 15 cars had put down a time with Hocevar leading the way over Allmendinger.
With less than ten minutes to go, Van Gisbergen made his run with Zilisch following him around the track. The difference was all under braking into the bus stop, as the three-time Supercars champion gained a ton of time through that one section.
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In the end, the gap between 1st and 2nd on the speed charts was more than the gap between 2nd and 14th, showcasing just how far ahead SVG was on his flying lap.
While there were four Chevrolets inside the top five, the top Hendrick Motorsports driver was William Byron down in 13th. Kyle Larson was back in 23rd, Texas winner Chase Elliott 27th, and Alex Bowman 28th.
23XI was another surprise, as Tyler Reddick had won the most recent road course race at COTA from pole, but he was only fast enough for 15th.
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Katherine Legge, who had her car chief ejected after two inspection failures, qualified last, 5.3 seconds off the pole time.
NASCAR Cup Watkins Glen Starting Lineup
|
1 |
97 |
Shane van Gisbergen |
Chevrolet |
2 |
1’11.165 |
|
123.937 |
|
2 |
71 |
Michael McDowell |
Chevrolet |
2 |
1’11.424 |
0.259 |
123.488 |
|
3 |
2 |
Austin Cindric |
Ford |
2 |
1’11.445 |
0.280 |
123.452 |
|
4 |
1 |
Ross Chastain |
Chevrolet |
2 |
1’11.449 |
0.284 |
123.445 |
|
5 |
88 |
Connor Zilisch |
Chevrolet |
3 |
1’11.483 |
0.318 |
123.386 |
|
6 |
22 |
Joey Logano |
Ford |
2 |
1’11.522 |
0.357 |
123.319 |
|
7 |
12 |
Ryan Blaney |
Ford |
2 |
1’11.523 |
0.358 |
123.317 |
|
8 |
20 |
Christopher Bell |
Toyota |
3 |
1’11.582 |
0.417 |
123.215 |
|
9 |
19 |
Chase Briscoe |
Toyota |
4 |
1’11.583 |
0.418 |
123.214 |
|
10 |
54 |
Ty Gibbs |
Toyota |
2 |
1’11.615 |
0.450 |
123.159 |
|
11 |
77 |
Carson Hocevar |
Chevrolet |
4 |
1’11.620 |
0.455 |
123.150 |
|
12 |
16 |
AJ Allmendinger |
Chevrolet |
3 |
1’11.654 |
0.489 |
123.092 |
|
13 |
24 |
William Byron |
Chevrolet |
3 |
1’11.664 |
0.499 |
123.074 |
|
14 |
17 |
Chris Buescher |
Ford |
5 |
1’11.668 |
0.503 |
123.067 |
|
15 |
45 |
Tyler Reddick |
Toyota |
3 |
1’11.699 |
0.534 |
123.014 |
|
16 |
7 |
Daniel Suarez |
Chevrolet |
2 |
1’11.723 |
0.558 |
122.973 |
|
17 |
42 |
John Hunter Nemechek |
Toyota |
3 |
1’11.739 |
0.574 |
122.946 |
|
18 |
23 |
Bubba Wallace |
Toyota |
3 |
1’11.755 |
0.590 |
122.918 |
|
19 |
41 |
Cole Custer |
Chevrolet |
3 |
1’11.847 |
0.682 |
122.761 |
|
20 |
11 |
Denny Hamlin |
Toyota |
4 |
1’11.854 |
0.689 |
122.749 |
|
21 |
8 |
Kyle Busch |
Chevrolet |
5 |
1’11.890 |
0.725 |
122.687 |
|
22 |
34 |
Todd Gilliland |
Ford |
2 |
1’11.941 |
0.776 |
122.600 |
|
23 |
5 |
Kyle Larson |
Chevrolet |
4 |
1’11.961 |
0.796 |
122.566 |
|
24 |
43 |
Erik Jones |
Toyota |
5 |
1’11.972 |
0.807 |
122.548 |
|
25 |
3 |
Austin Dillon |
Chevrolet |
5 |
1’11.999 |
0.834 |
122.502 |
|
26 |
6 |
Brad Keselowski |
Ford |
3 |
1’12.060 |
0.895 |
122.398 |
|
27 |
9 |
Chase Elliott |
Chevrolet |
2 |
1’12.067 |
0.902 |
122.386 |
|
28 |
48 |
Alex Bowman |
Chevrolet |
5 |
1’12.095 |
0.930 |
122.339 |
|
29 |
47 |
Ricky Stenhouse Jr |
Chevrolet |
3 |
1’12.122 |
0.957 |
122.293 |
|
30 |
60 |
Ryan Preece |
Ford |
6 |
1’12.124 |
0.959 |
122.289 |
|
31 |
10 |
Ty Dillon |
Chevrolet |
4 |
1’12.148 |
0.983 |
122.249 |
|
32 |
35 |
Riley Herbst |
Toyota |
3 |
1’12.260 |
1.095 |
122.059 |
|
33 |
38 |
Zane Smith |
Ford |
2 |
1’12.264 |
1.099 |
122.052 |
|
34 |
21 |
Josh Berry |
Ford |
4 |
1’12.614 |
1.449 |
121.464 |
|
35 |
4 |
Noah Gragson |
Ford |
5 |
1’12.637 |
1.472 |
121.426 |
|
36 |
51 |
Cody Ware |
Chevrolet |
4 |
1’13.199 |
2.034 |
120.493 |
|
37 |
66 |
Josh Bilicki |
Ford |
2 |
1’14.090 |
2.925 |
119.044 |
|
38 |
78 |
Katherine Legge |
Chevrolet |
14 |
1’16.497 |
5.332 |
115.299 |
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