Shane van Gisbergen won pole position for the Go Bowling at the Glen. He will be joined on the front row by Michael McDowell when the NASCARCup Series takes the green flag on Sunday at 3:00 PM. Van Gisbergen is the overwhelming favorite in the listed race; no surprise to anyone.
Van Gisbergen managed to earn pole, noting that his car was not racing all that well. He won pole position by nearly 3 seconds over McDowell. If his No. 97 Trackhouse Racing team can fine-tune his car, he may be extremely difficult to beat. Van Gisbergen may be the most favored driver this week than any single driver will be all season long.
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Watkins Glen Qualifying Results
|
Starting Position |
Driver |
|
1 |
Shane van Gisbergen |
|
2 |
Michael McDowell |
|
3 |
Austin Cindric |
|
4 |
Ross Chastain |
|
5 |
Connor Zilisch |
|
6 |
Joey Logano |
|
7 |
Ryan Blaney |
|
8 |
Christopher Bell |
|
9 |
Chase Briscoe |
|
10 |
Ty Gibbs |
|
11 |
Carson Hocevar |
|
12 |
AJ Allmendinger |
|
13 |
William Byron |
|
14 |
Chris Buescher |
|
15 |
Tyler Reddick |
|
16 |
Daniel Suarez |
|
17 |
John Hunter Nemechek |
|
18 |
Bubba Wallace |
|
19 |
Cole Custer |
|
20 |
Denny Hamlin |
|
21 |
Kyle Busch |
|
22 |
Todd Gilliland |
|
23 |
Kyle Larson |
|
24 |
Erik Jones |
|
25 |
Austin Dillon |
|
26 |
Brad Keselowski |
|
27 |
Chase Elliott |
|
28 |
Alex Bowman |
|
29 |
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. |
|
30 |
Ryan Preece |
|
31 |
Ty Dillon |
|
32 |
Riley Herbst |
|
33 |
Zane Smith |
|
34 |
Josh Berry |
|
35 |
Noah Gragson |
|
36 |
Cody Ware |
|
37 |
Josh Bilicki |
|
38 |
Katherine Legge |
Best Qualifying Results
Shane Van Gisbergen at Watkins Glen Driver Intros to the Truck Race. (Photo by Sean Gardner/Getty Images)(Photo by Sean Gardner/Getty Images)
Shane van Gisbergen wins the pole, to no surprise. He has run at Watkins Glen twice in the Cup Series, earning one victory and one 2nd-place finish.
Michael McDowell, another respected road course racer, ran to his strength of course layout, qualifying in 2nd place. If anyone can possibly defeat Van Gisbergen, McDowell ought to be the co-favorite with Zilisch.
Worst Qualifying Results
Chase Elliottqualified in a very surprising 27th place. Elliott won last week’s race at Texas and is known for finishing strong on road courses, including 2 career victories at Watkins Glen.
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This story was originally published by Athlon Sports on May 9, 2026, where it first appeared in the Racing section. Add Athlon Sports as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
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