Shane van Gisbergen rolled into Mexico City carrying the weight of high expectations and promptly lived up to the billing. On Sunday, the Trackhouse Racing driver dominated the NASCAR Cup Series field, delivering a drubbing that hasn’t been seen since 2009. His margin of victory over Christopher Bell stretched to more than 16 seconds, the largest in the Next Gen era.
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Despite the emphatic win, SVG described the circuit as uninspiring. Starting from the pole, he dropped to 17th by the end of Stage 1 but rebounded dominantly in Stage 2, taking full command and never looking back. The win punched his ticket to the 2025 playoffs, but the final green-flag run made it clear: SVG had another gear, and no one else could match it.
For van Gisbergen, the ease with which he dissected the course left something to be desired. “I didn’t find it the most challenging,” he admitted post-race. “It’s all first and second gear corners, so quite boring. I like a track with fast corners, and you really got to hang on to the car and commit. So, the track itself wasn’t that challenging.”
He detailed, “It was first and second gear everywhere and a lot of technique, I guess. But yeah, that’s why in qualifying everyone was within eight-tenths or a second, you know, like it’s close because the track is not challenging. So, but that’s probably what made the racing so close, I think.”
With 14 laps to go, SVG held a three-second advantage over Bell. But while the rest of the field burned through their brakes and wore down their tires trying to hang on, SVG played the long game. He nursed his car, kept a steady hand, and flipped the switch.
By lap 10, the lead ballooned to 6.5 seconds. Two laps later, it grew to 9.5. With five laps to go, he was more than 12 seconds clear of the field, cruising to the checkered flag in a race that was effectively over long before the finish line.
Still, not everyone in the garage or fanbase is celebrating. Critics argue that SVG’s path to the playoffs feels unjust to drivers like Chase Elliott and Tyler Reddick, both of whom have shown far more consistency across 16 starts. Van Gisbergen, by contrast, entered the weekend sitting 33rd in the standings. Even after the win, he remains mired in 30th.
