Shane van Gisbergen delivered one of the most resilient drives of the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series season on Sunday, finishing sixth at the Autotrader 400 despite spinning twice. The 36-year-old Trackhouse Racing driver turned the afternoon at EchoPark Speedway into his best oval finish in the Cup, showing continued growth on tracks that were once considered his weakness.
SVG was already established as elite on road and street courses. Rivals could previously justify dismissing him as a situational threat on ovals. Atlanta has changed that. The 1.54-mile speedway is a high-speed, drafting-heavy track that demands car control, spatial awareness, and aggression in traffic. But his recovery after losing track position twice shows immense progress from last year.
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Heading to Circuit of the Americas next, a track where he is expected to contend, the Atlanta run has sent a message to the NASCAR Cup Series garage: he no longer needs a road course to climb the standings.
Shane van Gisbergen declares his arrival on ovals
Shane van Gisbergen began outside the top 20 at Atlanta but methodically moved forward. By the end of Stage 2, he was in a position to score valuable stage points. Entering the final corner of the stage, he attempted to pass Kyle Larson for third when Larson moved down the track, clipping the No. 97 Chevrolet.
SVG spun across the infield grass while Larson crashed into the outside wall. Larson later accepted full responsibility for the contact, as his race ended with a DNF. SVG, meanwhile, rebounded and stayed with the lead pack. He spun again in the final Stage from 13th, after getting loose while exiting Turn 4, slid across the grass, but kept his car largely intact.
Strategy then brought SVG back into contention. Pitting for fresh tires during a late caution allowed him to restart inside the top 10 for overtime. He pushed teammate Ross Chastain forward and briefly ran fourth at the white flag before slipping to sixth on the finish line. After the race, SVG summed up the afternoon on X, writing:
“P6! Wild day in the @redbullmotors #97. Up and down like a yo-yo, but really fun race and stoked to get a great result 😀.”
The result vaulted Shane van Gisbergen from 28th in the standings after a difficult Daytona 500 to 16th in points, inside the projected cutoff under NASCAR’s updated 2026 chase format. Atlanta also marked his second career top-10 on an oval, and he improved on his previous best of 10th at Kansas last fall.
The performance stood in contrast to Daytona, where Trackhouse showed speed but was swept up in late-race chaos. In Atlanta, both SVG and Chastain (third) delivered, underlining the team’s strength early in the season.
Momentum builds for Shane van Gisbergen as COTA looms
NASCAR now heads to the Circuit of the Americas, a venue where Shane van Gisbergen enters as the favorite. While he has dominated road and street courses since his 2023 Chicago debut and won five such races last year, COTA is one he has yet to conquer.
Speaking post-race, van Gisbergen emphasized the importance of steady points accumulation in 2026, saying:
“It’s just points accumulation this year for us. We need to be scoring points every week, and it’s good to get that underway now, and we’ll be in the second group next week, which really helps to be in that good qualifying group in a road course. So, feeling good… starting to get good momentum. I felt like we were really promising last week, too.”
The DuraMax Grand Prix at COTA (95 laps) is set for March 1 at 3:30 p.m. ET. While Atlanta was proof of his oval improvement, the road course ahead gives Shane van Gisbergen a chance to remind the field where he remains most dangerous.
Edited by Parag Jain