Who… should you be talking about after the race?
If it’s the first time the NASCAR Cup Series visits a track with left and right turns and it rains to kick off the day, pencil in Shane van Gisbergen for the win. After pulling off the victory under those same conditions on the streets of Chicago in 2023 in his very first Cup start.
He did it again on Sunday (June 15), winning the inaugural Cup event at Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez in Mexico city. Starting on pole, van Gisbergen and the No. 88 team put on a clinic in road course strategy. After early battles with Ty Gibbs, van Gisbergen made his last stop just in time to avoid a caution. Gibbs’ team left him out just long enough for the yellow to fly, trapping the No. 54 in traffic, where he never recovered.
Despite battling an intestinal illness all day, van Gisbergen dominated from there on out. Even as his team told him to slow down in the final laps to take care of his tires and brakes, van Gisbergen drove away from the field by a second a lap to win by 16.567 seconds over Christopher Bell, the largest margin since Kurt Busch won by 25.696 seconds at Texas Motor Speedway in 2009.
It’s van Gisbergen’s second career Cup Series win. He’s the 10th driver to win in 2025 and the second driver outside the top 16 in points to take a victory, which tightens the battle for getting in the playoffs on points.
On the other hand…
When Kyle Larson has a bad day, he has a really bad day.
Larson has zero finishes between 10th and 19th this year, and has just one between 10th and 32nd to go with four of 32nd or worse.
Larson qualified sixth on Sunday, but he only got five laps completed before getting collected by a spinning Kyle Busch in a lap six incident where Busch slid into the side of Larson, sending him flying off the track, dislodging part of the No. 5’s suspension and sending Larson to the garage for repairs. Larson did finish the race and even took the bonus point for the fastest lap of the day after getting back on track. Larson finished 42 laps down in 36th.
What… does this mean for the points standings?
Thanks to teammate Larson getting caught in an early incident after Busch spun and collected the No. 5, William Byron extends his regular season point lead to 67 over Larson. Bell rides his runner-up finish up a spot to third, 80 back of Byron, and Chase Elliott’s podium finish gains him a spot as well. Elliott moves into fourth after Denny Hamlin’s absence following the birth of his son saw Hamlin slide to fifth.
Sixth through tenth — Tyler Reddick, Ryan Blaney, Ross Chastain, Joey Logano and Bubba Wallace — remain unchanged after the trip south of the border.
Busch took the biggest hit of the week, losing three spots after his early exit, falling from 15th to 18th. Michael McDowell gained seven positions to climb from 23rd to 16th.
Unfortunately for McDowell, that’s still below the playoff threshold, thanks to van Gisbergen’s victory and the playoff berth that comes with it.
If van Gisbergen, who gained three points positions from 33rd to 30th, continues to struggle, it will certainly reignite the question of whether a driver should need a certain points standing along with a win to be guaranteed a spot. It was originally 30th (which would squeak SVG in regardless), but it was then dropped altogether. Many felt it should have been 20th or better all along, so look for that debate to start anew.
Where… did he come from?
Starting up front did not guarantee a top finish in Mexico. Only two of the top 10 finishers (van Gisbergen and McDowell) started in the top 10; interestingly enough, both finished where they started in first and fifth. Only three others started in the top 20.
Road course strategy allowes teams to make calls that, coupled with a little luck, can mean big swings in track position. Bell started 31st, with fourth-place finisher Alex Bowman one row ahead in 29th.
Perhaps the biggest surprise finish of the day was John Hunter Nemechek, who drove from 32nd and just missed a top five, finishing sixth. It’s Nemechek’s best finish since coming home fifth in the Daytona 500. He’s had his share of struggles in 2025, but Nemechek has a career-best five top 10s already this season and has shown improvement.
When… was the moment of truth?
Sometimes, when a driver has a dominant day, it’s easy to lose sight of the rest of the race. And while the finish was less than a battle (more like the peace treaty was signed three weeks ago), there were some compelling stories among the rest of the field.
And thanks to the Amazon Prime Video broadcast team, the rest of the story wasn’t overlooked. As van Gisbergen was pasting the field in the final stretch, viewers were treated to multiple races throughout the field. There were shots of the No. 88 all alone after opening up a 15-second lead, but there were plenty of wider angles.
The broadcast didn’t forget about Gibbs after he got trapped in traffic after an unfortunate caution. It didn’t miss Bowman’s gutsy finish or Elliott’s late charge. There was more to the race than van Gisbergen’s obviously outstanding run, and fans got to see that.
What a concept.
Why… should you be paying attention this week?
As the Cup Series heads to the quirky Pocono Raceway, will a feud blossom between Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Carson Hocevar? After an incident two weeks before at Nashville Superspeedway where Hocevar got into Stenhouse, the pair got together again in the late going Sunday.
It certainly didn’t look intentional. Hocevar appeared to overdrive a corner and get into Stenhouse, sending him around. But after two incidents in a row, Stenhouse appeared to have had enough. He went up to Hocevar’s car after the race and leaned into the window, appearing to grab Hocevar by the helmet and threatening to “beat your ass”.
That’s a bit of a cheap move; had Stenhouse waited for Hocevar to get out of his car, a discussion was warranted, but Stenhouse escalated things.
Hopefully, they will stay away from each other at Pocono, a track that’s much too fast for intentional contact. But if Hocevar is looking to make the playoffs via points or a win, Stenhouse could make life difficult for the youngster down the road.
As for Pocono, Hamlin is the all-time win leader — but if he doesn’t take home Baby’s First Trophy, who else should you be watching?
Byron’s a safe bet — he leads all active drivers in average finish at Pocono at 9.4. Second in that category is Brad Keselowski, who desperately needs to string together a solid summer run. One more to watch? Erik Jones, who doesn’t have a win at the Tricky Triangle, but he does have eight top 10s in 13 starts and a solid 13.4 average.
How… did this race stack up?
While some fans like the chaos and crashes the wet weather brings, the rain early made it hard to see how the Cup cars really handled the twists and turns of AHR. But as the race went on, the track proved to provide some racy moments.
The track has some passing zones, challenges drivers and teams, and provided a mix of strategies. The altitude alone changed how the cars performed. It’s worthy of a place on the schedule based on the track alone, especially as NASCAR has been determined to have some international flair.
However, given the distance teams have to travel, is it practical to make the race an annual installment?
If there wasn’t another international option, it would. But there is one in Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal, Canada. Similar to Mexico City, NASCAR sent the Xfinity Series there but never put the Cup cars to the test. It provided some solid racing with the Xfinity cars.
If international racing is going to be in the cards, perhaps rotating the the two circuits would be a good option for a few years. Both tracks are far enough from Charlotte that visiting both wouldn’t be a great option for teams. But both have good enough racing that an annual swap makes a lot of sense.
Amy is an 20-year veteran NASCAR writer and a six-time National Motorsports Press Association (NMPA) writing award winner, including first place awards for both columns and race coverage. As well as serving as Photo Editor, Amy writes The Big 6 (Mondays) after every NASCAR Cup Series race. She can also be found working on her bi-weekly columns Holding A Pretty Wheel (Tuesdays) and Only Yesterday (Wednesdays). A New Hampshire native whose heart is in North Carolina, Amy’s work credits have extended everywhere from driver Kenny Wallace’s website to Athlon Sports. She can also be heard weekly as a panelist on the Hard Left Turn podcast that can be found on AccessWDUN.com's Around the Track page.