Top Dog: Shane van Gisbergen
NASCAR Cup Series oval racing is difficult. Most of today’s Cup Series drivers have years of experience racing on ovals by the time they are in their teenage years. That is not the case, however, with former Australian V8 Supercars driver Shane van Gisbergen.
Van Gisbergen has steadily improved his craft on ovals since his rookie season in 2025. Sunday (May 24) night’s Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway may have been the best oval race of his career.
Finishing top 10 in all of the stages, van Gisbergen held his own against the best in the sport, and captured an 11th-place finish as a result.
The Climb to the Top
With qualifying canceled because of rain, the starting lineup was set by the qualifying metric. NASCAR’s qualifying metric is a weighted average, combining a car’s finishing position in the previous race (70%) and the car’s position in the owner standings (30%). Coming off a win in the previous points-paying race at Watkins Glen International, van Gisbergen and the No. 97 started the race in third.
Van Gisbergen dropped back a few spots at the start, but as the run went on, he was able to race cars inside the top 10, even when his Trackhouse Racing teammates were struggling. The No. 97 showed speed early and finished 10th in stage one.
SVG continued to impress throughout the caution-free stage two, surviving a green flag pit cycle to finish ninth in the second frame.
Stage three featured an early caution with a long green flag run to the end. Van Gisbergen pitted a few laps earlier than most cars on the green flag cycle, giving the No. 97 an opportunity to gain time before the rest of the field took fresh tires. When it all cycled out, van Gisbergen finished seventh in stage three.
A caution in the first quarter of the final stage introduced a split strategy. The No. 97 stayed out while all but one other car on the lead lap pitted, putting van Gisbergen second on the restart. The New Zealander passed leader Ty Gibbs entering turn 1 and held off a hard-charging Christopher Bell before a caution came out a few laps later. During the following restart, van Gisbergen lost the lead, but he still maintained pace in the top five. A caution afterwards enabled the No. 97 team to put on fresh tires and put them back on the same strategy as the rest of the field.
After a series of cautions for lightning and weather, the race was eventually called, and van Gisbergen was credited with 11th.
Looking Ahead
With win-and-you’re-in gone, and only four road course races this season, it was going to be a battle for the No. 97 team to make the Chase. Entering this race 16th in points, van Gisbergen did what he had to do to remain above the Chase cutoff.
SVG extended his gap above the cutoff from six points to 28, moving up to 14th in the standings.
Outside of points, this performance should be a major boost for Trackhouse Racing, a team that has been sliding backwards as of late.
“I feel like I’m generally getting better and better,” van Gisbergen told Frontstretch in regards to his performance on ovals. “Our team is doing an amazing job giving us better cars, too.”
If van Gisbergen can regularly compete in the top 10 and top five on ovals, a win is not out of the realm of possibility.
Top Dogs of the Lower Series
NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series: Ryan Sieg continues to have a sneaky good season in 2026. A seventh-place finish at Charlotte on Saturday Night (May 23) gave the driver of the No. 39 his sixth top 10 of the year. At this point in 2025, Sieg had finished in the top 10 only five times.
Even with the hassle of changing from Ford to Chevrolet during the offseason, RSS Racing continues to regularly compete in the top half of the field.
After qualifying was rained out, Sieg started the event in ninth. The race consisted of short stints, with the longest green flag run being only 15 laps long. Sieg was outside the top 10 in stage one, but he was running seventh when a caution came out in stage two for oil on the track. The caution was extended due to rain, leading the field to the end of stage two, meaning the race would end within a few hours, whether or not all 200 laps were complete.
The race was called early, handing Sieg his best finish outside of Daytona International Speedway this year (third). He sits 14th in the O’Reilly standings, 15 points behind the Chase cut line. If Sieg keeps achieving results like this, he will be right there come the end of the regular season.
NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series: It is no secret that Tanner Gray has struggled during his time in the Truck Series. In his 152 starts, he has yet to visit victory lane, amassing 13 top fives and 34 top 10s. Those numbers are not horrible, but considering the success Corey Heim had driving for the same team of TRICON Garage, and the finishes Kaden Honeycutt is getting with the team now, the pressure is on.
The Truck Series race at Charlotte was a wild one. Originally scheduled for Friday night (May 22), rain pushed the event back repeatedly. The field was finally able to take the green flag early Sunday morning, but a wreck-filled race caused the race to be shortened into a two-hour window.
With the longest green flag run of the race being just 11 laps long, restarts were important, but fuel mileage also played an important role. Some teams tried to go the entire final stage without pitting, while others pitted under yellow. In the end, when it all shook out and the race clock wound down to zero, Gray finished eighth, his first top 10 of the season.
With a season-best result, Gray made up 11 points on the Chase cut line in search of his first attempt to chase a championship.
Small Team Scheme of the Week
This weekend often features a large variety of colorful paint schemes, but Hyak Motorsports had a different approach.
This week, the No. 47 Three Finger Jack Chevrolet featured a black and gold livery for driver Ricky Stenhouse Jr. A monochromatic American flag design was layered inside of golden streaks, while subtle, dark gray stars were spread among the black front half of the car.
Stenhouse had a great underdog performance of his own. Entering the race 27th in points, Sunday was a solid night for the veteran, finishing in the top 10 in the first three stages. Outside of an incident with Ross Chastain in the final stage, the No. 47 stayed clean as the team scored a 12th-place finish.
